Posts by Padre Pio Devotions

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 farther I run away from the place where God dwells, the less I am able to hear the voice that calls me “the beloved,” and the less I hear that voice, the more entangled I become in the manipulations and the power games of the world. – Henri Nouwen

It is important to have a daily time of prayer to Jesus. That is your part. It is up to Jesus then to give the grace to make your time fruitful. And no doubt he sometimes does so by making us feel empty. We do not know the workings of God. We have put forth…

In Paradise, there are many saints who never gave alms on earth. Their poverty justified them. There are many saints who never mortified their bodies by fasting. Their bodily infirmities excused them. There are many saints too, who were not virgins; their vocation was otherwise. But in Paradise, there is no saint who was not…

Patience is long-suffering in injuries, which it endures without trying to return them and without any display of temper. Just as God holds back his anger and delays his punishments in order to give sinners time to repent, so also his sons and daughters must overcome their resentment and silence their desire for revenge. Only…

Don’t ever allow yourself to become upset by your misfortunes. In the face of your misery, should you find yourself in this situation by the will of God, remain humble and lowly before God, and be at great peace. Respond to all misfortune, whatever it may be, with gentleness, peace, tenderness, and interior moderation before…

In 1985, at the invitation of Mayor Koch, Mother Teresa opened a home in New York City for men who were dying of AIDS. Four Missionaries of Charity Sisters dedicated themselves to caring for the fifteen dying men. Mother Teresa named the home, “Gift of Love.” The first to pass away there was a man…

You must do like the shepherds when they stay in the fields during winter. Life is a very long winter. The shepherds make a fire, but from time to time they hurry off to pick up some more wood to keep it going. If only we knew, like the shepherds, how to keep up the…

Jesus showed me a robe which he called, “the robe of innocence.” It was whiter than snow. He put it on me saying, “With this, I am taking from you forever all ill will.”. . .Then, opening to me his adorable Heart and putting me within it, he said, “This will be the place of…

When Jesus wanted to speak about the life of the Spirit in us, he used the figure of a gushing spring. It is like living water that must become in us, a spring that wells up to eternal life (John 4:14). Prayer is that deep spring in us. Actually it was there all along as…