OK, this is going to sound crazy and I am fine with that because it is a little crazy to the uninitiated. By that I mean, those who do not believe in the power of Saints.
I am not a believer in "God" or whatever you might call that person in the heavens who passes judgement and who could easily fix the crap in the world if he/she wanted to but chooses, instead, to let children be killed by bullets in their kindergarten classes and to let people die of starvation in a world that could produce enough food for everyone and let families be terrorized and killed in a small country that is plagued by war because of a brutal dictator next door and who lets people, in his/her name, do unspeakable evil to regular everyday people because those people think he/she is on their side and I could go on and on. But no, I don't believe in any sort of god like that.
But I do believe in Saints. (I capitalize that word because the Saints are important to me.) Especially Saint Anthony, the Patron Saint of Lost Things. St. Anthony has found things for me for my entire life, or at least for the past 50 years. (Before that, I can't remember anything.) When something is lost, and I mean lost for not just ten minutes but lost after searching and digging and plowing through crap to find the lost thing, I ask St. Anthony to help. I always promise money, of course, because it's a transaction and the St. Anthony Foundation in SF does tons of work for people who need help.
St. Anthony has rarely failed me. Sometimes it takes a while, like a couple of weeks, but he always comes through and he always finds me what I need. And I ALWAYS pay what I promised because, really, how could you not? Once, when I was very close to having zero money in my bank account and a large money-pit house (which I loved) on the market and I had been renting out the house on the weekends to strangers just to make the mortgage, I promised St. Anthony a bucket of money to find me a buyer for the house. And he did! It was a lot of money (for me) but once I asked, he found the buyer within a couple of days and it was totally worth it because it kept me out of defaulting on my mortgage, and we all know how crappy that turns out.
Honestly, I don't even like writing about this in case it jinxes my relationship with St. Anthony but I don't think he's that kind of Saint. I think he would understand that I am telling you this from a sense of joy and gratitude.
There are other Saints and Spirits that I ask for help now and then, and I do ask the Universe for help as well. I am fairly certain that there are powers out there, roaming around, wanting to help but they need to be asked. (Or so I believe.) But who knows? The only proof I have is in the things that have happened that have no logical explanation, things that have appeared when those things were not in that place ten minutes prior.
That's all, not going to tell you concrete details. Trust me. The Saints have power that we mortals do not. ...... And this is beginning to sound like I also believe in Leprechauns and Unicorns and Dungeons and Dragons.
Here's a story: in 2000 I spent 4 nights in Padua, Italy. There is a cathedral in Padua dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua, Patron Saint of Lost Things. In this cathedral there is a small room on the side of the nave where there are thousands of notes pinned on the wall thanking St. Anthony for what he found for that person. Thousands of notes. Clearly, St. Anthony is not just my Saint. It was so consoling to see all those tiny pieces of paper, a community of people who St. Anthony helped. Wishes asked, wishes granted, hope restored.
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