St. Anthony of Padua

Today is my daughter's baptismal feast. I don't know of a single, Catholic home-schooling mother who does not rely heavily of St. Anthony. My children, like most, are good at misplacing things and seem to think that I ought to know where these things are (because, after all, mama has eyes in the back of her head). I always refer them to St. Anthony. The Communion of Saints is great for that-- one always has someone to whom one can delegate the impossible jobs. I call on him myself frequently for lost items. And I have a friend who calls on him whenever she gets lost going somewhere. But we ought not forget that St. Anthony is not a mere bloodhound for sniffing out lost articles. He is a saint of great miracles, and we ought to turn to him for the conversion of hardened sinners, for that of those who have strayed from the Catholic faith, for enemies of the Church and indeed for all difficult cases.