 It is such an honor to be with you and wow just a few feet over it feels a lot weirder. You know I never thought I'd be standing in front of you I never actually thought I'd be standing over there but as we say yes to the Lord he does marvelous things amen and he takes us to places that we never thought we'd be amen and some of those places aren't actually places we want to be amen yeah that's the life of St. Anthony of Padua this incredible saint that we get to celebrate today I didn't know much about St. Anthony except he was the guy you prayed to when you lost something but truly it was the life of one who completely gave himself to the Lord with all the different twists and turns that that journey may take. He was in Portugal and at the age of 15 studied with the Augustinians he was going to be an Augustinian monk and was there studying with them for about 10 years quite a scholar about to take his final vows when they brought into Portugal the body of five Franciscan martyrs who had been killed preaching the gospel to the Muslims and his heart was on fire with this and he said that's what I need to do and so he told his superiors look I'll take final vows on one condition you send me to Morocco I want to go preach the gospel and even give my life to the Lord. The Augustinians hemmed and hawed about this and finally said you know you should maybe go with those Franciscans because that seems to be the kind of thing that they do so sure enough it seemed fairly quickly they just threw a brown habit on him put him on a boat and sent him to Morocco so he went from being this Augustinian scholar to this Franciscan martyr or at least that was his plan but when he got to Morocco he fell quite severely ill and they were worried he might not make it so instead of ever having a chance to preach the gospel there they put him on a boat and they sent him home well there was a storm in the Mediterranean Sea the eastern winds that they couldn't fight against so instead of going home he ends up in Sicily and there he is still sick and he's nursed back to health by many of his Franciscan brothers but now he's in a place that he's never known about and nobody knew who he was the provincial came around and he said to the provincial I just want to learn the way of Francis and so went to northern Italy with this provincial he never told anybody that he had studied nobody knew anything about him and he now decided that he was just going to live the life of poverty and prayer and quiet well that was again his plan but God had something different about a year later there was an ordination of some Dominicans and Franciscans and the provincial said who would like to give a short word about God's love and nobody you know spoke it's like when you teach class you know who read last night nobody's gonna answer so the provincial said to you know brother Anthony would you maybe say a few words and I apparently he says something like don't worry it's gonna be okay he can be really short well Anthony stood up to preach and the rest as they say is history they were amazed at his eloquence they were amazed at his holiness they were amazed at his passion and so he was sent to preach in northern Italy in southern France it said that he preached over 400 different places in that time and he always asked to go where the heretics were the strongest were the works and you might think that meant he would really you know have more of a bludgeoning type of message but when you read his homilies they're so gentle they're so beautiful the reading that we have from Paul about speaking the truth in love Anthony of Padua was an incredible example of that and such a great witness for us I think in these difficult times because when we proclaim God's truth you know God is love and so there can't be truth without love and there can't be love without truth that message that Anthony proclaimed was also something that he lived actions speak louder than words he wrote this in the 1300s and those of you that did the office of readings today might have reflected on it actions speak louder than words and he said let us use our words to teach and use our lives to speak to proclaim that's what our lord himself did he spoke and he made it real in fact this is what we do today at the liturgy right we have the words from the ambo and we have the actions from the altar the foot of the cross a god who loves us so much that he gave us everything and he continues to give us everything he continues to pour out his life in us that beautiful connection of the word and the sacrament it's wonderful that our bishops are leading us into a time of eucharistic revival because so many people don't know that Jesus is present in the Eucharist but i think just as big of a crisis is people who don't know Jesus at all and we first have to encounter who Jesus is to encounter him there on the altar and in the Eucharist and my brothers that's what we're about in our sacramental calling to be images of Christ the servant Christ the head here among us we have all the the glory the representation of the holy orders deacons priests bishop and and those preparing and the invitation that i believe st anthony would want us to hear is that we need to be nourished at this bread of life and nourished at the word because people yes faith comes from what is heard but the ears are only open once people can see what it looks like to be a disciple of Jesus and once hearts are open that we would say to the Lord wherever you send us we will go that's not anything we can do on our own only through the power of the Holy Spirit so my brothers as we celebrate this great feast let's ask for st anthony's intercession in our lives that we might have that zeal that humbleness that holiness that passion to live out what we believe and like st francis be living icons of the life and love and grace of Jesus Christ to go out into the whole world proclaiming that good news