Posts by Padre Pio Devotions

The contemplative life is not a life that offers a few good moments between the many bad ones, but a life that transforms all our time into a window through which the invisible world becomes visible. Contemplative prayer requires that we listen, that we let God speak to us when he wants and in the…

Many things are given to us through the Holy Spirit, but they are valueless if the chief gift of charity is lacking. . . Even if all the other gifts are lacking, charity will take us to the kingdom of God. Although faith can exist without charity, only the faith that works through love can…

Let us every day do our best to advance in God, and to be sparing with the transitory possessions we are going to leave behind us in this world. Let us pay attention to Abraham’s faith, because he was also our father. Let us imitate his devotion and faith. We are Christians, and strangers on…

I don’t believe that my life is a long row of randomly chained incidents and accidents of which I am not much more than a passive victim. No, I think that nothing is accidental but that God molded me through the events of my life and that I am called to recognize his molding hand…

Three streams flow ceaselessly from Jesus’ divine heart. The first is a stream of mercy for sinners, giving them a spirit of contrition and repentance. The second is a stream of charity, which brings help to all in need, especially to those who seek perfection and need help overcoming difficulties. The third is a stream…

For me, there is no greater image than the Holy Face of Jesus because it embodies the physical and spiritual suffering of Christ, the Redeemer. In the Holy Face, the sick person sees how suffering can and should be accepted. By imploring the Lord to sanctify his suffering and make it similar to Jesus’, it…

We make a quiet act of faith; we believe in God, we believe in God’s interest in us, and we believe that he sees and hears us. We accept his will in all its details, especially in the dereliction which we experience. We put our whole reliance on the prayer of Christ of whom we…

In Scripture, death is called the “day of calamity” (Dt. 32:35). This is because, on the day we die, we shall lose all our earthly possessions – honors, riches, pleasures. Saint Ambrose says that we cannot take them into eternity. But our acts of virtue, the good things which we have done during life, will…

There is no holiness, Lord, if you withdraw you hand. No wisdom is of any use if you no longer guide it. No strength can avail if you do not preserve it. No purity is safe if you do not protect it. No watchfulness on our part can affect anything unless your holy vigilance is…

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…