Posts by Padre Pio Devotions

I have tried to live the gospel and to follow the monastic life each day. I have tried to spend time with God in thought and prayer and reading. God and I have been friends, I might even say, lovers. We live together. My life is in him and he is in my life. It…

Jesus, friend of a lonely heart, you are my haven, you are my peace. You are my salvation. You are my serenity in moments of struggle and amidst an ocean of doubts. You are the bright ray that lights up the path of my life. You are everything to a lonely soul. You understand the…

To do things for God, to serve him – that will follow naturally from our love. It is possible to serve God by reminding ourselves that he is our Creator and we ought to do his will unquestioningly. Or we can serve him by reminding ourselves that he is our King and that any homage…

Only in God is man capable of living fully. Without God he is permanently sick. His sickness affects both his happiness and his capacity for happiness. . .In order to be capable of leading a full life, man must stand in a certain relationship to God and obey certain rules. And the capacity for true…

The Word of God is sacramental. That means it is sacred, and as a sacred word, it makes present what it indicates . . . When we say that God’s Word is sacred, we mean that God’s Word is full of God’s presence. The questions therefore are: How does God come to me as I…

I am the vine and you are the branches . . . and everyone that beareth fruit, he will purge it that it may bring forth much fruit (John 15:1-2). This purging or pruning action of the Father is what disconcerts us. We see an orchard in full bloom, and what has a more delicate…

To be enlightened is to know that heaven is not ‘coming to me.’ Heaven is here. We have simply not been able to realize that yet because, like King Arthur and his search for the Holy Grail, we look in all the wrong places, worship all the wrong idols, get fixated on all the wrong…

I will try to find a new way to heaven, quite short and direct. We live in an age of inventions. We need no longer climb laboriously up flights of stairs; in well-to-do houses there are lifts. And I was determined to find a lift to carry me to Jesus, for I was far too…

One doesn’t need to be unhappy when life takes this or that joy away that one thought was indispensable. One doesn’t have to despair when this or that success fails to occur or when our plans are not realized. We become rich through giving, fulfilled through renunciation, joyous through sacrifice, loved through loving. When we…