Today we transition back to Ordinary Time and we pick up in week 11. In the readings, we pick up our reading of the 2nd Letter to the Corinthians and chapter 5 of the Gospel Matthew.
Today being June 13 we also celebrate the memorial of St. Anthony. To the Italians he's St. Anthony of Padua, to the Portuguese(the place of his birth) he is St. Anthony of Lisbon.
His is the story of a man who came from wealth, a man who was so physically frail they did not want to accept into religious life. He would not let that deter him. He knew what God had called him to be just not exactly where. He began his religious life at an Augustinian Abbey but it was later, as a Franciscan, he was discovered to be a most eloquent preacher of the gospel.
He died at age 36, and was probably the quickest saint in the history of the church, less than a year from death to canonization. In 1946, he was given the additional title Doctor of the Church.
His was not a simple or easy road but ultimately he discovered what God had called him to do and did it.
May each of us seek to do God's will and find our peace in doing it.
