Fr Paul reads from the Gospel of Matthew (5: 38-42) in which Jesus tells his disciples ‘Give to the one who asks, and if anyone wants to borrow do not turn away’. After reading the Gospel, Fr Paul shares a little about St Anthony of Padua, whose life we celebrate today.
Fr Paul says Anthony was born around the year 1195. Firstly, he was an Augustinian monk but he was so impressed by the martyrdom of five Franciscans who had been spreading the faith in Morocco that he, himself, changed and became a Franciscan Friar so that he, too, could preach the Gospel in Africa. Illness and then a storm while travelling took Anthony to Italy where he met St Francis of Assisi in person. He then went to Northern Italy and then into southern France. Later he returned to Italy and to Padua where he was an outstanding preacher and the first Franciscan theologian. He died in the year 1231. St Anthony is patron saint of the lost and the found. Fr Paul invites us today to pray, St Anthony pray for us!
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