Little by little we are able to hear the still, small voice in the hurricane, the earthquake, or the fire. God is hidden in difficulties. If we can find him there, we will never lose him. Without difficulties, we do not know the power of God’s mercy and the incredible destiny he has for each of us. We must be patient with our failures. There’s always another opportunity unless we go ashore and stay there. A no-risk situation is the biggest danger there is. To encounter the winds and the waves is not a sign of defeat. It is a training in the art of living, which is the art of yielding to God’s action and believing in his love no matter what happens.

-Father Thomas Keating, O.C.S.O.

Death and eternity are the two faces of one great destiny. Nothing is in vain; nothing dies. Our lifeon earth is completed, crowned, and perpetuated in heaven. Earthly life is beautiful and worthy when it is lived in the service of God. All that is beautiful and good in us and around us on earth and in the universe is a mere pallid image of the kingdom of God. The higher one rises toward heaven, the more heunderstands the great mystery of life which has as its aim: goodness, happiness, God.

– Giorgio Berlutti

The waves are many and the surging sea dangerous. But we are not afraid that we may be drowned, for we are standing on the rock. Let the sea rage as it will, it cannot split the rock asunder. Though the waves tower on high, they cannot overwhelm the boat of Jesus. What, pray, are we afraid of? Death? For me, life is Christ and death is gain. But tell me, is it exile? The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains. Is it the loss of property? We brought nothing into the world. It is certain we can take nothing out of it. The terrors of the world I despise; its treasures I deem laughable. I am not afraid of poverty, I do not long for wealth. I do not dread death.

– St. John Chrysostom

If you love truth, be a lover of silence. Silence, like the sunlight, will illuminate you in God and will deliver you from the phantoms of ignorance. Silence will unite you to God . More than all things, love silence. It is fruitful in a way that words cannot describe. In the beginning we have to force ourselves to be silent. But then there is born something that draws us to silence. May God give you an experience of this ‘something’ that is born of silence.
– Isaac of Niniveh

Padre Pio Devotions is happy to announce that the following book on Padre Pio is now available on Audible “Pray, Hope, and Don’t Worry: True Stories of Padre Pio Book I”

Let us visit Christ wherever we may be. Let us care for him, feed him, clothe him, welcome him, honor him – not only at a meal, as some have done, or by anointing him, as Mary did, not only by lending him a tomb, like Joseph of Arimathea did, or by arranging for his burial, like Nicodemus, not only by giving him gold, frankincense and myrrh, like the Magi did before all the others. The Lord of all asks for mercy and sacrifice, and mercy is greater. . . Let us then show him mercy in the persons of the poor and those who today are lying on the ground.

– St. Gregory Nazianzen

Jesus, the name of Our Lord. . .shall be the first word I write in the New Year. The name stands for all the things I desire when I pray, believe and hope; for inner and outer redemption; for relaxation of all the selfish tensions and limitations I place in the way of the free dialogue with God. . . The name Jesus stands also for all that I intended to do in the world, and still hope to do among mankind. To save, to stand by ready to give immediate help, to have goodwill toward all men, and to serve them.

– Father Alfred Delp, S.J.

Grant me your grace, O most merciful Jesus, that your grace may be with me, and work with me, and remain with me to the very end. Grant that I may always desire and will that which is most acceptable and pleasing to you. Let your will be mine. . .Grant that I may die to all things in this world, and for your sake love to be despised and unknown in this life. Give me above all desires the desire to rest in you, and in you let my heart have peace. You are true peace of heart. You alone are its rest. Without you all things are difficult and troubled. In this peace, the selfsame that is in you, the Most High, the everlasting Good, I will sleep and take my rest. Amen.

– Thomas à Kempis

O Jesus, I see this new year as a blank page that your Father is giving me, upon which he will write day by day what he has arranged for me in hisdivine pleasure. With full confidence I am writing at the top of the page from now on, ‘Lord, do with me what you will.’ And at the bottom I have already put my ‘amen’ to every disposition of your divine will. Yes, O Lord, I say ‘yes’ to all the joys, to all the sorrows, to all the graces, to all the hardships that you have prepared for me and which you will be revealing to me day by day. Let my ‘amen’ be the Paschal amen, always followed by alleluia, uttered with all my heart.
– Sister Carmela of the Holy Spirit

Padre Pio Devotions Latest Book:
They Walked with God Book 2: St. Teresa of Calcutta, St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe, St. John Bosco

When for one reason or another, we contemplate the reality of death, it is not uncommon that we begin to think about the sin and failure in our past. And for many, this thought can be a cause of great unhappiness and even despair. After all, the past is past, we are told; it can never be recovered; the chance of grace is gone. But when we pray the Hail Mary, there is contained in one small word an entirely different message, and one which can, in itself, completely transform our thinking and transform our lives. It is the word ‘now.’ ‘Pray for us now.’ What Mary discovered, deep in her being at the Annunciation, was that nothing was impossible to God. In a single moment, in an instant of grace, everything can be changed. And this, of course, is true, or can be true, for each one of us’¦In our lives, we can say that there are only two moments that are of supreme importance: the moment of our death, and this moment now, the present moment. Part of the greatness of the Hail Mary is that it contains, and contains together in one breath, as it were, both of these moments: Mother of God, pray for us now and at the hour of our death.
– Father Paul Murray, O.P.

Padre Pio Devotions Latest Book:
They Walked with God Book 2: St. Teresa of Calcutta, St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe, St. John Bosco

The last day of a year of which the chief characteristic for me has been privation. God willed it tobe full enough of suffering, renunciation, sadness of every kind . . . But the blessed Master taught mestronger, deeper love, stripped of conscious happiness; and it is from the bottom of my heart that I offer him the year that is gone, and the one that is to come. I consecrate myself to him and accept all that he wants of me, through me, or for me; joy or sorrow, health or illness, poverty or riches, and also life or death . . . For myself, I ask one thing: let me love thee, without joy or comfort if need be, and use me for the spreading of thy spiritual kingdom in souls, Jesus my Savior.

– Elisabeth Leseur