Last week I lost my good umbrella, the compact one that pops upon immediately when you press a button. I’ve had it for many years, and I miss it. This is not the most valuable thing I’ve lost. I suppose the umbrella is in a special universe “lost and found” room along with my mysteriously missing driver’s license and my ID tag. Losing anything is annoying, not to mention sometimes expensive. Searching high and low for a lost item eats up valuable time. Most irritating is when you can’t find the car keys and then, when you know you’re going to be late, you discover them right under your nose. Then there are the times when you put something in a safe place and then forget where that place is. Do you ever clean a room, rearranging objects, and then when something is not where it’s been forever, you can’t remember where you moved it to? We have various ways of turning to heaven for help during such frustrating times.
The most popular remedy is to turn to Saint Anthony. There’s even a rhymed prayer to him. One version is “St. Anthony, St. Anthony, come around. Something is lost and can’t be found.” More sophisticated prayers to this saint can be found on the Internet. Why St. Anthony? Supposedly he taught a course on the psalms to novices. One of the novices decided to leave the community and took with him St. Anthony’s Psalter. This was especially distressful for Anthony because his book was marked up with his class notes. Eventually the novice changed his mind and returned to the community, bringing the Psalter back with him.
A friend of mine prays the Creed when she loses something. Some people turn to their deceased moms or dads, counting on them for help in death as in life. A few say that this strategy is unfailing. In some cases after prayer, an object will unexplainable appear in a totally unexpected place, or, more puzzling, in a place we had searched a hundred times before.
There is a way to lose things that is not stressful: not realizing you’ve lost them until someone returns them to you!
Losing material objects is not that bad when compared to losing your mind or your soul.
When have you been successful is regaining a lost object? What was your strategy?
6 Responses
I NEVER leave home without St. Anthony since I first learned to say this, taught by Mom, may she rest in peace. Anthony, Anthony hop around something’s lost and can’t be found. He has helped me numerous times. A friend lost an item and I told her this prayer/ poem. She said it then after her item was found. She told me her item was found and asked, “What was that prayer/ poem? I want to teach my grandchildren.” So I printed it out gave it to her. And she now says this prayer/poem all the time. Some other friends that are noncatholics were amazed when I tell them this St. prayer/poem and shocked to see it worked for them. What a beautiful Saint St. Anthony is and part of my Franciscan spirituality. St. Anthony pray for us.
My go to for lost objects is St. Jude. When I put things in “safe” places, I sometimes forget. When I find them, of course the place was a totally logical storage place! Thank you, St. Jude.
🙂
This morning I spent from 8:30 until 10:50 trying to find on the computer a lost article that I needed to send to Africa. Talk about stress. Took a break and asked Sr. Jackie to help me pray. Then I went to the tech room for help. He helped me find it under a totally different name! I love computers! This is one of my daily crosses as we prepare for the Feast of the Exultation of the Cross. Don’t you love the Lord’s sense of humor as it helps us live the words we preach!??
And for three days I lost my incoming calls phone service (but just learned about it yesterday). Got it repaired this morning after about two and a half hours working via computer and phone with AT&T!
Dear Sister,
Your writing about losing things seemed to be just what I do. I could have written a similar message. It’s good to know one is not too unlike someone else.
Sister Kathleen