St.Anthony Rosary and stories!

In hopes of trying to get back on track with rosary blogging, I thought I would post a few rosaries that I have already made, mostly because I'm still unable to get new rosaries out. (Still playing catch up, but I'm getting there.)

This is my St.Anthony rosary; who doesn't love St.Anthony? He is the saint who is always getting me out of trouble.

It was my Mom who would always tell me to pray to St.Anthony whenever I lost something, and even though I was unconvinced that an important saint would take the time to find a lost toy, I would pray-and eventually find it.

I am always losing something. I call on St.Anthony about 5 times a day. Just yesterday I lost my debit card; I looked all day and didn't find it. I even called the store where I was shopping at to see if someone turned it in but they told me nothing showed up. I emptied my purse and wallet about 5 times, we cleaned out the car to see if it fell through the cracks of the seats, I had Dennis lift the couch to see if it somehow fell through the cushions and under the couch. I had been praying to St.Anthony all day, but he was taking his time in answering me. At the end of the day, Dennis said that we would have to call the bank to cancel the card. But something inside me told me to not give up yet, and I looked through my wallet one more time--and there the card was, right inside the bill holder. I had emptied out my wallet about 10 times! Bill holder, card holder, everything! Yet this is exactly what happens every time I call on St.Anthony; it's as though someone finds what I'm looking for and puts it back where it belongs. (I know--the debit card shouldn't be in the bill holder, but this is often where I put it. Which is probably why St. Anthony put it there.)

A few years ago I lost my engagement ring. It was lost for an entire year. I prayed to St.Anthony and invoked all those who intercede for the impossible situations. Throughout the months I would search under my bed, through the couch cushions, in the car, behind my dresser, in the vacuum, and in the drains. I even searched the lawn. I felt like the father from Honey I Shrunk the Kids except that I was on my hands and knees and not hanging from a rope. I dreamed about finding the ring, I dreamed that Dennis ran over the ring with his lawn mower, I cried about the ring, I prayed about the ring. Finally, after an entire year, Dennis bought me a new ring.

And then of course, (just as Dennis predicted would happen), we found the engagement ring. You know where it was? Under the couch cushion. Not stuck in the cracks of the couch or hanging from a spring, just sitting there under the couch cushion. Dennis was looking for the remote control, flipped off the couch cushion, and there it was, as though someone found it and just put it there. You know how many times we looked through the couch cushions???

Here is my weirdest St.Anthony story yet. Although this one I have to credit to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

I was supposed to make an Our Lady of Guadalupe rosary for a customer, but I realized that I couldn't find the center for the rosary. This was during my really busy time during the Christmas season, when I had that big convent order and then on top of that, daily orders. I was as organized as I possibly could be but I was so scatter-brained during that time because I was always working on someone's order. So when I couldn't find the center for the Our Lady of Guadalupe rosary, I began to panic, because I didn't have any extras on hand and I knew the customer wanted the rosary by Christmas.


I looked through my kit that holds all my medals and centers and rosary parts a hundred times. To give you an idea of how disorganized it can look, you can see for yourself:

Ok, if you're thinking that it doesn't look that bad, there is also an entire tote filled with clay, rosary parts, and whatnot that I'm not going to take a picture of because then you will never want to buy any rosaries from me. But believe me, it's pretty bad.

Anyway, I looked through this bead box about a hundred times. I took out each medal and center about a hundred times. I looked through my huge messy tote about twice. (that was all I could manage.)

I could not find the center.

Still, I looked through the couch cushions that are famous for hiding everything. I looked under the hutch, under my bed, through the old totes that used to hold my clay stuff. I looked everywhere, but in the end, I didn't find it.

I was really exhausted during that time. It was the time when Dominic was not doing well at all, I had that huge rosary order and more orders for the first time in my life, piling up on me, and I couldn't keep up. I was upset with myself for losing the center and I knew that I would have to disappoint a customer as well, which was the hardest part of it all. But I was so tired that I just went to bed and decided I would email the customer in the morning. Before I went to sleep though, I prayed to Our Lady of Guadalupe that the center would somehow be found (though I was convinced it was gone forever.)

When I prayed to Our Lady of Guadalupe, I had no idea that it was her feast day. I am terrible about remembering feast days; I can barely remember birthdays. I only prayed to her because it was her center that I lost, so it was only natural to call on her to find her center.

The next day before I emailed the customer, I flipped through my bead box to check for the center one last time, and I found this:

Can you see this? My camera does not like low light.

Here it is, exactly how I found it: every center was turned upside down so that only the silver side was facing upward and the center of Our Lady of Guadalupe was the only medal in the center, facing up.

Before I assumed a miracle, (yes, sometimes I can be practical too), I went to every family member and asked if they found my center. (Dennis knew I was searching high and low for it the night before.) Each denied it, and even asked "what center?"

And so I can only assume that Our Lady of Guadalupe did this as a favor to me in honor of her feast.

I feel very humbled as I go through the years of answered prayers, some in quiet ways and others more direct, because there were many times in my life when I didn't "deserve" an answered prayer. And then I thought about years when I was striving for holiness and during those times, I can remember when it seemed that God ignored my prayers. I think that God does this for our humility; if He only answered me during those times when I felt I deserved it I would be presuming holiness, and if He didn't answer me during those times when I was far away from Him, I would be presuming that He didn't care.

So I thank God for every prayer, all those answered prayers, the answers that I wanted and for also those that I didn't want.

Do you have any St.Anthony stories?