My local church, St. Anthony of Padua, has a wonderfully active congregation and truly blessed, inspiring pastor. St. Anthony spend his childhood in Portugal and his adult religious life in Italy in the early 1200's. He was renowned for his preaching and for performing miracles. Many people know him as the
Patron Saint of the Lost because of an incident when one of his students stole his book of prayers. As books were still handwritten and extremely valuable, St. Anthony was upset by the loss of the book which also included notes from his lectures. He prayed for its return and the student soon repented and returned the book. A popular short prayer is:
St. Anthony, St. Anthony look around- something is lost and can't be found. From my experience, this is a very effective way of locating misplaced objects!
Not only is St. Anthony the patron saint of lost things, but also of lost people. As I have been feeling somewhat lost recently, I feel a connection to the namesake of my church. Also, his feast day is June 13th- the day after my wedding anniversary. Over the past few months I have spent a lot of time praying for guidance and asking St. Anthony to pray with me to God for counsel. I felt inspired to create a chaplet of St. Anthony. Like a rosary, a chaplet is a set of beads organized in a specific pattern; each bead represents a certain prayer.
In this chaplet, there are 13 sets of 3 beads followed by a large bead. Of the group of three, the first bead is for the Our Father, the middle for a Hail Mary, and the last for a Glory Be. The large bead is for the Miraculous Responsory, which has flowery language but references many events in the saint's life.
If you seek for miracles,
Death, error, all calamities,
The demons fly, and leprosy,
And health succeeds infirmities.
The sea obeys and fetters break,
And lifeless limbs thou dost restore;
Whilst treasures lost are found again,
When young and old thine aid implore.
All dangers vanish at thy prayer,
The direst need doth quickly flee.
Let those who know thy power proclaim,
Let Paduans say these are of thee.
The sea obeys and fetters break,
And lifeless limbs thou dost restore;
Whilst treasures lost are found again,
When young and old thine aid implore.
To Father, Son may glory be
And Holy Ghost eternally.
The sea obeys and fetters break,
And lifeless limbs thou dost restore;
Whilst treasures lost are found again,
When young and old thine aid implore.
Pray for us, blessed Anthony, That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us Pray
O God, let the votive commemoration of
Blessed Anthony, Thy confessor,
be a source of joy in Thy Church,
that she may always be fortified with spiritual assistance,
and may deserve to possess eternal joy.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
(http://www.viarosa.com/VR/StAnthony/Chaplets.html#MiraculousResponsory)
For this chaplet, I chose to use coral colored Mother of Pearl beads. The crucifix is one of my favorites. I also added a St. Anthony medal; he is traditionally pictured holding the infant Jesus Christ because it is believed that during deep prayer one night, he had a vision of the infant child.
