Looking for Faith

Today is the Feast of Saint Phanourios, the Great Martyr. It has become tradition to pray to him when we have lost something, so that he may help us find it again. This doesn’t make him magic. It does make him special. Sometimes all it takes is a little faith.

I want to share a true story with you. I have shared it many times before. I was a witness to this story. One day a priest misplaced his sweater. It was a nice sweater. He was searching and searching for the sweater, but he could not find it anywhere. I suggested we pray to Saint Phanourios. Just before my prayer the priest told me his pager was in the pocket. That made it all the more urgent, so I prayed. “Saint Phanourios, please help us find the sweater. It isn’t so much for the sweater, but the pager is in the pocket. Without the pager, people will not be able to reach the priest in an emergency.” We turned around and the pager was on the desk. The priest never did find the sweater.

To this day I would swear the pager was not on that desk. Did Saint Phanourios ‘place’ it there, or did he just urge our eyes to look for the pager instead of the sweater. Faith is like the pager. It is there in plain sight, but sometimes we just don’t see it. We get wrapped up looking for something else we ignore faith.

Today, I invite you to ask Saint Phanourios to help you find faith. You may not even realize you lost it. When you find it, you will realize just how much you needed it. The thing about faith, is that it helps us focus on what is important. Faith isn’t magic. Faith is special.

Faith helps us to understand that we didn’t really need that raise to be happy. Faith helps us to understand we would be satisfied with what we have instead of what our neighbor has. Faith helps us to understand what God wants for us will be enough. I still wonder where the sweater ended up, but faith helps me realize it wasn’t what mattered at that moment.