Padre Pio, canonized Saint

[Trishie]

One of the most powerful intercessors of our time was Saint Pio, a Capuchin priest. God drew him into the deepest union, and gifted him to an extraordinary degree for sake of souls. Padre Pio is a remedy granted by God in a century when sin and aberration are more serious and prevalent than at any time in history.

Padre Pio foretold that a time when people may doubt that he ever existed, however we are privileged to live during part of his life on earth, and to know that this extraordinary saint truly lived. It is 30 years since he was called to heaven. Pope John Paul 2nd beatified Padre Pio in 1999. Praise God! He was canonised on the 16th June in 2002.

Saint Padre Pio perhaps gave the eternal Father a clearer image of His Son’s redemptive humanity and intercession than has any man in history. He lived a crucified, selfless, truly holy life in deep union with Christ. He had the gift of reading souls, of bilocution when his presence was required for souls distant from his monastery—San Giovanni Rotondo.

Through his intercession, God permitted spiritual and physical healings that are well documented in our times. For 50 years, Padre Pio bore deep wounds of ‘stigmata’ in hands, feet and side. The chest wound was four inches long, with a smaller transverse cross-wound. These bleeding wounds remained unchanged until just prior to his death at 94 years of age, on September 23, 1968, when, having served their intercessory purpose for countless souls on earth and in Purgatory, the deep painful wounds disappeared.

 

[Trishie]

Padre suffered continually for souls and was known to say—“If you knew the value of suffering, you would never give it up.” Nevertheless he prayed for healing for others, and advised anyone in their difficulties to seek divine assistance. “It is not a loss of patience if one asks Jesus to take away pain, when this becomes insupportable to us and beyond our strength, nor does one lose the merit of the suffering which is offered, by asking this of God.”

“Pray that God will console you when you feel the burden of the Cross, for in doing so you are not acting against the will of God, but you are placing yourself beside the Son of God who asked His Father during the Agony in the Garden to send Him some relief. But if He is not willing to give it, be ready to pronounce the same ‘fiat’ that Jesus did.” “When least you are expecting to be liberated, Jesus, who cannot bear to keep you long in affliction, will come and relieve and comfort you, giving you new courage.”

“He is the Father of all; He is so in a very special manner for the unhappy.” “The Cross will not crush you; if its weight makes you stagger, its power will also sustain you.” “What does it matter whether Jesus wishes to guide you to heaven by the way of the desert or by the fields, so long as you get there by one way or the other? Put away excessive worrying which results from trials by which the good Lord has desired to test you; and if this is not possible resign yourself to the divine will.”

“Humility and purity are the wings which carry us to God.” “Where there is no obedience, there is no virtue.” “Sin against charity is like piercing God in the pupil of the eye.”

 

[Trishie]

“The spirit of God is always a spirit of peace, and in the case of grave sin, it makes us feel a tranquil sorrow, humble, confident, and this is due to His mercy. The spirit of the demon, on the contrary, makes us in our sorrow feel something like anger against ourselves, whereas our first charity must be towards ourselves. So, if certain thoughts agitate you…Such agitation comes from the devil.” “Walk with simplicity in the way of the Lord and do not torment your spirit.”

“Each soul…is a stone destined to build up the eternal edifice…it has to be polished with the blows of hammer and chisel…these hits of the chisel are the shadows, the fears, the temptations, the afflictions of the spirit, the spiritual tremors with some aroma of desolation, and also physical illness.”

“Be certain that the more a soul loves God, the less he feels it…God is incomprehensible…so that the more a soul enters into the love of this Supreme Good…this sentiment of love towards Him seems to diminish, to the point of seeming to love Him not at all…Say rather that you love, and that you wish to love with a perfect and consummate love. This good cannot be obtained in its completion except in the next life!”

Surely, Padre Pio has something of the total self-giving of the Saviour, for he wrote: “If I know that a person is afflicted in mind and body, what would I not do to see him freed from his ills? I would willingly take on all his afflictions in order to see him freed, giving up in his favour, and the fruits of such suffering if the Lord would permit me.” [Letters 1 no. 184.]

 

[CRV]

Thank you Trishie for posting this, especially as lately there’ve been posts by people suffering.

I especially think the following parts are relevant, for all souls suffering whether that be mentally, physically, emotionally or spiritually - “It is not a loss of patience if one asks Jesus to take away pain, when this becomes insupportable to us and beyond our strength, nor does one lose the merit of the suffering which is offered, by asking this of God.”
and
“Pray that God will console you when you feel the burden of the Cross, for in doing so you are not acting against the will of God, but you are placing yourself beside the Son of God who asked His Father during the Agony in the Garden to send Him some relief. But if He is not willing to give it, be ready to pronounce the same ‘fiat’ that Jesus did.”