St. Anthony, Finder of Lost Things

All my life, St. Anthony of Padua, the patron saint of Padua, Portugal,  has helped me find things that I have lost.

A little rhyming prayer  used for decades is to name what is lost and ask for St. Anthony's help. For example, if something of mine turned up missing,  I'd say,

     "Tony, Tony, look around,
       My lost (object) must be found."

While it sounds like some kind of a superstition, from personal experience, I can tell you there is validity in it. Almost 100 percent of the time, after the prayer is said, the lost items inevitably are found. It almost never fails.

Just this weekend at my son's wedding, one of the guests lost his rental car keys. It would have been very problematic if the keys had to be replaced.  Quickly, several members of my family and myself appealed to St. Anthony for help. Shortly thereafter, the guest found the keys in one of his bags and the emergency ended. Thanks, St. Anthony!

Another time, on a very snowy, winter day, an acquaintance lost car keys. She was terribly distraught. I urged her to pray to St. Anthony for help. Within a half hour, she came running to me, very excited, with tears in her eyes.

    "I found my keys," she said. "They were  buried in a snowbank. Something just told me to look there."

In my heart, I believe the "something" was this great, Catholic saint.

I believe saints live as spirits in the other realm of life. They were once regular people, like you and me, who did extraordinary things in their lives on earth which relegated them to sainthood.

As for St. Anthony, he's been such a tremendous help in my life that I am immensely grateful to him.

The stained glass window depicting St. Anthony's image, shown at the top of this post, is located in a church in western Massachusetts.

A blessed Sunday to everyone!