Allow Your Difficulties Today Draw You Closer to God

Perhaps your difficulties today are permitted by God to draw you closer to Him. Like the man in the following true story, told by Father Alessio Parente, good friend and bodyguard of Saint Padre Pio during the Saint's last years, perhaps God is speaking to you through your troubles, trying to help you to lean on Him, to trust Him, to allow Him to lead you out of the darkness and fatigue, the strain and the sadness.

According to Father Alessio, with whom I corresponded, here is a true story about a married man with a sick child: "We had four children," said the man, "and I was shocked when my wife told me she was expecting our fifth. I didn't want the baby and was angry at God. I hadn't been faithful to my religion or my God, and this unwanted child just made my faith even weaker. However on August 4th my wife gave birth to our son. It took only days to realize something was wrong with him. The doctors discovered his kidneys were not functioning. One of his kidneys was simply 'mush,' as the doctor described it.

"Our baby lay in a little room of his own in the hospital," continued the man. "He was just a skeleton with sunken eyes, and I knew that death was near. Each morning we were at his bedside and, although everyone was kind, the nurse sister and the doctors told us it was just a matter of time. We should take him home to die.

"I broke down," admitted the man, "and hurried to confession. Afterward, I remembered hearing of Padre Pio, but I knew nothing about him. I saw a book about him in a book store and purchased it. I read it from cover to cover.

"It was September 20th," said the man, "when we took Stephen home from the hospital. He ate nothing, drank nothing, and grew weaker with eyes sunk and staring. We had him home two weeks and we saw the end was imminent. We could not watch our wee boy die. We hurried to the hospital with him. They took him and phoned that night to say that it would probably be all over by morning.

"I prayed and prayed to Our Blessed Lady and Saint Padre Pio, asking them to intercede on behalf of my little son, asking Jesus God to heal our little Stephen. I swore I would never leave my faith again if this grace were given to me. I cut a picture from the Padre Pio book and slipped it under Stephen's pillow the next day. He hadn't died that night. Each day he lingered and I prayed. Day after day.

"One night I woke up. It was dark outside. Our bedroom was saturated with the perfume of roses. My first thought was that my wife had brought flowers into the bedroom. But she hadn't. The aroma was overpowering. And then I remembered reading that such a phenomenon meant that the Saint Padre Pio had heard your petition and was telling you that God had granted your request. I put my head on the pillow again, knowing the aroma was a message.

"The next day," said the man, "I got a call from my wife at my office. She'd just been on the phone with the hospital. They had noticed an improvement in Stephen's blood. Days turned to weeks. His blood kept slowly improving. The kidney tissues were working. The doctors were amazed. They still are amazed. Stephen is six years old next Saturday. He is a joy in our life. A wonderful wee boy who plays at being a priest. He is my pride and joy. We took him to Lourdes as a thank-you. But we know that Saint Padre Pio and Our Lady interceded for us and obtained from Jesus the healing of our little son.

"I've never faltered in my faith since the healing, and I keep up with my duties, and I'm all the happier for it," said the man. "Who knows; perhaps Stephen was sent just for that purpose, to melt my hardened heart and draw me back to Jesus and the Church." (from Padre Pio, Our Good Samaritan, by Father Alessio Parente, OFM, Capuchin, my friend and surely a Saint right along with Padre Pio)