Monday, October 31, 2011

Ygnacia's Own Stories - A Math Book Found

The stories that I read on our blog, whether a little victory or an impressive find, thanks to the intersession of St. Anthony, continue to inspire me to ask for and believe more in his assistance. So, I will occationally add my own personal stories, here is a recent one:

I was about to give my homeschooling daughter a math test, so I went to the crate that I keep all of my curriculum, lesson plans, and school books in to get the test book. I searched the crate over and over, looking at every book and binder - no luck. I tried to retrace my steps, looking at other places in the house - not found. I looked for a week, off and on - nope, nothing, nada. Finally, as I was thinking about the irony of having a St. Anthony lost and found blog and not being able to find something myself, I said to St. Anthony, 'Please St. Anthony, I have this blog about you, show me personally how powerful your intersession can be, help me find the book." I said this prayer, and then walked into the room where I keep my homeschool crate - I casually looked into the crate, and immediately found the book, inside a binder. How many times had I looked in that crate over the past week, and then to find it so fast??

Now you can say that it was just coincidence, luck, I need to get my eyes checked, whatever, but I know in my heart that St. Anthony heard me and generously interceded for me. Thank you, St. Anthony.

God in His goodness is showing me in this and in many other ways to trust and rely on Him more. And in the future, keeping better track of where I put things can't hurt either~

Thursday, October 27, 2011

I Was Stunned

Desert Storm had just started, so I was leaving Tehran, Iran. At the airport, two guys in battle dress stopped me and emptied my briefcase and my carry-on on the floor. By the time I had gathered my belongings, the two guys were gone. In the plane, before takeoff, I learned from an Iranian lady sitting next to me that it was what they do. While people gathered their scattered stuff, they spot what they want, and steal it. They know that no one leaving Iran is allowed to take anything out of the country, and that the Iranian currency can’t be exchanged abroad. So people hide their hard currency, jewels, gold, and precious stones to barter when leaving Iran.
While talking to me she had been searching in her purse, and suddenly started to cry. She had hidden her wedding ring and other jewels in an aspirin tube and it was gone! I tried to comfort her, and told her I was going to pray to a good friend of mine to help us. I talked to St. Anthony of Padua and told him something like, “I don’t know this lady, I don’t know her family, and I’m positive the guys at the airport stole the jewels. I have no idea how you’re going to bring those jewels from the airport into this plane, especially now that the gate is closed, but look at her distress! Please help her!” Barely two minutes later, the stewardess passed along the aisle with the tube in her hand, asking whose it was. Wow! I believed my prayer could be answered, of course, but still, I was stunned!

Have a story of St. Anthony's help in your life? Email it to us and we will post it on the blog to inspire others to seek his intersession~

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Finding The Other Earring

Ten years ago I noticed only one pearl earring sitting on my desk. The earrings were given to me by my husband on the birth of our first child. They are very special and I wear them almost every day. I began to pray to St. Anthony as I looked frantically around the desk. All of a sudden I heard a "ping" and saw the missing earring on the floor far away from the desk. It had not been there moments before and this was witnessed by both my daughters and me. Thank you St. Anthony.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

A Quick Prayer

I had lost my wallet with my birth certificate in it. I needed it for a licensing application form, I looked through the entire house for a week and could not find it. While lying in bed one morning an inner voice had said pray to Saint Anthony for your wallet. I said a quick prayer and later that day my daughter found my wallet.

Thank You St. Anthony.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Prayer to St. Anthony, Restorer of Sight to the Blind

Dear St. Anthony, you recall the Gospel episode about the blind man who, partly healed, could see men "looking like walking trees." After a second laying-on of Jesus's hands, he could see perfectly. St. Anthony, Restorer of Sight to the Blind, please sharpen my spiritual vision. May I see people, not as trees or numbers, but as sons and daughters of the Most High. Please also help me in my pressing needs. (Name your special intentions.) Amen.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be...

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Thanks to San Antonio

I am originally from Mexico, where it is traditional for single women to ask for San Antonio's intercession to find a husband. After hearing the testimony of two of my friends, I decided to try it myself. I am happy to report that I am now happily married to a wonderful man. Thank you, San Antonio.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Lost Keys Found

A thank you to jovan66102 from the Fisheaters Forum for this great story:

Years ago, I was a storekeeper at the gymnasium at Kansas University. One of my duties was to unlock the gym and Fieldhouse when I was on the early shift, so I had all the keys to both buildings. One cold, snowy morning, when I wasn't on the early shift, my wife needed the car to drive to work, so I helped her get the kids ready for day-care and rode with her while we dropped them off. Then I walked from the day-care to the gym. I was wearing an old army great coat with my keys on a belt loop. When I got to the gym, I took my coat off and instinctively reached for my keys. They were gone! I panicked and called the building supervisor and told him I was taking off to look for them. I carefully retraced my path all the way to where I had started and then back, looking at the ground the whole way. No luck! I got back to the gym and called the university locksmith to tell him that he would need to change all the locks on the buildings. The locksmith, a Catholic and fellow Knight of Columbus reminded me of St. Anthony, so I asked him for his intercession and promised a Mass in his honor if he would help me. During the lunch hour, as people were coming in to work out or play sports, someone asked me how I was doing. I replied, 'Not so good' and told him what had happened. He told me to check in his department office across the street because one of their grad students had found some keys that morning. I ran across the street to find that my keys had been found in the slush in the middle of one of the busiest intersection in town with no damage and no evidence that they had even been run over.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Prayer To St. Anthony For Employment

Blessed St. Anthony, who in life was ever mindful of the needs of the afflicted, consuming yourself in the service of God and for the good of souls, who was the enemy of idleness and a tireless worker in the vineyard of the Lord, beseech God to grant me a suitable job, which may procure for me and my loved ones a decent livelihood, and be at the same time a means of personal sanctification and of real service to others. Amen.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be...
St. Anthony, helper in all necessities, pray for us.

Has St. Anthony's intercession helped you to find a job? Please Email us with your stories, to help encourage other people to ask for the help of Good Saint Anthony in their own search for employment~

Thursday, October 13, 2011

St. Anthony's Comment Box Quotes - From Blogger Anonymous 2

This from Quirky Catholic:

Blogger Anonymous 2 said...

St. Anthony please help me find my key ring with my house keys, car keys, everything!

7:57 PM

Blogger Anonymous 2 said...

St. Anthony THANK YOU! I found my keys this morning! After praying the Novena last night, I had a vision of the exact place where my keys would be. Thank you!!!! I'll continue to pray for all the people who are still missing lost articles!!! THANK YOU!!!

4:46 AM

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Finding Lost Research

A thank you to StrictCatholicGirl from the Fisheaters Forum for this amazing story:

In my last computer crash I lost a TON of research, I'm talking hundreds of pages of research for a book I was writing about the stained glass windows in the church of my childhood. It included historical research, technical research, and all the translations of the Latin script in the arch of the windows - not to mention all the bible verses from whence they came. After the crash I abandoned the project, because the thought of going back and redoing all the research was maddening, an impossible feat.

So one day I was praying to St. Anthony to help me find an old photo I had misplaced, and while searching for the photo I came upon a box with a large manila envelope. Inside was a manuscript, THE manuscript with ALL the research. Long ago I had printed a hard copy and had forgotten all about it. You can imagine my elation! Unfortunately, that manuscript did not include the disk of all the photographs of the stained glass windows. And I really needed those photos, with all their glorious details, to write the detailed chapters.

So last week at work I was cleaning out one of my messy desk drawers. The drawer contained dozens of prayer cards and novenas to St. Anthony. I thought to myself, I can't pitch these. I'll keep a few of them and put the rest in the back of church for other people to take. Then, lo and behold, underneath all the holy cards of the Lost-and-Found Saint, I found the disk with the photographs of all the stained glass windows.

So.... the project is back on! And this time I'm backing up my work on a disk. By the way, one of those stained glass windows is of St. Anthony of Padua, the Wonder Worker.



Si quaeris miracula....

If, then, thou seekest miracles....



Ora pro nobis, beate Antoni.

Pray for us, blessed Anthony.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

St. Anthony Put to the Test

A thank you to Melkite from the Fisheaters Forum for this great story:

In high school, I had a friend who was the daughter of a Lutheran deacon, and a moderately anti-Catholic one at that. My friend was unable to find something, having searched her entire room looking for it. I told her about the St. Anthony prayer, she said it was hogwash, and then I dared her to try it. So she did, and sure enough, not 5 minutes later she found what she had been looking for in a drawer she had ransacked several times already looking for this item.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Quote About St. Anthony From Pope Leo XIII

"St. Anthony does not belong to the city of Padua alone, he is a Saint of the whole world." - Pope Leo XIII

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Finding a Ring, Finding a Soul

A thank you to AxxeArp from the Fisheaters Forum for this inspiring story:

6 years ago, my brother and his future wife lived with my grandfather, to keep him company and to make sure he was alright. They would work during the day and had supper with him every night and slept at granddad’s place. (My brother and sister-in-law lived in separate bedrooms, so no lectures please about scandal). At supper time, granddad would talk about the Catholic Faith, and the world and other things, but the thing that most impressed my sister-in-law was grandad’s devotion to St Anthony. Granddad claimed he could find any lost object, no problem, by saying a prayer to St Anthony. My sister-in-law had no religious upbringing. She was never even baptized. Faith seemed to be a strange thing to her, and this idea that you could find lost objects through praying to someone seemed even odder. My sister-in-law though loved my grandfather and the dinner talks. My sister-in-law never had a family life like this. Her family was a wreck, she was actually kicked out of her house for no reason what-so-ever, which is how she ended up living with my granddad. Anyways, the warm Christian atmosphere of my brother and granddad made an impression on her.
Two years later my grandfather passed away and my brother and sister-in-law were married. My brother worked very hard to buy a beautiful engagement ring and a wedding ring. A few months after the wedding, my sister-in-law lost her engagement / wedding ring! She was devastated. She lost it at work, and she searched everywhere but could not find it. She was in tears and panicked. After about a week, she remembered granddad’s promises about St Anthony. She said a little prayer to St Anthony and then went to work. When she got to work, she sat down at her desk, said her prayer to Saint Anthony again and just as she finished she saw something shining. Her ring was under her desk! Now she checked their about a million times prior to this. There was no way she missed it before, but there it was! Finding her ring was the spark my sister-in-law needed! She started taking seriously the claims of the Catholic Faith. Shortly after these events she entered RCIA and was baptized into the Catholic Faith. Granddad had found one more lost object with the help of Saint Anthony, this time it was my sister-in-law’s soul.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Saint Anthony Quote - Humility

"Just as the root feeds the tree, so humility feeds the soul. The spirit of humility is sweeter than honey, and whoever is fed by this sweetness produces fruit." -St. Anthony of Padua, Sermon for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost