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**Advent and Christmas Wisdom of Padre Pio **
Compiled by Anthony Chiffolo
**Day 11 **
Focusing on the Eternal
From Padre Pio of Pietrelcina Letters Volume 2
What should we say if we were to behold a poor peasant almost stupefied as he continued to gaze at a swiftly-flowing river? Perhaps we should just begin to laugh at him and with good reason. Is it not folly to fix our gaze on something that is rapidly passing? This, then, is the state of a person who fixes his eyes on visible things. For what are these things in reality? Are they perhaps different from a swiftly-flowing river on whose waters we have no sooner laid eyes than they disappear from our sight, never to be seen again?..
As for ourselves who have been called, through the goodness of the Most High God, to reign with the divine Bridegroom, whose minds are enlightened by God’s true light, let us fix our gaze constantly on the splendor of the heavenly Jerusalem. Let the consideration of all those good things to be possessed in that realm provide us with delightful food for our thoughts.
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. Matthew 6:19-21
Compiled by Anthony Chiffolo
**Day 11 **
Focusing on the Eternal
From Padre Pio of Pietrelcina Letters Volume 2
What should we say if we were to behold a poor peasant almost stupefied as he continued to gaze at a swiftly-flowing river? Perhaps we should just begin to laugh at him and with good reason. Is it not folly to fix our gaze on something that is rapidly passing? This, then, is the state of a person who fixes his eyes on visible things. For what are these things in reality? Are they perhaps different from a swiftly-flowing river on whose waters we have no sooner laid eyes than they disappear from our sight, never to be seen again?..
As for ourselves who have been called, through the goodness of the Most High God, to reign with the divine Bridegroom, whose minds are enlightened by God’s true light, let us fix our gaze constantly on the splendor of the heavenly Jerusalem. Let the consideration of all those good things to be possessed in that realm provide us with delightful food for our thoughts.
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. Matthew 6:19-21