Posts by Padre Pio Devotions

Trials are not only good for us, but necessary for our spiritual growth, especially if endured with the right disposition. During hard times, God helps us see that control is really an illusion. We’re not in charge. Our lives don’t even belong to us. We would cease to exist if the Holy Spirit stopped actively…

God wants our trust, and only then can he help us. To see persons open to trust is a sign of the Holy Spirit, and if our “yes” to him is true, even when we find ourselves in situations of suffering, this will not be a suffering that damages, but one that strengthens us and…

The Word of God is not a word to apply in our daily lives at some later date; it is a word to heal us through, and in our listening, here and now. The questions therefore are: How does God come to me as I listen to the Word? Where do I discern the healing…

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…

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…

For three days I have been meditating on the story of the prodigal son. It is a story about returning. I realize the importance of returning over and over again. My life drifts away from God. I have to return. My heart moves away from my first love. I have to return. My mind wanders…

What does poverty of spirit mean? It is my awareness that I cannot save myself, that I am basically defenseless, that neither money nor power will spare me from suffering and death. . .Poverty of spirit is my awareness that I need God’s help and mercy more than I need anything else. Poverty of spirit…

The Lord said, You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and appointed you to go and bring forth fruit . . . Then he adds the quality the fruit is to have – And your fruit is to endure. Everything we labor for in this present world scarcely lasts until death. Death…

How should we regard life as we go through it? We are immortal: independent of time and space. This life is but a sort of outward stage on which we act for a time. We should consider ourselves to be in this world as players are in a game; and this life is as different…

It is only when God withdraws his help and leaves the proud man to his own devices, that it becomes evident what a man is worth without God . . . Humility is a supernatural virtue by which we lovingly recognize our true value in God’s eyes, and are disposed to render him due recognition…