I have written before how I have loved the saints ever since I was a little girl. I have some favorites, St. Michael, St. Therese, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Claire, St. Teresa. But today I added a new one. St. Padre Pio.
I have read stories about him, maybe even saw things on TV, but today at Generations of Faith we were talking about the Saints and Fr. Jack spoke about Padre Pio. He showed us excerpts from a movie about him. Wow. I fell in love. I want to see the whole movie now. I want to know as much as I can about this wonderful priest.
I just can't imagine what it must have been like to go to confession to a priest who could read your heart. But you had to know that you were walking away clean after he absolved you. He didn't mince words. I went to confession once and the priest told me not to worry about the things I confessed, that they weren't that bad. I knew they weren't horrid or anything, but they were still sins!!! I wasn't overly emotional or crying or anything, so I was confused by what he said. Was he saying, "Listen honey, compared to what I heard today, you shouldn't even be in here wasting my time. Your nickel and diming me here!" I don't know. I bet Padre Pio wouldn't have said that to me, and he probably would have brought up a few things I forgot!
St. Padre Pio loved prayer. So do I! I think we all should. It is our way of being with God all day long. I am practicing the art of being in prayer, at all times, so that I will always be in His presence. I am asking for the graces needed to accomplish that. I love prayer. And I am learning to be quiet more, talk less, listen. This does not come easy for me. I am a talker. Non stop. Ask my hubby. Sometimes I tell you, it is not even like I can help myself. But off I went on a tangent, back to Padre.....
I love him. I was looking at his pictures today and he had such kind eyes. The kind of eyes that you can see Jesus looking back at you. My spiritual director, whom I also call my spiritual mother, has those same eyes. You look into them and boom, there's Jesus looking right at you, saying, "I love you." Padre Pio has those kind of eyes.
He wanted Jesus to always be with him because he knew he couldn't do it without Him. I know that feeling too. I want to bring souls to Jesus, but I know for certain that I can't do it without Him. I am so weak. Padre Pio was a mystic who didn't know how these things could be happening to him, like bi location, reading people's hearts, seeing his and other people's guardian angels, etc. It was all a mystery to him too. I don't have sensational things like that happening to me, but there are things in my life that God has gifted me with that I have no clue how or why He gave them to me. The key for Padre Pio was acceptance and humility. I can learn from that.
There is so much more, but the time is late and I, unlike Padre Pio, cannot be sustained on just a few hours of sleep!
But I go to sleep happy because I have found another spiritual soul mate, a spiritual father.
Pray for us St. Padre Pio.
I too love this saint! Love that you are working on the art of prayer at all times. I too would like to work on this, Im happy I found your blog. Its something I look forward to!
ReplyDeleteSt. Pio has been a favorite of mine since I converted in 2002. I was so excited when he was canonized! Dh and I got t-shirts commemorating his canonization.
ReplyDeleteAnyway...nice blog! :-)
Great post! I was so blessed to see his relics last month on his feast day. He is a tremendous saint!
ReplyDeleteI'm touched by your confession story where the priest said your sins weren't so bad. I've gone to confession twice where the priest (2 different priests) told me that what I confessed wasn't a sin. They were wrong! One of them even told me for my penance I was to never confess that again!
I don't want to be coddled when I go to confession, I want to be healed! I want a strong priest who will lovingly call it like it is and then advise me on how to best avoid that sin in the future, give me a doable penance and then, those words of absolution "May the Lord grant you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit" are so, so sweet.
Anne- that was my "not so bad example" of a confession. I didn't write about this in my post about my daughter Mary, but when I became pregnant with her and I was so upset that one night, "how am I going to handle all these little ones?!", I went to confession. I told the priest that I was disappointed in myself for not saying yes like Mary. I also shared with him that I was tempted to start using artificial contraceptives again. Now, what I wanted was for him to gently encourage me and put me back on the right track. Instead he told me that he advised stressed out mothers quite regularly to go ahead and use birth control, and then went on to tell me his theories about the Blessed Mother having other children beside Jesus. I left totally feeling like I had not gone to confession at all. This was awhile back but if I remember correctly, I went to confession again, just to be on the safe side. We need to pray for our good priests to keep them strong, and the not so good ones that they will see the errors they commit. It's for the good of their souls!
ReplyDeleteMichelle, I wish we could just sit down and talk! I always worry that I'm scrupulous, but that is nearly exactly what my one confession was about. He said "if you would have done that after one or two kids, it's a sin, but you already said yes 5 times, what more could God ask of you? (A lot more, I think!!!!)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I also confessed it again after first asking a priest whether or not I should, and he said yes, only because the first priest told me it wasn't a sin.
Here, here to praying for all priests!