Posts by Padre Pio Devotions

Being holy means living exactly as our Father in heaven wants us to live. You will say that it is difficult. It is. The ideal is a very high one. And yet it is also easy. It is within our reach. When a person becomes ill, there may be no appropriate medicine. But in supernatural…

Joy does not depend on acclaim, advancement, promotion, recognition, fame, prestige, or power. Joy can never come from without. It can only come from the Lord who plants it deep within us. If our joy is contingent upon affirmation, success or career, it is planted in sand and will never endure. Actually, our joy should…

The dream of creating a ‘new heaven and a new earth’ lives on. It is not determined by my age, my health, or my degrees, but by my heart and the burning desire to act for God, to make God’s love and healing presence visible in a hurting world. I can do something, now, in…

Jesus, in whom the fullness of God dwells, has become our home. By making his home in us, he allows us to make our home in him. By entering into the intimacy of our innermost self, he offers us the opportunity to enter into his own intimacy with God. By choosing us as his preferred…

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…

Let us always keep before our eyes the fact that here on earth we are on a battlefield, and that in Paradise we shall receive the crown of victory; that this is a testing-ground, and the prize will be awarded up above; that we are now in a land of exile, while our true homeland…

Once I have confronted and accepted – as far as possible – that I am a needy person, the act of turning toward God is relatively easy. It is not faith in God that is hard, but the renunciation of illusory faith in myself. To turn toward God means, first, turning away from whatever is…

When for one reason or another, we contemplate the reality of death, it is not uncommon that we begin to think about the sin and failure in our past. And, for many, this thought can be a cause of great unhappiness and even despair. After all, the past is past, we are told; it can…

Dear Lord, free me from my dark past, into which I often find myself falling as if into a deep cistern. . . . Keep showing me your light, and give me the strength to rise and follow you without ever looking back. – Henri J. M. Nouwen