# 17 OF 25 -THIS HAPPY BOOK REPORT ON PADRE PIO!
Padre Pio - The True Story by C. Bernard Ruffin
Chapter 6 of 34 - Between Heaven and Hell 81-84
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Preface:
What better Saint to assist us in this October month of the Rosary than St. Pio. As a priest he had the Rosary in his hand every minute of his life. He died on Sept. 23, 1968 & canonized a Saint, June 16, 2002.(Rome, Sept. 29, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) - "Pope Francis today invited Catholics worldwide to pray the Rosary every day during the month of October, "asking the Holy Mother of God & St. Michael the Archangel" to protect the Church from attacks of the devil - the "Great Accuser" - and to make her members more aware "of the sins, errors, and abuses committed in the present and in the past."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"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 friar's 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 days and days.
After telling Padre Pacifico about the stigmata, which he judged to be "the seal of his special calling," Padre Benedetto asked for advice. Several times in recent years, he says, Padre Pio had been sent to various friaries, only to suffer lapses and have to return home. "Well aware that until now this has been the will of God," Benedetto writes, "I want to summon him at this time to return to the cloister in any way possible. I am concerned, however {If anything should go amiss}, that the fault would be mine." Then Benedetto asks, "What do you say about this?"
Padre Pio must have encouraged Benedetto to reassign the "angelic" young priest to a friary because, in the fall of 1911, the father provincial began to urge Padre Pio very strongly to return to community life. But he did not command him to do so. Rather, he tried to persuade Pio to consent.
Pio was extremely reluctant. "You know that I wanted to return to the frary," he wrote Benedetto. "The greatest sacrifice that I have made to the Lord is precisely my inability to live in community."...
{Again Padre Pio had gotten seriously ill.) While awaiting his appointment with Sister Death, Padre Pio was to study sacred eloquence, the course of study that normally followed ordination. It was to be Venafro that the supernatural aspect of Padre Pio's life would become general knowledge among his confreres. The friary of San Nicandro was built in 1573 adjacent to the tomb and Basilica of the Roman martyr by that name. The community consisted of thirteen men, nine priests, and four brothers....
Padre Evangelista decided to take Pio once again to Naples for medical consultation. As usual, the doctors could not diagnose the illness, and the two friars left the clinic knowing no more than before....
To this point, Padre Pio had been regarded simply as and ideal religious who had the misfortune to be suffering from an undiagnosable illness. The stigmata had disappeared again, and no one at Venafro... was aware that had ever existed... Toward the end of Novermber 1911, however, the supernatural side of Padre Pio's life burst into the open.
One day Padre Agostino advised that Pio was doing very poorly, rushed into his room, where he found the young man raving about a huge black cat that he said was bout to pounce on him. Agostino was certain that Pio, unable to eat for days, was weakened to the point of hallucination. Fearing that his protege was about to die, Agostino rushed into the chapel to pray for Pio. During his prayers, his mind wandered. He started thinking that he would probably be asked to preach at Padre Pio' funeral, and he to fret about what he would say. ..." George H. Kubeck
No comments:
Post a Comment