St. Padre Pio
Today, September 23, we celebrate the feast of a modern-day saint, Padre Pio.
One
Stigmata
In Colossians 1:24 Paul wrote, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.”
Inspired by this verse, Padre Pio asked God to allow him to share in the suffering of Jesus and by this means to console the Sacred Heart of Jesus and help Jesus save souls.
In 1918, Jesus granted his desire, giving Padre Pio the Stigmata. The five wounds of Jesus appeared in the body of Padre Pio in his feet, hands, and side. This lasted for fifty years, miraculously healing right before Pio’s death in 1968.
The wounds of Christ were very painful. Still, Padre Pio remained patient in his long-suffering. Patience is to endure suffering cheerfully. Pio also retained his sense of humor throughout his suffering. Once, when a woman asked Padre Pio if the bloody wounds of the stigmata hurt, he asked her, with a smile, if she thought the good Lord gave him these as a decoration.
Padre Pio said, “Jesus himself wants my sufferings; He needs them for souls.”
Do we accept and offer our sufferings to Jesus to console his Sacred Heart and help him save souls or do we waste them by complaining, becoming more self-absorbed, or wishing them away?
Two
Bilocation
Padre Pio had the supernatural gift of Bi-location. God enabled him to be in two places at once. He could be in the Monastery in Italy, surrounded by eye-witnesses, and at the same time somewhere else, with eye-witnesses confirming his presence there.
For instance - Italy began WWII on the side of Germany. The Allied forces conducted many bombing raids across Italy at this time. Allied intelligence reported German munitions near San Giovanni Rotondo, the town in which stood the monastery of St. Padre Pio. However, at the beginning of the war, Padre Pio reassured the people that no bomb would touch their small city. True to his word, Padre Pio reportedly went out of his way to make this happen.
At one point an American pilot was just about to drop a payload of bombs on the village when, suddenly, the pilot saw in front of his plane, thousands of feet in the air, a Franciscan monk gesturing with his arms and hands for the plane to turn back. The shocked pilot did just that and jettisoned his bombs elsewhere. When he returned to the base and told his story, his commanding officer put him in a hospital under observation for mission fatigue. The pilot couldn’t get the monk out of his mind and after the war he made inquiries to find this monk. Providence led him to Pio’s monastery where he met the “flying monk”, Padre Pio. When the pilot revealed the date of the occurrence – all the monks could verify two things – Pio cannot fly without a plane, and he was in the monastery the entire day.
Three
Padre Pio had the ability to read souls.
Most of the priestly ministry of Padre Pio was spent in the confessional, averaging about 15 hours a day, hearing up to 40,000 confessions a year! This heavy traffic was due to his ability to read souls to help people make a better confession, without holding anything back.
To one woman who had buried in her soul a sin from many years before, Padre Pio said, “I hear someone crying, don’t you hear someone crying?” “No” the woman said. And he replied, “the cry is from the child you aborted many years ago.” Sobbing, the woman confessed, was forgiven and left the confessional completely free of her guilt, at peace with God and at peace with herself.
Pio’s mystical gifts also drew people who came for the wrong reasons. Some went to confession merely out of curiosity. To these Pio would yell, “Basta, enough, leave and come back when you are ready to make a good confession.” He was not afraid to be stern and tough. To any priest who questioned his methods, he responded by saying, “I do not give candy to sinners who need a laxative.”
Honestly, I don’t want a confessor who can read my soul. But I am sure I am not aware of so many of my vices and habitual sins because I can be lazy about my daily examination of conscience: to understand the supernatural truth and love God for this truth, then apply that truth to my life.
Am I living this or not? If I am not living this, then what habitual or root vice(s) are preventing me? Pride, vanity, envy, sloth, anger, greed, gluttony, lust, etc. What occasions of sin, what circumstances prompt me to fall into this vice or sin?
It is essential to learn two things by the double reflection on the Word of God and one’s life: to learn about God and to learn about oneself!
Four
Maybe the most famous words of Padre Pio are, “Pray, hope, and do not worry!”
Worry is the fear something bad will happen.
What specifically are you worried about? Once you identify it, then ask yourself: Can I do anything about this? If yes, then do it and do not procrastinate. So much worry comes from procrastination. If the thing you are worried about is not your responsibility or it is beyond your control or authority or you have done all you can. Then it falls under God’s authority. So, stop trying to be God with your worry and leave it to Him.
Do what you can and then leave the rest to God. Surrender it to him, because God works all things for the greatest good.
Put your trust and hope in God.
That is why Pio said, “pray, hope, and do not worry.”
Five
Rosary
Padre Pio used to permanently carry a Rosary in his hands and would pray it many times a day.
To one person he said, "When you get tired reciting the Rosary, rest a bit, and then restart again."
One night at 9:00 PM, Pio said to Father Carmelo, "I still have two rosaries to pray today. I said only thirty-four so far. Then I will go to bed."
Answering a question, he said, "Some days I say fourty Rosaries, some other days fifty. How do I do it? How do you manage to not say any?"
Holding the Rosary, Padre Pio would say with conviction, "With this, one wins the battles."
“Satan wants to destroy this prayer, but in this, he will never succeed. The Rosary is the prayer of those who triumph over everything and everyone.”
Padre Pio is important for our so-called enlightened age that thinks there is no God, no soul, and no spiritual world. In Padre Pio God puts the spiritual world on full display for the whole world to see.
His stigmata, bi-location, ability to read souls, miraculous healings, and so on were supernatural signs that can only be explained by the existence of God. They bear witness to the truth that Jesus is real and that the Eucharist, Mary, the Saints, and all the Catholic stuff are all true.