Like many of you, I will go to Mass today and take communion.  It's easy and simple here but not so easy and simple in Cuba.

Down on the island, the church relies on flour donations to serve Communion.  It's shocking but true. This is from Catholic News Agency:

The Carmelite nuns in Cuba announced that thanks to the donations of wheat flour they have received in recent days, they will again be able to make the Communion hosts to supply the island's churches.

In a Nov. 14 statement, the Discalced Carmelite Sisters of Havana expressed their joy for having "experienced once again that the barque of the Church is the Lord who leads it."

The Monastery of the Discalced Carmelites of St. Teresa in the Cuban capital had informed all the dioceses Nov. 2 that it could no longer produce any more hosts because it had run out of wheat flour, a product that has been in short supply for months in the island.

Just days later, Father José Luis Pueyo of the Diocese of Villa Clara told the newspaper 14ymedio that they would have to break their remaining hosts into several pieces in order to provide for the faithful.

However, on Tuesday, the nuns expressed their surprise to see that the news of no flour had gone viral, even reaching remote places.

"The impressive thing about all this is how it has moved the hearts of so many people of goodwill who, like the widow in the Gospel, have offered little or much so that the work can continue," the nuns said in the statement published in Vida Cristiana, a Jesuit-run weekly.

"Flour has come to us from our simple townspeople, from institutions, from Miami, Puerto Rico, Spain, and also the allocation that we have from the State," they reported.

The Carmelite sisters said that "the one who multiplied the loaves has shown his power with the multiplication of the flour."

"Now we resume work to be able to offer this service to the Church that is on pilgrimage in Cuba as soon as possible," they announced.

Happy ending, and maybe a miracle.  At the same time, this is another example of what we hear about Cuba these days.  The economy is a disaster, and it took a viral message to get flour for the hosts.  How many more flour donations will it take for Cubans to have Communion easily — something that we take for granted here?

As always, these horror stories remind me of my late parents, who would be angry and shocked.  It strengthens my conviction that the left destroys everything, even Communion on Sunday.

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Image: Pedro Szekely via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.