A possibly dumb question about Padre Pio

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Tis_Bearself

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This question seems a little silly to me, like i should already know the answer, but it keeps nagging at me so i figured i would ask.

A couple years ago, I think sometime in 2017, I asked St. Padre Pio to please make me one of his spiritual children. For background, Padre Pio is not one of the saints I grew up with as we didn’t have a lot of Italians or other people who would know about Padre Pio in our family. I vaguely knew there was this mystic monk named Padre Pio who died and was canonized relatively recently, but that was about it. So I didn’t really start learning about him till the last few years. One night in early 2017 I was up in the night like usual and somehow ended up on a page about Padre Pio and purgatory and got a bit scared for the souls of my deceased parents and friends, and that was when I started really doing a lot of praying and Mass going, more than just church on Sunday and a plenary indulgence once in a while from holy doors.

Based on this experience I felt like maybe I should pray for Padre Pio’s intercession. I also have gone to at least four Padre Pio relic events or shrines and touched my everyday rosary to everything associated with him that I could touch (I don’t touch it to other saints’ tombs or stuff, just his, though I did touch it to places where Jesus was, i figured that waa okay), listened to at least 2 priests preach about their personal encounters with him, and prayed for him to please make me his spiritual child. I figured all I really had to do was ask him and I didn’t have to send my name in anywhere to be put on a list, though I might do that sometime.

My question is, how do I know if he has accepted me as his spiritual child? When he was alive, he would only pick out certain people. I probably wouldn’t have qualified, I reckon. I wear pants and for much of my life I was pretty sinful. I know I’m supposed to probably just take it on faith that he would help anyone who sincerely asked, but sometimes he was really grumpy. So how do I know?
 
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My thoughts are ,he’s in heaven so for the greater glory of God he would truly accept ,and character wouldn’t come into it? It’s a beautiful thing what you’re hoping for and doing 🙂
 
Thank you, yes, I had heard that the pants comment might have been hearsay. Also, pants in St. Pio’s day and in his part of the world would have been super scandalous, not so much now.

I am not familiar with Maria Esperanza. St. Pio seems to have had so many mystics and people associated with him that it is hard for me to keep them all straight. Thanks for the link, I’ll certainly read about her.
 
Thank you Greenfields for the kind comment. I was unaware when I read that St. Padre Pio page a couple years back from this very room, that he had a shrine just 35 miles straight up the road from here. The shrine had some diocesan controversy and had not been publicizing itself very much until the last couple years, but it has a whole Padre Pio museum including a reproduction of his tomb in which there is a first class relic of him. They also have gloves with his blood on them. The whole place was built by a lady whose daughter was miraculously cured through Padre Pio’s intercession right before he died and it is very nicely done. I went there last weekend and the last couple days I have been thinking of St. Pio flying 35 miles down the road from his “tomb”, over the hills and woods, to visit me that night. I was thinking “well at least he didn’t have to travel very far.”
 
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I think part of the reason Padre Pio picked out certain people during his life was that he was doing a superhuman amount of things all at once, and simply couldn’t take on much more. It’s mind boggling what he accomplished, despite being plagued by health issues, physical problems, poor digestion, very little sleep, constant fevers and chills, breathing issues, and bleeding most of the time.

What he did say (and I am paraphrasing this) was, imagine what I’ll be able to do when I get to heaven.

I think he meant he would have enough time at last to see to everybody who is devoted to him. I wouldn’t worry. I’m sure he has your back.

I started getting really interested in Padre Pio back in September. I was reading his book in bed one night. I have had this irritating pain in my left abdomen for years around my stomach. I believe hiatal hernia. I get bad reflux as well. This night I was using a Padre Pio holy card, with a 3rd class relic as a bookmark. I removed it from the book to read, and placed it under my tee shirt so I’d know where it was when I was finished reading. It just so happened to be over that sore spot I mentioned. The next morning the pain was gone and has not come back in 8 months. Completely anecdotal, I don’t ask anyone to believe it. I just said “thank you, Padre Pio”, and left it at that.
 
The thing about Padre Pio was that despite all of his ill health, he lived to a very old age of 81.
St. Therese died at 24, St. Faustina at 33, the other modern stigmatist I venerate at 60.
He really stayed on earth a long time. And through two bad wars yet.
 
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I too have remembered doing the same sometime within the last decade, but just assumed I would be accepted as I was asking for his help. I’ve remembered this one other time since then, as well as reading this again now, so perhaps Padre Pio is prompting me to pray to him and remember my request when I first made it. I trust he accepted me and has been praying for me especially at times when I’ve needed help.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
how do I know if he has accepted me as his spiritual child?
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Prodigal child returning home isn’t bound to get turned away.
Tis_Bearself said:
When he was alive, he would only pick out certain people.
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His time was limited, some folks sought him with ulterior motives - and, padre Pio did turn folks away at a fist moment in a sort of “shock therapy” only to embrace them latter when they did return.
Tis_Bearself said:
but sometimes he was really grumpy.
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hey, I feel grumpy sometimes, don’t you?
Tis_Bearself said:
So how do I know?
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Act of faith and don’t worry about it…My experience in praying to specific saints of recent memory is somewhat confusing: I got a mixture of hardship and nice graces…Were the graces great? YES!! Was the hardship brutal, confusing and overwhelming? Yes! Perhaps things would have been worse without their intercession; perhaps I didn’t make the best of the graces I received; I did learn LOTS of lessons and was left so run down I could hardly apply any of it. I can’t really draw a balance except that I would ask for their intercession again…
 
Bear, he was strict when he needed to shock a person into thinking, and into repenting, but he did say that it hurt him to do so.
He’s been part of my life too and I’ve read many books.
I have a little piece of cloth stained by his heart-wound, given to me by a Capuchin priest after his visit to Italy.
Saint Pio had a tender, vulnerable heart, and wept for days after his mother’s death
He is a man who would welcome you as his spiritual child, and wait for, as he promised.
 
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And Bear, I remember when a niece was traumatized over Jesus’ anger at the moneylenders in the temple. Yet He’s the most loving person of all time.
But you know that.
You ask the question because you feel humble.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
So how do I know?
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Do you have the stigmata?

j/k

Seriously though. I like to think if Padre Pio has been on your mind for some time & you’ve done the things you said you did, you’ve been a spiritual child of his for some time. By asking you’re giving your consent to be his spiritual child.

& while it is true he was selective while he was mortal, he was also limited to how much time he could devote to his children. Now that he isn’t limited by time, he’s probably not as selective.
 
Humble and also he’s not a saint I grew up venerating, so it’s like I’m trying to make a connection outside my family.
Most of my other “favorite saints” were either patrons or favorites of my parents, or I myself discovered them when I was quite young.
 
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Giving you for your own, Bear, what that Capuchin I mentioned wrote after he felt he’d been thoughtless to me

“All the animals of the forest stood back in awe as the elephant passed by. They marvelled at his power and his glory because it seemed to them every time he passed by, the jungle held a scent that spoke of heavenly things. It was the lowly earthworm and not even a man that knew the secret of the elephant’s passing, for it was the worm alone, who understood that the heavenly perfume came not from the elephant himself, but from the little crushed violets who blessed his feet as he passed by.

Lord of the forest
Full of power and glory
Be mindful of the violets
That bless your feet as you pass by!”

(J… C… O.F.M. Cap” (In this parable the ‘elephant’ is the great soul.)

You are one of those violets?

Perhaps the violet could be one of your symbols?
I loved this poem from childhood:
https://www.internetpoem.com/jane-taylor/the-violet-poem/
 
Thank you Trishie, I do like violets. They’re a little hard for me right now as they remind me of my late husband, but I still like them
 
Tis_Bearself said:
listened to at least 2 priests preach about their personal encounters with him, and prayed for him to please make me his spiritual child.
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I forgot to ask you. Was one of these two priests Fr. Pio Mandato? He came up here from Philly to do a healing mass back in November or December. I couldn’t make it to the mass. Afterwards I saw a video he was in and I was very sorry I didn’t get a chance to meet him.
 
No, it was Msgr. John Esseff from Scranton and Father Jerome Fasano from Arlington. Father Fasano’s Padre Pio homily where he talks about writing Padre Pio a letter when he was a kid and getting a letter back is on Youtube.
 
Remember a lot of us didn’t have any saints as children! I don’t think age matters much against eternity.
 
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