I’m out of town today and I crossed time zones, so I’ve gained an hour. Before I went to sleep last night, I checked and found a church within walking distance of my hotel.It’s my brother-in-law’s birthday (Happy birthday, George!), and I didn’t even send him a card. But here I am with an extra hour, an early Mass that I can easily get to, and—on top of that—it’s St. Anthony’s feast day!
St. Anthony is an important friend to our family. I have asked for his intercession so many times—for jobs, for our hopes to begin a family, for missing LEGO minifigures, and who knows what else. He always comes through, in God’s time, of course.
So I walked to Mass and found the most beautiful church. I made my three wishes—including one for my husband, who is handling everything with our children this last week of school and who is earning an extraordinary Father’s Day celebration full of all the Matthew’s Pizza he can enjoy.
The priest—an auxiliary bishop, in fact—who celebrated our Mass prayed for everyone named Anthony, the local parishes dedicated to St. Anthony, and anyone who is looking for a lost item. At the end of Mass he said he is looking for his checkbook.
So today I am asking St. Anthony’s intercession for him and for anyone who is looking for something that is missing, whatever that may be.
As I walked back to my hotel after Mass, feeling full of hope for all those whose intentions I carried in with me, I was overcome with gratitude for how the pieces fell into place today to make a morning Mass possible.
Sometimes we ask St. Anthony to help us find something that is missing. And sometimes we don’t realize what we are missing until we find it.
St. Anthony of Padua, pray for us!
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