Today's prayer: Devotion to Sant'Antonio da Padova to have any grace

St. Anthony is always asked to intercede with God for the return of lost or stolen things. Those who feel very familiar with him can pray “Antonio, Antonio, look around. Something is lost and must be found. "

The reason for invoking St. Anthony's help in finding lost or stolen things is due to an accident in his own life. As the story goes, Anthony had a psalm book that was very important to him. In addition to the value of any book prior to the invention of printing, the psalter had the notes and comments he had made to teach students in his Franciscan Order.

A novice who had already grown tired of living in religious life decided to leave the community. In addition to going to AWOL, he also took Antonio's Psalter! When he realized that his psalter had disappeared, Antonio prayed that it would be found or returned to him. And after his prayer, the thief novice was moved to return the psalter to Antonio and return to the Order that accepted it. Legend has embroidered this story a little. The novice stopped in his escape from a horrible devil who wields an ax and threatens to trample on it if he does not immediately return the book. Obviously a devil would hardly command anyone to do something good. But the core of the story seems to be true. And the stolen book is said to be kept in the Franciscan monastery in Bologna.

In any case, shortly after his death, people began to pray through Anthony to find or recover lost and stolen items. And the Head of Saint Anthony, composed of his contemporary, Julian of Spiers, OFM, proclaims: "The sea obeys and the chains are broken / And the lifeless arts you bring them back / While the lost treasures are found / When the young or your old aids beg. "

Saint Anthony and the baby Jesus
Antonio has been portrayed by artists and sculptors in all ways. He is depicted with a book in his hands, with a lily or a torch. It was painted preaching for fishing, holding a monstrance with the Blessed Sacrament in front of a mule or preaching in the public square or from a walnut tree.

But from the seventeenth century we find more often the saint depicted with the baby Jesus in his arm or even with the child standing on a book that the saint holds. A story about Saint Anthony reported in the complete edition of Butler's Lives of the Saints (edited, revised and integrated by Herbert Anthony Thurston, SJ and Donald Attwater) projects in the past a visit by Antonio to the Lord of Chatenauneuf. Anthonius prayed until late at night when suddenly the room was filled with brighter light than the sun.

How did St. Anthony help you? Share your stories here!
Then Jesus appeared to Saint Anthony in the form of a small child. Chatenauneuf, attracted by the bright light that filled his home, was attracted to seeing the vision, but promised not to tell anyone until Antonio's death.

Some may see a similarity and a connection between this story and the story in the life of St. Francis when he revived the story of Jesus in Greccio, and the Christ Child became alive in his arms. There are other accounts of apparitions of the baby Jesus to Francis and some companions.

These stories connect Antonio and Francesco in a sense of wonder and wonder about the mystery of the incarnation of Christ. They speak of a fascination for the humility and vulnerability of Christ who emptied himself to become one like us in all things except sin. For Anthony, like Francis, poverty was a way of imitating Jesus who was born in a stable and would have no place to lay his head.

Patron of sailors, travelers, fishermen
In Portugal, Italy, France and Spain, Sant'Antonio is the patron saint of sailors and fishermen. According to some biographers, his statue is sometimes placed in a sanctuary on the ship's mast. And sailors sometimes scold him if he doesn't answer their prayers fast enough.

Not only those who travel by sea but also other travelers and vacationers pray that they can be kept safe thanks to the intercession of Antonio. Several stories and legends may explain the saint's association with travelers and sailors.

First, there is the real fact of Antonio's travels in preaching the gospel, in particular his journey and the mission of preaching the gospel in Morocco, a mission interrupted by a serious illness. But after his recovery and return to Europe he was always on the move, announcing the Good News.

There is also a story of two Franciscan sisters who wanted to make a pilgrimage to a sanctuary of the Madonna, but did not know the way. A young man is supposed to have volunteered to lead them. Upon their return from the pilgrimage, one of the sisters announced that it was his patron saint, Antonio, who had guided them.

Yet another story tells that in 1647 Father Erastius Villani of Padua was returning by ship from Amsterdam to Amsterdam. The ship with its crew and passengers was surprised by a violent storm. Everything seemed doomed. Father Erasto encouraged everyone to pray to Saint Anthony. Then he threw some pieces of cloth that had touched a relic of Saint Anthony in the panting seas. Immediately the storm ended, the winds stopped and the sea calmed down.

Teacher, preacher
Among the Franciscans themselves and in the liturgy of his feast, Saint Anthony is celebrated as an extraordinary teacher and preacher. He was the first teacher of the Franciscan Order, given the special approval and blessing of St. Francis to instruct the Franciscan brother. His effectiveness as a preacher calling people to faith was found in the title "Hammer of Heretics". Equally important were his commitment to peace and demands for justice.

In Canon Antonio in 1232, Pope Gregory IX spoke of it as "the Ark of the Testament" and the "Repository of Holy Scripture". This explains why St. Anthony is often depicted with a light on or a book of scriptures in his hands. In 1946 Pope Pius XII officially declared Antonio a doctor of the universal Church. It is in Antonio's love of the word of God and of his prayerful efforts to understand it and apply it to situations of daily life that the Church especially wants us to imitate Saint Anthony.

Noting in the prayer of his feast the efficacy of Antonio as intercessor, the Church wants us to learn from Antonio, the teacher, the meaning of true wisdom and what it means to become like Jesus, who humbled and emptied himself for our good and went about doing well.

To get some special grace
Request:
Admirable Saint Anthony, glorious for the fame of miracles and for Jesus' predilection, who came in the guise of a child to rest in your arms, obtain from him his goodness the grace that I ardently desire within my heart. You, so compassionate towards miserable sinners, do not pay attention to my demerits, but to the glory of God, who will once again be exalted by you and to my eternal salvation, not separated from the request that I am now soliciting.

(Say the grace in your heart)

May my charity pledge my gratitude to the needy with whom, through the grace of Jesus the Redeemer and through your intercession, I have given myself to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Amen.

Thanksgiving:
Glorious thaumaturge, father of the poor, you who prodigiously discovered the heart of a miser immersed in gold, for the great gift obtained of having your heart always turned to misery and unhappy people, you who offered my prayers to the Lord and for your intercession has been granted, welcome the offer I place at your feet in relief of misfortune as a sign of my gratitude.

It is beneficial to the suffering, as to me; rush to help everyone to help us in temporal needs, but above all in spiritual ones, now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.