Seek First His Kingdom

by Anthony of Padua, Livio Poloniato (Editor)

An anthology of excerpts from the Saint's sermons.

200 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2005

About the author

Renowned Portuguese-born Franciscan friar Saint Anthony of Padua preached.

A wealthy family in Lisbon reared this Catholic priest of the order. His contemporaries noted his forceful and expert knowledge of Scripture.

He died in Padua in Italy. After Saint Peter of Verona, the pope canonized him as the second-fastest saint. He as the patron saint also finds things or lost people.

The pope proclaimed him a doctor of the Church on 16 January 1946.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony...

Reviews

[Oscar Martinez II · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of sermons from the 12th century Franciscan friar and Doctor of the Church St. Anthony, “Seek First His Kingdom” beautifully displays the saint’s ability to see and interpret symbolism in places within the scriptures that may go missed by most lay readers. I personally believe the gem that stands out the most in this collection is his sermon titled “Humility: the Font of all Virtues.”

[Erick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up a number of works by various Franciscans and a collection of St. Anthony's sermons was one of them. It does make for lighter reading when compared to other Franciscans such as Roger Bacon and William Of Ockham, but by no means an uninteresting one. He does share some common mystical tendencies with other Franciscans such as Bonaventure and Peter John Olivi. Allegory was still very much en vogue during the 13th century; unfortunately, it is a lost art in scriptural interpretation today. It will need to come back though. During the early centuries of Christianity, Christians knew rightly that a literalistic approach in all cases is to trivialize scripture and nullify it's depth of meaning. They could find meanings that were by no means obvious when one reads the text literally. Many of St. Anthony's sermons show that early theological tendency and interpretive ability. Books like this have helped me to appreciate the richness of Christian tradition and the complexity of the Spiritual life of the church throughout the centuries.