Do "Miracles" Still Happen?
Many people, in contemporary society believe that "Miracles" are just quaint little stories from biblical times and certainly have nothing to do with our modern day lives of instant messaging, smart phones, or air travel that lets us travel the globe in a matter of hours.
This story takes place right in the middle of modern-day America, in a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio.
The Thanksgiving Story
Each year, at Thanksgiving, the men from the Holy Name Society gather to help hand out "Free" turkeys. This custom was started by the nuns from the Rose Garden Home Mission in Covington, KY where they work tirelessly to help young moms, from low income families, care for their small children.
The key players in this drama are Joe Bessler, a member of the Holy Name Society, St Joseph Parish in Cresent Springs Kentucky and Mother Seraphina Marie, the leader of the Rose Garden Home Mission.
Note: The Prioress or leader of a convent is typically called "Mother Superior", or simply "Mother" a respectful form of address for her leadership role.
The Holy Name regularly donates diapers to the Rose Garden Mission, to help young mothers that are struggling to meet expenses raising their children. Joe helped arrange these donations, so it wasn't uncommon for Mother Seraphina to ask Joe for help.
About 13 years ago, just before Thanksgiving, Mother Seraphina called Joe and asked if it would be possible for the Holy Name to purchase some turkeys, to be given to the poor at Thanksgiving. Joe said, "We will certainly try to help" and asked how many turkeys she needed. Mother Seraphina said I will call you next week with the count.
The following week she did call and said, "We have a list of 400 people that have asked for a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner".
Joe swallowed hard and said, "Wow 400, let me see what we can do". Turkeys were not cheap and it wasn’t easy to find the money.
Joe came to the monthly Holy Name meeting and said, “I know this is asking a lot, but we are being asked to buy 400 turkeys to help the Rose Garden Mission".
Long story short, Joe found the money but that’s not the miracle.
On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving Joe and other members from the Holy Name Society took the turkeys to the mission and helped hand them out to the needy.
When they arrived at the mission to give away the turkeys, Mother Seraphina told Joe that others had called after the 400 turkeys were ordered, wanting to know if they too could get a free turkey. She said she told these people that if there were any turkeys left over after 2:00 PM in the afternoon they were welcome to have a turkey but there were no guarantees there would be any left.
She also said, each person will have a ticket, that they will hand to you, for one of the turkeys so we can keep track and make sure they go to the people on the list that requested a turkey.
They started handing out turkeys at 11:00 in the morning.
At twelve o’clock they still had turkeys. One o’clock passed and there were still turkeys. By 2:00 in the afternoon there where still some turkeys that had not been picked up so those not on the original list were invited to pick up a turkey.
The group continued to pass out turkeys until everyone had a Thanksgiving turkey.
The following week Joe got a call from Mother Seraphina and she asked, "Joe, exactly how many turkeys did you buy?" Joe said that we had purchased, "400 turkeys" just as you requested.
Now, don’t get ahead of the story but this is where it gets interesting. Mother Seraphina said, "You may have purchased 400 turkeys, but we counted 623 tickets. You handed out 623 turkeys".
Was this a modern-day "Miracle"?
That's for you to decide but all of the people that were helping to "hand out turkeys" that day will attest that this is a true story.
They certainly believe it was a miracle.
The amazing part, this same thing has happened every year since. We always give away more turkeys then we purchase. God really is still with us.
This is a modern-day version of the biblical story of the "Loaves and Fishes" written in all four Gospels from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The miracle where Jesus miraculously multiplies 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish to feed a crowd of over 5,000 people.
We hope you enjoyed this modern-day version of the Loaves and Fishes "Miracle".
Thank you.
The Men of the Holy Name Society
P.S. Have You Noticed?
For most people of faith their family is everything. That's why so many families of faith are involved in a family business that they can operate together. Joe, from the story above, is a perfect example:
Using borrowed money, he started a family business that grew into an wildly successful corporation, employing many of his family and providing he and his family with the ability to support many faith based charitable causes.