Depressed?

Maybe you're feeling depressed or gloomy because of the weather, the economy, your family, your whatever. Saint Padre Pio has some words of encouragement for you: "Your suffering is by no means a chastisement [from God], because nobody fears being unworthy when he truly is or wants to be such. This uncertainty is permitted to all the living by God, in order to avoid their being presumptuous, and in order that they move cautiously as regards their eternal salvation. . . . Even the martyrs believed while they suffered. The most beautiful Credo is that pronounced in darkness, in times of sacrifice and when you have to make a great effort to do this." (Letters 3, page 549)

So don't be so hard on yourself, dear friend. God loves you and hasn't cast you aside just because you're feeling low. You are precious in His sight and nothing will change that.

A Rememdy for Your Dreadful Torture

Whatever pain you're experiencing today, St. Padre Pio offers you a remedy: "May Jesus always be with you, and may He console and comfort you in this extrememly painful trial. I well understand the dreadful torture that is consuming you totally, and neither do I know how to give you some relief. But if I, a miserable creature, am unable to do so, at the same time I have absolute trust that Jesus will not leave you to suffer at length in this state, which is more acute than death itself." (Letters 3, page 916)

Trust Jesus, my dear friend. He will never let you down.

True Love

What is true love? St. Padre Pio says it is the love you have for Jesus and the love He has for you. "The bitterness of love is still sweet and its weight suave," St. Pio said. "Therefore, why do you continually say, when feeling its great transports, that you are unable to contain it? Your heart is small, but it is expandable, and when it can no longer contain the grandeur of the Beloved, and resist its immense pressure, do not fear, because He is both inside and outside of you. By pouring Himself into your interior, He will surround the walls. Like an open shell in the ocean, you will drink your fill, and exhuberantly you will be surrounded and carried along by His power." (Letters 3, page 1040)

Please forgive me, dear friend, by the way, for not posting anything last week. I was recovering from surgery.

Implore Jesus

Don't give up praying about whatever problems assail you just because you don't see any results. "But where is God?" you ask. "Yes, where are You, Lord?" Well, He's right here with you, so never fear. Saint Padre Pio recommends that you pray to Jesus continually: "Implore Jesus, I repeat, to the point of becoming tiresome. Insist with Him and speak continually to Him." (Letters 2, page 64)

Yes, continue to speak to Jesus, presenting your needs to Him without fear of bothering Him. He loves you more than anyone here on earth ever could. He loves you unconditionally. Think about that.

Your friend,
Eileen Dunn Bertanzetti

Graces Within You

Have you been trying hard to be a "good person" but no one seems to notice? You've been asking the Lord to help you grow in holiness. You've been praying more. You've been offering up your daily trials as prayers for others. You're doing "all the right things," but still, no one seems to notice. Do not worry. God and His Holy Angels and Saints notice, and they applaud you. In fact, Saint Padre Pio sees what you're doing and he says to you, just as he said to a friend in a letter, "I admire the workings of grace within you, and I render heartfelt thanks to the Lord for this. Be cheerful and rest trustingly, as always, in the arms of Divine Mercy and do not fear." (Letters 3, page.907)

The Longer Your Trials, the Greater God's Comfort

During his eighty years in Italy, Saint Padre Pio was sometimes harrassed by those who were jealous of him. After all, he had many gifts, including bilocation (the ability to be in two places at one time); the reading of souls (he could tell you in Confession what you'd done wrong without your saying a word); the odor of sanctity (his wounds would often give off a delightfully sweet scent); and the stigmata (the five wounds of Christ Crucified; St. Pio bore these ever-bleeding wounds in hands, feet, and side for fifty years). Once when one of his "enemies," a Monsignor, was re-assigned to a remote location in order to get him away from harrassing Padre Pio, St. Pio said, "The longer the trial to which God puts His elect, the greater His goodness in comforting them during oppression and exalting them after the struggle." (St. Padre Pio's quote is from page 220 in Prophet of the People, by Dorothy M. Gaudiose, my dear friend in Heaven.)

What struggles are you deailng with, my friend? Give them to Jesus. He will comfort you and be with you every step of the way until you are no longer suffering.

A blessed New Year to you!

Your Sins Are Forgiven!

No matter what your sins are, God will forgive them all. Once Saint Padre Pio's mother came to him and said she was worried about sins she might have committed but forgotten to confess. "How can we know that in God's sight we are not great sinners?" she asked her by-then-world-famous son. "We try to confess all of our sins. We confess all we remember, but how can we be sure that God does not see many more sins which we have forgotten, or which we have not even recognized as sins?"

Her saintly son, the stigmatized priest, replied, "If we have goodwill and try to confess all our sins, confessing thsoe which we remember, God's mercy is so great that it will wipe out every fault and sin, even those which we have forgotten."
So be at peace, my dear friend. As Saint Faustina of the Divine Mercy said, "God IS Mercy!"