By justice, Jesus Christ once risen should have ascended at once to the glory of the right hand of the Father . . . And yet we know very well that for forty days he wanted to be seen as risen. And why? To affirm, as St. Leo says, by such an excellent mystery, the good news of our faith . . . These forty days before our ascent to heaven will pass for us too. Perhaps they will not be days, but months and years. I wish you, my brothers and sisters, a long and prosperous life full of heavenly and material blessings. But finally this life will come to an end. And then we will be happy, if we have assured for ourselves the joy of a happy transit to eternity. Then our resurrection will be complete. There will be no more danger of losing the grace of God. There will no longer be any suffering, no more death, but instead everlasting life with our Savior, Jesus Christ in heaven. May the Lord confirm with his blessings these wishes of mine, for your happiness is very close to my heart and I work and pray continuously for this end.

– St. Pio of Pietrelcina

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 becomes redemptive for the soul and purifying for one’s existence . . . The Holy Face of Jesus is beautiful. Look at it.

– Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini

If Christ be not risen, our faith is in vain. (I Corinthians 15:14) But he is risen. The tomb is empty. . .It is the emptiness that matters. He is not here. He has risen. All the chambers of my heart, of my being, need to be emptied, even of beautiful images, of holy images, if the reality is going to enter in and wholly possess me. But I can’t empty myself by any of my efforts. My very efforts fail me. I need to let the risen Lord come in with all his radiance, his enlightenment, which will disperse all my dark shadows and homemade images and totally fill me with the reality. . .Christ is risen.

–Father Basil Pennington, O.C.S.O.

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 are members, and with whom we have all things in common, especially his prayer. We rely on the spirit of Christ, who is within us and prays in us in an ineffable way. In other words, we quietly and gently begin to abandon ourselves, and to unite ourselves to Christ, by relying on him alone. He is our all . . . He is working for our detachment from all creatures – even from ourselves. All his providence is directed to that end. We can be just as much attached to our spiritual goods and attainments, to our spiritual joys and powers, as we can be to the temporal. For complete union with God, and for the bearing of ‘more fruit’ these attachments must be purged.

– Father Eugene Boylan, O.C.S.O.

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 present with us. If you abandon us, we sink and perish; but if you come to us, we are raised up and we live.
– Thomas à Kempis

Padre Pio Devotions is happy to announce that Pray, Hope and Don’t Worry: True Stories of Padre Pio Book I is now available as an audio book in Audible:
Pray, Hope, and Don;t Worry: True Stories of Padre Pio Book 1

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 notions of God. We are always on our way to somewhere else when this place, the place in which I stand, wherever it is, is the place of my procession into God, the site of my union with the Life that gives Life.

-Anonymous

The best preparation I can make for death is to live the reality of the Paschal mystery as fully and as deeply as possible in union with Christ, because Christ will re-live that mystery in me at the hour of my death. If I am following the spirituality of the Paschal mystery, I expect to die and rise again many times in the course of my monastic life, in my daily tasks and duties, in unexpected events and circumstances, and in my life of interior prayer. . .I expect to have to let go and give up again and again, discovering a new richness of life each time. . .I will learn to trust more and more this Father into whose hands I shall one day, freely and gladly, hand over my life. On that day my final act of dying will be inserted irrevocably into the saving death and resurrection of Christ my Lord.
– Father Charles Cummings O.C.S.O.

Pray, Hope, and Don’t Worry: True Stories of Padre Pio Book I is now available as an audio book on Audible. For more info click on this link: “Pray, Hope, and Don’t Worry: True Stories of Padre Pio Book I”

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 is getting free of the rule of fear, fear being the great force that restrains us from acts of love. Being poor in spirit means letting go of the myth that the more I possess, the happier I’ll be. It is an outlook summed up in a French proverb: When you die you carry in your clutched hand only what you gave away. Poverty of spirit is letting go of self and of all that keeps you locked in yourself.

-Jim Forest

I am the vine and you are the branches . . . and everyone that beareth fruit, he will purge it that it may bring forth much fruit (John 15:1-2). This purging or pruning action of the Father is what disconcerts us. We see an orchard in full bloom, and what has a more delicate charm? And yet those flowers must disappear if the branches are to bring forth fruit. There are many flowers in our life that seem of great value to us. In God’s sight they are only flowers, and in his mercy, he removes them that we may yield him fruit . . . The whole trouble is that, literally, we do not know what is good for us; and what makes the trouble still worse is that we think we do. We have our own plans for our happiness and too often we merely regard God as somebody who will help us to accomplish them. The true state of affairs is just the opposite. God has his plans for our happiness, and he is waiting for us to help him to accomplish them. And let us be quite clear about it, we cannot improve on God’s plans. Once a man has realized that God wills his happiness and that all that happens to him is ruled and regulated by God with infinite wisdom and power toward that end, and that all God asks of him is to cooperate with that loving will of his, then that man has found the beginning of peace.

– Father Eugene Boylan, O.C.S.O.

The holy exercise of prayer must be considered one of the chief foundations of Christian life and holiness, since the whole life of Jesus Christ was nothing but a perpetual prayer; which you must continue and express in your life. Neither the earth on which you live, the air you breathe, the bread that sustains you, or the heart that beats in your breast is as necessary for bodily life as prayer is to a Christian. . . Look upon prayer as the first, the principal, the most necessary, the most urgent, and the most important business of your life. As far as possible, free yourself from all less important duties, so you can give as much time as possible to prayer, especially in the morning and evening.

-St. John Eudes