“Pray, pray to the Lord with me, because the whole world needs prayers. And every day, when your heart especially feels the loneliness of life, pray, pray to the Lord together, because God too needs our prayers!”
—Padre Pio
The day after Padre Pio’s beatification, Pope John Paul II spoke to the pilgrims in Rome for the ceremony. He spoke of the many blessings the humble friar bestowed upon people. One thing he highlighted was the prayer groups that Padre Pio helped to form. Pope Paul VI had asked people to gather and pray together; in response to this call, Padre Pio encouraged groups to do as the Holy Father was requesting.
Suddenly prayer groups began to form and to this day there are Padre Pio prayer groups throughout the world. While they did encounter some resistance from Church authorities who saw them as more Padre Pio fan clubs than prayer groups, they persist to this day.
Notice how Padre Pio advises Maria Gargani (below) to run to God with “childlike trust.” Meditate on those words. What do they mean to you?
In Padre Pio’s Own Words
You can be sure that the trials you are going through are all clear signs of divine delight and jewels to beautify your soul. Everything that is happening in you is the work of Jesus, and you need to believe that. It is not your place to monitor the Lord’s work but instead to submit humbly to his divine operations. Give full freedom to the grace that is at work in you. Remember never to become distressed by any adverse thing that happens, knowing that distress is an impediment to the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, whenever you sense some uneasiness arising, run to God and abandon yourself to him with complete childlike trust, because it is written that whoever trusts in him will not be put to shame.
Always be courageous and move forward. Winter will pass, and unending spring will come with abundant goodness that far outweighs the harshness of the storms. The dryness of spirit that disturbs you is a very painful trial, but it is a very wonderful thing because of its spiritual fruit…. God ordains this kind of dryness to help the soul attain true devotion, which consists in a prompt willingness to serve God without any personal reward. In brief, do good insofar as it is good in itself and insofar as it gives glory and pleasure to God.
(To Maria Gargani, August 26, 1916)
Prayer
St. Pio, join together with us in prayer for all so that they will come to know Christ and his message of love and spread it to others.
