Did I Experience a Miraculous Multiplication of Food?

August 3, 2014 by Fr. Dwight Longenecker When I was a young Anglican minister I lived in an apartment with my younger brother. I complained to him one day that when I was a theology student I lived by faith. I really had no money and was living from hand to mouth with the little I could earn while I studied. Now that I had a job and a house and a salary it seemed boring. So he said, “Why don’t you give half of your money away? That will make it interesting.” I said, “Okay. Let’s do it.” “By the way,” he said, “I think we’re also going to have lots of other people come to live here.” I started giving half my money away and we lived on the rest and he was right. Within the year my apartment was filled with about six other guys living with us in an informal kind of religious community. We prayed together and did church work. When they got part time jobs they contributed to our financial needs. I didn’t tell anyone I was giving away half my salary and that what I had left (and there wasn’t much to start with) had to provide for eight of us. To help feed everyone my brother would get up early and bake two loaves of bread. He went to the local bakery and bought a big 50 lb. bag of flour. This was in June. The baker estimated that if my brother baked two loaves a day the flour would last until September. We had to use it up by then because if we didn’t it would get weevils. We needed more bread and my brother started baking three or even four loaves a day. That was good bread. In December we noticed that the flour had not been used up. It lasted three months longer than it should have and it didn’t have weevils. In December one of the guys got a good job and we could afford to buy flour as we needed it. Did we experience a multiplication of food similar to the one with Elijah and the widow woman? I believe we did, and that’s one of the reasons why I believe in miracles. That’s also why you should not buy into any preacher who holds forth on the feeding of the 5,000 saying “the real miracle was that they all shared their lunch” That is so lame. That’s baloney. Either it was a miracle or the gospel is a lie. For other miracles of multiplication of food check out some of the stories about Fr Solanus Casey and check out the now dated, but still fascinating 1981 video from Catholic Charismatic Services of American Catholics–members of a parish in New Mexico who went to take Christmas dinner to Mexicans…and experienced a multiplication of food. The video is called Viva Christo Rey.