GOD PERFORMS SIGNS THROUGH ANTHONY        5

The Lord always watches over and helps His faithful friends. Anthony once had to travel to go to Provence to attend a General Chapter. About midday Anthony together with two companions were passing through a small village.  A poor, kind woman knowing that the three Friars were fasting and therefore hungry invited them to her house and offered them food. She left bread and wine on the table while she went to borrow a wine glass from her neighbour.

She went down to the cellar and filled the glass with wine, but in her haste the poor woman left the tap of the wine cask open and all the wine ran out on the floor. To add insult to injury one of the Friars accidentally broke the wine glass.

When she discovered the loss of her wine she went up crying and upset, and to her amazement she found the broken glass.

Anthony who had accepted charity from a poor woman folded his hands, bowed his head and prayed, recalling the verse in Corinthians: ‘I pray with the Spirit, but I pray with my mind too. (1Cor.14:15b) Open-mouthed the poor woman fixed her look on the praying Friar and felt inside her that something was about to happen. Suddenly the wine glass became whole, as good as new. She took it in her hands and saw that it was returned to its former state, just as she had borrowed it.

She knew that it was due to the prayer offered by the holy Friar. All excitement she hurried downstairs to the cellar and to her great surprise the wine was back in the cask without a single drop on the floor. God had rewarded the act of charity performed by the poor woman and was also a clear sign that He had heard the prayers of His faithful friend, Anthony.            /6