I want to wish you a most blessed Christmas by sharing with you a holy blessing from Saint Padre Pio. He wrote the following on December 30, 1915, from his monastery home in Italy. ( Saint Padre Pio is the famous stigmatist-priest who bore the five bleeding wounds of Christ Crucified for fifty years.)
"May the most sweet Child Jesus bring you every grace and blessing, all the favors that are pleasing to His infinite goodness." (Saint Padre Pio's Letters, Volume Two)
During this holy Christmas season, if you have a need, ask Padre Pio to take it to Jesus for you. Jesus will never forsake you.
With love, Eileen Dunn Bertanzetti
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Sunday, December 18, 2011
No One Can Take Your Joy From You
Hold onto joy, my dear friend whom I love. Hold onto joy, for God is the God of joy. Saint Padre Pio—the famous stigmatist-priest who bore the five bleeding wounds of Christ Crucified in his hands, feet, and side for fifty years—exuded joy to all he met. According to Malachy Gerard Carroll, in his book Padre Pio, written while the Saint was still here on earth, “Christianity means joy, joy even in the midst of pain. It means the gift of eyes that see the rim of eternal hope on the edge of the world, the eternal hills beckoning across the valley of tears. Holiness is a cleansing of spiritual vision, and with that cleansing comes joy. The greatest, the deepest joy of all, therefore, is in the heart of the Saint.”
And Saint Padre Pio knew that joy. He held that joy in his heart and he shared it with all he met. Please allow now his words to place some of that joy in your own heart today: “Joy, then,” says St. Padre Pio, “is an offspring of love, but if this joy is to be true and perfect it must be accompanied inseparably by the peace which pervades us when the good we possess is supreme and certain. Now, is not God the Supreme Good which the soul loves and which it possesses as the result of loving Him? This Good, as well as being supreme, must also be certain. Our divine Master assures us that ‘no one will take your joy from you’ [John 16:22]. What testimony could be more certain than this?” continues St. Padre Pio. “Pondering on all this you cannot fail to experience great gladness. This is what leads us to face the most painful trials with a cheerful heart.” (St. Padre Pio’s Letters, Volume Two)
May the Holy Spirit of Christ Jesus fill you to overflowing with His love, peace, and joy! Amen.
And Saint Padre Pio knew that joy. He held that joy in his heart and he shared it with all he met. Please allow now his words to place some of that joy in your own heart today: “Joy, then,” says St. Padre Pio, “is an offspring of love, but if this joy is to be true and perfect it must be accompanied inseparably by the peace which pervades us when the good we possess is supreme and certain. Now, is not God the Supreme Good which the soul loves and which it possesses as the result of loving Him? This Good, as well as being supreme, must also be certain. Our divine Master assures us that ‘no one will take your joy from you’ [John 16:22]. What testimony could be more certain than this?” continues St. Padre Pio. “Pondering on all this you cannot fail to experience great gladness. This is what leads us to face the most painful trials with a cheerful heart.” (St. Padre Pio’s Letters, Volume Two)
May the Holy Spirit of Christ Jesus fill you to overflowing with His love, peace, and joy! Amen.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Don't Feel Guilty
Do you ever feel guilty because your ailing and/or aging body won’t allow you to do all of the good things you used to do for love of God and His people? “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,” said Jesus.
As vehement as he was about Christians regularly attending worship services, Saint Padre Pio—the famous stigmatist-priest who bore the five ever-bleeding wounds of Christ Crucified in his hands, feet, and side for fifty long years—often ordered ailing and/or aged spiritual children to be easy on their bodies. For example, he forbade one of his dearest friends and “servants”—Mary Pyle, a once-Protestant American who went to live near Padre Pio’s monastery in Italy after she met him—to go to church services because “Brother Body was too heavy and her energy was no longer that of a young girl.” (see p. 118 in Mary Pyle, by Bonaventura Massa)
Of course, like Mary Pyle, you want to keep going, keep doing everything you’ve been doing, since you were young and strong and healthy, but “Brother Body”—or Sister Body—won’t allow it. Saint Padre Pio said to Mary Pyle in her suffering, “Fasten yourself to the Cross until He who was crucified comes to take out the nails.” In support of Padre Pio’s words, here is what Saint Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and this life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
In conclusion, here is a blessing for you from Saint Padre Pio: “May Jesus be always with you; may He sustain you in all the trials which He sends you out of sheer goodness; and may He fulfill in you His holy will for your salvation and for the salvation of all the other souls He wants to save. Amen.” (Saint Padre Pio’s Letters, Volume II, p. 557)
May Jesus always smile on you, my dear friend whom I love.
Eileen Dunn Bertanzetti
As vehement as he was about Christians regularly attending worship services, Saint Padre Pio—the famous stigmatist-priest who bore the five ever-bleeding wounds of Christ Crucified in his hands, feet, and side for fifty long years—often ordered ailing and/or aged spiritual children to be easy on their bodies. For example, he forbade one of his dearest friends and “servants”—Mary Pyle, a once-Protestant American who went to live near Padre Pio’s monastery in Italy after she met him—to go to church services because “Brother Body was too heavy and her energy was no longer that of a young girl.” (see p. 118 in Mary Pyle, by Bonaventura Massa)
Of course, like Mary Pyle, you want to keep going, keep doing everything you’ve been doing, since you were young and strong and healthy, but “Brother Body”—or Sister Body—won’t allow it. Saint Padre Pio said to Mary Pyle in her suffering, “Fasten yourself to the Cross until He who was crucified comes to take out the nails.” In support of Padre Pio’s words, here is what Saint Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and this life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
In conclusion, here is a blessing for you from Saint Padre Pio: “May Jesus be always with you; may He sustain you in all the trials which He sends you out of sheer goodness; and may He fulfill in you His holy will for your salvation and for the salvation of all the other souls He wants to save. Amen.” (Saint Padre Pio’s Letters, Volume II, p. 557)
May Jesus always smile on you, my dear friend whom I love.
Eileen Dunn Bertanzetti
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