My Precious

As a rule, I don’t like to wear jewelry, but I do own a few inexpensive pieces I received over the years from my parents. Out of love and devotion to them, I make an exception every year on my birthday and don the gold ring with a blood-red garnet setting they gave me as a gift. Garnet, of course, is the birthstone for January and (so I'm told) symbolizes vigor, passion and determination, among other things.

Looking to retrieve the ring from my bare jewelry box, it was inexplicably missing. Ordinarily, I'm well organized, so I don't often entreat the "Hammer of Heretics" with trifling petitions, however, the ring is a link to my ancestors and is precious to me. Immediately closing the lid, I genuinely implored St. Anthony of Padua to help me find it quickly and when I reopened the near-empty case, there it was, back where it belonged!?!

Normally hesitant to share these types of anecdotes, I’m actually way too happy to care what the scoffing skeptics or disbelievers may think or say. There is no doubt in my mind that St. Anthony came through again.