Blessed Be St. Anthony

As I've posted before (here), I'm not terribly religious. But there is one thing that's sort of dogmatic and religion specific (Catholicism) that I completely and totally believe in. Saint Anthony.

Saint Anthony is, in a nutshell, the saint of lost things. Basically, if you pray to St. Anthony, he'll help you find something you've lost. It can be as concrete as losing your sunglasses to as abstract as asking for strength or courage to do something. DOH is a big believer in praying to St. Anthony when we can't find something. At first, when we were first living together, I'd laugh at him, blame our success on finding missing items quickly after his praying to St. Anthony on pure coincidence. I have since been freed of my disbelief. Here's why:

Example #1 - About a year ago I lost my engagement ring. Long story on how all that happened, but I ended up losing it and not being able to find it...for months. DOH didn't know. I didn't dare tell him. If he asked me why I wasn't wearing my ring I'd say it didn't fit me well any more because of some weight gain (which was actually true at the time). Finally, after being unable to find the ring for months and I was starting to get really worried, I told DOH the truth. His immediate action was to say a quick prayer to St. Anthony. The next morning I found the ring. Under my pillow.

Now before you get all synical and say, "Oh, your husband must have found it, blah, blah, blah," know this: DOH had to work that night. I found the ring before he came home. Sure, could he have possibly found the ring before I told him and put in under my pillow, but that isn't something he'd do. Plus, I made him swear on the life of our child that he didn't do it (and he's like a 12 year old, so he takes those sorts of oaths seriously), and he swore he didn't. I believe whole-heartedly St. Anthony (or something like that) put the ring under my pillow.

Example #2 - I didn't get my driver's license until last November. I went for my license three times. I failed three times. On the day of the fourth try I was a wreck. Couldn't eat. Couldn't sleep. Couldn't function at school. My classmates (I was taking courses still at this point) asked me what was wrong. I explained that I was going for my license (again). One of my friends, a devote Catholic, immediately said, "You need to pray to St. Anthony." I looked at her kind of funny, confused.
"Why St. Anthony?"

"Because you've lost your confidence and you need it back." She immediately e-mailed her mom  who quickly responded back with the "official" St. Anthony prayer, we all (everyone sitting at our table) said the prayer. Then another friend said she was sure we could find a message board online for prayers to St. Anthony. Literally about five seconds later she found one and I submitted a prayer.

Needless to say, I got my license, feeling about a million times better at the time of my driver's test.

Example #3 - Last Tuesday I lost my keys. After looking for them for two whole days and part of today, I was feeling defeated and ready to give up. We, DOH and I, had said a prayer to St. Anthony last night. While I didn't expect to find my keys immediately, I figured once I got things picked up around the apartment they'd turn up. Well, they didn't. I had picked up all the rooms where I figured the keys must be, but they weren't anywhere. I went into Lizzie's room to pick up feeling disgruntled, thinking out loud, "Well, thanks for that one St. Anthony."

The very first thing I picked up was a bag I usually bring Lizzie's stuff to daycare in. All that was in there were her slippers and some wipies. But then, rather suddenly, the bag felt just a bit heavier. I took out the slippers, then the wipies, and then my keys. My keys. II cannot think of how they could have gotten in there. Lizzie hadn't been playing with the bag, so she couldn't have put them in there. I didn't use that bag on Tuesday, when I lost the keys. I thought I had put the keys on the kitchen table and the bag had been in Liz's room (cue Twilight Zone music). It was almost as St. Anthony was saying, "Quit your bitchin' kid, you've got your keys. Now let me move on to more important things, okay?" (And yes, I totally believe that St. Anthony would say "bitchin'". He's cool like that.)

I know there are lots of logical explanations to these three events and the numerous other examples I have of how prayers to St. Anthony have led me to missing things, but I'm not a logical person, and sometimes you can't be when it comes to spiritual or religious subjects, and I'm totally okay with that. And it may be St. Anthony who is helping me find my keys or summon the courage to not drive like an idiot, but it could also be the positive energy I am building up and sending out into the universe, which manifests itself in what it is I desire. Regardless, it's pretty cool.

And it's almost enough to make me convert to Catholicism. Almost. :-)

Gettin' Me Some Religion

I can be a bit irreverent when it comes to religion. I think I came out of the womb a spiritual person--I've always enjoyed thinking about God (in whatever manifestation I was comfortable with at the time) and taking time to think about the wider world and universe I inhabit and why I'm here. Very deep stuff. And while I've had my periods of total disdain for church or even Christianity in general (I spent a couple of years as a Wiccan), I'm finding a strong desire to rejoin a religious community.

DOH is Catholic. I was raised as a Protestant. And while we aren't reenacting scenes from Northern Ireland, we definitely have different views on certain things. I'm also pretty freaking liberal (I was also a self-proclaimed Communist around the same time I was a Wiccan--I'm sure you can imagine how excited my parents were). I don't do well around people who are so absorbed by their religious views that they can't function in the wider, non-denominational world or get past the fact that there are, in fact, other people who believe differently, and, guess what, they probably aren't going to burn in that fiery, bad place for believing differently.

But the point of this post isn't to get too religious. It's to talk about the fact that I, for the first time in a long time, really want to go back to church. I've been hankering for a place where we can go to worship and be a part of a community as a family,  and with this move coming up in June, I figured it's a good opportunity to find a place to go.

For a short period of time this fall, we were attending church at the Congregational church in our current town. I loved it, but services started really early for us (9:30 AM) and Lizzie had a hard time going down to the nursery (she was the only little one there). I also didn't really want to send her there, I liked being together, but I felt a bit of pressure to have her go down, which annoyed me a bit. Overall, though, I really enjoyed the church, but it just wasn't working out. I also figured I didn't want to get involved in a church that we likely wouldn't stay at since we planned on moving after I graduated from college.

The town we're moving to has a few different options for where we can go just within the town. There is a Universalists church which is kind of right up my alley. They have a variety of services that cater to lots of different belief systems, which I love. It's also very liberal and openly supports the GLBT community, which I very openly support. I also feel as though my and DOH's different belief systems (as similar as they are) will both be respected and neither one of us will feel left out.

There is also a Congregationalists church, which I have heard wonderful things about, having had friends who attended it growing up. I think it's a more traditional church, but like most Congregational churches that are associated with the UCC (United Church of Christ), they're pretty open-minded (at least that is what I've found here in Maine). I would have no problem attending this church, and I don't think my husband would be against it either, but then again, it's different from what he's used to (granted, the Universalists church would be, too), and he sometimes has a hard time with "different."

Then there is the Catholic church, which I've actually attended (I was an honorary Catholic there for a bit, as I went to youth group with one of my good friends). I like it a lot. It has a big, active congregation, the kids do an awful lot, and a good chunk of the Catholics in the area go there (and there are a lot of Catholics in Western Maine). My husband would LOVE to go to a Catholic church. I'm pretty certain he'd be really happy if I said I was converting to Catholicism (but that's probably never going to happen). And I would actually be okay going to a Catholic church. Would it be my first choice? No, but only because I don't plan on converting and that status of non-Catholic would probably start to make me feel uncomfortable after a while. But, I would be willing to try if DOH didn't feel comfortable at any other church.

There are lots of other churches in other towns, including the ones our families go to. I don't know that there is anything on this planet, even the salvation of my soul, that could convince me to join the church that my mother-in-law attends (there are LOTS for reasons for this), but I will never say that I wouldn't attend just to visit. My parents go to a Congregational church in the town they live in (and it's the church where I went through confirmation and all that, though the reverend has long since left). I wouldn't mind attending with them, but I think my husband feels the same as I do about attending church with his mom when it comes to going to church with my parents (but for different reasons).

This turned out to be considerably longer than I had intended (and probably way boring), but it's nice to get these thoughts out and organized. It gives you better perspective on where you want to be, and choosing a place of worship, in my opinion, is a decision that needs to be made carefully (I actually think what religion you are or how you feel spiritually is the decision you need to make very carefully).

Sorry if you trudged through this and expected some sort of epiphany at the end--this most was mostly for me, :-) However, if you were curious, I think I'm leaning more towards the Universalists church, though we'll have to actually attend some services before we make a decision.