Memorial of St Padre Pio of Pietrelcina

Today we celebrate the memorial of St Padre Pio of Pietrelcina. If you haven't done so yet, try to watch the film Padre Pio: Miracle Man. It'll make you see Padre Pio in a completely different light. For a biography of this modern saint, click here.

St Padre Pio, pray for us!

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"O father, why are you so distraught and so full of worries over your spirit? Calm yourself because Jesus is with you and is happy with you. It torments my soul to know that you are in so much spiritual suffering. O, how I have prayed and continue to pray to our Lord, who makes me feel in my heart that He has always been with you, and that, indeed, He has doubled His graces, His preferences, His predilections toward your soul.

Therefore, how can you allow yourself to be persuaded that the calamities that roar about you are from God and that, in large measure, you are their cause? O father, do not be afraid, I beg you. You are not in the least bit guilty for these howling tempests. You must have no fear for your soul; Jesus is with you and you are most dear to Him. This is the whole truth before God. Calm down and let the Lord test you as He will, because everything shall come to pass for your sanctification.

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At these moments, more than ever, when the whole world troubles and weighs on me, I desire nothing other than to love and to suffer. Yes, my father, even in the midst of so much suffering I am happy because it seems as if my heart is beating with Jesus' heart. You can only imagine how much delight is infused in a heart that knows, almost with certainty, that it possesses Jesus.

It is true that the temptations I am subjected to are very many indeed, but I trust Divine Providence will not let me fall into the tempter's snares. It is also true that quite often Jesus hides Himself, but what does that matter; with your help I will try to remain close to Him, having your assurance that I am not abandoned but merely toyed with by Love.

O, how long for someone to help me temper my anxieties and the flames that disturb my heart at these moments."

-- Secrets of a Soul: Padre Pio's Letters to his Spiritual Directors edited by Gianluigi Pasquale, OFM Cap

In the midst of that night, in my darkness

In the midst of that night, in my darkness,

I saw the awesome sight of Christ

opening the heavens for me.

And he bent down to me and showed himself to me

with the Father and the Holy Spirit

in the thrice holy light --a single light in three, and a threefold light in one,

for they are altogether light,and the three are but one light.

And he illumined my soul

more radiantly than the sun,

and he lit up my mind,

which had until then been in darkness.

Never before had my mind seen such things.

I was blind, you should know it, and I saw nothing.

That was why this strange wonder

was so astonishing to me,

when Christ, as it were, opened the eye of my mind,

when he gave me sight, as it were,

and it was him that I saw.

He is Light within Light, who appears

to those who contemplate him,

and contemplatives see him in light

--see him, that is, in the light of the Spirit...

And now, as if from far off,

I still see that unseeable beauty,

that unapproachable light, that unbearable glory.

My mind is completely astounded.

I tremble with fear.

Is this a small taste from the abyss,

which like a drop of water

serves to make all water known

in all its qualities and aspects?...

I found him, the One whom I had seen from afar,

the one whom Stephen saw

when the heavens opened,

and later whose vision blinded Paul.

Truly, he was as a fire in the center of my heart.

I was outside myself, broken down, lost to myself,

and unable to bear the unendurable brightness of that glory.

And so, I turned

and fled into the night of the senses.

Simeon the New Theologian (949-1032)