Great St. Anthony, friend of all who invoke you, behold us for the second time imploring your help, through the love and generosity you displayed for God in the early years of your religious life.

Your burning zeal urged you to forsake parents, home and all the pleasures of life, to sacrifice everything in order to serve God as an Augustinian Friar in your native Lisbon. The realisation that the peace of God would be found only in the complete detachment from friends and relations urged you to take refuge in a distant Friary where, undisturbed, you could devote yourself entirely to prayer and study.

O great Saint, inspired by your example of complete abandonment of all you held most dear in order to follow Christ more closely, we beseech you to help us in our needs. Grant that we too may obey the laws of God and humbly resign ourselves to His Holy Will, however difficult it may seem to us. Amen.

Three times – Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be.

Dear St. Anthony, when we come to you for help, we naturally appeal to your most generous heart. Your love for poor sinners encourages us to implore you, unceasingly, until our request is granted. Although you had found happiness and peace with the Augustinian Friars, the appearance of the first Franciscans in your country revealed to you that you could do still more for God. In order to sacrifice all to Him, to give yourself to Him, without reserve, you resolve to join their Order. The Franciscan life of extreme poverty strongly appealed to your generous heart. Their Mission work among the Moors of North Africa would give you a chance of sacrificing even life itself for the salve of Jesus Christ, as some Franciscans had already done. Although it was hard to leave the good Friars of St. Augustine, you did so without hesitation out of your deep love of God.

Glorious St. Anthony, since God will not be outdone in generosity, we are confident that he will hear the prayers of one who has refused Him nothing. Pray with us, then, dear Saint, be our intercessor that soon we may have reason to thank you for your favours. Amen.

Three times – Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be.

On this fourth day of our Novena, we recall, dear St. Anthony, your ardent desire for martyrdom. You had joined the Order of Friars Minor in the hope of sharing the glorious death some Franciscans had suffered at tile hands of infidels in North Africa. Having sacrificed to God everything you possessed, you wished to give Him your very life.

Admirable Saint! Your generous renunciation of all, reproaches our selfishness. In shame we see ourselves scarcely daring to live according to our Faith, instead of being prepared, like you, to die for it, Ask of God for us a deep appreciation of that Holy Faith that we may always live in accordance with it. Obtain for us a burning zeal for the conversion of those “other sheep” who do not yet belong to the One True Fold of Jesus Christ.

Let us share your spirit of generosity and self-sacrifice in the service of others so that, following your example, our lives may be more pleasing to God and we may, through your powerful intercession, obtain the favours we ask for in this Novena.

Three times – Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be.

Glorious St., Anthony, your missionary life in North Africa gives us a most inspiring example of resignation to God’s Holy Will. In spite of the complete oblation you made of yourself, God, in His infinite wisdom, did not deign to accept your sacrifice. When severe illness attacked you, and your desire for martyrdom could not be fulfilled, regardless of the disappointment to your enthusiastic soul, you submitted generously to the Divine decrees.

While failing to grasp the extent of your generosity in God’s service and yet striving to imitate it, we praise you, dear Saint, for the great holiness of which you have given us an example, keep from us those painful disappointments you yourself experienced while on earth, and if it be God’s Holy Will that we should suffer them, teach us your own admirable spirit of resignation. Amen.

Three times – Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be.

Great St. Anthony, we can never sufficiently praise your generosity towards God during your earthly life. Your complete resignation to Him and your unwavering confidence in His Providence fill us with the greatest admiration.

When God had forced you to give up your missionary ideals and to abandon even the country where you had hoped to sacrifice your life for Him, He did not allow you to return to your native Portugal. A raging storm, which threatened you with an inglorious death, drove you to a country unknown to you. In this instance, as in others, you recognized the Hand of God and cheerfully followed the path He had pointed out to you.

Dear St. Anthony, how much we admire your generous soul! Though not understanding the plans of God, you were yet ready to cooperate immediately with Him and entirely subject yourself to His adorable Will.

Pray for us that we, also, may be completely resigned to God’s Holy Will. Although we have confidence in your powerful intercession, we trust that, should God decree otherwise regarding us, we may be able to bear our disappointments with patience and continue to praise Him with a grateful heart.

Three times – Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be.

Great St. Anthony, what consolation was yours, when, after you’re many trials, God in His goodness, allowed you to visit the great Chapter of your Order in Assisi. Here, for a time, you enjoyed the company of St. Francis and many other holy religious. In spite of your profound sanctity and great learning, however, you were unknown and unnoticed in that distinguished assembly. As a great favour, you were permitted to say Mass for a few lay-brothers in a lonely Friary.

Noble St. Anthony, the remembrance of all this fills us with humble confidence. When we compare our sinful lives with your great holiness, we realise our unworthiness. You, who know the pain of being forgotten and neglected, will surely make our prayers your own and beg of God the favours we implore in this Novena. Amen.

Three times – Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be.

Generous St. Anthony, the revelation of your holiness and wisdom to the world gave you yet another occasion of heroic self-sacrifice. The happy life of peace prayer in the lonely Friary was soon to be exchanged for the busy one of the active apostolate.

The strain of continuous preaching, the long hours in the confessional, the unceasing direction of souls who sought your guidance, were for you a great sacrifice. Gladly did you offer it for the honour and glory of God and the good of souls. Your apostolic zeal, your love of God, and your fellow men urged you from town to town so that there was no time for you to rest.

Glorious St. Anthony, your inspiring example shames our selfishness and love of comfort. How we shrink from pain and sacrifice! Pray now for us that we may be fervent in the service of God and our neighbour and thus more faithfully perform our daily duties, grow more patient in adversity, and show ourselves more grateful for the many favours we receive from God.

Dear St. Anthony, whose preaching God confirmed by many miracles, pray now to Him that He may grant us what we ask, even by a miracle, if necessary. May we prove our gratitude for the favours received by serving so good a Master more faithfully and loving Him above all created things. Amen.

Three times – Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be.

Dear St. Anthony, death at an early age was the last sacrifice God asked of you and Joyously you offered yourself to Him. In the midst of a splendid career’ God took you away from this earth and magnificently rewarded your generosity with heavenly glory.

Seven hundred years have passed since your holy death, yet do we praise the zealous life you led and rejoice with you for the great glory that is yours in Heaven. This thought fills us with confidence in seeking intercession.

On this ninth day of the Novena, we renew our fervent prayers and beg your assistance. Grant that we too experience that no one implores you in vain. Our confidence in you remains unshaken. Should what we ask not be for our spiritual welfare, strengthen our weakness and obtain for us from God what is most pleasing to Him. Obtain for us also, a little of that patience and resignation of which you gave such a shining example. Amen.

Three times – Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be.

Dear Saint Anthony, even during your own lifetime, Pope Gregory IX called you “the living repository of the Holy Scriptures”. Because of your profound learning and your holiness of life, the later Pope Pius XII proclaimed you a Doctor of the Church.

As the Evangelical Doctor, you continue to let your light shine upon the Church and upon the whole of mankind. As such you are a constant inspiration to all of us, so that we too may seek for guidance and direction, where you have always found it: in God’s own Obtain for us, we pray, that we may show ourselves to be always eager and attentive listeners to the Word. May that Word shape our lives, and always lead us on the right way.

And may your powerful intercessions come to our aid in our present need. Amen

Three times – Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be.

Dear Saint Anthony, the numerous miracles wrought through your intercession earned you the title of tile “Great Wonder worker”. No problem seems to be too big and no trouble to trivial for your attention and for your loving concern.

May your example teach us to have an attentive ear and an open eye for the difficulties of other people. Open our hearts and our minds, we pray, so that we may never walk a selfish and a lonely way, but always may be ready to stand by others in true brotherhood. Open our hands in generous giving, to all those who are less fortunate than we are. Then we can be assured, that you will not refuse the favours we ask through your intercession. Amen.

Three times – Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be.

Dear Saint Anthony, throughout the centuries your devotees have invoked you for the recovery of things that are lost. During this Novena we have prayed to you for things both big and small. We know that a lost article is less important than the loss of health and the loss of a job or of a place to stay.

Make us realize above all that the greatest loss which a human being can sustain is the loss of happiness, and the loss of one’s innocence through sin. And whilst we know that you never disdain any of those smaller losses, make us too more concerned about the things that really count: God’s Holy Will, God’s kingdom and God’s Love. Keep those always safe for us, and help us to recover them, when we have lost them. Let then Jesus’ word become true: All the rest will be given you just for the taking. Amen

Three times – Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be.

Dear Saint Anthony, throughout the centuries your devotees have invoked you for the recovery of things that are lost. During this Novena we have prayed to you for things both big and small. We know that a lost article is less important than the loss of health and the loss of a job or of a place to stay.

Make us realize above all that the greatest loss which a human being can sustain is the loss of happiness, and the loss of one’s innocence through sin. And whilst we know that you never disdain any of those smaller losses, make us too more concerned about the things that really count: God’s Holy Will, God’s kingdom and God’s Love. Keep those always safe for us, and help us to recover them, when we have lost them. Let then Jesus’ word become true: All the rest will be given you just for the taking. Amen

Three times – Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be.