Petition to St. Anthony of Padua to be recited today June 13th

Glorious Saint Anthony, treasure chest of the Holy Scriptures, you who with your gaze always fixed on the mystery of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have shaped your life in praise of the perfect Trinity and simple unity, listen to my plea, grant mine wishes.

I turn to you, certain that I will find listening and understanding; I turn to you that by immersing your heart in Sacred Scripture you studied it, assimilated it, lived it and made it your breath, your sigh, your word: make it possible for me to help you understand its importance, perceive its absoluteness, savor it beauty, tasting its depth.

Make it possible to taste the Gospel of that Jesus whom you loved so much; let me live in my life of that mystery that you celebrated; make it possible for me to announce to all the good news that you have proclaimed to people and animals. Make my footsteps strong, the roads brave, the choices decided, the tests prudent.

Our Father - Ave Maria - Glory to the Father

O Anthony, Saint of the whole world, I commend myself to you, I entrust myself to you, I turn my gaze to you and I place all trust in you. Do not let the worries of life take time from the praise of God, that the agitations of the present time obscure the gaze towards him, that anxieties and pains cancel the awareness that everything is grace, gift, delicacy of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Give to men today, sensitivity to the poor, attention to the needy, love to the sick. Help all the families of the world to be domestic churches: open for those who knock, hospitable for those seeking, charitable for anyone who asks.

Protect young people from the dangers of evil, oriental in search of good; enlighten them in their life choices and make them feel the urgent need of that God you have sought, met and loved so much; also fulfill them in their desires: work, serene friendship, personal fulfillment.

Our Father - Ave Maria - Glory to the Father

Saint Anthony, Saint of miracles, I ask you with a sincere heart to accept the petition that I raise to your heavenly gaze: that it fully understand the miracle of life, promote it, respect it and make it progress in all its dimensions and forms; who knows how to give with a generous and available heart and be happy with those who are in joy and participate in the tears of those who suffer. Always grant, o glorious Saint, your benign protection to those who travel, your powerful assistance to those who lose something, your effective blessing to those who undertake a work.

May that child Jesus, tenderly in dialogue with you, be able, through your intercession, to turn his penetrating gaze upon us, to stretch out his strong hand to protect and bless us. Amen

Fernando di Buglione was born in Lisbon. At 15 he was a novice in the monastery of San Vincenzo, among the regular canons of Sant'Agostino. In 1219, at 24, he was ordained a priest. In 1220 the bodies of five Franciscan friars beheaded in Morocco arrived in Coimbra, where they had gone to preach by order of Francis of Assisi. After obtaining permission from the Franciscan provincial of Spain and the Augustinian prior, Fernando enters the hermitage of the Minors, changing the name to Antonio. Invited to the General Chapter of Assisi, he arrives with other Franciscans in Santa Maria degli Angeli where he has the opportunity to listen to Francis, but not to know him personally. For about a year and a half he lives in the hermitage of Montepaolo. On the mandate of Francis himself, he will then begin to preach in Romagna and then in northern Italy and France. In 1227 he became provincial of northern Italy continuing in the preaching work. On June 13, 1231 he was in Camposampiero and, feeling ill, asked to return to Padua, where he wanted to die: he would expire in the convent of the Arcella. (Avvenire)

Patronage: Hungry, lost, poor

Etymology: Antonio = born before, or facing his adversaries, from the Greek

Emblem: Lily, Fish
Roman martyrology: Memory of Saint Anthony, priest and doctor of the Church, who, born in Portugal, already a regular canon, entered the newly founded Order of Minors, to wait for the spread of faith among the populations of Africa, but exercised with much fruit the ministry of preaching in Italy and France, attracting many to true doctrine; he wrote sermons imbued with doctrine and finesse of style and on the mandate of Saint Francis he taught theology to his confreres, until he returned to Padua to Padua.