Anthony of Padua – Tony, Tony Come Around!
Ordinary Time – Season of Stability
“Tony, Tony, come around, something’s lost and must be found.” Desperation, superstitious mumbo jumbo, I once thought about praying to St. Anthony in order to find lost items, until I was given a copy of the formal prayer. The actual prayer is a prayer of abandonment to God’s will. The supplicant asks that, if it be God’s will, they find what they have lost, thereby laying the problem directly into God’s hands where it rightfully belongs. No more frantic searches and retracing of steps over and over again trying to find misplaced items, but rather trusting that if you are meant to find it, you will.
But Anthony of Padua isn’t just for lost items, he is also patron of the lost, the poor, the shipwrecked, those who travel by land or sea, pilgrims, immigrants. Thousands come each year to the city of Padua, Italy, to pay homage to this simple humble man whom the Catholic church declared a saint and Doctor of the Church. They pray for loved ones they have left behind and may never see again.
There are times in everyone’s life that they feel lost and can’t find their way. Having experienced shipwreck himself and having found his life completely uprooted and sent in a new direction from what he had expected, Anthony knows what it is to be lost and to be found. He knows what it is to lose himself to God, abandon himself to God’s love and care.
Whenever we feel lost, our God is never far from us. Our God is constantly seeking those who are lost in this life so that God might claim us for his own. Even when we are not looking for him, God is seeking us. And so, though lost, we are never far from home. We need only lose ourselves to God in order to find ourselves.
What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it? And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulder with great joy. Luke 15:4-5
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