Dom Prosper Guéranger's Prayer to St Anthony of Padua

O glorious Anthony, the simplicity of thine innocent soul made thee a docile instrument in the hand of the Spirit of Love. The Seraphic Doctor, Saint Bonaventure, hymning thy praises, takes for his first theme thy childlike spirit, and for his second thy wisdom which flowed therefrom. Wise indeed wast thou, 0 Anthony, for, from thy tenderest years, thou wast in earnest pursuit of divine Wisdom; and wishing to have her alone for thy portion, thou didst hasten to shelter thy love in some cloister, to hide thee in the secret of God’s face, the better to enjoy her chaste delights. Silence and obscurity in her sweet company was thine heart’s one ambition; and even here below her hands were pleased to adorn thee with incomparable splendor. She walked before thee; and blithely didst thou follow, for her own sake alone, without suspecting how all other good things were to become thine in her company. (Wisdom 7) Happy a childlike spirit such as thine, to which are ever reserved the more lavish favors of eternal Wisdom! “But,” exclaims thy sainted panegyrist Bonaventure, “who is really a child nowadays? Humble littleness is no more; therefore love is no more. Naught is to be seen now but valleys bulging into hills, and hills swelling into mountains. What saith Holy Writ? When they were lifted up, thou hast cast them down. (Psalms 72:18) To such towering vaunters, God saith again: Behold I have made thee a small child; but exceedingly contemptible among the nations such infancy is. Wherefore will ye keep to this childishness, 0 men, making your days an endless series of inconstancy, boisterous and vain effort at garnering wretched chaff? Other is that infancy which is declared to be the greatest in the land of true greatness.  (Matthew 18:4) Such was thine, O Anthony! and thereby wast thou wholly yielded up to Wisdom’s sacred influence.”

In return for thy loving submission to God our Father in heaven, the populace obeyed thee, and fiercest tyrants trembled at thy voice. (Wisdom 8:14-15) Heresy alone dared once to disobey thee, dared to refuse to hearken to thy word: thereupon, the very fishes of the sea took up thy defense; for they came swimming in shoals, before the eyes of the whole city, to listen to thy preaching which heretics had scorned. Alas! error, having long ago recovered from the vigorous blows dealt by thee, is yet more emboldened in these days, claiming even sole right to speak. The offspring of Manes, whom, under the name of Albigenses, thou didst so successfully combat, would now, under the new appellation of Freemasonry, have all France at its beck; thy native Portugal beholds the same monster stalking in broad daylight almost up to the very Altar; and the whole world is being intoxicated by its poison. O thou who dost daily fly to the aid of thy devoted clients in their private necessities, thou whose power is the same in heaven as heretofore upon earth, succor the Church, aid God’s people, have pity upon society, now more universally and deeply menaced than ever. O thou Ark of the Covenant, bring back our generation, so terribly devoid of love and faith, to the serious study of sacred letters, wherein is so energizing a power. O thou Hammer of heretics, strike once more such blows as will make hell tremble and the heavenly powers thrill with joy.