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Reflections on the
Rosary
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withMary |
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in theRose Garden |
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Editor’s note: These reflections come to you as so many blossoming roses under the feet of Mary Most Holy from the hand of a Consecrated and Cloistered Nun. She has written at our request for the readers of the Boston Catholic Journal. |
We
are surrounded by wars
and rumors of wars, unrest everywhere ... man's heart grows cold
...
We are appalled at the loss of so much young life in Afghanistan,
Iraq and other places ... and the menacing presence of war lashes
out daily, cutting deep wounds into our lives.
But far greater still, far more dangerous and evil, is the
invisible war, the conflicts raging between good and evil.
We are amidst the greatest battle of all times ...
We need to take up, with the heroism born of faith, the weapons
of the Spirit, of God’s Word and the Holy Rosary. Do not be deceived:
it is not power, still less our own vaunted cleverness or self-imputed
sanctity, by which victory over evil — that pernicious and personified
malice will be achieved ... but by love, by that invincible power
that Dante, in concluding his great journey through Hell, Purgatory
and Paradise in the Divine Comedy calls “the power that moves
the sun and every star.”
And never forget Mary’s promise, “In the end my Immaculate
Heart will triumph.”
The Rose is not only the most beautiful of flowers because it is
symbolic of love, it is also a weapon, a barbed weapon with thorns
... so is our Rosary ...
This month is a call anew to us all to pray the Rosary even if it
is one single decade ... pray, pray, pray.
With Love,
a Cloistered and Consecrated Nun
This is the month of the
Rosary, it is the month
when the Church asks us, invites us, to reflect upon the Rosary,
The Rosary is also called a gospel of life.
A good and pertinent question to ask oneself is, “Have I prayed
the Gospel today?”
The liturgy of the hours main corpus is the Psalter, the 150 psalms
which are recited over a period of 4 weeks.
The Rosary is also called The Psalter of Mary because of
the 150 Hail Mary's within the mysteries.
It can be a struggle at times to pray the Rosary, prayer is after
all a movement of the Spirit, a and at different times in our life
we may be moved in different ways.
If we find it difficult we need to discern in prayer, WHY? Maybe
God wants us to listen? Perhaps we have to accept our inner poverty?
Maybe it is inertia or sloth?
Whatever it is let us pray for the grace to respond with great love
this month to MARY, and give her at least a daily Rose of love,
from our our heart.
With Love ... a Consecrated Nun
The Biblical Psalter
(collection of the psalms in the Bible) is made up of praises, laments,
songs of struggle, pain and trust in God! But so are the prayers
of Mary's Psalter, The Rosary!
In the various mysteries you will find too all the joys, and sorrows
that the human heart can carry and thereby one can indentify with
the mysteries.
Prayer must above all give honour and glory to God but it must also
be realistic and embrace the whole of the human existence: both
the Biblical Psalter and Mary’s Psalter do this!
In the same way that we can adapt the praying of hours to be prayed
within our particular life situation, so we can with the Rosary
...
One mystery a day — if time is such that we cannot apply more —
suffices, after all, given the responsibilities willed by God in
our state in life we can often only read one page of the Holy Gospel
at a time.
May Mary be close to you
during this month of the Rosary ...
Like the Liturgy of the
Hours (Christian
Prayer) The Psalter of Our Lady (The Rosary) has, as the
Psalms do in the Office its own doxology at the end of each
decade. The Glory be ...
The Rosary is the Psalter of the Poor, it is within
everyone's grasp for those who cannot afford to buy books, or for
those who for one reason or another cannot read and focus upon written
texts.
See how God provides for everyone!
But it is a picture book, and if we gaze within
its mysteries God will reveal the same truths ... for His truth
is unchanging!
The Rosary can be made out of the poorest and richest of materials
...
We could, for example, allot a Mystery to a different hour (as the
Office) and consecrate the day to Mary through this great
and beautiful prayer.
There can be many reasons why a person has at a given time an inability
to pray: it maybe suffering or tragedy which takes them to silence
or near silence. At such times it is enough to hold onto the beads
recalling past offerings and simply whisper, “Jesus and Mary, I
love you!”
Mary
is the mystical Rose (mystical in the way of “hidden“),
she is the most beautiful flower of all creation!
Look at these Roses, each one is an individual, has an individual
life to bloom, and they blossom for their Creator.
Look at your Rosary; each bead is a precious Rose, each Hail Mary
whispers to Mary and Jesus “I love you” ...
There is something tender and beautiful in a soul that can perceive
and understand what a treasured gift each prayer, each rose, each
bead is to Mary when offered with love.
Roses need care and attention, and so do our prayers.
They need light, and so do our prayers need to be in His light and
according to His will.
Let us thank God in this month of the Rosary for all the graces
we have received through the Hail Mary!
As Mary took the words of
God, the “Rose” of His
heart to hers, His mind and words, pondering upon them ... so may
we take each bead, each rose of our Rosary, the Hail Mary,
to our hearts and gaze within, ponder, and contemplate deeply the
inner petals of its meaning, drinking its nectar and so come closer
to Him. Behold-Hold and Enfold.
When the Holy Spirit calls
us to reflect upon Mary's
Psalter, the Rosary, He calls us both into the desert and into the
Rose garden!
The desert is a place or aridity and struggle and yet, when the
wind blows, and the sands move we will hear God's voice within the
silence and seeming emptiness.
Both are needful, both have their rightful place ... the Desert
and the Rose garden.
God walks in every garden because He is beauty!
And His Spirit hovers over every desert!
Yes we are called into the Rose Garden, a place of prayer, and each
rose, each Hail Mary, is unique: the way we pray today will not
be the way we pray tomorrow ... a rose is living, it is growing
... and it is the same with our prayers upon our beads, for each
Hail
Mary bead is alive ... we need to feed and love the rose with our
presence ... If we pass the roses with haste we will not see their
beauty, we will not smell their perfume — but if we gaze on them
with attention they will yield life ... and so with each rose of
our Psalter, Mary’s Rosary ...
Through each rose, may she draw your heart ever more Heavenwards
...
Through the
Rose Garden (Mary's Psalter, The Rosary) flows a river,
a river of grace ...“Hail Mary FULL of grace ... “
This beautiful gift of God makes all things bearable, all things
possible to us, for as St Paul tells us, “Thy
grace is enough for me“.
Grace is to our souls what the rain and the sun are to the Rose
... LIFE!
Mary has grace in her hands for the asking ...
Our Rosary is a source of grace when we focus with love upon the
mysteries of the Holy Gospel, in the company of Mary and the Holy
Spirit.
The prayer at the bottom of this meditation is a grace, a gift that
came to us on the
prayerline, and it shows a great
trust and hope in our Mother's intercession.
Sometimes
the only prayer we can utter is to press the Rose to our hearts,
it is a prayer of great trust to take our rose, our Psalter (Our
Rosary) and simply press it to our hearts and to have the confidence
to know that God hears every unspoken whisper and knows all we carry
within us ... God will understand this gesture, and Mary as a good
Mother will accept our little offering.
We can at times know great poverty in prayer,
that is the time simply to surrender to the silence ... hold our
Rosary to our heart and believe that the Lord will return! Our trustful
silence is as valuable to God as a thousand prayers.
The Immaculata
... let us submerge ourselves within her Immaculate Heart, for as
she has promised that her heart will triumph over all things in
the end.
Our Mother is listening, each rose we offer, each prayer we say,
she can use them all for her Son's Glory!
She hears everything, all that we say and all that is unsaid ...
she hears the petals open ... the smallest movement of our hearts
is known to her ...
Mary, our Mystical Rose ... whose beauty is beyond compare ...
How her heart must fill with joy when we pray on our beads, for
she knows then that we have listened to her invitation to pray and
do penance.
As we walk and pray
through the Rose Garden of Mary, her Rosary (Psalter), we all have
a favourite Rose ... a Rose whose scent always draws us to itself
... somehow we linger in that part of the garden ... waiting for
the rose to speak ... It is a specific decade which seems to exude
a love and a presence ... but if it were not surrounded by other
roses, equally beautiful but different, we would not appreciate
our rose ... the one which carries a special message to us
from Mary.
Sometimes we can look at the garden as a whole ... but its beauty
is overwhelming and we hear and learn more if we gaze on the one
rose ...
But God gave us an entire garden not a simply a single Rose,
so let us explore and wander through every nook and corner exploring
all the roses ... for each tells us something special and
unique about God's love for us. It is a bouquet being gathered and
growing in beauty.
Mystical Rose ... pray
for us ...
Sometimes
although we traverse the garden, and gaze behind every tree, shrub
and plant, we see and hear her not! But Mary is always in her Garden,
she is always within the incense of prayer rising to Heaven ...
she stands behind us, embracing us, loving us, pointing us to her
Son ... trust her and trust to the power of your Rosary, for there
is no greater weapon than love ...
Everything that is possessed
of life has a centre, has
a heart ... a source that gives life and flesh to the whole.
And the Rose Garden, the Psalter, the Rosary, has the most beautiful
heart of all ...
At the very centre exuding life into all the other Roses is HER
IMMACULATE HEART ... gaze long into this Pure White Rose and you
will touch Heaven.
In the Immaculate, Pure, totally Holy and whole heart of Mary, we
can only glimpse her true beauty, as in a mirror darkly ...
Without a heart, without a centre, anything living will die ...
without love our Rosary, our prayers will fail. Everything depends
upon love ...
Cherish this simple and seemingly powerless object, your beads,
and realise that it has more power, more effect than any weapon
man ever has or ever will create, because it is created and sustained
by love!
Cherish the Rose, cherish Mary ...
And trust — for in the end HER Immaculate Heart will
triumph!
O
Mary,
My Queen, My Mother, call me into the great Rose garden of Heaven,
call me and all who dwell within me into the Paradise of God!
My Rosary is but a mirror dim, of what I will yet know of joy, a
foretaste of union, a communion of hearts.
Oh! Mary I so trust to you, to your love, and to your prayers that
I KNOW at the last it is YOU who will bring me to my GOD, it is
You who will take me by the hand beyond the confines of this world
and place me into the Eternal Rose of His Heart ...
Mystical Rose.. may the sweet perfume of grace accompany me through
this vale of tears and keep my eyes ever set upon that Rose which
has no beginning and no end, and that Rose is Love ... which simply
is ... HIS GREAT AND ETERNAL HEART!
Call me Mary, take me to
the Rose Garden!
Consider
the beauty of the Rose, consider the beauty, the unique beauty of
every Hail Mary ever uttered!
Contemplate and dwell within the Rose Garden of prayer ... there
will be moments ... glimpses of the eternal that will overwhelm
and overpower you! That is the perfume of Holiness and grace calling
you onwards and upwards!
Oh! consider my heart if this is the beauty I can know here ...
what of the Rose Garden of Heaven, the flowering of all that ever
has been, is, or ever shall be ... ?
Mary, Mystical Rose to you I trust, I trust at last you will bring
me to the Heart of the Rose ... to God, My God, the Lord of all
beauty and Praise.
Come Holy Spirit,
wind and breath of God, Come! and blow through the Rose garden,
that the seeds of the Roses may be scattered and give life to souls!
Each Hail Mary is a praise, a blessing, a gift of love, Oh Holy
Spirit scatter our prayers over those souls who are shriveled and
dying through sin; bring them to life, here and in Your Eternal
Rose Garden!
Mystical Rose, Mary, vessel, soil of the Spirit, pray for us as
you walk through the Rose Gardens of this world, and bring us at
last to the Paradise Jesus promised to us upon the Cross!
Sing a love song
in the Rose Garden, hold the Rose
... and sing! Let your voice rise high upon the wind ...
Pray your beads, your Psalter, and sing! can there be anything more
beautiful that HER NAME sung in love?
MARIA — MARY!
The month of the Rosary is passing, but the Rose Garden will remain
forever ...
We are drawing close to the Month of the Holy Souls ... the month
when we remember and pray for the dead ...
IF YOU PRAY DEEPLY, with simplicity and love you will find them
ALL in the Rose Garden ... each and every soul!
[On Memorial Day]
The Mother of All Beauty
and Compassion walks the Rose Garden. Many red and white roses are
at her feet ... she cares and loves each one ...
Those fallen in battle are hers ... they now know peace in her Garden.
The Rose Garden is also a garden of remembrance ... as you finger
your beads and pray.
Remember too the Soldiers who lie in the garden and their families
...
All are hers ... for God..
There comes a time
for harvesting, a time for giving ... a giving of the fullness of
love that has grown within us in the Spirit! Gather roses from the
Rose Garden, from your Rosary and intertwine them into a wreath
of praise and thanksgiving ...
Offer your bouquet for those who are bereaved, for those whose loved
ones have died ...
Especially for those who fell in their youth, in the flower of their
adulthood ...
They have been called beyond this world to peace ... offer a rose
of remembrance to those who loved them and yet remain ...
Our Lady of Victories pray for us, pray for them ... because
in the end if we, they, have sought the good, there is always victory
in God.
The month of the Holy Souls is almost here ... how many,
many silent roses lay upon the ground ... they say ... “I love you”.
“My Beloved is a Garden
enclosed”...
There is grace and life
in the garden — even the
dead are not dead at all, but alive to Him! As we ponder, as we
Behold, Hold and Enfold all the roses that delight our eyes in the
garden, we are conscious of life! The walls of the garden are covered
with a multitude of miniature roses, each one known to God ... they
are the souls of the unborn, those who never saw the
light of our day but who see the light of eternity ... all belong
to God, for in God's Rose Garden there is a place for all.
Mary has breathed over every one, for she is Mother of all Life!
Let us pray in the Garden today for all who died in the womb, whether
from natural causes or mans' sin ...
Remember that from this Garden, from the womb of the tomb, Christ
arose to life!
WINTER IN THE ROSE GARDEN
Winter is upon
us all ... cold winter,
and much of the land covered with snow or hard, hard frost ... and
I have been thinking of Mary's Rose Garden ... Beneath the snow,
beneath the frosted ground ... is life! Life
just waiting, biding its time to spring up ... To all appearances
everything looks dead. Not so, not so!
Oh! how this, too, can be with prayer, with our Rose Garden, our
Rosary ... but no ... beneath the surface the Spirit is breathing
and alive! At times it can seem that our attempts to pray are like
winter ... and prayer does have its seasons ... but
beneath. there is
LIFE, because the seed, the kernel of the prayer, the Rose prayer
is the DIVINE WORD ... it is the prayer of the Gospel ... and Christ
promised that all things will pass but that HIS WORD will endure
forever ...
Looking to Spring in the
Rose Garden
In the rose garden
all is still, all is covered
in a blanket of snow ...
The snow and cold draw us deeply into the present moment and it
is hard to realise that all this will pass ... the hard barren-looking
wood of the rose stock sticks out of the ground at angles ...
But we know from experience that, come the spring, the rosewood
will put forth bud and shoot; that life is hidden in this present
moment, within ... we must wait on God's time and season
for the Rose to reveal its life ...
Prayer is like the seasons, there is the barren landscape, the new
life of spring, the summer of joy, and the autumn of dying, it is
a cycle of life ... just as we observe in nature.
We never doubt that Spring will come! In faith let us also trust
and believe that that which we experience at the moment as dead
or dying, is that from which God can draw new life.
Hold your Rosary beads and even if they appear to say nothing, they
will remind you of seasons of prayer that have passed and will yet
come again ... keep close to Mary and all will be well.
Dear Little Hearts,
I am sure
that we are all pained and challenged by all the media reports of
abuse by priests and prelates within the Church, it is a great wound
…for the scandal it is giving to the “little ones“ of God —let us
offer to Jesus acts of loving reparation.
I think it will be praiseworthy and profitable to focus upon the
words and examples of priests that have led courageous, heroic,
sacrificial lives for the Gospel.
The first one that I have chosen is Saint Padre Pio, a priest who
suffered so much, but fruitfully, for all was borne for the love
of his Lord and for souls!
He spent long, long hours in the confessional.. sin, to (Saint
Padre Pio)was never anything less than the ugliness and deformity
of sin and because it led to alienation from God, and even separation
from God, he was uncompromising in his encounter with it, for nothing
less than an immortal soul was at stake!
Pray to him for the young seminarians who are being taught how to
hear confessions, and the value and beauty of Indulgences.
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“Jesus is never without the Cross, but the Cross
is never without Jesus”
Jesus, “a man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief” ...
Suffering love
made Jesus beautiful, suffering borne that others might have life
in abundance There is nothing that we can ever experience that Jesus,
the God-man did not suffer before us.
(This short and succinct line from Brother Pio is so powerful, and
we can easily lose sight of this simple fact that the Cross is never
without Jesus, when suffering, contradiction and all manner of pain
are present in our life ... let us remember, so is Jesus!)
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“The
most beautiful Credo is
the one that bursts forth from your lips in the dark, as a sacrifice,
as pain, as a supreme effort of an infallible will to do right:
it is that which, like a flash of lightening, dispels the gloom
of your soul, it is that, which during the fury of the storm, raises
you, and leads you to God”
The heart of a Sister,
a Consecrated Nun replies:
What we deem of value,
and what God deems of value can be very different, we can be tempted
to think that when life shines on us and when things go well, that
when we have feelings of closeness to God, He is near and we are
pleasing to him. The reality is something else, He is closest
to us in darkness and suffering, for then in our utter poverty
we only have ourselves to offer Him. Our naked inner self as we
truly are.
Yes, how beautiful the Credo whispered in the dark. Brother Pio
was well acquainted with trial and darkness, but he lived out totally
that filial trust in his Father. To be faithful in darkness is a
proof of our love.
Dear Little Hearts,
May
(Saint Padre Pio) bless you this day, may his wounded hands bring
your wounded hearts the present of Jesus Christ.
With love
From the Heart of
A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint Padre Pio)
“Let us remember that the Heart of Jesus has called us, not only
for our own sanctification, but also for that of other souls. He
wishes to be helped in saving souls”
The heart of a Sister, a
Consecrated Nun replies:
How noble,
how great is our Christian calling, that God should invite
us to be Co-workers with Christ, and that is what we should be.
In sickness, pain, and suffering, in health, prosperity and joy.
Co-workers, we must co-operate with God's will and plan. No matter
how limited our lives may be through objective opportunities or
disabilities, God wants us to work with Him, for souls.
No one should ever regard themselves as useless, or of no importance;
the weakest and most frail among us have such opportunities
to unite out own fragility to Christ, and pray for souls, for their
sanctification and transformation. One of Padre Pio's charismas
was
the ability to make the sick and feeble feel they were of value,
and that their state could benefit the Kingdom.
He himself knew what it was to be weak and laid low ...
So lets pray and see what God would have us give to Him for souls!
Dear Little Hearts,
Bless you!
Brother Pio’s book of life
was the Crucifix ... he
gazed upon Jesus until his whole being was transformed, transfigured
into Christ ... let us too, read “the “book of the Cross“.
A Blessed grace filled day to you all
From the
Heart of A Priest: Thoughts
of Brother Pio (Saint Padre
Pio)
“The life of a Christian is nothing but a perpetual struggle
against self; there is no flowering of the soul to the beauty of
its perfection except at the price of pain.“
The heart of a Sister, a Consecrated Nun replies:
We all know from experience that this statement
of (Saint Padre Pio)is so true. Our whole Christian
journey is a journey from our will into that of God's. We
think that we know what is best for us and we try to seize it, but
the God who loves, allows us to see by his grace that the better
way ... is HIS.
We are born self orientated, self-centred, and the pilgrimage is
to grow, to leave self behind and seek the other, seek God, and
the welfare of his children.
We will “die“ many times before we die; the process is painful,
but nothing can replace the deep peace we come to know when we are
living in His sweet will.
Dear Little Hearts,
This great Saint of our times can teach us so much, and above all
the value and place of suffering in our lives.
May he bless you and bring you peace this day ... make a supreme
act of trust and repeat his words often during the day, “Pray, Hope
and don't worry“
With love.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother
Pio (Saint Padre Pio)
“Prayer is the oxygen of the soul.”
The heart of a Sister, a Consecrated Nun replies:
We need oxygen to breathe, man cannot live without oxygen, without
air. Our bodies, brains and all our vital organs need oxygen ...
without it our bodies would soon become toxic, diminish and die.
That is how important oxygen is to human existence!
Neither can we be fully alive without prayer, there is a whole dimension
that is atrophied, withering and dying within when our souls are
not fed by prayer.
In prayer we in-breathe the very Spirit of God, this Presence, life
force gives us life, strength for all the challenges that life brings.
Man can breathe best when he is at peace, one with his God and one
within himself, the more he prays, the more he will feel his heart
expand and know himself to be fully alive!
Dear Little Hearts,
Brother Pio was said to be able to read hearts and it is indeed
well recorded the occasions when he read all that was within another,
if Padre Pio could do this, what of God himself?
“Who searches and knows me“
Bless you all ... with love
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother
Pio (Saint Padre Pio)
Pray, hope, and don't worry. Worry is useless. God is merciful and
will hear your prayer.“
“Prayer is the best weapon we have; it is the key to God's heart.
You must speak to Jesus not only with your lips, but with your heart.
In fact on certain occasions you should only speak to Him with your
heart.“
The heart of a Sister, a Consecrated Nun
replies
Yes, worry is useless, it hinders the work of the Holy Spirit, because
worry can be an all embracing factor that excludes all other lights.
We know from experience that it achieves nothing, and yet when we
find ourselves in a problematic situation it is so hard to put into
practise and not worry.
It is, after all, a matter of trust because as the good Padre says,
“God is merciful and will hear our prayer“... He knows every struggle,
every thought, every fear we carry.
Is this not what God really desires when we are suffering and in
pain, not that we cry within and get swallowed up in our sorrows,
but that we give Him our hearts, we give Him our true, authentic
self ... and that is to LOVE.
Dear Little Hearts,
Whatever trial you may be living under at this
time, through Brother Pio's prayers may you receive an angel of
consolation who will give you hope to go on ...
With love ...
“The longer the trial to which God subjects you, the greater the goodness in comforting you during the time of the trial and in the exaltation after the combat.”
The heart of a Sister, a Consecrated Nun replies:
God has promised us that we will never be tried, beyond our strength, in trial and suffering His grace is always there. Into all our Gethsemane’s, God will send an angel of consolation, an angel of comfort. Its all a path of trust, often what we can grasp with our minds, our hearts are slow to assent to, but if we keep focusing upon God, claiming His victory, ultimately the truth will be alive to us as a conviction in our hearts that nothing and no one can take away from us.
Dear Little Hearts,
At times we all find ourselves in situations where we are overwhelmed
with problems and difficulties and fears in our lives. At such times
we are invited to make acts of pure faith and trust ... We are not
alone ... and surely it is the Holy Spirit himself that gave man
an understanding of the value and power of novena prayers?
The Novena of Padre Pio, is really The Novena of
the Sacred Heart, and is a very efficacious prayer because of
its very invitation to trust and because it is for the most part,
Scriptural, it is showing us what God has promised us if we will
but cling to Him.
In actual fact this novena was long popular in the Franciscan Order
long before Padre Pio.
But combined with his intercession we have a wonderful prayer for
help ... and our angel of consolation will come too as we pray this
Novena.
Please take note that the main parts of the novena are short passages
from;
1. Saint Matthew 7 verses 7+
2. Saint John 14. verses 13 +
3. Saint Matthew 24. verses 35 +
See below for the Novena
in full
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint Padre Pio)
“Pray, Hope and Don’t worry”
The Novena
+
In
the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Amen.
O my Jesus,
you have said: “Truly I say to you, ask and
it will be given you, seek and you will find, knock, and it will
be opened to you.”
Behold, I knock, I seek and ask for the grace of ... (Here state
your petition.)
Our
Father ...
Hail
Mary ...
Glory
be to the Father ...
Sacred
Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.
O my Jesus, you have said: “Truly I say to
you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, He will give
it to you.”
Behold, in your name, I ask the Father for the grace of ... (Here
state your petition.)
Our
Father ...
Hail
Mary ...
Glory
be to the Father ...
Sacred
Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.
O my Jesus, you have said: “Truly I say to
you, Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass
away.”
Encouraged by your infallible words, I now ask for the grace of
... (Here state your petition.)
Our
Father ...
Hail
Mary ...
Glory
be to the Father ...
Sacred
Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.
O, Sacred Heart of Jesus, for whom it is impossible not to have
compassion on the afflicted, have pity on us miserable sinners,
and grant us the grace which we ask of you, through the sorrowful
and Immaculate Heart of Mary, your tender mother and ours.
Hail Holy Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness,
our hope.
To you do we cry, poor banished children of Eve.
To you do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley
of tears.
Turn then, most gracious advocate, your eyes of mercy toward us,
and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of your
thy womb, Jesus.
O clement! O loving! O sweet Virgin Mary!
Pray for us, holy Mother of God, That we may be made worthy of the
promises of Christ. Amen.
St. Joseph, foster father of Jesus, pray for us.
Dear Little Hearts,
In this extract from Brother Pio's writings the flames of purgatory
are to be seen as the purifying love — Divine love that the soul
must pass through before it enters Heaven. Padre Pio offered himself
as priest to God for so many; his whole vocation was redemptive
through suffering, and we too are called to be co-workers with the
master.
With love ... May Saint Pio bless you this day.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother
Pio (Saint Padre Pio)
“I have made a pact with the Lord: when my soul has been purified
in the flames of purgatory and deemed worthy to be admitted to the
presence of God, I will take my place at the gate to paradise, but
I shall not enter until I have seen the last of my spiritual children
enter.” ... (from a letter to spiritual daughter Antonietta Pompilio)
The heart of a Sister, a Consecrated Nun replies:
There is such love and selflessness in this text, that despite the
fact Padre Pio yearned to be united with Jesus in Heaven, he thought
not of himself but of souls. He regarded all those in his care as
his children and like a good father would see them attain joy and
safety before he himself would enter beyond the door of Heaven ...
Dear Little Hearts,
Who can say how far reaching are the Blessings given from Fatherhood
— not only the Fatherhood of a priest, but from the hearts of all
loving fathers?
How beautiful this is ... that somewhere, even now, out there, there
ARE priests who bless us, who labour for the salvation of souls.
A blessing is the greatest gift we can bestow upon another, for
it draws down Gods grace and love, no matter how unworthy we may
be.
In the stillness of the night, remember Brother Pio's blessing.
With love.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“I have often raised my hand in the silence of the night and in
my solitary cell, blessing you all and presenting you to Jesus and
to our father, St. Francis of Assisi.”
The heart of a Sister, a Consecrated Nun replies:
Oh! sweet gift, sweet gift that presents us to Jesus ... and to
Saint Francis, the most Christ-like of Saints ... Francis who also
bore the wounds of the Stigmata.
Kiss the wounded hands of Jesus and give thanks for these saints
who watch over us, guide us, bless us ... and try by their example
to lead us along the path of holiness.
Dear Little Hearts,
A Blessed Sunday to you all ... Yes, our God is a God of transformation!
This short extract from the writings of Padre Pio is very profound
and very true. That which we surrender to God, that which we let
go of and allow God to be God ... He changes to good. We can never
trust Him enough.
May Brother Pio bless you and through his prayers may you receive
the grace that you know, deep within you, you need this day.
With Love
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“The God of Christians is the God of metamorphosis; you throw your
sufferings into his bosom and you draw out peace; you throw in despair
and you see hope coming to the surface.”
The heart of a Sister, a Consecrated Nun replies:
Consider the Butterfly, or at least consider the many changes and
transformations it passes through before it becomes, beautiful,
independent and free! It is precisely for this reason that it is
a symbol of the Resurrection. We too will pass through many stages,
many transformations ... but if you find it challenging, and at
times painful, remember the Butterfly ...
Dear Little Hearts,
Yes, TIME is a precious gift, one which we often squander, wile
away or use badly ... life is passing, time is passing ... and all
the more reason to realise that we must use the time left to us
well, for His Kingdom, for His glory.
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“Oh how precious time is! Blessed are those who know how to make
good use of it, because, on the day of judgment, all will have to
render a strict account of it to the supreme Judge. Oh, if only
all could understand how precious time is, undoubtedly everyone
would do his best to spend it in a praiseworthy manner!”
The heart of a Sister,
a Consecrated Nun replies:
Time is one of the most precious gifts that we can give to another,
to be present to them. It is also the area in which we can most
practise our spiritual poverty, that emptying out of self ... for
we all want time for ourselves! But so often the need of
another will demand us to respond to them and their
needs. Initially we may be put out or annoyed, but when we have
overcome self, died to self, and served the cause of good in and
for our neighbour we know we have made the right choice.
With love ... ...
Dear Little Hearts,
We are often inclined to think of Padre Pio as being somewhat severe,
and indeed he was unsparing with sinners who tried to conceal truth
from him in the confessional, and he could be a bit brusque with
self-adulators. Saints are not just all sweet and nice, they are
those souls who struggle valiantly to allow God to live totally
within them and to do His will as perfectly as they can here on
earth.
Padre Pio smiled plenty of times and he was fond of pranks and jokes!
A good Franciscan!
May Saint Pio smile on you today ...
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Padre, you are so good!“ “I am not good, only Jesus is good. I
don't know how this habit of St. Francis that I wear does not run
away from me! The worst delinquent on earth is golden compared to
me.“
The heart of a Sister, a Consecrated Nun replies:
Padre Pio did not want the adulation of men, he was not interested
in flattery but wanted rather that man saw beyond the instrument
to the Creator. St Francis's constant prayer and cry was, “You are
Good all good, the only good ..“ How clearly he saw that ...
One of the hallmarks of Franciscan spirituality is its focus and
emphasis on the goodness of God. It is an expression of true humility.
Padre Pio knew well that all he had was not of his own merit but
by the goodness and love of God.
Like Brother Pio, let us not be afraid to laugh at ourselves ...
we are all delinquents in one way or another!
Dear Little Hearts,
One thing is certain Padre Pio knew the human heart and its struggles,
he could “read hearts“, this is both a gift of the Holy Spirit and
that which comes from having a loving exposure and mutual exchange
with others.
We should smile at ourselves at times. If we feel uncomfortable
under the scrutiny of such a saint, what of God Himself, from Whom
no secrets are hid? May Brother Pio bless you this day and take
your petitions and intentions tot he throne of God.
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“Do not fear adversities because they place the soul at the foot
of the Cross and the Cross places it at the gates of Heaven, where
it will find Him Who triumphed over death and will introduce it
to eternal life.”
The heart of a Sister,
a Consecrated Nun replies:
This is so simply put, but well worth remembering, that God's plan
is that all the adversity we encounter in this life is actually
an invitation to stand at the foot of the Cross where we will see
clearly if we gaze upon the Lord, the true meaning and value of
our existence, and that death is not the end. At the foot of the
Cross we will know that souls are bought at a great price, and when
we unite our sufferings to Christ we are co-workers with Him.
Dear Little Hearts,
Bless you all! Brother Pio is saying here that we will attain Heaven,
precisely by walking along the path that we know God has called
us to, and through ... What His will is, is our surest and safest
path, even if it be through barren deserts, rough terrain, or sun-kissed
meadows, God knows that which is best for us, that which will make
us most like unto Him. In His will is our peace ... May you know
peace in your own heart and life through the prayers of Saint Pio,
no matter what the external circumstances are.
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“Why should you worry if Jesus wants to make you reach the Heavenly
homeland through deserts or fields, when we get to blessed eternity
anyway either by one or the other? Cast aside all excessive preoccupations
that derive from the trials the good God sends you; and if this
is not possible, do not think about it and be resigned in everything
to the divine will.”
The heart of a Sister,
a Consecrated Nun replies:
Excessive preoccupation and worry, occludes the light, our vision
becomes ever more self-orientated and self-focused. It achieves
nothing apart from making us more and more tense. Surrender your
burden over and over and over again into the tender hands of Jesus.
Dear Little Hearts,
Through the prayers of (Saint Padre Pio) may you, too, grow
and know ever more deeply Mary’s tender love and care ...
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Beautiful Mother, dear Mother, you are so beautiful. If it weren’t
for faith, men would make you a goddess. Your eyes shine brighter
than the sun; you are beautiful, Mother I glory in it, for I love
you. Please! help me!”
The heart of a Sister, a Consecrated Nun replies:
The strength of a priest is in his holy anointing, in his being
set apart; his strength is in his consecration to Christ ... a priest
needs on-going support, he needs love ... Mary always reaches out
to her priests, they are her sons ... and she awaits a reply.
A priest dedicated to Mary always possesses an additional dimension
to his priesthood ... for she is the gentle nurturing presence in
his life.
Everything that applies to the priest, applies to each one of us
... we need Mary ... we need a Mother.
See how much tender trust Brother Pio had in Mary! We could not
do better.
Dear Little Hearts,
Bless you! The home, the community that God has placed you in, is
your unique path to holiness. It is the ground where you will be
pruned and nurtured by God to become holy, if you will but say “YES!“
There is no need to travel to the ends of the earth, or wish to
be a martyr on foreign soil, no! ... the place of our sanctification
is precisely where God has placed us. In our family with all its
suffering and dysfunction ...
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“The principal self-denial takes place in the home.”
The heart of a Sister: a Consecrated Nun replies:
How true this is. It is by the interaction of persons in the home,
the struggles to love, that we die most to our own will, selfishness
and pride.
How many times we have to say NO to ourselves that others may grow,
may share, may be ... may shine ... it is easier to enter into the
sorrows of others than their joys ... but these denials, these deaths
are all a preparation for our ultimate death to this world ...
Dear Little Hearts,
We now enter into this great week of FIRE, the fire of suffering
and love.
Few of us will ever be called upon to be stigmatists, but all of
us will receive mystical wounds if we are sincerely struggling,
trying, to do the Sweet will of our Saviour. There is no love without
suffering, but it is what we do with the suffering that matters
... for bearing our suffering, for not being scandalised by Him,
we show forth the beauty or weakness of our love.
Let us press our wounds to His and pray for souls, pray for the
Church, pray for our Pope ...
May (Saint Padre Pio) bless us and pray for us to surrender
all to Jesus as he did.
A blessed, prayerful Palm
Sunday ...
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“The angels are jealous of us for one reason only; they are not
able to suffer for God. Only through suffering can a soul say with
certainty; “My God, You see I do love You!”
Dear Little Hearts,
A Blessed Holy Week ... the hardest prayer ever to
utter is, “THY WILL BE DONE“... it is never easy to surrender our
own will, our fears and trepidations, in the face of life's problems.
This was Christ’s journey in this Holy Week, to surrender His will
to the Father, and it is a path along which we will all be called.
But it is such a blessed, holy thing to say, “THY WILL BE DONE“,
it encloses great trust ...
In His will is our peace.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“The devil has only one door through which to enter into our soul:
the will. There are no secret doors. There is no sin, if it has
not been committed willfully. When the will does not consent, there
is no sin — only human weakness.”
The heart of a Sister, a Consecrated Nun replies:
The exercise of self will, especially when selfishly motivated is
a sure invitation to the evil one; when we go against the light
God offers to each of us and choose our own will and way ... we
can be sure that evil will come sneaking in ...
Dear Little Hearts,
A grace filled Tuesday of Holy Week! We would all like to have been
called to do “Great Things for God“, but for many of us our Christian
life is a calling to faithfulness to the little duties in our specific
state of life ... many hidden from the eyes of others, acts of love,
sacrifice and goodness, but totally known to God.
Often we can rise up to the great things, and in some ways they
already bring a reward by their appraisal by others — but the small
hidden things, they are the pearls of love.
May Padre Pio bless you this day and bring you a special grace,
a grace that will bring you closer to Jesus
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“Make a particular effort to practise sweetness and submission to
the will of God, not only in extraordinary matters, but even in
the little things that occur daily. Make these acts not only in
the morning, but also during the day and in the evening, with a
tranquil and joyful spirit. And if you should fail in this, humble
yourself, make a new resolution, get up and continue on your way.”
The heart of a Sister,
a Consecrated Nun replies:
We all fail, but let us not be discouraged, the way forward is to
dust ourselves off, stand up, say sorry, and move onwards!
Prayer of the Five Wounds
It is well recorded
that Saint Clare had a great devotion to the prayer of the five
wounds.
Indeed on her death bed she exhorted a sister to pray it.
Clare kept before her eyes and in her prayer the sufferings of the
Lord Jesus always. She knew his suffering and his victory. The mystery
of goodness and love is far greater than the mystery of evil.
We know that Clare wept over the Crucified.
We know that she talked to her sisters about the Crucified.
And we know that she carried her own sufferings in union with those
of Christ.
The prayer of the Five Wounds is only really possible if we have
a burning love for Jesus… otherwise it is but words.
In the prayer of the five wounds, each wound carries its own unique
message, if one prays and absorbs the spirit of the message of each
wound; it is a means of growing in love.
The Wound in the Left hand — prayer for Strength and Fortitude.
Let us pray for mercy and grace for those who accept their sins
and seek reconciliation. (Luke 23 v 40)
The wound in the Right hand — prayer for Forgiveness
Let us pray for forgiveness and conversion for all those who plunder
life, let us pray for all criminals. (Luke 23 v 39)
The wound in the left foot-prayer — prayer for Perseverance and
faithfulness to the end
Let us pray that our own spiritual motherhood in union with Mary
at the Foot of the Cross . (John 19 v 27)
The Wound in the right foot — prayer for Repentance
Pray for all those entrusted to us, that we take that and whom God
entrusts to us, to the home in our heart. (John 19 v 27)
The wound in the side of Christ — prayer for Faith, Hope and to
Love. With all my Heart, All my soul. All my strength
Gazing upon the pierced side, let us pray for the wounded Church,
that She becomes a New Community, giving birth to children of God,
and also that new life is given to me and my community (John 19.27)
With each wound we can be united with Our Mother Clare, in silent
tears, in our speech, and all with a burning love.
Dear Little Hearts,
A grace filled Wednesday of Holy Week! Today is called Spy Wednesday,
the day when we commemorate the gathering malice and evil that had
already condemned Jesus to death long before the trial. Betrayal
... something that we will all experience during in our life in
one way or another, it is a sin of which we are all guilty of. Whether
it be a betrayal of a person, persons, of an ideal, a promise ...
we so need the Lord’s grace, but the response is not to despair
like Judas but to repentant and seek reconciliation with the Lord.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Fear is an evil worse than evil itself.”
The heart of a Sister, a Consecrated Nun replies:
Fear can be a paralysing Passion, it can occlude all good, all reason,
and render us totally impotent to act to choose the good ... Fear
is a bad counsellor and he who listens to it will be led astray.
It is not easy to overcome our fears but God has told us not to
be afraid, and so the ideal is to strive to overcome our fears with
and in Him.
Dear Little Hearts,
Holy Thursday, or Maundy Thursday! This is the great feast of love!
It is the day when Christ instituted the Eucharist ... how our hearts
should be full of thanksgiving that He chose to remain with us in
such an approachable manner, dwelling in the HOST!
This is a day when we remember all the members of God's priesthood,
all those many faithful servants of God who day after day minister
to and feed Gods people, and also a day to pray for the suffering
and pain in so many peoples hearts created by the betrayal and sins
of priests. Pray for them all. Recall to mind the words of Saint
Padre Pio.
From the Heart
of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint Padre Pio)
“How many abominations took place in your sanctuary! My Jesus pardon!
... Punish me and not the others ...
The heart of
a Sister, a Consecrated Nun replies:
Saint Pio willing accepted the terrible burden of being a victim
soul, one who carried the burdens of others sin and interceded for
them. He offered himself for all, all those who came to him to confessions,
by the thousands, but most particularly in atonement for sinful
and unworthy priests.
This was truly in the spirit of Our Holy Father St Francis who condemned
the sin but loved the sinner.
Let us ask Padre Pio to intercede for all priests in crisis.
Dear Little Hearts,
Let the silence speak! let his Cross speak, let his wounds speak!
We are so loved, so precious in his sight ...
Let us today BEHOLD THE HEART THAT HAS SO LOVED MAN
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“My Hope is all in you Lord Jesus.”
The heart of a Sister,
a Consecrated Nun replies:
Yes, our hope is all in the Lord Jesus, without him we are empty
vessels, poor and needy ...
Let us say:
“My hope is all in your Lord Jesus
My love is all in you Lord Jesus
My faith is all in you Lord Jesus“
May Padre Pio pray and intercede for you this day and draw you with
your whole and total being to stand beneath His Cross and adore
Him.
Dear Little Hearts,
A Blessed Easter Monday, may you know joy! (Saint Padre Pio)loved
his Lord Jesus with every fibre of his being, he always struggled
to keep close to Jesus in his Passion, and he fulfilled perfectly
his vocation as victim and sacrifice ... but he also knew JOY, he
also knew how to be an Apostle of happiness and a witness to the
Resurrection. He loved to make jokes, and play pranks ... this is
a sign of holiness.
There is nothing holy in putting on an apparent humility and gazing
at the floor all the time, the truly holy person enters into life
totally and finds God in the present moment whatever the present
moment may hold.
So lets all smile ... For we are so loved by God
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Don’t allow any sadness to dwell in your soul,
for sadness prevents the Holy Spirit from acting freely.“
Dear Little Hearts,
Bless you! (Saint Padre Pio) experienced in his life innumerable
sufferings, not simply those of the stigmata, but the sufferings
of condemnation, judgement, criticism, betrayal, loneliness, mental,
spiritual and physical sufferings ... added to this all the burdens
he took upon himself in the confessional, and the counselling of
countless souls ... How did he carry this burden, how did he manage
to keep going amidst constant adversity?
He bound his will to that of Christ's, he was obedient in an exemplary
manner, but above all he kept his eyes on Jesus, kept his eyes on
the goal ...
(Saint Padre Pio) pray for us, that by Gods grace we may see the
face of Jesus as our one true light.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Be my light O, my God, so that I can know myself fully and realise
the great love you have for me, and let me for all eternity, enjoy
the utter beauty of Your Divine Face. O, infinite beauty, O, spring
of endless blessedness and joy.”
Dear Little Hearts,
Who among us has not cried out at some time or another, “My God
where are you?“... we all have known moments, maybe hours, months
even years of desolation and darkness ... and yet something, someone
urges us on to the good despite the seeming emptiness,
the someone is the Holy Spirit ...
Look at the beautiful line in this extract of Saint Padre Pio, “You
are the spark in my dying soul“... We can all recognise that as
true ...
Take courage, trust God, see and follow in the footprints of those
who have gone ahead of us ... speak as a child to Saint Pio he will
be as a father to you, if you let him ...
Obedience too is our one support, obedience to His word, will, and
invitation to follow through the Cross to the Resurrection.
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“My supreme Good, where are you? I no longer seem to know you, I
cannot find you.
But I
am compelled to seek you. You are the spark in my dying soul.
O God, My God — There is nothing else I can say — Why have you forsaken
me?
I know nothing else, not even my own life which I have become unaware
of living.
Obedience is my one support in this relentless storm, my only fiat
amidst the shipwreck.
My God, My Life, my all.”
Dear Little Hearts,
Saint Padre Pio, on his own admission fought against his natural
lack of gentleness, he saw it as a good and tried to grow in gentleness
and tenderness towards others, those are the choices of a saint!
to know ones weakness and imperfection and to attempt to change!
But, he had the most tender and sweet love of Mary, and a most filial
love towards God, therein is the answer, we can become ever more
like Christ, if we seek to grow more and more in His image.
A blessed Easter day to you all
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Do not be at all surprised at your weakness, but acknowledge what
you are, and blush at your infidelity towards God, then confide
in Him and abandon yourself tranquilly in the arms of the Heavenly
Father, like a child in the arms of its mother.”
Dear Little Hearts,
The heart of a Sister, a Consecrated Nun listens to the heart
of a Saint .. .and says ...
Have confidence in God! as Saint Pio says here, the Lord always
keeps His promises, He is so faithful to us ... look through Scripture,
be aware of all He promises us, both in this life and the world
to come; trust Him, we will never be tried beyond our strength,
and His grace really is enough for us.
God honours His promises, look back in your life and you will see
countless occasions when this has been so ...
Think only of one ...“The one who comes to me I will never turn
away”...
What does your heart respond to that?
A blessed day to you all and May Saint Pio bless you with the
gift of confidence in the promises of your God.
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“I do not know what will happen to me, but I am certain of one thing
the Lord always keeps His promises. All the time Jesus keeps telling
me, “Do not be afraid, though I let you suffer, I give you grace
for it, It is My will that your soul be cleansed and put to test
in the daily hidden trial of witness.”
Dear Little Hearts,
There is no trial that we can pass through that cannot potentially
yield growth and blessing for our souls ... For life to flourish,
the changing seasons all make their contribution to the growth of
the seed.
Do not be discouraged by the long winter within your soul, the spring
will come ... there is no cross which does not lead to a Resurrection,
trust Him, hope in Him. The saints have all walked this path before
us ...
May Padre Pio be for you a good guide, and may he bless you
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“The trials to which the Lord subjects you and will subject you
are all signs of divine love and are jewels for the soul. Winter
will pass and the never-ending spring will come, all the more rich
in beauty as violent were the storms.“
Dear Little Hearts,
How tempting it is to become pre-occupied with all kinds of concerns,
worries, both within our family, our community, and certainly all
across of the board in what we see and read every day in the media.
So often we are paralysed by fears of events that may, could, would,
can happen ... where there is LIFE ... there is always a degree
of unpredictability ... and we can worry about something that never
becomes a reality. It can occlude God because we are so taken up
with the issue we cannot see, or hear anything else ... at the end
we may well be worn out and to what purpose?
No pray for grace to trust more, to live totally in this present
moment, present to God and present to others ... choose the better
part and try and choose the path of surrender as Saint Pio advises
us, and to do it by lifting up our spirit to God.
A Blessed day to you all.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Don’t tire yourself with things that cause anxieties, perturbation
and worries. Only one thing is necessary, to lift up your spirit
and love God”
Dear Little Hearts,
All of us are influenced by the witness and example of others, there
are certain Saints who will enter our lives and speak to us through
their writing, or some specific act of love or being.
We are not called to be “another“ Saint so and so, we are called
to be uniquely ourselves, totally authentic and real before and
unto God.
However there is no doubt that there are persons whose influence
on us will be life long and somehow what they give us serves Gods
purpose as the Holy Spirit has given the inspiration in the first
place.
(Saint Padre Pio) was of course affected from childhood by St Francis of Assisi,
and indeed when he was baptised he was given the name, Francesco.
But he was also influenced by a contemporary, later to be Saint:
Saint Gemma Galgani.
There were only 9 years difference in their ages, and they both
hailed from Italy, and both became stigmatists.
We are what God makes us, and what others make us ... this should
be a cause for great humility, realising how much we need others.
And that we in turn must try to be a mirror of Christ and Mary for
others.
From
the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
At times Padre Pio would send pilgrims coming from Tuscany and surrounding
areas to Lucca. He would say, “Why are you coming to me for graces?
Go to Lucca which is nearer to you, because you have there St. Gemma
who is a great saint.”
“I greatly rejoice that time flies so quickly, because
that means so much less time to spend in this world, where there
is nothing to attract me. My heart goes incessantly in search of
a Treasure, an immense Treasure that I do not find in
creatures; a Treasure that will satisfy me and console me, and give
me rest.” (Saint Gemma Galgani )
Dear Little Hearts,
How many times do we contemplate beginning a particular task full
of misgivings and uncertainty, will it work? Is it the best thing,
what if? ... and all the while time is passing! This is because
we are attempting things in our own strength, the much better choice,
is to invoke the Holy Spirit and seek Divine aid. He is the Creator,
the One who can draw all the pieces together.
If we pray first the end result will be what God wants and not what
we want.
Also we know when we hand something over to God, one way or another
it will work out.
Every Blessing upon you this new day!
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“You do well never to begin any task without first having implored
divine help. This will obtain for you the grace of Holy Perseverance”
Dear Little Hearts,
Turmoil, unrest, anxiety, agitation, all occlude and hinder the
work of the Holy Spirit, they are fruitless emotions and lead only
to further distress and worry. It is a great temptation to worry
about tomorrow, it also means that we are not fully present to others
...
NOW ...
At times we all feel burdened and we want to cry out for mercy and
relief, at such times pour our your heart and soul to Jesus, for
He alone has the answer. It is a sobering fact that the man who
has worried about “tomorrow“ ... never lived to see “tomorrow”.
In His will is our peace, we will attain peace by no other way ...
to say, THY will be done is not easy, but the more we practise the
better we will become at surrendering ourselves to God.
Look at this picture below, just look at Padre Pio’s eyes! they
are full of suffering, if we can find such expressions irresistible,
what of Our God when he gazes into our faces?
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Be calm in regards to your spirit, and always confide completely
in Jesus. Make an effort to always conform to the Divine will in
everything, in pleasure, and in adversity. Don’t worry about tomorrow!”
Dear Little Hearts,
This is a true poverty, to have responded totally to others needs
and demands in love. This is a witness of priesthood that we need
to reflect upon in these hard and challenging times within the Church.
That there are souls, like Padre Pio who fight against the forces
of evil. It also touches again upon the theme of time, and how we
all have responsibility to use the time entrusted us by God well.
But this belongs not only to priests, but to us all, to pray for
souls.
We should look at ourselves some times with a degree of humour.
We complain that we have no time, and yet when we have it, can we
honestly say we put it to good use?
It is the making of a constant choice to choose the better part,
love and service, manifested in our God given duties and in prayer.
A Blessed day to you all.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“I haven't a free moment. All my time is spent in setting my brothers
free from the snares of Satan ... This is precisely what I am doing
by night by day ... ”
Dear Little Hearts,
Love and blessings to you all! How hard it is to put the truths
that we know into practise sometimes ... and that is good it is
humbling and shows ones need of God and grace.
We are, I think, back on line ... and I have prayed, hoped and WORRIED!
So be encouraged we all fail the ideal, but we are all trying!
If you visit our web site you will find it has been given a
renewal in presentation. Hope you enjoy it!
With love
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Pray, Hope, and Don't worry“
Dear Little Hearts,
How encouraging it is when the saints allow us to see through their
writings and example their weaknesses, how we can identify with
that and be encouraged to struggle on. Under the weight of the Cross
we can all be as a little child, so vulnerable and little ...
See here in this extract, Saint Pio in all humility admits of his
weakness ... we should not be afraid to be seen as “fragile“; it
is our beautiful humanity, it flows out from our true authentic
self, and it is this self, this heart that God wants ... the real
US!
May St Pio bless you this day and give you hope.
With love ...
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“The Heavenly Father has not ceased to allow me to share in the
sufferings of his only begotten Son, even physically. These pains
are so acute as to be absolutely indescribable and unconceivable.
I don't know whether it is a lack for fortitude and a fault, that
I unwittingly cry like a child when placed in this state.”
Dear Little Hearts,
At times in our lives we all know loneliness, a sense of isolation
and pain, at such times reflect upon the fact that actually we are
never alone, not only are we surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses,
the saints and martyrs, but we are surrounded by the whole angelic
world, and to think God gives to each of us an angel guardian. He
is Gods car for us ... he is a light of God for us ...
And imitate Saint Pio, if you are troubled about a loved one, your
concerns that they may be in moral or actual danger, send your guardian
angel to them ... taking your love and prayer for their good.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Never forget the Guardian Angel who is always with you, never leaving
you for whatever wrong you might do. Oh, the ineffable goodness
of this our good Guardian Angel! How many times, alas!, I have made
him cry for not having wanted to comply with his wishes, which were
also God's. May this our most faithful friend free us from further
disloyalty. (Letters vol. II, no. 41)
Dear Little Hearts,
We are living in such troubled and uncertain times, the HEART of
our God is our one real refuge. Invite Jesus to sit down upon the
throne of your heart and manifest His Lordship. No matter how sinful
we may experience and know ourselves to be, Jesus will never turn
away the one that comes to him. The door of His heart is always
open to us ... knock and tell him you are present and need his love.
Saint Pio often advised the troubled to, “Knock at the heart of
Jesus“, he was only underscoring Christ’s own words, “Ask
and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find, knock and the
door shall be opened unto you ...
May Saint Pio bless you this day ...
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“May the grace and peace of the Holy Spirit always be at the centre
of your heart. Place your heart in the open side of the Saviour
and unite it with the King of our hearts who is within them as on
a royal throne, in order that He might receive homage and obedience
from all other hearts. He keeps his door open so that everybody
can approach Him and gain an audience at all times.”
Dear Little Hearts,
Pain is something that we are all familiar with in one way or another,
it may be physical, mental, moral or spiritual. Not least is the
pain of disappointment, disappointment is not something one reads
a great deal about in spiritual books, and yet it can be a very
real
pain.. to have lived in an expectation of a perceived good, that
somehow at a given moment does not become a reality ... what an
invitation to trust ...
A loved one fails us, children make choices we are not attuned to,
a job we hoped to obtain is not offered us, a meeting with a loved
one that doesn't happen, disappointments are real experiences.
They are Gethsemane experiences and can be very painful. But surely
in Gods sight a whispered Credo when life swims against us
is something precious and beautiful, it is a test of our love, a
test of our belief.
It is not easy to turn disappointments around but we can with Gods
grace come to see some message at the core of the experience from
Gods heart to ours. Disappointments should never lead us to cease
praying! NO, NO, NO! Persevere! ... let God see the extent of
your love and trust in HIM.
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“The most beautiful credo is the one that bursts forth from
your lips in darkness, in sacrifice, in pain, in the supreme effort
of an unbending will for good; this is what dispels, like a flash
of lightning, the gloom of your soul, it is what leads you to God
in the fury of the storm.”
Dear Little Hearts,
Prayer of abandonment to God and his will is probably the most meaningful
prayer we ever utter ... for each of us comes an hour of Gethsemane,
a situation to which we have no answer, a situation we cannot see
beyond ... and yet ... this is not the end, we live after all not
just the sufferings of Jesus but the whole Paschal mystery. And
to quote Saint Pio, “the beautiful sun will return“.
God gives to each of us a Simon of Cyrene, someone who through love
bears our burdens too ... this was the role of Padre Pio within
his priesthood to carry the sufferings of others ...
Let us to be a Simon of Cyrene for someone we know who carries burdens
and sufferings that weigh them down.
We all need each other ...
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“Keep strongly and constantly united to God, consecrating all your
affections, torments, and your entire self to Him, patiently awaiting
the return of that beautiful sun, whenever the Spouse is pleased
to visit you through trials of aridity, desolation and darkness
of spirit.”
Dear Little Hearts,
This is a very simple statement but profoundly true! in order to
bring any relief, respite to another person who is suffering we
need to do all in love and for love.
A service rendered to another in a distracted, reluctant or preoccupied
manner lacks the one thing necessary, love. It is not enough just
to minister to another needs, just as a fulfillment of a duty. It
is human warmth and tenderness, COM-PASSION (suffering with) that
gives the other the beginnings of relief. There are some situations
where no words will avail, the pain too deep, but hold the persons
hand, bless them with a smile ... and they will feel loved.
The little gestures matter!
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Love is the first ingredient in the relief of suffering”
Dear Little Hearts,
Darkness is something that we all experience in our spiritual journey
to God, a state when we are totally unable to see our way ahead,
understand the signs of the present moment, it is as it were as
if all light physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually is
occluded ... an eclipse of the good.
It is a hard state to find ourselves in, and we may be tempted to
think that we can only find God upon Mount Tabour (the mountains
of the revelation of Jesus Christ), the reality is that within the
darkness God speaks! Thus transforming the darkness ... remember
that God was within the pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire
by night, His presence is within both.
Both potentially are meeting places for us with our God.
Hope in God and praise him still!
From the beginning of time, now and ever will be, the Holy Spirit
will hover over the deep, hover over the darkness ...
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“The darkness that sometimes surrounds the Heaven of your soul is
light. Because of this you think you are in the dark, and you have
the impression of being in the centre of a burning bush. In fact
when the bush burns, the air around it is filled with smoke clouds
and the bewildered soul is afraid of not seeing, of no longer understanding
anything. But it is then that God speaks and is present to the soul:
who hears, understands, loves and trembles. Therefore, do not wait
for Tabor to see God when you already contemplate Him on Sinai!”
Dear Little Hearts,
I would like to write this is defense of Saint Padre Pio. There
has been criticisms in the media regarding the Shrine into which
the bones of the Saint have now been placed. Millions of pounds
are spent every year on drugs, cosmetics, alcohol, needless plastic
surgery, Botox, and a hundred and one other superfluities, its almost
as if, despite recession, man doesn't know actually what to spend
his money on ...
But let the money be spent of God, or the things of God ... Oh No!
that must become an area of criticism and hypocrisy.
Man needs beauty, man needs to see religious expressed in art, good
religious art has its own message.
What a long way we have come, or rather gone, the mediaeval man
understood that the work, the craftsmanship he laid at God's service
was to be the very best he could create; it was considered an honour
to work upon a Church for God. This is so well expressed in the
beauty of our great cathedrals.
A holy place, a place that is “other“, is needed by man, it can
be found in all religions, the temple is created of the best for
the best- God. Do not let the spirit of his world spoil for you
what is actually a beautiful tribute to God.
May it be a blessed place of grace for all the faithful.
Dear Little Hearts,
Trials and suffering come to us all. Saint Pio fed his soul upon
the Mass, his Office and the Rosary, these were the pillars of his
spiritual life. He became, as it were, “the Psalmist's song“: he
lived and experienced all the emotions of the Psalmist, he entrusted
all things to Mary through his Rosary ... A simple way, yes ...
but a path of grace.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“The trials to which the Lord subjects you and will subject you
are all signs of Divine love and are jewels for the soul. Winter
will pass and the never-ending spring will come, all the more rich
in beauty as violent were the storms.”
Dear Little Hearts,
In his letters Padre Pio was very fond of writing about the imagery
of the ship and the eternal shore.
The Gospel of the Lord commanding the waves to cease their turmoil
inspired him with trust and confidence that Jesus is stronger than
all the elements, that he is indeed LORD! for the most powerful
force in existence is LOVE.
Mary is the light, the star that leads us over these troubled oceans
to the safe port of Heaven.
What a beautiful filial gesture, the bowing of the head to receive
the gentle laying on of hands of the Mother, and that Mother is
Mary. To be blessed by the very Mother of God is awesome ... !
Saint Pio knew from experience how powerful was the intercession
and blessing of Mary, against all the wiles of the evil one ...
he sought her refuge constantly.
Let us in simplicity also ask Mary to lay her gentle hands upon
our weary heads and give us her blessing.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“May Mary adorn your soul with flowers and the fragrance of ever
new virtues and place her maternal hand on your head. Always stay
close to this Heavenly Mother, because she is the sea through which
we reach the shores of eternal splendour in the Kingdom of dawn.”
Dear Little Hearts,
The divine touch comes when it wills, we cannot dictate to God how
we should pray. We may decide at a given moment that we are going
to read, per example, a specific chapter, book, article, we sit
down intending to give it our total attention and time, and instead
of achieving our end, our heart is warmed, we are caught up on one
word, one phrase, we are drawn into silence and prayer, and are
very reluctant to pass on.
That is a Divine touch, and we should be obedient to that and remain
where the Holy Spirit will have us remain ... resisting the temptation
to fulfil our original intention. This response is a sensitivity
to the divine touch ... we will not get any closer to God by pursuing
our own will in this.
Conversely it can happen at other times that we decide ... NOW I
AM GOING TO PRAY! ... . what happens? A desire touches us to go
to a specific scripture passage, spiritual reading ... GO! this
is all the Holy Spirit leading us. Let God be God.
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“I am very fond of good reading but I read very little because my
illness prevents me and also because, when I open a book and read
a little, I become deeply recollected and instead of reading am
immersed in prayer.”
Dear Little Hearts,
At this painful time in the history of the Church, let us not allow
the focus upon the troubles within the priesthood to occlude from
our minds the countless thousands of faithful priests labouring
in the Lords vineyard.
And above all let it not occlude, dim in any way the glory of the
Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and Christ's Eucharistic presence.
In so many ways evil is striking at the pillars of society, the
pillars of faith, and we should not be surprised that the Church
knows this onslaught. Let us adore Jesus in his Eucharistic presence
... pray for our Pope, the Church that this purification will bring
us to a greater truth. and so closer to Christ.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
In these sad times when faith is dead and wickedness is triumphant;
when we are surrounded by those who have perpetual hatred in their
hearts and blasphemy on their lips, the surest way of remaining
immune from the pestiferous disease which surrounds us is to strengthen
ourselves with Eucharistic food.”
Dear Little Hearts,
We can all understand this extract today, both the words of Saint
Pio and the quote from scripture. We have made the experience in
our own spiritual journey and also in participating in the wounds
of the Church, still bleeding now ...
The answer against all these things lies in adoration and praise.
Much we cannot change as for some reason God has allowed it to be
so, but our call is to focus upon the All Good God, to adore Him,
trust Him, and surrender all things to Him.
St Francis of Assisi was beset and surrounded by many evils within
and out of the Church, yet he loved the Church, the Priesthood and
all poor sinners, that is the path of Christ ... and we are called
to become more and more “icons“ of the Lord. So do not be afraid,
and rejoice that although the lion may roar, to intimidate, to create
fear, to attempt to paralyse his victims ... he cannot possess your
soul, only if you sell it to him.
Adore God ...
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Be calm but vigilant because your enemy the devil is prowling round
like a roaring lion, looking for someone to eat.“ (1 Peter 5)
Let this unhappy creature create an uproar, let him even threaten
to swallow you up; it doesn't matter, for he can achieve nothing
against your soul, which Jesus has now clasped to himself and sustains
in a mysterious manner by his ever present grace.
Don’t fear the gloomy wrath of the evil one ... It is a good sign
when he ... roars around your will. This shows that he is not within
you.”
Dear Little Hearts,
It is a wise thing to remember that all our falls from grace, or
the marring of our soul through the failure to love, can ultimately
serve Gods purpose if they make us turn to HIM in our weakness and
desperation. The way of failure can be a path of tremendous grace
is we let it be, if it turns us in sorrow constantly to God, and
gives us a heart of compassion for others.
Spiritual sickness needs the healing touch of God, it needs his
forgiveness ... in order to receive healing, we have but to be totally
open to the Holy Spirit and ask for healing ...
Sounds simple, but, many people that are spiritually sick fail to
turn to God because they know that in all probability they will
fall again, that tomorrow they may still feel the same ... NO! NO!
NO!
He waits for us, he waits to implant upon us the healing kiss of
his Spirit, abandon yourself to Him and know true joy!
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Be careful never to become discouraged when you are spiritually
ill. If God permits you to be weak and fall, it is not for the purpose
of abandoning you, but rather, to make you humble, and more careful
in the future. Be calm in regards to your spirit, and always confide
completely in Jesus. Make an effort to always conform to the Divine
will in everything, in pleasure, and in adversity. Don’t worry about
tomorrow!”
Dear Little Hearts,
We must not loose sight of that fact that Saint Pio was actually
a true son of Saint Francis of Assisi, he was a Capuchin priest
and lived by the Holy Rule and Admonitions as laid down by Francis.
It is a rule that embodies the Gospel values, humility, poverty,
charity and service.
Reading the letters and writings of St Pio we can see how totally
he absorbed and practised the teachings of Francis; per example,
today's extract was originally a saying of Francis:
“My Dear Brothers, up until now we have done nothing, let us
do good while we still have time“.
This is a call to an ever NEW beginning which we can all make, we
know only too well the failures and sins of the past, but this present
moment is a new day, a new grace, and we can begin anew ... NOW.
We can never presume on time, we can never presume on how long we
may yet walk this earth, now is the time to respond to God, He yearns
for us and is waiting for us ...
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Let us do good while we still have time, and we will render glory
to our Heavenly Father, sanctify ourselves, and give good example
to others.”
Dear Little Hearts,
The spirit of the world is so fickle, so replete with superfluities'
and puffed up with its own pride. The spirit of the world is anything
but simple, as it seeks to confuse and Lord it over those it considers
of lesser attainments and achievements.
The world has much to say against us precisely because we are, or
should be a a challenge to its values and goals.
This world does not want to hear truth; how quickly it retaliates
when a word is spoken that is not in its favour!
If everyone agrees us with, loves us, there is something wrong,
it means that basically we have said and been to others exactly
what they want us to say or be.
No, as lovers, imitators of Christ, we will be hated by this world,
Jesus said so, why should we worry or be surprised, what we need
to well upon is the fact, so the world hates us, BUT CHRIST loves
us!
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“Love an practise simplicity and humility and don't worry about
the opinion of the world, because if this world had nothing to say
against us, we would not be real servants of God.”
Dear Little Hearts,
(Saint Padre Pio) as a Franciscan was well acquainted with our Holy
Mother St Clare and her virtues, indeed this extract is reminiscent
of Clare’s own writings ... where she exhorts us not to be ensnared
by the world and its false lovers! Jesus Christ is the TRUTH, if
we seek truth amongst the folly of this world we will be bitterly
disappointed. Jesus is the answer to all our longings an desires,
all I yearning for happiness. He alone is worthy of our total trust.
In joy or in sorrow to abandon oneself to God in trust is what will
bring us the greatest peace of mind and being.
Let us too choose the better part and place our God first in all
things.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Let us also ask our good Jesus for the humility,
trust and faith of our dear saint Clare; let us pray fervently to
Jesus like her. Let us abandon ourselves to Him; detach ourselves
from this lying world where everything is folly and vanity; everything
passes, only God remains to the soul, if it knows how to love Him
well.”
Dear Little Hearts,
One of the most beautiful lines in the Gospel is uttered by Jesus
at the Last Supper, “I have come among you as one who serves“.
He the Lord and Master of all chose to serve, thereby giving us
a witness and example.
The greatest joys in life are found in the service of God and of
others.
We may be called to render very humble and seemingly insignificant
serves to others, but it is precisely by these acts that the love
and compassion of Christ is shown forth.
When we lovingly serve our families, our communities, we are 'living
in the will of God' and nothing is more pleasing to Him.
The heart of man so often marred by pride and arrogance often prefers
to be served, than to serve others, but such a soul will be poorer
for his choice, and miss ‘the many splendored thing’
Look at the service Saint Pio rendered to God and to souls! Often
19 hours a day in the confessional! and carrying the burden of all
the sins that were brought to him as a priest ... but how this brought
him into union with his Lord ...
When we are placed in a situation where a request, an invitation
is hard to respond to, of if through selfishness we really want
to do our own thing“, let us then remember the words of Jesus, “I
have come among you as one who serves“.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“God is served only when He is served as He wishes to be.”
Dear Little Hearts,
We all know that feeling of wanting to do something great for God,
of wanting to do the 'holy and best thing' and yet how often in
our daily life do we make that experience and know, if we are honest
with ourselves, for one reason or another we can only take small
steps towards the goal. All winged creatures, and we ARE winged
creatures because the Holy Spirit spurs us on, all creatures have
times of rest and inactivity ... we need the grace to accept that
at a given moment that is us, we are just crawling along, taking
baby steps, just shaking our wings and getting no further.
God sees it all.. we are never the less at those times, in his service
and trying to love him ...
Little steps are better than apathy, and not even attempting to
move forward.
How beautifully patient our God is with us ... A true Father who
understands both the littleness and the greatness of his child.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“When you are unable to take big steps on the path that leads to
God, be content with little steps, patiently waiting until you have
the legs to run; or better still, wings to fly. Be content with
being, for now, a little bee in a hive, which will soon become a
big bee, capable of producing honey.”
Dear Little Hearts,
The loss of an entering into, appreciating, the value of silence
is something that in this digital age we have for the greater part,
lost.
Normally our lives are crammed with perpetual noise of one kind
or another, and ultimately we find ourselves in a meaningless void.
The human soul needs silence to commune with its God, its needs
that space, the space that demands nothing and just lets us be.
“Being“, is so important, because by being still and open to the
pregnant silence and simply “knowing God', is the way to replenish
our hearts and expended energies.
Sadly we tend to evaluate ourselves by what we can do and achieve,
as life goes on we will see that many of the options will go, its
then, and God has allowed old age for a purpose, that we should
realise that the quality of our being is so important both for ourselves
and others whom we relate to. God speaks, yes! But are we, are we
truly listening?
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Lovingly humble yourself before God and man, because God speaks
to the humble. Love silence, because much talk is never without
sin. Withdraw into yourself as much as you can, because, in this
way, the Lord speaks freely to the soul, and the soul is more able
to listen to His voice.”
Dear Little Hearts,
There are times when for the good of another we need to 'speak the
truth in love'. We have to first discern what God would have us
say and do, and then offer it to the other, but always with reverence
and goodness.
A self righteous, dominating attitude never bears fruit, it will
close the space between you and another ... but to'speak the truth
in love, you are doing and saying before God what you think may
need to be said for another's good. The important thing is not so
much the success but your ability under God, to say that which will
sew a seed that the other may reflect upon and then hopefully make
the right choice or amendment.
Correction is all part of love ...
As St Clare states in her rule, Anger hinders the work of
the Holy Spirit, and how true this is ... how we present what we
say has a great deal to do with how it is received or not received.
And at the end of the day we too must be prepared to be totally
open to whatever the response it.
Love is truly an art ...
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Even when reprimanding one must be courteous and gentle.”
Dear Little Hearts,
The Christian message should always be a message of hope,
it should always be seen to hold out to man that promise of Resurrection
even, and, yes, while a person is in suffering and darkness. The
Road to Calvary goes ever onward, it does not stop at the Cross
but passes on to the tomb and beyond ... let us choose to be witnesses
to that hope as Saint Pio was!
Jesus Christ is the King of all time and all ages, to him alone
let us render our loyalty and service..
Yes, The Kingdom of God is very near to us!
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“Your Kingdom is not far away, allow us to participate in Your triumph
on earth to then participate in Your Kingdom in Heaven. Grant that,
being unable to contain the communication of Your charity, we preach
Your divine Regality by our example and good works. Take possession
of our hearts in time to possess them in eternity. Keep us under
Your sceptre so that neither life nor death can separate us from
You. Let our lives be drawn from You in large draughts of love which
will then extend over humanity and let us die at every moment to
live only for You and keep You in our hearts.”
Dear Little Hearts,
We are so loved! by Our God, by the Saints, we are
so loved ... !
Here is a most beautiful image of Fatherhood, Fatherhood born of
the Spirit.
This is true love, the laying down of ones life, of all one is,
for others.
It is the Royal Road to Calvary and beyond.
Say to yourself many times this day, “I am so loved, I am so loved“...
A Blessed day to you all.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“I belong entirely to everyone. Everyone can say: “Padre Pio is
mine. “I deeply love my brothers in exile. I love my spiritual children
as much as my own soul and even more. I have regenerated them to
Jesus through suffering and love. I can forget myself but not my
spiritual children, indeed I can assure you that when the Lord calls
me I will say to Him: “Lord, I will remain at the gates of Paradise;
I will go in when I have seen the last of my children enter. I suffer
so much because I cannot win all my brothers for God. At times I
am on the point of dying of heartache on seeing so many suffering
souls without being able to relieve them and so many brothers allied
to Satan.”
Dear Little Hearts,
God gives us many invitations, many offers of grace, but we need
to respond, Love calls forth, and needs, a response ... without
it a true union and communion will never take place.
We are meant to be co-workers with Christ, not only labouring for
the salvation of souls, but also to labour that the vineyard, within,
of our own soul is tendered, cleaned, and bringing forth fruit.
This extract from Saint Pio shows us the need to co-operate with
Gods plan, allowing him to be God in our life.
Echoing the words of Christ, and Saint Pio let us always remember
that without HIM we can do nothing ... we so need Jesus his love
and his grace in order to become what he truly intends us to be
... HIS . and totally alive ...
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Jesus and your soul must cultivate the vine in agreement. Your
task is to remove the stones, pull away the thorns. Jesus is to
sow, plant, cultivate and water. But even in your work there is
the work of Jesus. Without Him, you can do nothing.”
Dear Little Hearts,
How great is the love and mercy of our God, that he does not allow
us, as it were, to see the whole of our sinfulness and brokenness
at once, but little by little, and, that by grace we grow in understanding
of who we are! ... It is an often painful and surprising
revelation even unto ourselves, but it is GODS LOVE, that we learn
to see and truly know how much we need God and what we would be
without HIM ... we are a mystery to ourselves.
But it is actually a beautiful path of truth upon which ultimately
we give God our true and authentic self, not the person we thought
we were or would like to imagine we are, but who we truly ARE, the
real me! AND THAT IS LOVE, to give in total trust all we are as
we are unto another.
It is so humbly and as St Pio writes here, how on earth can the
veil be removed and yet we still carry pride in our hearts.
Humility is such a beautiful virtue, it is that childlikeness which
makes the soul irresistible unto God ... Holiness is transparency
and light!
Let YOUR light shine!
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“The Lord allows us to discover who we are a little at a time. In
fact, it is inconceivable to me how anyone with intelligence and
a conscience can become proud.”
Dear Little Hearts,
Obedience is not a bondage, it is not something that limits our
freedom and humanity, rather it perfects it, when that obedience
is rendered unto our God. I mean obedience in the fullest sense
of the word, that of listening and discerning Gods voice in our
life and in our conscience. Obedience is often so often misunderstood,
misinterpreted and seen as something undesirable. No! it is a beautiful
virtue, it is that which lends its ear to Gods love and will in
our lives. We cannot be led astray if we truly listen to Gods words
and put it into practice.
So many errors have been and are given birth to within the Church
through disobedience, the making of the choice to do it 'my way'
and not God's. It is a beautiful thing and also so potentially dangerous
our God given free will, we can learn to use it rightly by listening
to God. So let us decide to walk the stairway that leads to Heaven
and not the path of sin and destruction.
“Oh! that today you would listen to the voice of the Lord, harden
not your hearts“...
God loves us so much, he yearns for the return of our love, so much,
let us be true lovers ... lovers listen, hearken to the voice of
the Beloved ... union comes by an entering in, in all things.
Oh! how sweet is the voice of God!
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Where there is no obedience, there is no virtue, where there is
no virtue, there is no goodness, no love, and where there is no
love, God is not there and without God we do not go to Paradise.
These form a stairway and if one step is missing from the stairway
we fall down.”
Dear Little Hearts,
At times we are tempted to think that only the great and obvious
things are really serving God, that which pertains to mission, achievement
in the apostolic field and so on. But in reality that is only one
way, a very real way of service.
The other pertains far more to the hidden, or almost hidden practises
of virtue, those loving touches and concerns for others that make
up so much of the fabric of our lives.
Actually what we do not do regarding the little things we will not
do with the great, faithfulness to that which we know love asks
of us is of paramount importance.
In one way we all have, or should have a “life hidden with Christ
in God”... that ongoing life giving choice that flows out from love.
We should never fear failure, failure touches us all, failure allows
us to see the weakness and sinfulness of our humanity and our need
of God. In all things serve and love God, in things great and small
give him the glory, give him your heart!”
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Make a particular effort to practise sweetness and submission to
the will of God, not only in extraordinary matters, but even in
the little things that occur daily. Make these acts not only in
the morning, but also during the day and in the evening, with a
tranquil and joyful spirit. And if you should fail in this, humble
yourself, make a new resolution, get up and continue on your way.”
Dear Little Hearts,
As we look towards the forthcoming feast of Pentecost let us remember
that the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, is known as the 'laughter
of God'; He is the joy, the life and inspiration of all our acts
of love.
We are all called to be as little children, and children are possessed
of great joy. An individual considered to be a 'saint' is not so
if laughter and joy cannot be experienced through them by others.
Somehow for all their devotion an element is lacking ... true laughter
and humour are healing and a blessing for others.
(Saint Padre Pio) was known for his humour, his smile and laughter as well
as his more serious and sombre side ... that is a balanced humanity!
His humour is evident in the extract from his writings today. One
can almost feel the irritation and exasperation of a Holy man being
adulated by others, he knows all he is and has is Gods free gift,
and that God alone is truly good.
Saint Pio’s assessment of himself will make us smile: a “DELINQUENT!”
Without doubt he knew his own waywardness and propensity to sin
...
As a true son of St Francis, Saint Pio is really emulating his master
who said, “You are Good, all Good, the Only Good“.
In all things let us give God the glory.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Padre, you are so good! ...
I am not good,
only Jesus is good. I don’t know how this habit of St. Francis that
I wear does not run away from me! The worst delinquent on earth
is golden compared to me.”
Dear Little Hearts,
Can there be any greater gift that we can give another than a blessing
whispered in and with love? It draws out of our own hearts the best
of what we would desire for another to be and know. It has the power
to protect, call back, and heal.
This blessing of Saint Pio calls us to focus upon what truly matters,
the fact that Christ should be the centre of our life, our thought
and actions. We can do all things by grace, all things through and
in him who can strengthen us.
May Saint Pio sing his blessing of love over you all.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
Blessing
“May Jesus
always be in your mind,
in your heart,
and before your eyes.
May he ever be
at your beginning
in your continuing,
and your ending.
And may he draw your entire life into himself.
May the Mother of Jesus
and our Mother
obtain from her Son for us,
the grace to lead a life
totally in harmony with the will of God, and hidden in him.
Amen.”
Dear Little Hearts,
There are no words to adequately describe the beauties of Mary.
Countless Saints, Martyrs, painters, poets, and holy persons have
tried, but none have captured her beauty is totality.
Can we even ever begin to imagine really, the depths of beauty,
holiness and goodness is the deep pools of Mary’s eyes?
Artists may capture something of her gestures, apparel, but
her eyes? That is impossibly for her eyes are the very
mirror of her soul, total purity and love.
In this moth of May let us seek to honour Mary in many little ways,
Saint Pio loved her with a singular love ... let us ask him that
we too will have recourse to Mary as Mother of Grace.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Beautiful Mother, you are so beautiful. If it were not for faith,
men would think you were a goddess. Your eyes are more resplendent
than the sun, you are beautiful Mother, I glory in it, I love you.
Please help me.
Dear Little Hearts,
Humility and Faith are needed to pray the Rosary ... Humility that
we accept our humble, struggling efforts, with all its distractions,
aridities and failures, knowing with the heart of a child that our
gifts no matter how poor are so pleasing to God and make our Heavenly
Mother smile with love.
It is through Faith that we believe the Gospel and its message in
the specific mystery we are praying, and through Faith that we believe
that our prayer makes a difference.
The praying of the Rosary can, literally keep us alive in many ways,
and at times it can lead us into the deepest contemplation. (Saint
Padre Pio) relied on his Rosary as a weapon in the battle against
evil, and as an instrument and channel of love to commune with God
and Mary. Today beneath Padre Pio’s quote and picture, I include
for you some beautiful short mediations on the Joyful mysteries
of the Rosary from the great Archbishop Fulton Sheen ... a man who
so loved Mary.
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“Hold on tightly to the Rosary. Be very grateful to the Madonna
because it was she who gave us Jesus. Love our Lady and make her
loved; always recite the Rosary and recite it as often as possible.”
THE JOYFUL MYSTERIES
First Joyful Mystery: the
Annunciation
In human love man desires, woman gives. In Divine Love, God seeks,
the soul responds. God asks Mary to give Him a human nature with
which He may start a new humanity.
Mary agrees. A woman's role is to be the medium by which God comes
to man. A woman is frustrated who does not bring forth a new man,
either physically, by birth, or spiritually [222] by conversion.
And every man is frustrated who knows not both his earthly and his
Heavenly mother, Mary.
Second Joyful Mystery: the
Visitation
Love that refuses to share kills its own power to love. Mary not
only wants others to share her love, but also her Beloved.
She brings Christ to souls before Christ is born. The Gospel tells
us that on seeing Mary, Elizabeth was “filled with the Holy Spirit.”
When we have Christ within, we cannot be happy until we have imparted
our joy. The soul that does not magnify itself alone can truly magnify
the Lord. Out of the humility of Mary sprang the song of the
Magnificat, in which she made nothing of herself and everything
of Him. By reducing ourselves to zero, we most quickly find the
Infinite.
Third Joyful Mystery: the
Nativity
As the Virgin conceived Our Lord without the lusts of the flesh,
so now she brings Him forth in joy without the labors of the flesh.
As bees draw honey from the flower without of- fending it, as Eve
was taken out of the side of Adam without any grief to him, so now
in remaking the human race, the new Adam is taken from the new Eve
without any grief to her. It is only her other children of the spirit,
which she will bring forth at Calvary, who will cause her pain.
And the sign by which men would know He is God was that He would
be wrapped in swaddling clothes. The sun would be in eclipse.
Eternity in time. Omnipotence in bonds, God in the shrouds of human
flesh. Only by becoming little likewise, do we ever become great.
Fourth Joyful Mystery: the
Presentation
[223] Mary submits to the general law of Purification, from which
she was really free, lest she should scandalize by the premature
discovery of the secret entrusted to her keeping. Simeon tells her
that her Son is to be contradicted — the sign of contradiction is
the Cross — and a Sword her own heart shall pierce. And yet all
this is considered a Joyful Mystery: for, as the Father sent His
Son to be a victim for the sins of the world, so would Mary joyfully
guard Him until the hour of sacrifice. The highest use any of us
can make of the gifts of God is to give them back to God again.
Fifth Joyful Mystery: Finding
of the Child Jesus in the Temple
It is so easy to lose Christ; He can even be lost by a little heedlessness;
a little want of watchfulness and the Divine Presence slips away.
But sometimes a reconciliation is sweeter than an unbroken friendship.
There are two ways of knowing how good God is: one is never to lose
Him, the other is to lose Him and find Him again. Sin is the loss
of Jesus, and since Mary felt the sting of His absence she could
understand the gnawing heart of every sinner and be to it, in the
truest sense of the word:
“Refuge of Sinners”.
Dear Little Hearts,
It is precisely because we feel that Our Heavenly Mother understands
our suffering, struggles and pain that we have the confidence to
approach her. WE KNOW she has been there before us! Praying to and
with Mary can teach us so much.
Padre Pio saw her not only as a Mother of Joy, but also as the Mother
of Sorrows. How many times he meditated on the Passion of Jesus,
made the Way of the Cross, prayed the sorrowful mysteries of the
Rosary, and all for souls!
I am enclosing today after the picture, the Sorrow Mysteries of
the Rosary from that great lover of Mary, Archbishop Fulton Sheen.
God bless you all
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“The Mother of Sorrows is my confidante, my teacher, my counsellor,
and my powerful advocate.”
THE SORROWFUL MYSTERIES
The Agony in
the Garden
Our fellow creatures can help us only when our needs are human.
But in an hour of our greatest need, some of them betray and others
sleep. In the really deep agony, we must cry to God. Being in agony,
He prayed. What up to that point seemed a tragedy, now becomes an
abandonment to the Father's Will.
The Scourging at the Pillar
Over seven hundred years before, Isaiah prophesied the laceration
of Our Lord's Sacred Body, “Here is one despised, left out of all
human reckoning, bowed with misery, and no stranger to weakness;
how should we recognize that face?”
Great souls are like great mountains; they always attract the storms.
Upon their bodies break the thunders and lightnings of evil men
to whom purity and goodness is a reproach. In reparation for all
the sins of the flesh, and in anticipated encouragement to the martyrs
who would be beaten by Communists and their progenitors, He delivers
His Sacred Body to the lash until “His bones could be numbered,”
and His flesh hung from Him like purple rags.
The Crowning with Thorns
The Saviour of the world is made a puppet for those who play the
fool: the King of Kings is mocked by those who will have “no King
but Caesar.” Thorns were part of the original curse upon the earth.
Even nature, through sinful men, rebels against God. If Christ wears
a crown of thorns, shall we covet a crown of laurel?
“I saw the Son of God go hy
Crowned with a crown of thorn.
“Was it not finished, Lord” said I,
“And all the anguish home?'
He turned on me His awful eyes:
“Hast thou not understood?
Lo, every soul is Calvary
And every sin a rood.”*
The Carrying of the Cross
Many a cross we bear is of our own manufacture; we made it by our
sins. But the Cross which the Saviour carried was not His, but ours.
One beam in contradiction to another beam was the symbol of our
will in contradiction to His own. To the pious women who met Him
on the roadway. He said; “Weep not for Me.”
To shed tears for the dying Saviour is to lament the remedy; it
were wiser to lament the sin that caused it. If Innocence itself
took a Cross, then how shall we, who are guilty, complain against
it?
The Crucifixion
Once nailed to the Cross and “lifted up to
draw all men to Himself”, He is taunted: “Others
He saved, Himself He cannot save.” Of course not! This is
not weakness, but obedience to the law of sacrifice. A mother cannot
save herself, if she would raise her child; the rain cannot save
itself, if it would bud the greenery; a soldier cannot save himself,
if he would save his country; and neither will Christ save Himself,
since He came to save us. What heart can conceive the misery of
mankind, if the Son of God had saved Himself from suffering, and
left a fallen world to the wrath of God?
Dear Little Hearts,
Let us take Padre Pio’s counsel to heart and in these troubled times
keep our hearts, our eyes fixed upon Heaven, let us never fear to
approach our Heavenly Father, and Mary Our Mother, they love us
so want us to be with them for eternity.
We all fail, we all sin, we know the remedy, to repent and plead
for grace, and show great Trust but getting up and continuing along
our God given path.
Below after the picture are the meditation by Archbishop Fulton
Sheen of the Glorious mysteries of the Rosary.
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“You must remember that you have in Heaven, not
only a Father but also a Mother ... If our wretchedness saddens
us, if our ingratitude for God terrorizes us, if the memory of our
faults hinders us from presenting ourselves to God, our Father,
let us then have recourse to Mary, our Mother. She is all sweetness,
mercy, goodness and love for us because she is our Mother.”
THE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES
The Resurrection
Easter Sunday was not within three days of the Transfiguration,
but within three days of Good Friday. Love is not to be measured
by the joys and pleasures which it gives, but by the ability to
draw joy out of sorrow, a resurrection out of a crucifixion, and
life out of death. Unless there is a Cross in our life, there will
never be an empty tomb; unless there is the crown of thorns, there
will never be the halo of light: “O, Death,
where is thy victory? O, grave where is thy sting?”
The Ascension
In Heaven there is now a human nature like our own, the promise
of what ours will one day be if we follow His Way.
Thanks to this human nature. He will always have a deep sympathy
for us, even “making intercession for us.“ We can ascend to Him,
now, only in our minds and hearts; our bodies will follow after
the Last Judgment. Until then we approach His Throne with confidence,
knowing that “pierced Hands distribute the richest blessings.“
The Descent of the Holy
Ghost upon the Apostles
As the Son of God in the Incarnation took upon Himself a human body
from the womb of the Blessed Mother overshadowed by the Holy Spirit
so now on Pentecost He takes from the womb of humanity a Mystical
Body, as the Holy Spirit overshadowed the twelve Apostles with “Mary
in the midst of them abiding in prayer.” The Mystical Body
is the Church; He is the Invisible Head; Peter and his successors,
the Visible Head; we, the members, and the Holy Spirit its soul.
As He once taught, governed, and sanctified through His human nature,
so now He teaches, governs, and sanctifies through other human natures
compacted into His Mystical Body, the Church. We can never thank
God enough for making us members of His One Fold and one Shepherd.
The Assumption of the Blessed
Virgin into Heaven
Mary was not a rose in which Divinity reposed for a time; she was
the canal through which God came to us. Mary could no longer live
without the Dream she brought forth, nor could the Dream live without
her, body and soul. Her love of God bore her upward; His love of
His Mother lifted her upward. Our Lord could not forget the cradle
in which He lay.
In the Annunciation, the angel said: “The
Lord is with Thee.”
In the Assumption: “Mary is with the Lord.” Her Assumption is the
guarantee that one’s prayers to her will be answered.
The Son is on the right Hand of the Father; she is on the right
Hand of the Son.
The Coronation of the Blessed
Virgin
As Queen of Heaven, Our Lord comes back to us again through Mary,
passing His Life and His blessing through her hands as the Mediatrix
of all graces. He came through her in Bethlehem; through her, we
go back to Him and through her He comes back again to us.
Our Lady went into a strange country
And they crowned her for a queen
For she needed never to he stayed or questioned
But only seen;
And they were broken down under unbearable beauty
As we have been.
Our Lady wears a crown in a strange country
The crown He gave,
But she has not forgotten to call her old companions
To call and crave;
And to hear her calling a man might arise and thunder
On the doors of the grave*
* G. K. CHESTERTON, “Regina Angelorum (from Collected Poems,
1935.)
Dear Little Hearts,
How great is the longing of the human heart for union and communion,
we are created for love, to love, to give love and to receive love,
all else will be at some point or another, simply like sand running
through ones fingers. All else will pass away.
LOVE IS THE ONLY INDESTRUCTIBLE FORCE! Love is that which overcomes
all.
The Martyrdom of love that Saint Pio speaks about here is every
bit as real as a physical martyrdom, for love can wound us even
more deeply, as the pain sears our very souls.
Desire, the longing for God is such a beautiful, beautiful thing,
so much awaits us, let us keep our eyes upon the end, upon the goal
of all our efforts, labours and service.
Is there anything more beautiful that the thought of Mary’s longing
heart for Jesus?
This life truly is an exile.
We are now preparing to celebrate Pentecost, Sunday, week ... let
this be a time too of a longing for the Holy Spirit, even as Mary
longed for this outpouring of love.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“After Jesus Christ's ascension to Heaven, Mary longed continually
with burning desire to be reunited with Him. To be without her divine
Son was a very harsh exile. Those years of separation from Him were
for her a most slow and painful martyrdom of love that consumed
her slowly.”
Dear Little Hearts,
Like the streets , the road to life is narrow ... and how much human
suffering we encounter along the path of life.
Are we an open door to those in need? A thousand streets in a thousand
towns each one could be and is a Via Dolorosa ... for someone
it is a path to Calvary ... as you walk along to your daily work,
pass houses, factories, schools, in your heart bless those people
whom you may never meet personally and yet they too were create
din love by HIM for Heaven.
The gift of a blessing is such a beautiful gift to another.
Let us be for other as Padre Pio was to so many souls, a Simon of
Cyrene From the Heart of A Priest.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“One day when we are able to see the full midday light, we will
know what value and what treasures our earthly sufferings have been
that have made us gain our everlasting Homeland.”
Dear Little Hearts,
In our youth we think, quite mistakenly, that the road of life will
stretch ever onwards before us, that the reality of the end will
never actually come ... but as life journeys on, there comes a time
when we realise the ever nearing fact of approaching old age and
death.
It is Gods great love and mercy that allows us to see this, to come
to some understanding of this, for by it we see that God is inviting
to use whatever time is left to us for His glory and service. He
gives us a time to prepare ourselves to be with Him. Some people,
as they get older, become quite discouraged and despondent, believing
(and maybe in the scheme of things what they believe is, to a degree,
true) that they have not done “much for God”. But it is not achievement
that God looks for, asks for, what He wants is our heart,
He wants our real authentic being ... and we can never do more or
be more for and to God than when we live in His sweet will.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“As the years go by and eternity draws near, we must be twice as
courageous and lift our spirit to God, serving Him with even greater
diligence in everything that our Christian vocation and profession
requires from us. Only this can make us agreeable to God, make us
free to leave this great world that is not of God, free from all
other enemies; only this can make us reach the port of eternal salvation.”
Dear Little Hearts,
These words of Padre Pio sound so simple, and of course we would
all agree, but in reality we know if we are honest with ourselves
that to love is the greatest challenge, adventure, joy and suffering
that the human person can encounter in this life. There is no such
thing as love without suffering, it doesn't exist, true, for a time,
circumstances may sit well and be free from trials and problems,
but always where there is interaction between human nature there
is suffering.
To love we have to be truly courageous, we have to assent to change,
change to Christ's exhortations, commands, we have to listen to
the Gospel and put it into practise and it is not easy.
Much is written, much is talked about love that is so trite, so
far from the mark. Love is not a feeling its an
act of the will.
To attune our wills to the rightful demands of others within our
specific state, married or consecrated, to attune our will to Gods
will — that is love ...
So many people starting out for life look for challenge and adventure,
the greatest challenge is to love and go on loving —and the mix
in the works, to love our enemies.
Some people are so easy to love and others it takes all we have
to love them, that is good, for it means we are living and loving
with Christ's love, with the love the Gospel talks about, and it
will teach us so much.
We can do all things by his grace, in and with HIM who will strengthen
us.
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“We must love, love, love and nothing else.”
Dear Little Hearts,
We all know when we are 'spiritually sick', we all know when we
need to be touched by Gods grace and mercy. The evil one loves us
to delay, he loves to place barriers of fear and indifference between
us and our God. We should go joyfully to the arms of Our
Father, say sorry, pour all out into His heart, confessing our guilt
and responsibility for our part in the failures of love, and then
trusting His mercy, stand up and walk forward with confidence, not
looking back, not doubting.
Often we can accept that God has forgiven us, but the problem
is we cannot forgive ourselves ... who are we to limit Gods mercy
and power? It is a temptation and we should continually
fight against it for what God has forgiven is forgiven. As Padre
Pio says,
be beautifully here, place a tombstone over it, sing a requiem as
it were and enjoy the Resurrection in the here and now.
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“When disturbed by passions and misfortunes, may the sweet hope
of His inexhaustible mercy sustain us. Let us hasten confidently
to the tribunal of penance where He awaits us at every instant with
the anxiety of a father; and even though we are aware of our inability
to repay Him, let us have no doubts about the solemn pardon pronounced
over our errors. Let us place a tombstone over them, just as the
Lord has done.”
Dear Little Hearts,
As Christian s we may well experience ridicule, abuse, indifference
and contempt from those whom our lives and daily work encounter.
There is in reality a constant battle between the Spirit of the
Gospel and the Spirit of the world, we should not be surprised.
When all said and done we are simply walking in the footsteps of
Our Master Jesus, who endured such treatment and carried it all
before us.
What matters is that we show the Face of God to others, that we
show them that there is an alternative path, a good path they can
walk.
How impressive was the recent on line video clip of a man holding
up a cashier in a shop and the woman speaking to the man about Jesus,
the poor lost sinner, was humbled it was obvious and left without
taking a cent ... love can turn things around.
This was an ordinary woman who showed by her example that there
is another way, an alternative to the spirit of this world.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Do not let the persecution of worldlings and of all those who live
without the Spirit of Jesus Christ deter you from following the
road trodden by the saints.”
Dear Little Hearts,
We all know that worry is useless, we all know it is fruitless,
and yet coming to the acceptance and belief of that reality is a
long, hard journey.
Presented with certain circumstances we are fearful, uncertain,
and our inordinate imagination will present us with all kinds of
mental pictures, of things that might, or could happen, which take
our peace away.
Worry can be debilitating and exhausting leading nowhere, it is
good to look back on our life and see how many times we have worried
ourselves sick over something that in the final analysis, never
became a reality!
Little by little we do learn.
Much better simply to throw ourselves into the arms of our Heavenly
Father, the God who loves us, and will to trust and trust and trust.
It is not easy but practise is a good thing and we will grow with
every little surrender. Do not be robbed of your joy by being preoccupied
with worry and worldly concerns, your Father knows your needs, he
is with you and loves you, let it go ... and know peace.
We have many friends, much loved in America; please pray for the
Bay State of Massachusetts, for the 670 men and women pending deployment.
Pray please for their families and loved ones. Ask Padre Pio to
intercede for them all ... In his lifetime many American soldiers
visited Padre Pio, he was a priest for all.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Don't worry about tomorrow because the very same Heavenly Father
who takes care of you today will have the same thought tomorrow
and always. . . What does a child in the arms of such a Father have
to fear? Be as children, who hardly ever think about their future
as they have someone to think for them. They are sufficiently strong
just by being with their father.”
Dear Little Hearts,
How beautifully and fully human our (Saint Padre Pio)was!
we all know situations if we are honest where our courage fails
us, where we feel ourselves faltering, especially when it pertains
to the welfare of those whom we love.
Sometimes we may think, or even verbalize!, “I cant do it! I will
never get through this one.” BUT the fact is and we learn this from
experience, that the Lord will always give is grace AT THE TIME
to enable us to go forward to achieve the good.
We never get grace in advance of a situation, never, its because
God wants us to trust him and in our hour of need he WILL give us
aid and support ...
We should have the same confidence as St Pio, as a child,
believing that God will attend to all our needs and assist us through
all life's difficulties and challenges, for in this way He
is glorified!
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Unfortunately, I am in need of courage, but Jesus will not refuse
anything. I can testify to this from long experience, so we should
not stop asking Him for what we need.”
Dear Little Hearts,
Inspirations to surrender oneself to God, to abandon the known and
cast ourselves trustingly into the Lords arms can only be a praying,
a moving of the Holy Spirit within us. Any journeying from self
to God, any response from our own self centeredness to God centeredness
is a touch, an embrace of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is love and love desires union, and this inner desire
that Saint Pio talks about in this extract is a genuine, authentic
Divine Touch.
We should always listen to such whisperings, they will bring us
to a greater fullness of life.
We will be sadly disappointed, it may be sooner or later, if we
place our trust in the things of this world, they can disappear
in an instant, and they belong only to the hear and now ... far
greater will be our happiness if we place our trust in God. The
whole Christian
journey is a pilgrimage of trust.
Many of us are wounded from having our trust broken, and it takes
courage to begin again and to go on trusting. People may fail us
God never will.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“I feel a great desire to abandon myself with greater trust to the
Divine Mercy and to place my hope in God alone.”
Dear Little Hearts,
To these words of Saint Pio, there may well up in your the question,
WHY? Of course we should rejoice with Mary, for the Lord has done
great things for her! and through her for us!
But in this Valley of tears we need a heart that understands our
struggles, sufferings and trials ... we need a mothers heart, a
woman who will be the face of compassion for us ...
Our Lady of Sorrows is such, she has experienced all that we experience,
and because of that we can take all our burdens and pain to her
in prayer.
Mary will offer them all to Jesus upon the altar of her heart.
We can entrust the deepest intimacies of our hearts to Mary, we
can let her teach us the path of surrender to Gods will, and we
can have a childlike confidence in her protection and prayers.
Oh! The DEEP DEEP wisdom of Our God to give us such a mother!
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“The Mother of Sorrows is my confidante, my teacher, my counsellor,
and my powerful advocate.”
Dear Little Hearts,
Is this not beautiful advice from a spiritual Father? “Take care
of your spirit”... in other words see the needs of your spirit as
of prime importance.
We allot much time to the care of the body, but far far more important
is the care we should take of our immortal soul, our body will fail
and die, our soul once created is immortal.
We all know the things that mar our souls, idleness can lead to
all kinds of abuses and feed our inordinate curiosity, idleness
makes us self centred and all too easy thrown back upon the carnal.
Immoral conversation taints our souls and those of others, we have
a grave responsibility as to how we speak to others, our words should
bless, build up, not lead another into sin.
At all times realise and accept WE ALL carry our treasure in earthenware
vessels, be vigilant regarding your own soul and those of others.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Take care of your spirit, flee idleness and all immoral conversation
... always remembering the words of the Apostle, that our virtue
is preserved in very fragile vessels.”
Dear Little Hearts,
The great beauty of maturing, growing older is that increasing awareness
that life is well spent, that we are journeying towards the goal,
through death to eternal life.
Our bodies diminish, become limited it is true, all passes into
God somehow before we ever even leave this earth, but our spirits
in faith should soar to the Heavens to the realization that this
life is passing and that we will be united with all those who have
walked this way before us, we will find them all in God.
Old age should be a fruitful autumn in our life, a time when we
can give to others the fruit of our life, our prayer, our wisdom
from having tried to live a life in Christ.
Sometimes this leaping upwards of the heart will take us unawares
... because it is the Holy Spirit within us calling us ever upwards
...
Imagine ... we cannot ... but imagine we shall see God face to face
... His Holy Mother and all the Saints ... so much happiness awaits
us.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“As the days pass, I see ever more clearly the greatness of God,
and in this light, which grows brighter and brighter, my soul burns
with the desire to be united to Him by indissoluble bonds.”
Dear Little Hearts,
The great beauty of our God is that what he has promised, he ALWAYS
FULFILS, for God alone is Unchanging, Faithful, Living and True!
God has said, it has fallen from His own lips “I am with you always
even unto the end of the world.“
His presence is abiding, sometimes we cannot see, feel, perceive
anything of God at all, all seems darkness and emptiness, but HE
IS WITH US! That is our faith.
On Calvary Jesus was not alone, God only allowed Him to experience
that abandonment ... but the Father and the Spirit were present
as They are present, too, on our Calvarys. We are so loved!
Look at this picture of Jesus, look how the Spirit embraces Him,
He cannot see Him, perceive Him, but He is there! remember that
when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death!
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“In darkness, at times of tribulation and distress of the spirit,
Jesus is with you. In such a state you see nothing but darkness,
but I can assure you on God's behalf that the light of the Lord
is all around you and pervades your spirit. You see yourself forsaken
and I assure you that Jesus is holding you tighter than ever to
His divine Heart.”
Dear Little Hearts,
Love and sacrifice are inseparable, love will call us in many ways
during our life to sacrifice ourselves, it may call us to lay our
dreams and desires upon the altar.
Often it will be in little ways, our time, our strength, our availability,
but it will also ask of us some greater sacrifice. We prepare for
the greater sacrifice by having practised the surrender, abandonment
in the lesser things, by saying, yes to the little sacrifices.
There is always a pain in letting go, either a situation or a person
... but the pain we experience through love is a diamond that we
can offer to God for graces for souls.
Our Christian vocation will often call us to sacrifice, as
Christian s there are many things that we should not involve ourselves
in, fill our minds with ... our love for Christ will demand that
we choose the better part, even if we are surrounded by people who
knowingly or unknowingly consume “forbidden fruit“.
It can be too because we live in such a violent society that our
life could be asked of us, so many times it has now happened on
our streets that persons have met sudden and violent deaths or attempted
murder and some innocent bystander who went to aid the victim had
died ... it is tragic yes ... but always remember Christ’s words,
“Greater love hath no man that he who lays down his life for his
friends.”
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Love Jesus, love Him very much, but to do this, be ready to love
sacrifice more.”
Dear Little Hearts,
Let these words speak ... ... and if through infirmity, sickness
or other reasons it is not possible for you to actually attend Mass,
nevertheless focus upon the Great Sacrifice of love. The next best
thing is simply to read, ponder upon the prayers of the Mass and
unite our hearts to the Sacrifice being offered up all over the
world, we can be present be desire. And then make a spiritual communion,
acknowledging to Jesus that although you cannot at this moment receive
Him Sacramentally, invite Him to invade and possess your mind, your
heart, your soul, your total being ... say to Him with all you are,
“This is my Body Given up for you!”
Love will unite you.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Renew your faith by attending Holy Mass. Keep your mind focused
on the mystery that is unfolding before your eyes. In your mind's
eye transport yourself to Calvary and meditate on the Victim who
offers Himself to Divine Justice, paying the price of your redemption.”
Dear Little Hearts,
One of the greatest temptations, to be resisted, is to think we
can do it on our own ... that somehow by pitching our wills against
wrong we can achieve victory, of course, to will against evil is
good in itself, but of prime importance is the fact that we accept
and realize
that GOD ... CHRIST is our champion, our Hero, our Warrior ... it
is He who fights our battles ... ours is to cling to Him, to place
ourselves under the shadow of His wings and let His SPIRIT OF LOVE
WORK! The greatest force on earth, despite all appearances,
is DIVINE LOVE. It is not by might that we overcome, but
by love!
Mary too prays, and works under this banner, she who crushes the
serpents head! ... Oh! who can imagine, ever really grasp the beauty
and power of her presence!
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Valiantly fight temptations like strong souls, and fight along
with the Supreme Chief. When you fall, do not stay there prostrated
in body and spirit. Humble yourself greatly but without being discouraged.
Lower yourself without degrading yourself. Wash your imperfections
and falls with sincere tears of contrition, without lacking trust
in divine goodness, which will always be greater than your ingratitude.
Propose to correct your faults, without relying on yourself, but
your strength must be in God alone. Finally, confess sincerely that
if God were not your breast-plate and shield, you would be imprudently
pierced with every kind of sin.”
Dear Little Hearts,
A grace filled, blessed Feast of Corpus Christi to you all!
How the Divine heart loves us and longs for our love, our response
... Learn of me for I am meek and humble and heart and you shall
find rest for your souls!
The HEART of Today's feast is total and utter love.
Let us not loose sight of the fact that despite all secular proclamations,
this month, the month of June has long, traditionally been dedicated
to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Let us return love for love.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“The Heart of our divine Master has no law more lovable than that
of gentleness, humility and charity.”
Dear Little Hearts,
On Friday we shall be celebrating the great love feast of the Sacred
Heart, so let this week be one in which, in the company of Mary,
and Saint Pio we focus on the HEART of Christ that so loves us.
He is the Divine Lover, our Father, Friend, Brother ... our ALL
Sacred Heart of Jesus, Great heart of God I place all my trust in
thee!
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“What else can I say to you? May the grace and peace of the Holy
Spirit always be at the centre of your heart. Place your heart in
the open side of the Saviour and unite it with the King of our hearts
who is within them as on a royal throne, in order that He might
receive homage and obedience from all other hearts. He keeps his
door open so that everybody can approach Him and gain an audience
at all times. And when your heart speaks to Him, don't forget, my
dearest child, to speak in favour of mine, so that his divine and
cordial Majesty may render it good, obedient, faithful and less
wretched than it is.”
Dear Little Hearts,
These are the words that all lovers long to hear, and that all lovers
should long to give to the beloved ...
How can we ever tell enough the one we love ... “I love you!”...
within those words I invest my total being, my past, present and
future, everything. I am saying above all I choose YOU!
But always within us is that awareness that we want to love and
give more ... because ultimately when we have poured out every drop
of love upon the Beloved, then perfected in love we will be called
home to Heaven.
Love is his meaning is all things, only love ...
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“Jesus, I love You very much; it is useless to repeat it to You,
I love You. My Love, my Love. Only You! Praise be to You alone.”
Dear Little Hearts,
Pax et Bonum! Peace and goodness was the proclamation of
St Francis ... and Saint Pio being a true son of St Francis sought
to bring peace in many ways to souls.
Padre Pio in his lifetime gave counsel to many servicemen, many
sought his blessing and wise counsel.
Many of you have sons in the military entrust them to the prayers
of Saint Padre Pio, he will understand the pain and struggles in
your heart.
His whole life was an offering for souls, ask him to intercede for
your son, father or brother.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Oh, if I had an infinite number of hearts, all the hearts in Heaven
and earth, your Mother's heart, Jesus, I would offer them all, every
one of them to You!
Dear Little Hearts,
We are called to be co-workers we Christ, he needs our hands, our
feet, our heart and our tongues! We are all called to parenthood,
to be mothers and fathers of souls! When life is challenging and
hard let us try and see the value in accepting the Will of God,
so that we in turn may win grace for souls!
From
the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“Let us remember that the Heart of Jesus has called us not only
for our own sanctification, but also for that of other souls. He
wants to be helped in the salvation of souls.”
Dear Little Hearts,
A Blessed, grace filled Feast of the Sacred Heart! His heart is
an open door bidding you enter and know HIS LOVE! He makes a place
for you to abide even as he abides within you ... Love him totally,
even as he loves you totally.
Nothing can be compared to the love of Christ, nothing and no one
can bring us the joys of love like Jesus ... for his love is Divine
...
This is YOUR feast day little hearts for you are all called to be
in some way a reflection, a cell of his heart, beating for the kingdom.
Happy Feast! How much St Pio loved the Great Heart of Jesus!
Let us follow him.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“May the Heart of Jesus be the centre of all your inspirations.”
Dear Little Hearts,
A grace filled feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary What is “Home“?
Home is a Mothers Heart and a Fathers arms.
Saint Pio was born in this humble, simple dwelling place.
Poverty was his daily bread but with joy!
Love built the home, the walls were made of faith ... This was Gods
will that forever Pio would understand the hearts and struggles
of the poor, both those without means and the spiritually destitute
...
He understood clearly from his childhood upwards the need, his need
for a Mother ... how he clung to her through all his long life,
trusting as a child.
How faithful he was to his mothers words, “Do
whatever he tells you“...
It is madness to think that we are so grown up, so mature, as not
to need a mother, a father, there remains in us until the day we
die and beyond ... a small child, our true authentic “self'“ and
it is this that God and his Holy Mother long to possess ...
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Some people are foolish enough to believe that they can get through
their whole life without any help from the Blessed Virgin Mary.”
Dear Little Hearts,
All of us on our Christian journey are influenced by those
holy men and women, saints and martyrs that went before us.
This is also true of Saint Pio who had a simple and great devotion
to the Mother of God and the Saints.
Today if it were not a Sunday would be the feast day of another
great Franciscan St, St Anthony of Padua.
Saint Pio is known to have prayed to St Anthony and sought his support
and prayers.
This proves yet again how within the mystical body of Christ we
are all interconnected.
We have every reason to be humble, for all that we have and are
is Gods gift and what others have contributed to our lives both
in the temporal and spiritual realm.
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
(To his spiritual director) “I would like permission to fast twice
a month once in honour of Our Lady and once in honour of St Anthony.
This is a promise I made, having asked for a certain grace that
was granted through the intercession of them both.”
Dear Little Hearts,
There is such joy to be found ultimately in abandonment to God ...
it is a supreme act of love, just to surrender with a total trust
and expectation of the good.
We love God'in relationship, child to Father, Beloved to Beloved
... HIS STRONG UNSEEN ARMS HOLD US, how he loves us.
God is not surprised at our weakness so why are we? acknowledgement
of what we truly are is humility ...
No matter how poorly we may evaluate ourselves to be, to God we
are infinitely precious and dear ...
Prayer is really very simple, just abandon yourself to his Sweet
Will and cling to him as a child ...
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“Do not be at all surprised at your weakness, but acknowledge what
you are, and blush at your infidelity towards God, then confide
in Him and abandon yourself tranquilly in the arms of the Heavenly
Father, like a child in the arms of its mother.”
Dear Little Hearts,
It is a wonder of our God, that is, if, we will but turn to him,
he can supply, make up, all that is wanting in us to love others
totally.
We all know where we fail, but what we lack, shows us our need of
HIM ...
In and with his grace all things are possible.
In Holy Communion Jesus comes to us so small and vulnerable under
the sign of small piece of bread, the HOST ...
Imagine him coming to you as the Infant Christ, the Babe at Bethlehem
... and ask yourself as Padre Pio did, “With what must I feed you“?
... only one response is needful ...
I WILL FEED YOU WITH LOVE ...
I will feed the littleness of others humanity ... with love!
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Jesus, You always come into my soul. With what food must I feed
You? With love! But my love is so wanting, Jesus I love You very
much, make up for my love.”
Dear Little Hearts,
Bless you! In today's extract from the writings of Saint Papa Pio
is a profoundly true and wise statement, it should be taken to the
heart and reflected upon for it has the potential to bear great
fruit in our lives, it is: (talking of our sins)
“the sin itself becomes a stepping-stone which brings us closer,
which raises us up, which leads us to Him more securely.“
We should never allow our sins, our weaknesses, to become a focus
for depression, for inertia, avoidance of God and a reason to “hide“
from God or “escape“ His call'.
NO! Our sinfulness, our falls are much rather, or should be, through
trust, repentance, getting up and going on, our path to God.
They are a means by which we can experience his great love and mercy.
We show our love and trust of him to the degree that we say sorry
and have the courage to continue ...
He knows all that is within us, and loves us ... so who are we to
think that we can fall beyond Gods love and care?
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Let us love Jesus for his divine greatness, for his power in Heaven
and on earth, for his infinite merits, but also and above all out
of gratitude. Had He not been so good towards us but more severe,
how much less we would have sinned! But when sin is followed with
profound sorrow, with an honest resolution of never sinning again,
an intense understanding of the great pain we have given to the
mercy of God; when having rent the hardest fibres of our hearts
we manage to shed scalding tears of repentance and love then, my
son, the sin itself becomes a stepping-stone which brings us closer,
which raises us up, which leads us to Him more securely.”
Dear Little Hearts,
How much we need to hear the voices of the Saints calling us upward
to God ... It is so easy to become ensnared by the trappings and
allurements of this world, but we are called to far greater things
than those which we can see before us with our bodily eyes, we are
called to see even now his face with the eyes of our soul as it
were.
All things pale compared to HIM.
We are called not only to the experiences of Calvary in this life
but also Tabor, where God will in some way through a situation,
a person, reveal his glory.
Let us not miss the many splendored thing, HIS GREAT LOVE
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“I never cease to implore blessings for you from Jesus, and to beg
the Lord to transform you totally in Him. Oh my children! How beautiful
is his face, how sweet his eyes and what a good thing it is to stay
close to Him on the Mount of his glory! We must place all our desires
and affections there ... Contrary to our every merit, we are on
the steps of Tabor, by having a firm determination to love and serve
his divine goodness well.”
Dear Little Hearts,
At times we all need solitude, we all feel the need to draw apart
and be with God ... just to be!
But it must never be at the expense of our God given duties relating
to our specific state of life.
It is a fact that this can even be a temptation to want to be on
ones own, and then when one has the time ... to wish one was back
in company! ... In actual fact we don't know what we want at times,
but this restlessness is because basically we want God! Surrender
to the time and space HE allows, which may not necessarily be the
time you want to choose.
The God given solitude, the God given time, is so very very precious
... and full of grace.
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“By all means seek solitude, but do not lack charity with your neighbour.”
Dear Little Hearts,
No matter how hard and challenging life is at times, it is always
an opportunity to grow in love, to grow in trust towards God and
to grow in our quality and love of one another ... God calls us
forward to holiness ...
Behind the invitation to charity, our Heavenly Father is providing
the food for our life and soul that will purify us and perfect us
...
The greatest ideal a human being can aspire to is to become totally
love for others ...
Let us abide in HIM ...
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Charity, wherever it comes from, is always the daughter of the
same mother, that is, Providence.”
Dear Little Hearts,
Today is Fathers Day! Let us praise God for the gift
of Fatherhood, Fatherhood that reveals to us the tenderness, the
care, the protection, and providence of our Heavenly Father ...
We need the human instruments, icons, witnesses of Fatherhood in
the here and now, it is such a responsibility for a father because
really his vocation is to draw others to the arms of the Heavenly
Father.
A priest should be a true Father, a life giver, through blessing,
counsel, correction, instruction ... such was — is Our Father, Padre
Pio ... he called all his children!
Let us give thanks, express thanks to all fathers this day for all
that they are and mean to us.
A Blessed day to you all.
The Heart of A Priest, is the Heart of a Father
Dear Little Hearts,
Sometimes dramatic language is needed to convey a point, and here
Padre Pio does precisely that!
It needs to be said that he was unequivocal in addressing sin, and
would speak Gods truth even if it meant causing a “temporary pain”
within another, but here Padre is speaking of not wanting to be
the cause of making another suffer through a failure in love of
negligence on his part.
Sensitivity to what we proffer others is very necessary ...
This extract shows clearly the Saints ability to lead others to
God, but always offering others the 'Divine Mind' first, and not
simply delivering human wisdom
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“I would prefer to be stabbed with a steel blade, rather than make
someone suffer.”
Dear Little Hearts,
It is good at times to be reminded of the task we have to do as
co-workers with Christ! To remove all the stones from our own hearts
before we try moving those within others!
As we work we are hopefully, creating order in one way or another,
and in that way sharing in the work of our Heavenly Father ...
We all work in the vineyard of the Church, may we all bear the fruit
that comes from abiding in his sweet will.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Jesus and your soul must cultivate the vine in agreement. Your
task is to remove the stones, pull away the thorns. Jesus is to
sow, plant, cultivate and water. But even in your work there is
the work of Jesus. Without Him, you can do nothing.”
Dear Little Hearts,
“Love is not a feeling its an act of the will“... therein lies true
love, that our response to God, our response to others lies not
just in our emotional reactions and responses, but that we will
to do the good.
That is all a preparation for prayer, for in aridity if we simply
relied on our feelings we would get nowhere.
But to express our love, when in darkness and aridity that is holiness,
for it shows that we regard the other greater than ourselves.
Oh let us be the heart of God for others! through love.
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“A single act of love of God, made during a period of aridity is
worth more than a hundred made with affection and consolation.
Dear Little Hearts,
What a beautiful thing the Divine Patience is ... how it speaks
to us of the Great Love of Our God ... we fall time and time again
and yet his loving Fatherhood, stoops down and lifts us up ...
How much love we too can communicate to another when their behaviour,
speech is found wanting, and yet we find it in our hearts to pray,
to wait patiently for the good to come forth from them.
Always hope for the good no matter how unpromising appearances may
seem, God can do all things ...
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“God loves us, and this is shown by the fact that He tolerates us
when we offend Him.”
Dear Little Hearts,
Each day we pray to God the OUR FATHER ... amongst the -petitions
we say, “Give us this day our daily bread”...
Why are then we surprised when God responds totally and gives us
the “daily bread”, the ordinary bread of each day?'
The whole thing is it is BREAD ... if it is dry, the day may be,
humanly speaking, wanting ... but if so, that is the best for us
for that day, God knows what He is about ...
There is something very very beautiful doing ordinary things, humbly
and with love in our daily round of life.
God has given us our DAILY BREAD he has given us life ... in the
here and now ... Let us abandon ourselves to whatever he offers
and calls us too.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“If God does not offer you sweetness, then you must still be content,
patiently eating your bread, even if it is dry, doing your duty
without any compensation, for the present. By doing this our love
for God is selfless, and one loves and serves God in this way at
one's own expense, a behaviour that pertains to perfect souls.”
Dear Little Hearts,
To “attain to, love without fear“ that Scripture talks of, is for
most of us a long hard journey. Fear is ever a bad counselor and
yet how often we fall into its trap.
Growth in HIS love, and espoused to grace alone will cast our fear
within us ... the more he increases within us the less fear our
souls will know ...
But the fear Saint Pio speaks of here, is that holy fear, that awe,
attentiveness to be mindful of Gods will and heart ... to be truly
influenced by HIM and his will ... to be sensitive to his NO ...
and accept it with love, that is Holy Fear
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“We must continually implore two things from our most tender Lord:
that He increase within us love and fear, for love will make us
fly in the ways of the Lord, fear will make us careful where we
set foot; love will make us see the things of the world for what
they are, fear will lead us to beware of negligence. Then when love
and fear have kissed, it is no longer in our power to give our affection
to the things of this world.”
Dear Little Hearts,
Love is the only indestructible force ... When we are loved, when
we accept love and give love, we are becoming the person God created
us to be ... his love in this world.
In actual fact we can never demand that another love us, we may
endear ourselves to another, but there is nothing within our own
strength that we can do, to make them love us.
Love is a gift, to be entrusted with the strengths and vulnerabilities
of another is an awesome thing ... we stand on HOLY GROUND. True
love respects the other, true love is humble, and accepts that if
a specific door does not open to “our love” then God has another
purpose for us, or another person.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Only love can make us indomitable and the language of love is being
convinced of confidence. How beautiful love is when received as
a gift and how ugly if sought after or demanded.”
Dear Little Hearts,
In one sense we are all responsible for souls, we may not be a priest
or a religious, but the responsibility as Christian s is nevertheless
ours, to labour for souls, not only by prayer but by example and
service.
We should try with all love, all patience, all goodness to support
and help others to choose the good ... the example of our own life
should speak! ...
Sometimes God allows us to see a soul in great error and sin, having
tried all other means what Padre Pio is saying here is, then apply
hard love ... giving the other the Christian
ideal and perspective ... speak the words God give you ... because
then you have offered before God that which is right ... it is for
the other then to make the right choice, he has the freedom of the
children of God, then leave it in the mercy and hands of God!
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“You who are responsible for souls, try with love, with much love,
with all your love; and if that is useless ... punish because Jesus
who is our model, taught us this, creating Paradise but also Hell.”
Dear Little Hearts,
One of the surest ways to pray is to live in gratitude for all our
Saviour has done for us ... a grateful heart is a praying heart,
and we see in the lives of all the saints this trait, this virtue,
gratitude ...
Sadly in this life all too much, and all too many people are taken
for granted and that which often enhance, endow the life of another
is left unsaid ...
Gratitude should be as natural as breathing, and so should prayer
...
Give thanks to the giver of Grace from whom all things proceed.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Let us look with profound gratitude at that sublime mystery which
attracts the Heart of Jesus to his creatures with such force; let
us look at the great condescension with which He put on our own
flesh to live the miserable life of this earth in our midst; let
us muster up all the forces of our intellect to consider worthily
the tenacious fervour and hardship of his apostolate, to recall
the horrors of his passion and martyrdom and to adore his Blood
... royally offered to the last drop for the redemption of mankind;
then with humble faith and the same ardent love with which He surrounds
and pursues our souls, let us bow our impure foreheads at his feet.”
Dear Little Hearts,
We have all known at some time or another that feeling of bitterness
because of some painful or negative experience we have had either
in our relationships with others or when the Cross has laid at our
feet some great challenge and suffering.
Bitterness often comes through disappointment, betrayal, untruthfulness,
when a situation or a person has not met with our expectation ...
To feel bitterness is a human emotion, it is potentially dangerous
as it can sour our whole attitude to others, others who more than
likely are innocent, our trust has been broken ... and the tendency
to look on everything with a negative is very tempting.
BUT ... NO!
God sees all, he knows the whole picture, and if we will but struggle
and turn to him, we will receive the graces of sweetness which will
counteract out bitterness, with him we can learn to let it go ...
We may feel loaded down with silent tears because of an inner bitterness,
turn to God let his Holy Spirit work in the depths of your being
... let his love flood your soul, invite him, and keep on inviting
him ... his love alone can remove this bitterness and give you the
grace to let the past go.
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
The more bitterness you have, the more love you will receive.
Dear Little Hearts,
See the heart of a spiritual Father ... see the heart of a true
priest, one who has concern for those entrusted to him by God ...
who well understands their weakness and frailty, likening them to
little birds ... knowing that only with love and grace will they
actually learn to fly ...
But for those of us not in Holy Orders there is also laid upon us
that responsibility of love for those entrusted to us by God.
We are all called to parenthood, to nurture life ...
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Arise once more, oh Lord, and confirm in your grace, those whom
you confided to me, and don't permit any of them to be lost, deserting
the nest.”
Dear Little Hearts,
This is the daily horarium that Saint Pio followed, the life he
led, year in and year out, he, like many Capuchin brothers lived
this sacrificial and blessed life for love of Jesus and his kingdom,
and for souls ... well aware that he could do nothing without allowing
himself to be transformed by Christ into a ‘new creation’... he
needed to become an ever purer vessel to hold his Lord. This is
the life that formed him and made him holy.
It is such a wonderful example of priesthood and no wonder that
God often works such graces through his intercession.
He loved his God, Mary, the angels and Saints.
His vocation and priesthood.
His community.
His spiritual children.
When at times we count the cost, just look to the example of this
generosity and love.
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“All I want is to be is poor and a simple friar that prays“.
Padre Pio’s Daily Life as
a Capuchin
3:00 a.m. : His day began. He liked to spend several hours
in prayer and meditation before Mass.
He would not celebrate Mass prior to 5:00 a.m.
Celebration of Mass – could last up to 2 hours
Padre Pio would bless, meet, and talk to people in the sacristy
while vesting
After Mass and removing his vestments, Padre Pio would proceed to
the choir on the balcony above the small Church and make prayers
of thanksgiving.
Then he heard confessions. – all morning (would take
a morning break) and several hours in the afternoon
12:00 Noon – would have lunch in the friary refectory
After lunch would go into the garden for 30 minutes of recreation
Would then take a short siesta
Pray a rosary
Early afternoon joined the community for afternoon Office
Would have private prayer time in the choir, sometimes for 2 hours
Would then work on correspondence
Mid Afternoon – resumed hearing confessions
4:30 p.m. Vespers and Benediction
Go into the garden for ten or fifteen minutes
At supper would join his community for juice and a cracker (By 1950,
he was eating only an ounce of food a day.)
At sundown he would bless the people underneath the window of the
choir
In the evening he would confer with other priests, deliver a lecture
in town, or work on more correspondence
Late in the evening Padre Pio joined the community in Compline,
the Night Office
The rest of the community would go to sleep, Padre Pio would study
Scripture and pray
Nightly he would visit Padre Agostino’s room and get his blessing
Go to his room and read the Bible until 12:45 a.m., until
it was time for Matins.
Then he would join 20 friars in the choir
At 1:30 a.m. would lay down
Dear Little Hearts,
We are according to St Francis and Clare whom Saint Pio followed,
“Strangers and pilgrims in this land“. We have here no lasting home,
no abiding city ...
Much that we carry, suffer, would be seen in a greater perspective
if we looked constantly to the goal and end of all our struggles,
strivings and efforts.
This life is but a pale reflection of that which is to come ...
where the totality of love will be ours and we shall see our God.
Life passes, it passes quicker than we often realise, and to keep
our eyes upon Jesus will allow eternity to be reflected in our eyes
...
Saint Pio knew and lived this well ...
For all the times of happiness we do experience the truth is that
this life remains a Vale of tears ... pray with Mary, to Mary,“And
after this our exile show unto us the Blessed fruit of thy womb,
Jesus!
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“This present life is given to us in order to acquire the eternal,
but due to lack of reflection we base our affections on that which
pertains to this world. Believe me, in order to live happily we
must keep before our eyes the hope of reaching our homeland where
we will be for all eternity.”
Dear Little Hearts,
At times we can all be tempted to think that we will attain a greater
unity, closeness with our God through reading various spiritual
writers, or some specific book. The way of prayer is much simpler
and accessible than many people would believe.
Prayer is above all things and primarily a gift of the Holy Spirit,
it is the SPIRIT, it is LOVE that prays within us, without love
we cannot pray ... we can talk but that is not necessarily praying.
To pray we surrender ourselves to the unseen presence ...
It is true that the soul needs nurturing and feeding, first upon
the Eucharist and then upon his WORD ... the words that fall from
his lips ... it is loves exchange!
Saint Pio puts it so well, prayer is a pouring out of the heart
into the heart of God! that we give and give out of our true authentic
selves all we are unto HIM.
He wants our heart, our love ... he wants us to come to him as we
are! how consoling, how blessed! No matter what the pain the struggle,
the doubts, the fears, he wants us to tell him ... OH! listen to
the beating of the Fathers heart ... and return love for love.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Praying is the pouring of our heart into the heart of God”
Dear Little Hearts,
Much media focus has been put up the various volcanic eruptions
around the world in recent times, and in particular because of all
the disruption it has created, the Volcano in Iceland.
It is often thought of, or regarded in a very negative way, purely
from the way it has invaded what man thinks is his space, but is
actually God's space!
A volcano is actually not just a place of apparent destruction,
but a place of rebirth, it is where new land mass is formed, it
is all part of the constant renewal of the planet.
It has a life cycle, a period of dormancy, activity and death, it
exudes, ash, lava, fire and cloud ...
All these elements are potentially within the human soul, and they
are all part of the spiritual life cycle within us ... at times
we know the bursting forth of the love for God which we feel our
hearts cannot contain, at others our inner life seems as it were
in ashes! and sometimes we live as it were in a cloud where
light seems hidden ... but the whole point is that where life is,
nothing is static and underneath, maybe imperceptible, is life ...
Creation is a sacramental, a book to read for our souls ...
How great a mystery, how beautiful is our God!
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“I confess in the first place, that for me it is a great misfortune
to be unable to express and pour out this ever-active volcano which
burns me up, and which Jesus has placed in this very small heart.
It can all be summed up as follows: I am consumed by love for God
and love for my neighbour.”
Dear Little Hearts,
It is a great delusion if we think the spiritual life will provide
us with total peace accompanied by feelings of self satisfaction,
and that, because we count ourselves amongst those who have faith
our life will know nothing but blessings and apparent tangible good.
No! the spiritual life, the Christian journey is one of a
constant battle, a battle between light and darkness, good and evil,
we are all in some way called to be Soldiers for Christ, Warrior
Maidens for Christ and his kingdom.
God needs us, he needs us to reveal him to others, he needs us to
give the witness of the choice for good, the choice for life.
Gods needful heart needs us to speak his words, he needs us to be
warriors for himself and for Mary, that others may gaze in the mirror
and glimpse the Divine ... what a responsibility.
Precisely because we are praying and struggling for souls to come
to faith and light, precisely because we see communion and union
of persons as a good, the evil one will try and divide and create
chaos, he cannot abide any kind of harmony in music, deeds, or word.
So be prepared, vigilant, we all have a task to do, we all have
a unique place in his plan of things, but it will involve challenge,
battle and pain. Oh! Little hearts He is worth it all,
everything we suffer and endure, he is worth it all, this great
God of ours, in whose arms, please God by his mercy we shall all
soon be.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“The field of battle between God and Satan is the human soul. This
is where it takes place every moment of our lives. The soul must
give free access to our Lord and be completely fortified by Him
with every kind of weapon; His light must illuminate it to fight
the darkness of error; it must put on Jesus Christ, His truth and
justice, the shield of Faith, the word of God to overcome such powerful
enemies. To put on Jesus Christ we must die to ourselves.”
Dear Little Hearts,
We all know that sin, fault, weakness that most hinders us from
union with our God. But often although we are aware of the sin,
(which may be habitual) we tend to allow ourselves to feel helpless
and discouraged knowing that ... very soon we are going to fall
into
the same trap again. The fight against sin is relentless, but our
sins can be if we allow them our authentic path to God ... they
are that which allows us to see that of ourselves we cannot raise
ourselves out of them, that we need his grace, his forgiveness.
We truly can do all things in him who strengthens us!
Our sins should be or result in true humility.
Avoiding occasions of sin takes application of our will and the
choice to do the good and flee from evil. Above all we need to acknowledge
before and to our God our guilt and admit to him our true motivations
for what we have done.
When we sin the worst thing we can do is hide, for that becomes
an opportunity for the evil one to manipulate us and invade us.
No! In prayer we lift that sin unto God, he knows us, we
express our sorrow and plead for grace. He loves us and wants us
back ... so run, run into the arms of our Father and know peace!
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Focus on and remove the defect that most prevents you from joining
God”
Dear Little Hearts,
A Blessed, Blessed grace filled Feast of Pentecost! Pentecost was
not created at the coming of the Spirit upon the Apostles and Mary
in the Acts of the Apostles! It was the feast of harvest, the feast
of gathering in, in the Jewish year and liturgy!
A time when life is gathered in, in abundance with thanksgiving
and joy!
Throw your heart wide open to God and his grace this day, that you
too will know joy and his Divine Touch! you are so loved.
This is in a way for us if we are receptive a “harvest of grace”.
Saint Pio as a young man lived in rural Italy, a very poor and somewhat
part of the Galgano area in Italy, he knew the value of harvest,
and looked to the land often to find examples he could offer to
others of the divine teaching.
Look at this extract today! let us be the grain stalks that are
bent to the ground, laden with fruit for the kingdom, humble and
close to Our God!
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Have you ever seen a field of fully ripened grain? You will see
that some ears are tall and vigorous; while others are bent to the
ground. Try to take the tall one, the most vain, you will see that
it is empty; if instead you take the low ones, the most humble,
these are laden with grain. From this you can deduce that vanity
is empty.”
Dear Little Hearts,
In this is our happiness and peace, to be faithful to what we have
promised our God, our marriage vows, our vows of consecration, or
that which we pledged to God for the good, to avoid the evil ...
Faithfulness to HIM, faithfulness to grace will bring great blessings
and rewards, not without a struggle, but we are after all only surrendering
back to God what he first gave us.
In this or that state of life he will perfect us and make us holy.
The most beautiful icon of faithfulness is Mary beneath the Cross
... loving him to the end and beyond, being present no matter what
life demanded ...
The world? a feather on the wind, sand between our fingers, all
will pass away ... and is even now passing away ...
Let us keep our eyes fixed upon Heaven and the joy that lies ahead
...
Jesus is worth it all!
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Always be faithful to God in observing the promises you made Him,
and pay no attention to the mocking of the foolish. Know that the
saints never payed attention to the world and the worldly, and they
placed the world and its maxims under their feet.”
Dear Little Hearts,
Do not become anxious if for all your seeming good efforts and strivings
you feel as if you are getting nowhere! Do not be tempted to think
“I have not changed“ ... “I fall into the same sin time and time
again“... If we keep our wills, minds and hearts focused on the
good, at Gods hour and by his grace, we will flower, no matter how
unpromising things may appear, all things are possible to our God
... and he wills us to become WHOLE and holy, so trust him ...
Every gardener likes to see his garden grow, he likes to see growth
and development, and takes joy in the seasons of the earth, likewise
God takes delight in our growth, he sees the minutest step forward
...
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint Padre Pio)
“You should not be discouraged, because if there is in the soul
a continual effort to improve, the Lord will finally reward you
by suddenly making all the virtues blossom in you as in a garden
full of flowers.”
Dear Little Hearts,
The simplicity of this extract is beautiful ... in fact we have
set these few lines to music and often sing this to Jesus in the
Holy Sacrament. “Jesus take this heart of mine, fill it with your
love, then do with me what you will, what you will” ...
This is the gift that Christ really waits for, the gift of our heart,
our innermost being and self, the child deep deep down within.
When the heart is filled with love all things are possible ... it
is this exchange of hearts that makes us Holy and in which Gods
word is fulfilled, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit
within you“.
(Saint Padre Pio) had a childlike love of Jesus and Mary, he gave
his heart, even to the point of being wounded ...
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“This heart of mine is Yours ... my Jesus, so take this heart of
mine, fill it with Your love and then order me to do whatever You
wish.”
Dear Little Hearts,
We all know the difference between the works of the Spirit and the
work of the evil one ... but all too often we attribute to all too
human causes the reasons for our confusion, perplexities, crippling
fears, and pain ... none of these things are from God, for where
His Spirit is, there is peace, acceptance of what
his will asks of us.
In his WILL is our peace ... In his will is always a kiss of mercy.
On the other hand, the oppressive whirlwind which attempts to throw
dust in our eyes obscure our vision and path is not of God ...
When these trials come upon you call on the saving name of Jesus
... and cry out no matter what the circumstances are, “Oh! God I
will, to do your will“ ...
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“The Spirit of God is a spirit of peace and even in the most serious
faults He makes us feel a sorrow that is tranquil, humble, and confident
and this is precisely because of his mercy.
The spirit of the devil, instead, excites, exasperates and makes
us feel, in that very sorrow, anger against ourselves, whereas we
should on the contrary be charitable with ourselves first and foremost.
Therefore if any thought agitates you, this agitation never comes
from God, who gives you peace, being the Spirit of Peace, but from
the devil.”
Dear Little Hearts,
We all know the difference between the works of the Spirit and the
work of the evil one ... but all too often we attribute to all too
human causes the reasons for our confusion, perplexities, crippling
fears, and pain ... none of these things are from God, for where
His SPIRIT IS, there is peace, acceptance of what his will asks
of us.
In his WILL is our peace ... In his will is always a kiss of mercy.
On the other hand, the oppressive whirlwind which attempts to throw
dust in our eyes obscure our vision and path is not of God ...
When these trials come upon you call on the saving name of Jesus
... and cry out no matter what the circumstances are,“Oh! God I
will, to do your will“...
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“The Spirit of God is a spirit of peace and even in the most serious
faults He makes us feel a sorrow that is tranquil, humble, and confident
and this is precisely because of his mercy. The spirit of the devil,
instead, excites, exasperates and makes us feel, in that very sorrow,
anger against ourselves, whereas we should on the contrary be charitable
with ourselves first and foremost. Therefore if any thought agitates
you, this agitation never comes from God, who gives you peace, being
the Spirit of Peace, but from the devil.”
Dear Little Hearts,
We can learn so much from reading the “Book of Nature”, it can tell
us so much about ourselves and our spiritual journey:
Each season of the soul has its own value and beauty, and its pain
...
The Barrenness of Winter
The Hope of Spring
The Joy of Summer
The Pain of loss in Autumn ... but together they make a beautiful
whole, they make up life, for nothing is ever static where there
is LIFE, this should give us hope in all things, that wherever we
find ourselves at this present moment, we will move on, and things
will change ...
So hope in God and praise Him still.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“I see that all the seasons of the year can be found in your souls.
Sometimes you feel the winter of much sterility, distractions, listlessness
and boredom; sometimes the dews of the month of May with the perfume
of holy little flowers (small sacrifices); sometimes the heat of
the desire to please our divine Spouse. Nothing remains but the
autumn in which you don't see much fruit, but it often happens that
when the grain is threshed and the grapes crushed, there is a bigger
harvest than the harvesting promised.”
Dear Little Hearts,
A Blessed Feast of the Most Holy Trinity! The Heart of Jesus which
is the Heart of the Father and the Love of the Holy Spirit calls
us today within its depths to give us love and to draw us into HIM.
O the holiness and beauty of Our God, let us give honour to the
most Holy Trinity, our great Saint Bede died with the words upon
his lips, Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy
Spirit ...
We are called to be co-workers with our God for souls ... pray for
those today who do not know him.
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“Let us remember that the Heart of Jesus has called us not only
for our own sanctification, but also for that of other souls. He
wants to be helped in the salvation of souls.”
Dear Little Hearts,
I wish you Grace filled feast of the Visitation!
The symbol of the dove is scripture always indicates life! What
a beautiful vignette this is to imagine in our hearts eye to see
the soul of Mary FLYING UPWARDS to her Son and God ...
This speaks to us of the yearning of love, and even in this life
while yet living our souls tend upwards with such longing to be
one with him.
Yes May this sweet Mother smile upon you and bring you at last to
her Son in bliss.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Mary’s holy soul, like a dove set free, left her saintly body and
flew to the bosom of her Beloved. May the Mother of Jesus, and our
Mother, always smile on your spirit, obtaining for it, from her
Most Holy Son, every Heavenly blessing.”
Dear Little Hearts,
We live in societies that despite encroaching, apparent effects
of recession, often, do not know how to be a good stewards, how
to spend the money they possess well and to the good. So much money
is still spent on trivia, things totally superfluous to life ...
We have a Christian responsibility to spend our money for
the good of our families, children, communities, well. That they
are in some way to the building up, sustaining, and support to LIFE.
Our savings are not only money, they are also TIME, which we can
hoard, use selfishly or utilize for the good of others ...
Thank you Holy Spirit when the words of your saints disturb me,
its you trying to all me to a better choice.
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“Make Christian use of your money and savings and then so
much misery will disappear and so many suffering bodies and afflicted
beings will find relief and comfort.
Dear Little Hearts,
How well we know this! how slowly we die in the face of contradictions,
suffering, and our own will.
But as Jesus said, “Unless the grain of wheat
fall to the ground and die ... it remains just that a grain of wheat”,
but in its falling and dying its “life“ becomes fecund.
To the one who has learnt to accept Gods sweet will and not their
own, death will come not with terror but a sweet release because
all these “little deaths” are all a preparation for the great moment
when we pass totally into our God.
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“Life is nothing but a continual struggle against oneself, and it
does not open to beauty without the price of suffering. Always keep
Jesus company in Gethsemane and He will know how to comfort you
in the hours of anguish that will come.”
Dear Little Hearts,
We would probably not express this is the same words, more than
likely we would wrap it up in words that are more “acceptable“...
but we all know this temptation to act in anger, to pay another
back, to get even, we all know that desire to let the other know
“we understand the game”...
But Jesus Christ asks so much more from us, not paying back with
evil but with a blessing.
Forgiveness of our enemies can be a hard challenge and we may fall
many times, but the way forward is to keep always before our eyes
the words of Jesus and the ideal.
Gradually we learn that we are the ones who suffer from words or
deeds that are revengeful, it hardens our hearts ...
Slander is a terrible cross to bear, but with Jesus we can do it,
we can know peace by knowing inwardly that we have conducted ourselves
according to Gods law and will.
We have a great responsibility, and that is the taming of our tongue
... for it can create great devastation and harm ...
Pray for our enemies and do good to those who hate us with this
comes the greatest of blessings from Christ — True peace of soul.
From the Heart of A Priest:
Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio)
“Never has the thought of revenge crossed my mind. I have prayed
for the slanderers and I pray. If anything, sometimes I have said
to the Lord: “Lord if to convert them a lash is necessary, then
give it to me so that they may be saved.”
Dear Little
Hearts,
There are no words to adequately describe the beauties of Mary,
countless saints, martyrs, painters, poets, and holy persons have
tried, but none have captured her beauty is totality. Can we even
ever begin to imagine really, the depths of beauty, holiness and
goodness is the deep pools of Mary’s eyes?
Artists may capture something of her gestures, apparel, but her
eyes? that is impossibly for her eyes are the very mirror of her
soul, total purity and love. In this moth of May let us seek to
honour Mary in many little ways. Saint Pio loved her with a singular
love ... let us ask him that we too will have recourse to Mary as
Mother of Grace.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Beautiful Mother, you are so beautiful. If it were not for faith,
men would think you were a goddess. Your eyes are more resplendent
than the sun, you are beautiful Mother, I glory in it, I love you.
Please help me.”
Dear Little Hearts,
Humility and Faith are needed to pray the Rosary ... Humility that
we accept our humble, struggling efforts, with all its distractions,
aridities and failures, knowing with the heart of a child that our
gifts no matter how poor are so pleasing to God and make our Heavenly
Mother smile with love.
Faith, that we believe the Gospel and its message in the specific
mystery we are praying, and that we believe that our prayers “makes
a difference”...
The praying of the Rosary can, literally keep us alive in many ways,
and at times it can lead us into the deepest contemplation.
(Saint Padre Pio)relied on his Rosary as a weapon in the battle against evil,
and as an instrument and channel of love to commune with God and
Mary.
Today beneath Padre Pio's quote and picture, I include for you some
beautiful short mediations on the Joyful mysteries of the Rosary
from the great Archbishop Fulton Sheen ... a man who so loved Mary.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Hold on tightly to the Rosary. Be very grateful to the Madonna
because it was she who gave us Jesus. Love our Lady and make her
loved; always recite the Rosary and recite it as often as possible.”
THE JOYFUL MYSTERIES
First Joyful Mystery: the Annunciation
In human love man desires, woman gives. In Divine Love, God seeks,
the soul responds. God asks Mary to give Him a human nature with
which He may start a new humanity. Mary agrees. A woman's role is
to be the medium by which God comes to man. A woman is frustrated
who does not bring forth a new man, either physically, by birth,
or spiritually, [222] by conversion. And every man is frustrated
who knows not both his earthly and his Heavenly mother, Mary.
Second Joyful Mystery: the Visitation
Love that refuses to share kills its own power to love. Mary not
only wants others to share her love, but also her Beloved.
She brings Christ to souls before Christ is bom. The Gospel tells
us that on seeing Mary, Elizabeth was “filled
with the Holy Spirit.” When we have Christ within, we cannot
be happy until we have imparted our joy. The soul that does not
magnify itself alone can truly magnify the Lord. Out of the humility
of Mary sprang the song of the Magnificat, in which she made
nothing of herself and everything of Him. By reducing ourselves
to zero, we most quickly find the Infinite.
Third Joyful Mystery: the Nativity
As the Virgin conceived Our Lord without the lusts of the flesh,
so now she brings Him forth in joy without the labors of the flesh.
As bees draw honey from the flower without of- fending it, as Eve
was taken out of the side of Adam without any grief to him, so now
in remaking the human race, the new Adam is taken from the new Eve
without any grief to her. It is only her other children of the spirit,
which she will bring forth at Calvary, who will cause her pain.
And the sign by which men would know He is God was that He would
be wrapped in swaddling clothes. The sun would be in eclipse.
Eternity in time. Omnipotence in bonds, God in the shrouds of human
flesh. Only by becoming little likewise, do we ever become great.
Fourth Joyful Mystery: the Presentation
[223] Mary submits to the general law of Purification, from which
she was really free, lest she should scandalize by the premature
discovery of the secret entrusted to her keeping. Simeon tells her
that her Son is to be contradicted — the sign of contradiction is
the Cross — and a Sword her own heart shall pierce. And yet all
this is considered a Joyful Mystery: for, as the Father sent His
Son to be a victim for the sins of the world, so would Mary joyfully
guard Him until the hour of sacrifice. The highest use any of us
can make of the gifts of God is to give them back to God again.
Fifth Joyful Mystery: Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple
It is so easy to lose Christ; He can even be lost by a little heedlessness;
a little want of watchfulness and the Divine Presence slips away.
But sometimes a reconciliation is sweeter than an unbroken friendship.
There are two ways of knowing how good God is: one is never to lose
Him, the other is to lose Him and find Him again. Sin is the loss
of Jesus, and since Mary felt the sting of His absence she could
understand the gnawing heart of every sinner and be to it, in the
truest sense of the word: “Refuge of Sinners.”
Dear Little Hearts,
It is precisely because we feel that Our Heavenly Mother understands
our suffering, struggles and pain that we have the confidence to
approach her. WE KNOW she has been there before us! Praying to and
with Mary can teach us so much.
Padre Pio saw her not only as a Mother of Joy, but also as the Mother
of Sorrows.
How many times he meditated on the Passion of Jesus, made the Way
of the Cross, prayed the sorrowful mysteries of the Rosary, and
all for souls!
I am enclosing today after the picture, the Sorrow Mysteries of
the Rosary from that great lover of Mary, Archbishop Fulton Sheen.
God bless you all.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“The Mother of Sorrows is my confidante, my teacher, my counselor,
and my powerful advocate.”
THE SORROWFUL MYSTERIES
The Agony in the Garden
Our fellow creatures can help us only when our needs are human.
But in an hour of our greatest need, some of them betray and others
sleep. In the really deep agony, we must cry to God. “Being in agony,
He prayed.“ What up to that point seemed a tragedy, now becomes
an abandonment to the Father's Will.
The Scourging at the Pillar
Over seven hundred years before, Isaiah prophesied the laceration
of Our Lord's Sacred Body, “Here is one despised, left out of all
human reckoning, bowed with misery, and no stranger to weakness;
how should we recognize that face?“
Great souls are like great mountains; they always attract the storms.
Upon their bodies break the thunders and lightnings of evil men
to whom purity and goodness is a reproach. In reparation for all
the sins of the flesh, and in anticipated encouragement to the martyrs
who would be beaten by Communists and their progenitors, He delivers
His Sacred Body to the lash until “His bones could be numbered,“
and His flesh hung from Him like purple rags.
The Crowning with Thorns
The Saviour of the world is made a puppet for those who play the
fool: the King of Kings is mocked by those who will have “no King
but Caesar.” Thorns were part of the original curse upon the earth.
Even nature, through sinful men, re- bels against God. If Christ
wears a crown of thorns, shall we covet a crown of laurel?
I saw the Son of God go by
Crowned with a crown of thorn.
“Was it not finished, Lord “said I,
“And all the anguish home?”
He turned on me His awful eyes:
“Hast thou not understood?
Lo, every soul is Calvary
And every sin a rood.” *
The Carrying of the Cross
Many a cross we bear is of our own manufacture; we made it by our
sins. But the Cross which the Saviour carried was not His, but ours.
One beam in contradiction to another beam was the symbol of our
will in contradiction to His own. To the pious women who met Him
on the roadway. He said; “Weep not for Me”
To shed tears for the dying Saviour is to lament the remedy; it
were wiser to lament the sin that caused it.
If Innocence itself took a Cross, then how shall we, who are guilty,
complain against it?
The Crucifixion
Once nailed to the Cross and “lifted up to
draw all men to Himself”, He is taunted: “Others
He saved, Himself He cannot save.“ Of course not! This is
not weakness, but obedience to the law of sacrifice. A mother cannot
save herself, if she would raise her child; the rain cannot save
itself, if it would bud the greenery; a soldier cannot save himself,
if he would save his country; and neither will Christ save Himself,
since He came to save us. What heart can conceive the misery of
humankind, if the Son of God had saved Himself from suffering, and
left a fallen world to the wrath of God?
Dear Little Hearts,
Let us take Padre Pio’s counsel to heart and in these troubled times
keep our hearts, our eyes fixed upon Heaven, let us never fear to
approach our Heavenly Father, and Mary Our Mother, they love us
so want us to be with them for eternity.
We all fail, we all sin, we know the remedy, to repent and plead
for grace, and show great Trust but getting up and continuing along
our God given path. Below after the picture are the meditation by
Archbishop Fulton Sheen of the Glorious mysteries of the Rosary.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“You must remember that you have in Heaven, not only a Father but
also a Mother ... If our wretchedness saddens us, if our ingratitude
for God terrorizes us, if the memory of our faults hinders us from
presenting ourselves to God, our Father, let us then have recourse
to Mary, our Mother. She is all sweetness, mercy, goodness and love
for us because she is our Mother.”
THE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES
The Resurrection
Easter Sunday was not within three days of the Transfiguration,
but within three days of Good Friday. Love is not to be measured
by the joys and pleasures which it gives, but by the ability to
draw joy out of sorrow, a resurrection out of a crucifixion, and
life out of death. Unless there is a Cross in our life, there will
never be an empty tomb; unless there is the crown of thorns, there
will never be the halo of light: “O, Death, where is thy victory?
O, grave where is thy sting?“
The Ascension
In Heaven there is now a human nature like our own, the promise
of what ours will one day be if we follow His Way.
Thanks to this human nature. He will always have a deep sympathy
for us, even “making intercession for us.” We can ascend to Him,
now, only in our minds and hearts; our bodies will follow after
the Last Judgment. Until then we approach His Throne with confidence,
knowing that “pierced Hands distribute the richest blessings.“
The Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles
As the Son of God in the Incarnation took upon Himself a human body
from the womb of the Blessed Mother overshadowed by the Holy Spirit
so now on Pentecost He takes from the womb of humanity a Mystical
Body, as the Holy Spirit overshadowed the twelve Apostles with “Mary
in the midst of them abiding in prayer.” The Mystical Body
is the Church; He is the Invisible Head; Peter and his successors,
the Visible Head; we, the members, and the Holy Spirit its soul.
As He once taught, governed, and sanctified through His human nature,
so now He teaches, governs, and sanctifies through other human natures
compacted into His Mystical Body, the Church. We can never thank
God enough for making us members of His One Fold and one Shepherd.
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin into Heaven
Mary was not a rose in which Divinity reposed for a time; she was
the canal through which God came to us. Mary could no longer live
without the Dream she brought forth, nor could the Dream live without
her, body and soul. Her love of God bore her upward; His love of
His Mother lifted her upward. Our Lord could not forget the cradle
in which He lay.
In the Annunciation, the angel said: “The
Lord is with Thee.”
In the Assumption: “Mary is with the Lord.” Her Assumption is the
guarantee that one's prayers to her will be answered.
The Son is on the right Hand of the Father; she is on the right
Hand of the Son.
The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin
As Queen of Heaven, Our Lord comes back to us again through Mary,
passing His Life and His blessing through her hands as the Mediatrix
of all graces. He came through her in Bethlehem; through her, we
go back to Him and through her He comes back again to us.
Our Lady went into a strange country
And they crowned her for a queen
For she needed never to he stayed or questioned
But only seen;
And they were broken down under unbearable beauty
As we have been.
Our Lady wears a crown in a strange country
The crown He gave,
But she has not forgotten to call her old companions
To call and crave;
And to hear her calling a man might arise and thunder
On the doors of the grave*
* G. K. CHESTERTON, “Regina Angelomm (from Collected Poems, 1935.
)
Dear Little Hearts,
How great is the longing of the human heart for union and communion,
we are created for love, to love, to give love and to receive love,
all else will be at some point or another, simply like sand running
through ones fingers. All else will pass away.
LOVE IS THE ONLY INDESTRUCTIBLE FORCE! Love is that which overcomes
all.
The Martyrdom of love that Saint Pio speaks about here is every
bit as real as a physical martyrdom, for love can wound us even
more deeply, as the pain sears our very souls.
Desire, the longing for God is such a beautiful, beautiful thing,
so much awaits us, let us keep our eyes upon the end, upon the goal
of all our efforts, labours and service.
Is there anything more beautiful that the thought of Mary's longing
heart for Jesus?
This life truly is an exile.
We are now preparing to celebrate Pentecost, Sunday, week ... let
this be a time too of a longing for the Holy Spirit, even as Mary
longed for this outpouring of love.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“After Jesus Christ's ascension to Heaven, Mary longed continually
with burning desire to be reunited with Him. To be without her divine
Son was a very harsh exile. Those years of separation from Him were
for her a most slow and painful martyrdom of love that consumed
her slowly.”
Dear Little Hearts,
Like the Streets , the road to life is narrow ... and how much human
suffering we encounter along the path of life.
Are we an open door to those in need? a thousand streets in a thousand
towns each one could be and is a Via Dolorosa ... for someone it
is a path to Calvary ... as you walk along to your daily work, pass
houses, factories, schools, in your heart bless those people whom
you may never meet personally and yet they too were create din love
by HIM for Heaven.
The gift of a blessing is such a beautiful gift to another.
Let us be for other as Padre Pio was to so many souls, a Simon of
Cyrene
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“One day when we are able to see the full midday light, we will
know what value and what treasures our earthly sufferings have been
that have made us gain our everlasting Homeland.”
Dear Little Hearts,
In our youth we think, quite mistakenly, that the road of life will
stretch ever onwards before us, that the reality of the end will
never actually come ... but as life journeys on, there comes a time
when we realise the ever nearing fact of approaching old age and
death.
It is Gods great love and mercy that allows us to see this, to come
to some understanding of this, for by it we see that God is inviting
to use whatever time is left to us for his glory and service.
He gives us a time to prepare ourselves to be with him Some people
as they get older become quite discouraged and despondent, believing
and maybe in the scheme of things what they believe is to a degree,
true, that they have not done “much for God“.
But it is not achievement that God looks for, asks for, what he
wants is our heart, he wants our real authentic being ... and we
can never do more or be more for and to God than when we live in
his sweet will.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“As the years go by and eternity draws near, we must be twice as
courageous and lift our spirit to God, serving Him with even greater
diligence in everything that our Christian vocation and profession
requires from us. Only this can make us agreeable to God, make us
free to leave this great world that is not of God, free from all
other enemies; only this can make us reach the port of eternal salvation.”
Dear Little Hearts,
These words of Padre Pio sound so simple, and of course we would
all agree, but in reality we know if we are honest with ourselves
that to love is the greatest challenge, adventure, joy and suffering
that the human person can encounter in this life.
There is no such thing as love without suffering, it doesn't exist,
true, for a time, circumstances may sit well and be free from trials
and problems, but always where there is interaction between human
nature there is suffering.
To love we have to be truly courageous, we have to assent to change,
change to Christ's exhortations, commands, we have to listen to
the Gospel and put it into practise and it is not easy.
Much is written, much is talked about love that is so trite, so
far from the mark, love is not a feeling its an act of the will.
To attune our wills to the rightful demands of others within our
specific state., married or consecrated, to attune our will to Gods
will, that is love ...
So many people starting out for life look for challenge and adventure,
the greatest challenge is to love and go on loving.
And the mix in the works, to love our enemies.
Some people are so easy to love and others it takes all we have
to love them, that is good, for it means we are living and loving
with Christ's love, with the love the Gospel talks about, and it
will teach us so much.
We can do all things by his grace, in and with HIM who will strengthen
us.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts
of Brother Pio (Saint Padre Pio)
We must love, love, love and nothing else.”
Dear Little Hearts,
We all know when we are “spiritually sick”, we all know when we
need to be touched by Gods grace and mercy. The evil one loves us
to delay, he loves to place barriers of fear and indifference between
us and our God. We should go joyfully to the arms of Our Father,
say sorry, pour all out into his heart, confessing our guilt and
responsibility for our part in the failures of love, and then trusting
his mercy, stand up and walk forward with confidence, not looking
back, not doubting.
Often we can accept that God has forgiven us, but the problem is
we cannot forgive ourselves ... who are we to limit Gods mercy and
power?
It is a temptation and we should continually fight against it for
what God has forgiven is forgiven. As Padre Pio says be beautifully
here, place a tombstone over it, sing a requiem as it were and enjoy
the Resurrection in the here and now.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“When disturbed by passions and misfortunes, may the sweet hope
of His inexhaustible mercy sustain us. Let us hasten confidently
to the tribunal of penance where He awaits us at every instant with
the anxiety of a father; and even though we are aware of our inability
to repay Him, let us have no doubts about the solemn pardon pronounced
over our errors. Let us place a tombstone over them, just as the
Lord has done.”
Dear Little Hearts,
As Christian s we may well experience ridicule, abuse, indifference
and contempt from those whom our lives and daily work encounter.
There is in reality a constant battle between the Spirit of the
Gospel and the Spirit of the world, we should not be surprised.
When all said and done we are simply walking in the footsteps of
Our Master Jesus, who endured such treatment and carried it all
before us.
What matters is that we show the Face of God to others, that we
show them that there is an alternative path, a good path they can
walk.
How impressive was the recent on line video clip of a man holding
up a cashier in a shop and the woman speaking to the man about Jesus,
the poor lost sinner, was humbled it was obvious and left without
taking a cent ... love can turn things around.
This was an ordinary woman who showed by her example that there
is another way, an alternative to the spirit of this world.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Do not let the persecution of worldlings and of all those who live
without the Spirit of Jesus Christ deter you from following the
road trodden by the saints.”
Dear Little Hearts,
We all know that worry is useless, we all know it is fruitless,
and yet coming to the acceptance and belief of that reality is a
long, hard journey.
Presented with certain circumstances we are fearful, uncertain,
and our inordinate imagination will present us with all kinds of
mental pictures, of things that might, or could happen, which take
our peace away.
Worry can be debilitating and exhausting leading nowhere, it is
good to look back on our life and see how many times we have worried
ourselves sick over something that in the final analysis, never
became a reality!
Little by little we do learn.
Much better simply to throw ourselves into the arms of our Heavenly
Father, the God who loves us, and will to trust and trust and trust.
It is not easy but practise is a good thing and we will grow with
every little surrender.
Do not be robbed of your joy by being preoccupied with worry and
worldly concerns, your Father knows your needs, he is with you and
loves you, let it go ... and know peace.
We have many friends, much loved in America, please pray for the
Bay State of, for the 670 men and women pending deployment, pray
please for their families and loved ones. Ask Padre Pio to intercede
for them all ... In his lifetime many American soldiers visited
Padre Pio, he was a priest for all.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Don't worry about tomorrow because the very same Heavenly Father
who takes care of you today will have the same thought tomorrow
and always. . . What does a child in the arms of such a Father have
to fear? Be as children, who hardly ever think about their future
as they have someone to think for them. They are sufficiently strong
just by being with their father.”
Dear Little Hearts,
How beautifully and fully human our (Saint Padre Pio) was!
we all know situations if we are honest where our courage fails
us, where we feel ourselves faltering, especially when it pertains
to the welfare of those whom we love.
Sometimes we may think, or even verbalize! “I cant do it! I will
never get through this one, BUT the fact is and we learn this from
experience, that the Lord will always give is grace AT THE
TIME to enable us to go forward to achieve the good.
We never get grace in advance of a situation, never,
its because God wants us to trust him and in our hour of need he
WEILL give us aid and support ...
We should have the same confidence as St Pio, as a child, believing
that God will attend to all our needs and assist us through all
life's difficulties and challenges, in this way he is glorified!
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Unfortunately, I am in need of courage, but Jesus will not refuse
anything. I can testify to this from long experience, so we should
not stop asking Him for what we need.”
Dear Little Hearts,
Inspirations to surrender oneself to God, to abandon the known and
cast ourselves trustingly into the Lords arms can only be a praying,
a moving of the Holy Spirit within us.
Any journeying from self to God, any response from our own self
centeredness to God centeredness is a touch, an embrace of the Holy
Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is love and love desires union, and this inner desire
that Saint Pio talks about in this extract is a genuine, authentic
Divine Touch.
We should always listen to such whisperings, they will bring us
to a greater fullness of life.
We will be sadly disappointed, it may be sooner or later, if we
place our trust in the things of this world, they can disappear
in an instant, and they belong only to the hear and now ... far
greater will be our happiness if we place our trust in God.
The whole Christian journey is a pilgrimage of trust.
Many of us are wounded from having our trust broken, and it takes
courage to begin again and to go on trusting, people may fail us
God never will.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“I feel a great desire to abandon myself with greater trust to the
Divine Mercy and to place my hope in God alone.”
Dear Little Hearts,
To these words of Saint Pio, there may well up in your the question,
WHY? Of course we should rejoice with Mary, for the Lord has done
great things for her! and through her for us!
But in this Valley of tears we need a heart that understands our
struggles, sufferings and trials ... we need a mothers heart, a
woman who will be the face of compassion for us ...
Our Lady of Sorrows is such, she has experienced all that we experience,
and because of that we can take all our burdens and pain to her
in prayer.
Mary will offer them all to Jesus upon the altar of her heart.
We can entrust the deepest intimacies of our hearts to Mary, we
can let her teach us the path of surrender to Gods will, and we
can have a childlike confidence in her protection and prayers.
Oh! The DEEP DEEP wisdom of Our God to give us such a mother!
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“The Mother of Sorrows is my confidante, my teacher, my counselor,
and my powerful advocate.”
Dear Little Hearts,
Is this not beautiful advice from a spiritual Father? “Take care
of your spirit”... in other words see the needs of your spirit as
of prime importance.
We allot much time to the care of the body, but far far more important
is the care we should take of our immortal soul, our body will fail
and die, our soul once created is immortal.
We all know the things that marr our souls, idleness can lead to
all kinds of abuses and feed our inordinate curiosity, idleness
makes us self centred and all too easy thrown back upon the carnal.
Immoral conversation taints our souls and those of others, we have
a grave responsibility as to how we speak to others, our words should
bless, build up, not lead another into sin.
At all times realise and accept WE ALL carry our treasure in earthenware
vessels, be vigilant regarding your own soul and those of others.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Take care of your spirit, flee idleness and all immoral conversation
... always remembering the words of the Apostle, that our virtue
is preserved in very fragile vessels.”
Dear Little Hearts,
The great beauty of maturing, growing older is that increasing awareness
that life is well spent, that we are journeying towards the goal,
through death to eternal life.
Our bodies diminish, become limited it is true, all passes into
God somehow before we ever even leave this earth, but our spirits
in faith should soar to the Heavens to the realization that this
life is passing and that we will be united with all those who have
walked this way before us, we will find them all in God.
Old age should be a fruitful autumn in our life, a time when we
can give to others the fruit of our life, our prayer, our wisdom
from having tried to live a life in Christ.
Sometimes this leaping upwards of the heart will take us unawares
... because it is the Holy Spirit within us calling us ever upwards
...
Imagine ... we cannot ... but imagine we shall see God face to face
... His Holy Mother and all the Saints ... so much happiness awaits
us.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“As the days pass, I see ever more clearly the greatness of God,
and in this light, which grows brighter and brighter, my soul burns
with the desire to be united to Him by indissoluble bonds.”
Dear Little Hearts,
The great beauty of our God is that what he has promised, he ALWAYS
FULFILS, for God alone is Unchanging, Faithful, Living and True!
God has said, it has fallen from his own lips, “I am with you always
even unto the end of the world“...
His presence is abiding, sometimes we cannot see, feel, perceive
anything of God at all, all seems darkness and emptiness, but HE
IS WITH US! that is our faith.
On Calvary Jesus was not alone, God only allowed him to experience
that abandonment ... but the Father and the Spirit were present
as they are present too on our Calvary's We are so loved!
Look at this picture of Jesus, look how the Spirit embraces him,
he cannot see him, perceive him, but he is there! remember that
when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death!
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“In darkness, at times of tribulation and distress of the spirit,
Jesus is with you. In such a state you see nothing but darkness,
but I can assure you on God's behalf that the light of the Lord
is all around you and pervades your spirit. . You see yourself forsaken
and I assure you that Jesus is holding you tighter than ever to
His divine Heart.”
Dear Little Hearts,
Love and sacrifice are inseparable, love will call us in many ways
during our life to sacrifice ourselves, it may call us to lay our
dreams and desires upon the altar.
Often it will be in little ways, our time, our strength, our availability,
but it will also ask of us some greater sacrifice.
We prepare for the greater sacrifice by having practised the surrender,
abandonment in the lesser things, by saying, yes to the little sacrifices.
There is always a pain in letting go, either a situation or a person
... but the pain we experience through love is a diamond that we
can offer to God for graces for souls.
Our Christian vocation will often call us to sacrifice, as
Christian s there are many things that we should not involve ourselves
in, fill our minds with ... our love for Christ will demand that
we choose the better part, even if we are surrounded by people who
knowingly or unknowingly consume “forbidden fruit”.
It can be too because we live in such a violent society that our
life could be asked of us, so many times it has now happened on
our streets that persons have met sudden and violent deaths or attempted
murder and some innocent bystander who went to aid the victim had
died ... it is tragic yes ... but always remember Christ's words,
“Greater love hath no man that he who lays down his life for his
friends.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Love Jesus, love Him very much, but to do this, be ready to love
sacrifice more.”
Dear Little Hearts,
Let these words speak ... ... and if through infirmity, sickness
or other reasons it is not possible for you to actually attend Mass,
never the less focus upon the Great Sacrifice of love.
The next best thing is simply to read, ponder upon the prayers of
the Mass and unite our hearts to the Sacrifice being offered up
all over the world, we can be present be desire.
And then make a spiritual communion, acknowledging to Jesus that
although you cannot at this moment receive him sacramentally, invite
him to invade and possess your mind, your heart, your soul, your
total being ... say to him with all you are “This
is My Body Given up for you”...
Love will unite you.
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“Renew your faith by attending Holy Mass. Keep your mind focused
on the mystery that is unfolding before your eyes. In your mind’s
eye transport yourself to Calvary and meditate on the Victim who
offers Himself to Divine Justice, paying the price of your redemption.”
Dear Little Hearts,
Every image that we encounter of Mary can tell us something about
her ...
The Holy Spirit who was the source of the initial inspiration knows
what he wanted to say through a specific artist, this picture is
called, “Our Lady Of Innocence” ...
Mary walks “barefoot in the garden”, a pilgrim in this land ...
In Jewish understanding to wear sandals was tantamount to ownership
of the land, by being barefoot Mary is saying she belongs in all
places and to none this side of the veil.
She the all pure one, holds the spotless lamb, the sacrifice who
will take away the sins of the world. Mary holds them to her heart,
the child sleeping contently ...
We all too, are the little lamb, and when we “bleat” she will always
hear us ...
Mary is a shepherdess, she too seeks out the lost.
This picture is worthy of reflection, time and attention ...
O Mary, Queen conceived without sin pray for us who have recourse
to thee!
A Blessed May to you all
Dear Little Hearts,
In this month of May, traditionally Mary’s month, so aptly called
as it is abundant in blossoms, flowering bushes and trees, the air
is replete with sweet perfume from so many different plants and
flowers ... take time apart, to commune with her heart, her Immaculate
and pure heart ... there is no place where we cannot pray, but there
is in the withdrawing into the beauty of nature some special and
unique blessing ...
Draw into this glade with HER ... ask her to lay the lamb of God
in your heart ...
Ask her to hold you, even as she holds her child in this beautiful
picture.
“As a child has rest in its Mothers arms, even so my soul”.
Our Lady of Innocence, pray for us ...
Through love and grace we can all regain innocence of heart
by becoming a little child, her little child.
“Tell me, you whom I love, where you graze
your flock
and where you rest your sheep at midday” (Song of Songs)
O Sweet Lady, Mother Of Innocence, shepherdess of my soul..
Upon your breast, within your Immaculate Heart, you call your sheep,
you call me, your little lamb to rest in the heat of the day ...
O Mary carry me to Glade, carry me beneath the trees and sing me
to sleep ...
Little Lamb — William Blake
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Gave thee life, and bid thee feed
By the stream and o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing, woolly, bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice?
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Little Lamb, I'll tell thee,
Little Lamb, I'll tell thee:
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb;
He is meek and he is mild,
He became a little child:
I a child, and thou a lamb,
We are called by his name.
Little lamb, God bless thee!
Little lamb, God bless thee!
Dear Little Hearts,
May this day be a day of blessing and grace for, we celebrate today the Feast of Our Holy Mother St Clare.
This extract that Padre Pio places in his letters to his spiritual daughters is taken from the life of Clare and refers to the miracle of the multiplication of the bread in the monastery.
And the truth is in any situation, GOD CAN GIVE THE INCREASE ...
HE is the source of all fruitfulness and blessing... How wonderfully he manifests his Fatherhood, taking care of us in so many ways
From the Heart of A Priest: Thoughts of Brother Pio (Saint
Padre Pio)
“... the beloved first born of the seraphic Father Francis comes to mind; there is the deep and solemn silence of the austere refectory, Saint Clare with her humble and mortified daughters, who, to the rhythm of poverty, sing the short notes of renunciation and sacrifice. Each of the daughters takes her place, raises her mind to the Lord and waits in peace.”
Special Note:
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