When Gerard Majella was about age 5, unusual blessings were showered on the family through his time in church.
He began to come home with a loaf of bread under his arms.
Now this was a very welcome gift to the family, who never had enough to eat with five hungry children, plus a mother and father.
So they were happy to see the loaf of bread, but concerned about where it came from. They knew their child would not steal, but his defense when asked where it came from was always the same.
When questioned where Gerard Majella got the bread, he would invariably answer,
His sister, Elizabeth, was more of a no-nonsense person. She found it hard to accept his explanation.
She decided she would get to the bottom of it, and so she followed him to the church one day.
She watched Gerard Majella kneeling and praying before a statue of the Blessed Mother and the Child Jesus in Her arms.
As she continued to spy on her brother, an astounding thing happened.
An ordinary act became extraordinary. The Child Jesus came down from His Mother’s arms and began to play with little Gerard Majella.
Elizabeth thought her heart would burst, when, after a little time passed, the Child Jesus gave Gerard a loaf of bread and returned to the loving arms of His Mother.
When the sister shared with their mother what had happened, she was stunned, but relieved that her child had not stolen the bread. From that time on, however, the entire family looked upon Gerard Majella differently.
They paid attention to him when he said he saw and spoke to Our Lady and Our Lord Jesus.
Even his parish priest realized how special a boy he had in his midst, so much so that he allowed Gerard Majella to receive Communion every other day.
Today, we don’t think anything special about that, but at the time of St. Gerard, the Church was plagued by Jansenism, which was totally against anyone receiving the Lord that often.
Actually, there is a tradition that at age seven, Gerard Majella hungered for the Eucharist, and went up to the altar rail to receive.
It is said that the priest, upon looking at him, and realizing how young he was, passed him by, which crushed him completely. But the story goes that the following night, St. Michael the Archangel came to him and gave him his First Holy Communion.
