Pray and Ask 'Big'

Today I thought you might find inspiration and hope from a true story I found in The Friar of San Giovanni by John McCaffery. John personally knew Saint Padre Pio and wrote this book in 1978, ten years after Padre Pio's death and entrance into Heaven where he intercedes for you to Jesus. John knew Padre Pio before he was canonized, of course, but even then, John and the thousands of other souls who visited Padre Pio knew already that he was a Saint. After all, Jesus used the Padre every day to heal the sick in mind and body; to bi-locate (be in two places at one time) to help anyone in need; to read souls (tell them how they needed to change their lives); and to perform other miraculous works for the salvation of souls. Saint Pio also bore the five bleeding wounds of Christ for fifty years, and those wounds--and Padre Pio's constant suffering--convinced them that Jesus was somehow trying to speak to them and help them through this humble friar in a remote monastery in San Giovanni, Italy.

And Saint Padre Pio, by God's grace, will help you too. Just ask him!

But now, the true story I promised you from John McCaffery's book:

"Let me tell of the man from Lecco," wrote John. "He was sitting in my office looking at me with two perfectly ordinary-looking eyes. The truly extraordinary thing about them was that, until some months previously, they had been like dried, shrivelled peas in his head, and he had been totally blind.

"I had never met him before," continued John, "but had learned every detail of his case from Gino Ghisleri, who had been present when the blind man had knelt and begged Padre Pio to restore his sight, 'even if only in one eye,' that the blind man from Lecco might again see the faces of his dear ones. Padre Pio repeatedly asked him, 'Only one eye?' 'Only one eye?' 'Only one eye?' And then Padre Pio told him to be of good heart and that the Padre would pray for him.

"Gino Ghisleri said that this had been one of the most moving spectacles he had witnessed in San Giovanni," wrote John, "but that it had been completely outshone some weeks later when the blind man returned with his sight restored and his two eyes of completely normal appearance. He had been at the monastery in San Giovanni again when the man from Lecco once more knelt, this time with tears of happiness, to thank Padre Pio, his benefactor.

John continued, "Padre Pio said to the man from Lecco, 'So, you are now seeing normally again?' 'Yes,' replied the man, 'from this eye here, not from the other.' 'Ah!' said Padre Pio, 'only from one eye? Let that be a lesson to you. Never put limitations on God. Always ask for the big grace!'" (pp. 70-71, The Friar of San Giovanni)

Now, my dear friend, are you putting "limitations on God"? He will do more for you than you can ask or imagine, so go ahead and ask--and ask "big," as Saint Padre Pio recommends.

May God richly bless you, my friend!