An Eternity of Joy and Peace Awaits You and Your Loved Ones

Today, my dear friend, whom I love and whom God loves, I offer you Saint Paul’s words of comfort: “For the Lord Himself will descend from Heaven with a cry of command, with the Archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18)
Why do I speak of the dead today? It is because I feel that you might be fearful of death, fearful of the fate of someone you love who is dying, fearful of the outcome of a serious health problem you or a loved one is experiencing, fearful of what is to become of you and your family in this violent world in which we live. If so, take heart; there truly is a Heaven where you and your loved ones will spend eternity with God in joy and peace and love. Never fear. Saint Padre Pio, the famous stigmatist who bore the five ever-bleeding wounds of Christ for fifty long years in his hands, feet, and side, was visited countless times by souls who had gone to Heaven or Purgatory—the “waiting room of Heaven,” the place where we get gently “showered” by God’s grace so that any sins left on our souls are lovingly and tenderly washed away before we are whisked into Heaven to forever be in God’s glorious Presence and the presence of all those we love who have gone before us. Saint Padre Pio’s experiences with those who had died are to be found in the hundreds of books written about him. (Many of those books were written by me, by the way, by God’s grace and the intercession of St. Padre Pio and Our Lady and my Holy Guardian Angel.) Madame Katharina Tangari, in her book Stories of Padre Pio, (TAN Books and Publishers, Inc.), says that Saint Padre Pio’s life and mystical experiences with the “dead-in-Christ” should encourage us to “walk simply and naturally in the domain of the supernatural.” Madame Katharina, who visited Padre Pio more than seventy times, said that whatever St. Padre Pio does, “is rooted in Jesus Christ, which is why it becomes so efficacious [effective]. Even from afar, he can become for us God’s supernatural instrument, and as such he guides us, so that from time to time, we too may become little instruments of God’s providence and mercy.”
Even though he is now in Heaven, in that “afar” Madame Katharina just mentioned, Saint Padre Pio can do more for you today than he could while on Earth. What are your fears and concerns? What illnesses do you carry? What troubles are bombarding you and your loved ones? Look up. Padre Pio is smiling at you, waiting for you to ask him to intercede with Jesus Christ for you. Tell Padre Pio your troubles and ask him to help you. He will certainly do whatever he can for you. If you happen to smell a sweet aroma anytime soon, and the aroma seems to have no natural origin, know that it is a sign from Padre Pio that he has heard your prayer and is doing what he can for you. He is now closer than ever to the Source of Life, the Ruler of All Nature, Jesus Christ Himself.
I love you, dear friend. “Pray, hope, and don’t worry,” as St. Padre Pio always said.
Please let me end with a blessing just for you from Padre Pio’s Letters, Volume 2: “May Jesus be in your heart; may He bless you, console you, and smile upon you! Amen.”