St. Anthony of Padua

Yesterday, before Mass, I stopped in the church's gift shop. My goal was two things: buy a St. Jude candle and to purchase a saint statue for Benji's room. St. Jude is the patron saint of lost causes and with my parents house STILL on the market, I felt a little prayer to St. Jude couldn't hurt! While I was looking at the small statues, I kept being drawn to one of St. Anthony of Padua. I knew of him, but frankly, I didn't know much about him. He was holding baby Jesus and had a string of white lilies along his robe. Since my gaze kept coming back to this particular saint, I bought him.

He is small, probably about five inches tall. When we got home church, Benji and I put the little St. Anthony statue in his room and I decided to find out more about St. Anthony. I couldn't shake the feeling that St. Anthony was very familiar to me in a personal way. I know, he is a pretty common, well known saint among Catholics. From AmericanCatholic.org: 'Next to Mary of Nazareth, the saint most often seen in artwork holding the child Jesus in his arms is St. Anthony of Padua. If there is anything I’ve learned from visiting churches and Catholic missions throughout the world, it is that the image of Anthony and the child Jesus is a favorite around the globe. It can be found wherever Catholic missionaries have carried the Good News, even in the most remote regions of the world.' Why does St. Anthony hold baby Jesus? 'According to one version of the legend—and there are many—there was a Count Tiso who had a castle about 11 miles from Padua, Italy. On the grounds of the castle the count had provided a chapel and a hermitage for the friars. Anthony often went there toward the end of his life and spent time praying in one of the hermit cells. One night, his little cell suddenly filled up with light. Jesus appeared to Anthony in the form of a tiny child. Passing by the hermitage, the count saw the light shining from the room and St. Anthony holding and communicating with the infant.' Okay, just some background info, but there is more. 'Another meaningful way to interpret the presence of the Christ child in the arms of St. Anthony is to realize that Anthony was a great preacher of the gospel—a brilliant communicator of the Incarnate Word. In his sermons, Anthony emphasized the mystery of the Incarnation.' and, this: 'The image of Anthony holding the divine infant is a symbol and model for each of us. The image inspires us to go through life clinging to the wonderful mystery of the humble, self-emptying Christ, who accompanies us as a servant of our humanity and of the world’s healing.' As I did some research, the pieces began to click into place. When Kevin and I started our China adoption journey we initially requested a little girl and already had a name picked out for her: Lily. We chose Lily because of the flower's ties to the Angel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary. from AmericanCatholic.com: 'But the lily symbolizes purity, innocence, integrity. This symbol has been especially associated with the Virgin Mary and other virgin saints. In Annunciation scenes, for example, the Archangel Gabriel is often portrayed as arriving with a lily to symbolize Mary’s purity. St. Joseph, too, is frequently shown with the same flower. Images of St. Cecilia, St. Clare, St. Francis of Assisi and St. Dominic often include lilies.' First Click Late 2011, Kev and I found out I was pregnant and we had help from modern science. Sadly, the pregnancy was very short. However, I prayed daily, the following mantra, "Please, let me be a mother' to the saint for infertile woman, St. Anthony. Second Click. Three months later, we received Benji's file from Great Wall China Adoption agency asking if we would be interested in this little boy, Kangshen. He was 18 months old and was from Wenzhou, China.

We said yes. Third click. After months of updating our home-study, getting new passports, and making traveling plans we were ready to go to China to get him. Our journey was during the holiday season and we were to be in Guangzhou, China during Christmas. In 1861, the French Catholic church commissioned the building of a cathedral in Guangzhou, which was funded mostly from Napoleon III. The cathedral construction was completed, after 25 years, in 1888. This became known as the Sacred Heart Cathedral where we attended Christmas mass in 2011 with our new son, who we named, Benjamin. It is quite a gorgeous church.

After receiving communion and returning to our spot, I saw the following statue and was hit with an undescribable wave of emotion.

Fourth click. I didn't know who the statue was, at the time, and why it created such emotion. I just knew that somehow I had been divinely touched and that was in regards to Benjamin. But now I do. From AmericanCatholic.org: 'With great frequency, St. Anthony is shown holding both a lily and the Christ child. A special significance can be drawn from this. Placing a vulnerable child under the care of another human being shows a tremendous amount of trust toward that person.' While reading this, my body began to tingle and a wave of understanding has overcome me and I began to weep. I finally heard the message. Fifth click. We were chosen to be Benjamin's parents. St. Anthony has been leading us down this path since our journey started. He has been with us, spreading God's love and mercy, through our journey to have a child. Those times I thought we were alone and felt forsaken, St. Anthony has been by our side. God had given us St. Anthony to make sure we brought home our sweet boy. Last click.