Sunday, November 16, 2008

Found 'em!

So yesterday, I write all my feelings out. And felt better. Our new meditation meeting is in the afternoon so I called the treasurer of the group to make sure she would be there to open up because I didn't have a key. We talked for awhile, she completely understood my unsettledness and suggested that I pray to Saint Anthony. Not being Catholic, I knew there was some Saint out there for lost things, you know, you see those newspaper ads all the time, but certainly hadn't thought of praying to one. Hadn't really prayed for my keys at all. So I don't know if this is a prayer but I shouted, "Saint Anthony please find my keys!" Which is a little different from the customary prayer which is something like "Tony, Tony, turn around. Something's lost and must be found." My friend said typically her mother would turn a St. Anthony statue to the wall and then invoke the prayer and she laughed at my plea and said she would say a prayer to St. Anthony as well. We hung up. I called my husband who was working and proceeded to do the housework that had been waiting for me all week. My husband and son treat our foyer like a closet..so I was hanging up jackets, putting away soccer stuff and the like. Now don't get me wrong, I had looked over and under all this stuff during the week. I know I did, I just didn't put it away. And I get to this one chair, which for some reason my son treats as a laundry hamper. There are jeans, tshirts, soccer socks, etc. I get to the bottom....and there they are! Not 10 minutes after I hung up with my friend. I know I looked there...I know I did. But WOW! So thank you to Saint Anthony and of course I had to google him this morning and I found this which was of particular interest to this alcoholic..

A Sermon by Saint Anthony of Padua First Sunday after Pentecost Love

"God is love," we read today at the beginning of the Epistle. (I John
iv, 8) As love is the chief of all the virtues, we shall treat of it here at
some length in a special way . . . .

If God loved us to the point that he gave us his well-beloved Son, by
whom he made all things, we too should ourselves love one another. "I give you," he says, "a new commandment, that ye love one another (John xiii, 34)." . . .

We have, says St. Augustine, four objects to love. The first is above us:
it is God. The second is ourselves. The third is round about us: it is our
neighbor. The fourth is beneath us: it is our body. The rich man loved his body first and above everything. Of God, of his neighbor, of his soul, he had not a thought; that was why he was damned.

Our Body, says St. Bernard, should be to us like a sick person
entrusted to our care. We must refuse it many of the worthless things it wants; on the other hand, we must forcefully compel it to take the helpful remedies repugnant to it. We should treat it not as something belonging to us but as belonging to Him who bought it at so high a price, and whom we must glorify in our body (I Corinthians vi, 20).

We should love our body in the fourth and last place, not as the goal of
our life but as an indispensable instrument of it.

(Les Sermons de St. Antoine de Padoue pour L’annĂ©e Liturgique.
Translated by Abbe Paul Bayart, Paris, n.d.)
— From Lives of Saints, John J. Crawley & Co., 1954

9 comments:

Unknown said...

This is so great! I was raised Catholic, but am not practicing and have not for years, but all those saints and their prayers stay with me...so glad that you found your keys!!!! Whoo Hooo!!!

Hugs to you!
Gabi

molly said...

i love love love this sort of stuff. glad u found um girlie girl. fantastico isn't it?!

steveroni said...

Echo: Woooo Hoooo! I too was born and raised Cath., but left at age somewhere between 12 and 16...but, thanks to Alcoholics Anonymous, I'm back with FIRE IN MY HEART. Watch out, Satan! -grin-

I love life, AA, my wife, my church (people) , my bike, my violin, and "my" blogging community...YOU! There, that was my Gratitude List for today!

Shadow said...

that is beautiful! and whooopheeeee for finding the keys!!!

indistinct said...

Thank you,

Syd said...

Reading about the four objects of love is great. thanks for posting this.

Banana Girl said...

Simply beautiful! And so are you! J.

One Prayer Girl said...

I have had the exact same thing happen. (More than once.) One time it was my keys and I was beside myself with agitation. I had run around like a mad woman looking for them, had others looking, etc. Finally, I calmed down enough to pray, get calm, ask for help. Within 15 minutes I found the keys and they were somewhere I had looked before. I've found all kinds of things this way.
Prayer works, prayer is powerful.

Just Another Sober Guy said...

Good stuff! Glad you found them.... That St. Anthony prayer does seem to work for this non-catholic sometimes too.

PEACE