#16 OF 25 - THIS HAPPY BOOK REPORT ON PADRE PIO

# 16 of 25 -THIS HAPPY BOOK REPORT ON PADRE PIO

IN PURSUIT OF THE TRUTH - HTTP://WWW.CINOPSBEGONEBLOGSPOT.COM SUN. SEPT. 2/17

Padre Pio - The True Story by C Bernard Ruffin

Chapter 5, 'A holy Priest, A Perfect Victim'  77- 80

    "God seemed to be playing games of hide-and-seek. This oscillation between extreme exaltation and violent depression is a common experience among mystics. Both St. Catherine of Sienna and St. Teresa of Avila spoke of a "game of love," in which God seems, by turns, to hide and then return to the soul. At times Pio was "almost in paradise"; at other times, he felt as if Satan were about to snatch him out of the Lord's hands. Benedetto assured him that this was a normal part of spiritual growth.

    As Pio grew in faith, gradually he found himself able to rise above the temptations of the devil and worry less about the possibility of being successfully tempted....

    These wounds, which Pio which tried to conceal were a source of great embarrassment. Besides the doctors an the archpriest Pannullo, the only person to whom he showed them was his friend Mercurio Scocca. Pio concealed them even from Mammella, who noticed something was wrong and remarked that he was moving his hands as if he were playing the guitar. But Pio successfully evaded her questions and hid the lesions from her eyes. 

    A few days later after seeing Carfdone, Pio went to Pannullo. "Pati, do me a favor," he said. "Let's pray together to ask Jesus to take away this annoyance. I do want to suffer, even to die of suffering, but all in secret."

    "Dear Son," replied Pannullo, "I'll help to pray and ask Jesus to take this annoyance away. Yet, if it is God's will, you must yield yourself to do His will in all and over all. And remember, since this is for the salvation of souls & for the good of the entire world, you must say to Jesus, "Do with me as Thou wilt.'"

    

    The two men prayed, and the wounds went away - for a season. From Pannullo's comment, it seems the archpriest already knew of Pio's desire to make an offering of himself to Jesus for the conversion of souls. Only after consulting the easygoing Pati in September was Pio able to bring himself, in November, to reveal his intention to the fierce and formidable Padre Benedetto. And it was another year before he could muster the courage to tell his spiritual director about the stigmata. He did so after the wounds had reappeared, a year to the day after their first occurrence. On this occasion, Pio wrote.

    "Yesterday something happened, something I cannot explain or understand. In the middle of the palms of my hands there appeared a small red spot the size of a small coin, accompanied by a strong, sharp pain in the middle of the red spots. The pain was most intense in the middle of the left hand, so much so that I still feel it. Also I feel some pain in the soles of my feet. 

    This phenomenon has been going on for almost a year, yet recently there has been a brief period of time in which it has not occurred. Please do not be upset that I have not mentioned it to you before. The reason is that I had to overcome a cursed embarrassment to tell you about it. If you only knew the great effort I had to make to tell you about it! I would have told you many things but I was unable to express myself."

Chapter 6 - Between Heaven and Hell - 81

    "Immediately after he received Padre Pio's letter describing the stigmata, Padre Benedetto wrote to the minister general of the Capuchin Order, Padre Pacifico of Seggiano, telling him about the young friars' holiness and asking about the advisability of sending him once again to live in a religious community. After describing Padre Pio as "a young priest of angelic character," the provincial mentions Pio's offering of himself as a victim of divine love and his mysterious illness, linking the two phenomena together: "He had also asked to participate in the pains of the Savior, and has been granted this in an ineffable way. Migraine headaches, resistant to any remedy, and illness inexplicable to any doctor, however renowned in the healing art, have come to torment him along with great spiritual suffering. It was suspected that he had been stricken with tuberculosis, and doctors ordered him to breathe the air of his native town, especially when uncontrollable vomiting prevented him from holding even a spoonful of broth for day and days." ...

George H. Kubeck