# 45 OF 80 - THIS BOOK REPORT ON PADRE PIO

# 45 OF 80 - THIS HAPPY BOOK REPORT ON PADRE PIO

IN PURSUIT OF THE TRUTH - HTTP://WWW.CINOPSBEGONE.BLOGSPOT.COM - MAY 9,2020

 

Chapter 21 - My Earthly Work Has Now Begun   p. 237-247 - Excerpts

    "Padre Pio was forty-seven years old on May 25, 1934. He seemed to have aged perceptibly during his "incarceration." His beard was grayer, although his thinning hair retained its auburn hue. Moreover he was growing stouter.

    The expansion of Pio's waistline was by no means a result of overeating. On the contrary, as he grew older, he tended to eat less. In the mid-1930s Padre Agostino observed that Pio's intake was "not sufficient for anyone who works as he does." By 1945 his food intake was measured at only three and a half ounces a day, and yet he weighed more than one hundred seventy pounds....

 

    Spiritually, Pio continued to worry about pleasing God. Agostino noted, "The trial continued fixed in his soul without letup. Although it does not drive him to absolute despair, it always keeps him uncertain of whether or not he is doing good or evil and whether he is pleasing or displeasing God."

    At times, Pio even dreaded the thought of death because he doubted whether he was in the stare of grace! He confided to Agostino in October 1934: "I'm thankful to God that he doesn't give me the time to think about this matter for long, since he has so many other things to think about. But if I did think about this terrible trial, I would surely lose my mind!" He did not understand why God permitted this trial when he was convinced that without it he could accomplish more good. Agostino felt it was a grace from God that Padre Pio always seemed to be unaware of any holiness on his part or of the great good that he accomplished.

 

    It was during this period that Padre Pio composed his meditation on "Thy Agony of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane"...  A priest who heard him preach described him as "an ordinary preacher." Few of his homilies have survived. Padre Pio was, in a way of speaking, entering the summertime of his ministry. With no interference from the Holy Office and with the goodwill of Padre Vigilio, he was now able to work virtually unmolested....

    Father Donatus had heard a great deal about Padre Pio and was eager to meet him, and so, on August 7, 1938, in the company of Padre Agostino, he paid a call on Padre Pio. Donatus left a written account of his impressions. Saying that he wanted to make a close study of everything concerning the stigmatic and his environment, Donatus writes,

 

    " I examined the stigmata and spoke frequently with Padre Pio on every kind of question: in this first encounter I wanted to enquire concerning ... the natural humanity of the priest. As he perhaps neurotic? hysterical? docile? violent? a dreamer? stupid? sad? fanatical?After repeated inquiries, I was able to conclude that in every sense Padre Pio was absolutely sound spiritually, ... I can and must affirm that in all the contacts I had with Padre Pio, I was deeply moved by his practice of virtue, his serenity, his humility ... his true affection towards his superiors ... his perfect obedience to all ecclesiastical authorities, his sane piety, and his modesty."...

 

    "More and more people came to San Giovanni Rotondo each from all parts of Italy. Move and more pilgrimages to Padre Pio were organized, which did not please the padre. "I disapprove of people making pilgrimages to me," he complained to Agostino. "I wish they would discourage people from coming in groups like this. It keeps me from hearing confessions as I ought." ... Even though he was held in such esteem by growing numbers of people, there was lack of difficulties. The bane of his ministry now seemed to be the hordes of fanatical women... facetiously called Le Pie Donne (The Holy Women.)...

 

    Another South American devotee of Padre Pio was Monsignor Fernando Damiani, vicar-general of Salto, Uruguay. We will recall that Pope Benedict XV had urged Damiani to make Padre Pio known in his country and that it had been Damiani who brought the glove of Padre Pio to Sister Teresa Salvadores when she was ill in 1921...

      It was at 7:00 P.M. on the evening of January 14 that Padre Pio told Dr. Sanvico that the hospital would be called La Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, or "The House for the Relief of Suffering." ... The Work, however, quickly came to a standstill because of the world war, which, having broken out in eastern Europe in September, engulfed nearly the whole of Europe in the spring of 1940. George H. Kubeck