Serious A Story I Want to Share: St. Anthony

[Maedar]

Seems to me these days, the country - possibly the whole world - is in a state of unrest. America is more divided than ever with "tribalism" dividing people along party lines. Everything is always so Black and White.

Such it seems, is one's devotion to religion.

Now, I was raised Roman Catholic. Am I now? Well, hard to say. I have to admit, I have often been turned off - and sometimes disgusted - by folks trying to use the Bible as the source of their pro-life and homophobic arguments. Fundamentalists are, to me, reactionaries who try to change the world because they are incapable of changing, while some of the louder ones use it as an excuse for hate that seems worse than anything even the Klan does. I utterly despise Cardinal Dolan (the reason I stopped going to church), and never liked Pope Benedict. (Francis is okay. Not perfect, but okay.)

BUT... I also get upset when conservatives are mocked by Liberal trolls who blame their opinions on "belief in an imaginary sky deity", as they put it. I once had a rather "pleasant" experience with someone who suggested The Necronomicon be considered a holy tome. (My attempts to explain that it only existed within a work of fiction and was itself not a work of fiction fell on dead ears.)

Do I believe in God? Don't know. Some of the miracles that the Bible dictates do seem a little hard to believe, and some make me wonder if the Judeo-Christian concept of God is truly a benign Creator.

But... Some days you have to wonder.

My story starts with my parents, last November. Mom had misplaced her prescription glasses, the ones that cost a fortune. She had looked everywhere for them for about three weeks....in sofas, in the cars, under the beds.... .... and the day before Thanksgiving, she read an article on the web about St. Anthony.

Now, in case you need information on Anthony of Padua, he was a Portuguese Catholic priest and friar of the Franciscan Order, early 13th Century. He was known for his forceful preaching, expert knowledge of scripture, and undying love and devotion to the poor and the sick. He was canonized faster than any other Saint.

And he's also the patron Saint of lost items. Legend says that if you lose something important, you can request his aid by saying,

"Dear St. Anthony please come around,
There's something lost and must be found."

So mom decided to give it a go. Here is the weird part - the day after Thanksgiving, she and my dad were driving to meet me and and then join my brother at a restaurant for our "official" Thanksgiving dinner (my brother was having dinner at his in-laws on Thursday.). They got a flat tire, and had to rescheduled for the next night. On Saturday, dad was driving mom's car (which he hates and almost never drives). When we met up, she switched to the back seat so I could get in the front (she's much thinner than I am)... And felt something with her foot. On the back floor, clear as day, were the glasses.

Had the tire not gone flat, she may not have found them before going to replace them. But it didn't stop there.

Two weeks later, at a church bazaar, she had gotten my niece Sofia a bracelet and earrings for her Christmas box. Not very expensive, but cute. A week later than that, she was putting the box together one early Saturday morning when she could not remember where they were. She looked all over. I came over to return a book she wanted, asked what she was doing, and half-jokingly asked why she didn't pray to St. Anthony.

Now, she said St. Anthony had better things to do than help someone look for a bracelet that had cost five bucks at some swap meet, but she said the short prayer anyway. About half an hour later, I was helping her wash dishes at the kitchen sink and she said she thought she would look one more time in the laundry room. She moved a piece of wrapping paper near my ironing board and there was the box. Not thinking about St. Anthony, she yelled up that she had found the bracelet. Dad was the one that noticed here, and said, "not to make you feel weird, but you talked to St. Anthony about 20 minutes ago!"

It gets crazier.

Last month, I couldn't find my keys. Now, I live in this apartment where you need an infrared fob to get in the front door, and a lazy landlord who's there about half the time, so I dare not leave unless I have it. She reminded me, and I had to wonder just how generous St. Anthony could be. Figured, it couldn't hurt, so this time I was the one who did the rhyme. An hour later, I found it while making the bed.

Want more? Five days ago, my girlfriend and I were watching TV. The story came up. She said it would sound amazing, but she was having a similar crisis. She had made a video disc for her parents anniversary, which had cost about a thousand dollars! She couldn't find it, despite having torn her house apart trying.

Yesterday, she called, and told me she took my advice, and about an hour later, without even knowing why, looked in the trash. There it was on the bottom of the garbage pail. The one with the trash for pickup that would be coming the next morning.

Why am I writing all this? Well, whether God exists or not, I don't know. But I do know that sometimes, a little faith can go a long way.

Thank You, St. Anthony.

 

[gimmepie]

I mean, it's a bit hard to reply to something like this without shitting on someone's beliefs. Personally, I think what you're describing just sounds like confirmation bias. All of those weren't exactly going to be hard to eventually come across with or without prayer or rhymes.

That being said, I'm not exactly adverse to the idea that there's a higher power or anything either and it's not like a belief like that is ever going to hurt anyone, and I certainly couldn't prove this wrong any more than I could prove it right. So, I say you do you. I think if we were all just a little more open to the beliefs of others the world would ultimately be a better place.

 

[Maedar]

What I was trying to say, Pie, is that maybe the world isn't as black and white as some people claim.

There is a middle ground.

You can have faith in a higher power, even if you have NO faith in those who try to enforce it.

 

[Solez]

Thank You, St. Anthony.

There's definitely something to what you're saying, Maedar. I don't believe in God, and I definitely don't have any time for the extremist views promulgated by the kind of Bible-bashing fundamentalists you mention. But I do think there's something: some kind of spirit world, or at least something holding the world together. I think that everything happens for a reason, for example, which maybe makes me more of a believer in fate than faith.

Anyway - Ireland, where I'm from, has a long history of Catholicism. It's a highly, highly progressive country now, and the Church's opinions don't hold much sway any longer, as all the old taboos of divorce, abortion, same-sex marriage etc have all been legalised. But St. Anthony is still a bit of a celebrity in Ireland. Any time that you can't find something in Ireland, even non-religious people are likely to advise you to "ask St. Anthony." He's the most popular saint by a long shot, and I have to admit, it generally works...