Roads to Saint Padre Pio for You

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You know, dear friend, how I am always encouraging you to take your problems and concerns and worries and troubles to Saint Padre Pio? I hope you're doing that. Of course, he does not have any power to help you that is not first given to him by God Himself. But God does work through His Saints. After all, Jesus came to us through a Saint--the Queen of Saints, Our Lady, His Mother. Why wouldn't He come to us today through His Saints? I know that people ask you to pray for them, don't they? Of course. And you do. And God hears your prayers and answers them because He loves you with an unfathomable love. God is Love. God is Mercy.

To back up what I've said about your taking your concerns to Saint Padre Pio and asking him to intercede for you with God, here is a story told by Clarice Bruno, author of Roads to Padre Pio. Clarice was a friend of Padre Pio and visited him often in his San Giovanni Rotondo monastery in Italy; she published her book before Saint Padre Pio died. But before I give you Clarice Bruno's story below, let me explain to you that it concerns a married couple who owned and ran a small restaurant in San Giovanni Rotondo where St. Pio lived. The couple was busy from morning until night, cooking for and feeding the thousands of pilgrims who traveled from all over the world, every day of the year, to visit Padre Pio and ask him for his blessings and prayers. (In that day, there were only two restaurants and not hotels or motels in all of San Giovanni to serve the thousands of pilgrims; today there are hundreds of restaurants and hotels in the area.) One day Clarice was sitting in one of those two restaurants, and here is her story about that day:

"When the long morning activities drew to an end and the noon hour approached," wrote Clarice, "we were on our way to a very-much-needed lunch. The restaurant down the road toward which we hurried with hope in our hearts each day . . . was run by Mario, the Egyptian, an enormously fat individual with a great head of hair worn pompadour fashion, and his very pretty Hungarian wife, an ex-dancer whom he had met in Egypt. I shall never know how or why they ever ended up at, or discovered, San Giovanni Rotondo, for even though we became very friendly throughout the years, strangely enough this subject was never touched upon. . . . .

"The restaurant's floor," continued Clarice, "consisted of the good earth under our feet, and the walls were wooden boards [that had big gaps in them, which let the harsh weather enter]. t was certainly not windproof nor coldproof. . . . Incorporated in the restaurant was an old well with chain and bucket which formed the constant center of movement and activity--one person coming to draw drinking water, another to fill the nearby basin to rinse off his hands, after which the residue would simply be emptied upon the handy, absorbent floor.

"As we would sit huddled," wrote Clarice, "with our feet lifted from the ground on the rung of our wooden chairs, I could not help remembering certain old movies of my childhood depicting the 'gold rush' days in Alaska. I had seen cabin scenes such as this in them--without the well, of course! We almost always ate at Mario's at noon when we were visiting Padre Pio. . . . From the ceiling hung a single electric light bulb on a wire, but the true warmth and cheer came from Mario who moved his huge, bulky form from table to table to take everyone's order, help serve, and converse. Mario had a gentleman’s charm. He seemed to rise with complete nonchalance above any and all surroundings. . . . The same can be said of his pretty wife with her interesting foreign accent. . . . Even when they were down on their luck [which happened a lot] and she would emerge, tired from frying fish and washing dishes in the little-more-than-three-foot kitchen, there would always be something about her of a flower-like beauty. . . . There was something exotic about both of them. I remember once, during one of their 'down days,' her telling me of going to confession to Padre Pio and confiding to him, besides her discouragement and fatigue, her worries about her four-year-old son and her not having time to take care of him or watch over him sufficiently with all the other chores she had to attend to. Padre Pio said to her, consolingly, 'Don't worry; I will watch over the child for you. I will protect him.' [One of Saint Padre Pio’s many spiritual gifts from God—in addition to the five bleeding wounds of Christ which Padre bore for fifty long years—was the gift of bilocation, the ability to be in more than one place at the same time. He often bilocated, and hundreds of those occasions are documented by reliable sources.]

"Not many days afterwards," continued Clarice, "the pretty young mother heard terrified screams emerge from the road above her restaurant, and people scurrying as they do when there is an accident. She arrived on the scene in time to see, to her horror, her child being pulled out from under the huge truck that had passed over him. Her son appeared dusty, but fortunately none the worse for his experience. When a few days later she went again to Padre Pio and reprovingly reminded him of the promise he had made regarding the boy, Padre Pio calmly answered, 'And did anything happen to him? Was he hurt?' She answered him, 'No.' Then Padre Pio dryly said, 'Well, and so!'"

This story above—a solidly true one told by the author who spent many months throughout many years visiting St. Padre Pio—I hope will give you encouragement to speak with Saint Pio. Even though he is in Heaven, he can see and hear you, nevertheless. He often told people, "I will be able to do more for you from Heaven than I can while here on earth." So take your troubles to him, your worries, and leave them in his hands. He will take them to the Queen of Saints through whom God sent us Jesus, One in Being with the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Mother of God will then intercede for you with her Divine Son. Amen. So be it.

I love you, dear friend, and so does God.

The Source of Your Peace and Joy

Just as Saint Padre Pio did, my dear friend, you, too, can find peace and joy in prayer, even if sometimes you experience a dryness, a spiritual "aridity," when you pray. During those "dry" times of prayer, it seems as if God is hiding from you, right? But He is not. He loves you with an unfathomable love and wants you to persevere in prayer, in spite of the aridity of your soul. He longs for you to speak to Him, to listen to Him, to just spend time in His loving Presence. In the Letters of Saint Padre Pio, Volume One, page 471, the Padre shares with you his secrets of prayer and how God will eventually lead you, too, out of your spiritual dryness:

"My usual manner of praying is this," says St. Padre Pio. "I no sooner begin to pray than my soul becomes enveloped in a peace and tranquiliity that words cannot describe. The senses become inactive, with the exception of my hearing, which is sometimes not inactive. Generally, however, this does not bother me in the least, and I must confess that even if a great deal of noise were to be made around me, it would not disturb me at all. From this, you will understand that I rarely succeed in using my mind in discursive prayer.

"It frequently happens," continues St. Padre Pio, "that at certain moments, when my mind wanders from the continual thought of God, who is always present to me, I suddenly feel the touch of our Lord in a most penetrating and sweet manner in the depths of my soul, so that, more often than not, I am obliged to shed tears of sorrow for my infidelity and to shed tears of love for such a good and attentive Father who calls me back to His Presence.

"At other times I experience, instead, a great aridity [dryness] of soul; I feel so oppressed by my many bodily ailments [he bore the five bleeding wounds--the stigmata--of Christ for fifty years] that I am incapable of pulling myself together to pray, no matter how much I want to. . . . When the heavenly Spouse of souls is pleased to put an end to this martyrdom, He suddenly sends me an irresistible spiritual fervor. In an instant, everything is changed, and I feel so enriched by supernatural grace and so full of strength that I am ready to defy the whole of Satan's kingdom.

"All I can say about this prayer," concludes St. Padre Pio, "is that my soul seems to be completely lost in God and that in those moments it gains more than it could in many years of intensive spiritual exercises."

Therefore, my dear friend, you, too, can become a Saint merely by spending time with God and allowing your soul, like Saint Padre Pio's, to be "completely lost in God," so that you, too, will "gain more than" your soul would be able to gain through "many years of intensive spiritual exercises."

Amen! So be it!

St. Padre Pio and Your Mental and Physical Health

Before he died, hundreds of times Saint Padre Pio told people that he would do more for them from Heaven, after he died, than while he was on earth. And on earth he did a lot for people--or I should say Jesus did a lot through Saint Padre Pio during the Padre's eighty-some years in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy. Padre Pio had been given many spiritual gifts, including the gifts of bilocation (he could be in more than one place at a time), reading souls (he knew your sins before you could even confess them), healing, and even levitation. And of course, he bore the five wounds of Christ for fifty years. So my point is this, my dear friend, if you have a mental, emotional, physical, financial, or whatever problem, take it to Saint Padre Pio. He will do what he can for you, I'm sure, and will mightily intercede for you with Jesus. For a bit of encouragement for you in getting the courage to do such an act of faith, let me share this true story with you that comes from Father Alessio Parente's book, Padre Pio, Our Good Samariatan. (Father Alessio was a close friend and bodyguard of St. Pio during the Saint's last years, and I corresponded with Fr. Alessio, and I also consider him to be a Saint.)

Here is a true story related by Father Alessio, and he tells it using the words of the woman who experienced the miracle through Saint Padre Pio's intercession: "For over a year," said the woman, "I have suffered from bizarre seizures. Doctors have been unable to pinpoint the exact cause or cure. One of the manifestations of the illness is total insomnia brought on by cranial jolts, electrical shock waves, and visual flashes of white light, every time I begin to fall asleep. For months, nights on end, I would be kept awake by these shocks, not sleeping more than one hour in over ten days at one point. It was then that an aunt suggested I pray to Padre Pio for help. I prayed to Saint Padre Pio that night, in the name of God, and I haven't had a sleepless night since! Doctors were unable to treat me with sleeping pills because they made my seizures worse or disturbed my heart, but now, every night, before I even finish praying, I am already sleeping peacefully and I find that I have to finish my prayers in the morning!" (page 169 in Father Alessio's Padre Pio, Our Good Samaritan)

Now, my dear friend, I hope you will have courage to present your own troubles--and those of your loved ones--to Saint Padre Pio. He will intercede for you with Jesus. "With God, all things are possible."

Believe All Things are Possible with God

My friend, Father Alessio Parente, OFM, Capuchin, who was a companion and bodyguard of Saint Padre Pio during the Padre's final years, said in his book (Padre Pio, Our Good Samaritan):

"When praying for a grace, we must believe that nothing is impossible to the Lord. [With God, all things are possible, says Saint Matthew in Matthew 19:26.] This, in itself, is a wonderful act of faith; freely admitting that the good Lord is All-Powerful and that everything and everybody is subject to Him and to Him alone. So let us have faith that the Lord is ready to grant many graces, and we will see the results like Manna from Heaven. [See Revelations 2:17.]

"What a great grace it is to know and to love Padre Pio," continues Fr. Alessio, " to have his paternal protection and help at all times during our lives, and to learn from his teachings. He is like the light which brings us safely through the tunnel to the end of our earthly existence. For those of us who are particularly familiar with the life of our Good Samartan [St. Padre Pio], it is superfluous to say that his teachings and actions are to be meditated upon with great care and attention. It is a particular grace to become a spiritual child of his and to be assured of his paternal protection. However, this also carries with it a duty toward others; a duty to spread the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the reason for our hope [Christ] throughout the world. This is our responsibility.

"What exactly then," continues Fr. Alessio, "are the teachings of Padre Pio? They are precisely those of Jesus: That is, love for God and our neighbor; complete faith and trust in the Lord at all times; belief in His fatherly goodness and His desire for our well-being. . . . We must love our neighbor as ourself. How sad it is, nowadays, to see people going through life trying to out-do everybody else as far as they possibly can. Do they not realize that this is a thankless task and one that will only lead to unhappiness?

"The message of Jesus, on the contrary," continues Father Alessio, " is one that brings happiness and joy; it brings love for one's neighbor and the desire to help others. Whereas a life full of self-seeking brings only misery and despair.

"To further emphasize this point, we must abandon ourselves totally in the arms of the Lord, allowing Him to take full possession of ourselves and to do with us exactly as He wills. By doing this we can afford to live a life that is more tranquil than the one offered by the continual search for riches. We will be free of useless worry, secure in the thought that everything that might take place in our lives is in the hands of God. This total abandonment can only be obtained by continual prayer; it is something that we learn to do with time and practice, but something that brings with it such a sense of peacefulness, that our hearts are filled with happeness and joy." (pages 118-119 in Padre Pio, Our Good Samaritan, by Fr. Alessio Parente, OFM, Capuchin)

Today, you, my dear friend, can ask Saint Padre Pio to make you one of his spiritual children and to help you to abandon yourself in the arms of Jesus. He will do it because he loves you--and I do too.