Get To It!

You never see a statue of Saint Anthony of Padua that depicts him being short and fat, but that he was. Perhaps we could all expect a makeover if we were canonized! But when folks looked at Anthony, they saw in him a radiant holiness that made some drop to their knees. He sought to reform the morality of his era by combating the vices associated with avarice, luxury, and tyranny – which we also see in our modern era. Through his magnetic personality and preaching, criminals and heretics alike were attracted to conversion, and many miracles were witnessed, and documented – famously including that of a horse which fasted three days by refusing the oats placed before him, until he had knelt down and adored the Blessed Sacrament, which St. Anthony held in his hands. His preaching was in such great demand, that at the age of 36 he basically died of exhaustion. His canonization within a year is one of the most rapid in Church history. Anthony wasted no time in giving his gift, and it didn’t take the Church long to decide what an enormous gift he was to us. What we are given are Heaven’s gifts to us; what we do with them are our gifts to Heaven. What you have to give, offer it today.

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