St. Anthony's Guild - St. Junipero Serra

With great joy on this day that Fr. Junipero Serra is canonized a saint, is the following from a St. Anthony's Guild prayer card from 1954:

Junipero Serra, the Franciscan Missionary and Apostle of California, is known for his devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. He sought "the gold and silver of the Indies - the gold of immortal souls and the silver crown of martyrdom," and left his "Rosary of Missions" along California's El Camino Real, from which has sprung most of what is holy and most of what is cultural in the far western part of the United States.

Prayer
O Lord Jesus Christ, you have rewarded the apostolic zeal of Thy servant Junipero Serra, who, leaving home and fatherland, labored for the salvation of souls in Mexico and California. Thou hast graciously deigned by evident signs and prodigies to glorify him, so that for the exaltation of Thy Most Holy Name he was raised to the honors of the altar. Grant that through his merits I may obtain the grace I desire. Amen.

Saint Junipero Serra, Apostle of California, pray for us~

A Big Job For St. Anthony

From our friends at St. Anthony's Shrine in Cincinnati, Ohio, here is a Saint Anthony story from one of their own staff:

At work, we share St. Anthony stories all the time. Here’s one from Margot who works in the finance office. ~Bless St. Anthony, I just love the way he works in my life.
One busy Saturday this July I was out and about — lunch with my sister-in-law and niece, my husband and our boys, running errands, putting away things at the house, walking the dog. Later in the afternoon my boys watched a movie, so I crashed on the loveseat in the living room and fell asleep. Half-awake some 20 minutes later, I ran my thumb over my diamond ring and realized that the points were bent up and the diamond was gone!!! I had NO idea when I lost it, so I started to try to re-do all my movements during the day. While I was going through that process, my sister-in law and niece stopped by the house and I told them I lost my diamond and please keep an eye out for it. They asked, ‘What are you going to do?’ I said, ‘Well, the first thing to do is ask St. Anthony for his help. This is what you say, “St. Anthony, my mother says you can find anything. Can you please help me find my diamond?” I even went back to the one store where I might have lost it and tried to recreate the exact same things that I had done there earlier. At home while I was frantically searching, my husband just said, ‘Well, this is a big job for St. Anthony.’ But he didn’t get upset or help in the search for the diamond. After accepting that the diamond was just gone, I actually got a good night’s sleep because I had no control over the situation.
I was awakened by my husband picking my hand up and putting my diamond into it. He found it when he was starting the coffee, in the coffee filter bag in the corner cupboard! You know, I remember reaching up there to get a funnel to pour out some of our new olive oil… but I still believe that St. Anthony found it for me and put it where my husband would find it! Thank you St. Anthony!

Have a story of St. Anthony's help in your own life? Email it to us and we will share it on the blog~

I Suddenly Remembered St. Anthony

Hi, I am from Malaysia. I had a habit of hiding important documents inside my house and I did it with my mother's passport. When she needed it urgently, as she will be making an oversea trip soon, I just could not remember where I had hidden it. For the past 2 days, we had searched almost the whole house for it without success. We intend to make a police report this morning and get a replacement copy, which is a very very tedious and time consuming process (we were worried about replacement process period). I suddenly remembered St. Anthony. So, this morning when I arrived at my office, I prayed hard to St. Anthony to help locate the passport. 15 minutes after my prayer, my office's telephone rang and it was my mother with the most wonderful piece of news ........ SHE HAS FOUND HER PASSPORT!! Where she found it, I couldn't believe it because I had searched the same place a couple of times and had just missed a small part of the location. I was so happy that I couldn't stop smiling to myself. It is really a miracle and I thank St. Anthony from the bottom of my heart for helping us in our hour of desperation.

Thank you N.Z. for sharing your faith filled story of St. Anthony's assistance. Have a story of your own to share? Email it to us and we will share it with our readers on our blog.