A Long Island mother says that her son's sarcastic prayers were answered...when she won the lottery. Gloria Bentivegna won $1 million in an instant lottery game, and credits her son with divine intervention—and he was a non-believer before his mom hit the jackpot. "There's so many coincidences. Sure, I could brush it off as another freak incident. But to do so would be just stupid -- would be ignorant on my part," her son Sal told Newsday.
Bentivegna says she prayed for her son to "have a miracle in his life," and the next day, the whole family went on a day trip to an Atlantic City casino, where it's always a miracle our stomachs don't burst at the all-you-can-eat buffet. Her son jokingly said she should pray to "your God to ask for a million dollars." But she asked him to do it for her: he recalls saying, "'Jesus, give my mom a million dollars'...If he wanted me to have a little bit of faith, he would do it." Because who among us can say they haven't conjured up a deep moment of religious ecstasy via a celestial guilt trip? Jesus has certainly never done anything this nice for Randy Newman:
After taxes, Bentivegna will be paid $33,000 a year from the Sweet Million ticket for 20 years, which is about how long she said her son hasn't gone to church. For her, this was a two-miracles-in-one pay day: "It was a true miracle. I prayed for it so hard...Jesus was there, guiding everything." With their new financial security, maybe they can now focus on their other dream of starting a Christian rock band:
