As a young girl I often heard my Nana talk about her devotion to St. Anthony and how, through prayer, he had helped her in difficult times and how she turned to him whenever she had lost something. Last week, I realized I had misplaced my beautiful engagement ring. I have a young baby and often remove it when playing/caring for her. She is fascinated with the diamond and I often tell her that one day the ring will be hers! I didn't panic at first and my husband and I started to search the house. For a few days we searched high and low and I began to get upset and anxious as it looked like my ring was gone. I found myself turning to St. Anthony and googled prayers and novenas in his name. The days that followed involved prayers, tears and reminiscing over memories of my husbands proposal. It felt devastating to have lost such a precious item and as I progressed through the 9 day novena the only comfort I found was in reciting the prayers to Saint Anthony.
On day 4 of the novena, a Tuesday evening, my husband decided to empty the outside bin which had the past 2 weeks of rubbish in it and was to be emptied the next morning. He bravely put on rubber gloves and raked through our old rubbish- not a pleasant job. I was upstairs rocking the baby to sleep and found myself softly singing hymns and reciting "St. Anthony please come around, something is lost and must be found." After the baby drifted to sleep I went downstairs and my husband was holding my precious ring which he had found inside an old make up bag and the very bottom of one of the bags of rubbish! We were amazed and delighted. St. Anthony's intercession meant that my ring was found and just in time before the bin was emptied and my ring would have been gone forever. My Nana's devotion to this special saint will now be carried on through another generation as I tell the story of my miracle. Thanks be to God!
Thank you blog reader L.M. for your beautiful story of how you are carrying on the family tradition of turning to St. Anthony in times of need~
He is one of the great saints of the Catholic Church, and one of the beloved--even far beyond Catholics themselves. Untold numbers of people turn to him, still, when there is loss. And strangely--at least strangely in the usual ways of the world--those things often quickly turn up. And often they turn up in the most unexpected--even seemingly miraculous ways. Let the stories begin.