Posts by Padre Pio Devotions

Just as nature retreats deep into itself during the winter months, so the Christian is invited to turn inward during the blessed time of Advent in preparation for the Lord’s coming. . . Advent is a quiet, contemplative time of waiting for the Light that will come and shine on us on Christmas Day, rescuing…

Advent is the season. . .of the growth of Christ, of Divine Love growing in silence. It is the season of humility, silence, and growth. If we have truly given our humanity to be changed into Christ, it is essential to us that we do not disturb this time of growth. It is a time…

My dear friend, in the body I am at Nazareth but in spirit I have been at Bethlehem for the last month. As I write to you I feel as though I am with Mary and Joseph beside the crib. It is good to be there. Outside are the cold and the snow, images of…

In each of us, just beyond the noise of our outward life, there is some place of silence and darkness, an emptiness where, if we have courage enough, we are alone with ourselves. There in this place of silence, we know that God alone can fill our emptiness, he alone can content us, he alone…

The Christmas story reminds us once again that it was not man’s idea that the Son of God should be born in a stable. And so the first thing we learn from Jesus’ birth is that the Lord will not always be found where we expect to find him. We tend to look for him…

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…

Somehow I realized that songs, music, good feelings, beautiful liturgies, nice presents, big dinners, and many sweet words do not make Christmas. Christmas is saying ‘yes’ to something beyond all emotions and feelings. Christmas is saying ‘yes’ to a hope based on God’s initiative, which has nothing to do with what I think or feel.…

St. Paul had a great and broad vision; he saw God’s plan from its beginning to its fulfillment. In one of his resounding sentences he wrote:But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law. In the same vein, Paul assures us that Christ died…

The dry, weary earth of my heart cannot live without refreshing water. My longing is for the divine waters to flow gently over the parched earth of my life and bring healing and coolness. I thirst for the divine water that heals and cleanses and restores newness of life. . . .I think God wants…

In what we so often think of as a terribly jaded age, there is a deep hunger for something beyond: a hunger to be reminded that this life is only the beginning, that all of the pain and suffering will one day be washed away; a hunger for support in this life so that we…