Me, Elliot In The Morning & St. Anthony the Miraculous

DC’s popular talk radio show on DC 101, “Elliot in the Morning,” got a lesson in St. Anthony’s powers to find the host’s long-lost class ring just as I also prayed to the “Saint of Miracles” to find a rosary that had disappeared after a Bethesda christening. Twain it worked.

As it happens, the talk show host, Elliot Segal, had been complaining on the air about having lost a beloved class ring & had given up hope of ever being able to wear it again. One of the DJs cast members (that includes Diane, Tyler & Krysten) suggested he pray to St. Anthony to find the ring for him, but the Jewish Elliot demurred, until pestered to give the familiar “prayer for lost things” a try. Together, they all joined in imploring as tradition requires: “Dear St. Anthony, please come around. Something is lost and cannot be found.” The official Catholic version is much longer & more reverent, but you get the idea. A week later, Elliot’s ring was found. Coincidence or miracle?

A day or so later I had attended a baptism & brought along one of my favorite rosaries to caress during the ceremony. But, when I got home, there was no sign of the rosary. Twice I checked every coat & pants pocket. Then, a third time I dug deep within each bowel. No rosary. Having all but assumed I had accidentally dropped it somewhere on the way home, my wife suggested I pray to St. Anthony, who, btw, is my own Baptismal Patron Saint. An hour later, I went back a FOURTH time to the coat & pants I had worn to the baptism & dug deeply yet again into the same pockets … The rosary had (re)materialized. In my first novel, “One to the Nth Degree – The Code 17 Conspiracy” such unexplainable happenings are explained in a “Theory of Improbable Certainties.” Was it Al Michaels who had asked when Team USA beat the Russkie Olympic hockey team, “Do you believe in miracles?” Theoretically, at least, big or small, the answer is “yes.”

Davd Soul