# 66 OF 70 - THIS HAPPY BOOK REPORT ON PADRE PIO

                                   # 66 OF 70 - THIS HAPPY BOOK REPORT ON PADRE PIO

IN PURSUIT OF THE TRUTH - HTTP://WWW.CINOPSBEGONE.BLOGSPOT.COM -FRI. SEP. 4, 2020

 

PADRE PIO: THE TRUE STORY - C. BERNARD RUFFIN

Chapter 33 - 'Give Me the Obedience to Die!" p. 370 -373

    "During the spring of 1965 Padre Pio deteriorated in health and spirits. Padre Alessio ... recounted, "Physically he was prostrated, weak in legs and arms. He walked slowly and painfully, supported by the arm... He was very discouraged and depressed. There was something that was discouraging him ... Every time he would go out of the room to hear confession or say Mass, he would write, 'in dubiis libertas' (in doubt liberty). In other words, in doubt, you have the freedom to decide what is right. He doubted whether he was solving problems the right way... He preferred to remain silent. His breathing was heavy because of asthma and bronchitis and he coughed all the time... The doctors gave him tablets at night to relax him ... Little by little I would give him the drink caramela, a herbal tranquilizer.

 

    For two or three months he was hardly sleeping at all. He would sleep for ten minutes, then he was up two or three hours ... the he would sleep ten minutes more. You could hear him moving, turning, praying... He could no longer read. I gave him two books on Our Lady. He managed to read two or three pages... In fact,he asked forgiveness for the trouble he was causing. He used to cry because he was a burden to me and the community.

 

    During the long nights made sleepless by coughing and shortness of breath, Pio murmured continually, "My Jesus, my mother Mary, I offer up to you the groaning of my poor soul!" During the day he was heard to murmur, "Jesus, call me!" and "I can't carry on anymore," Every night he would beg the superior, Padre Carmento,"Give me the obedience to die." ...
    In 1966 Padre Pio celebrated the Golden Anniversary of his residence in San Giovanni Rotondo, and the city council proclaimed a day of celebration in his honor on December 26, Pio was presented with a medallion and a memorial tablet was unveiled in front of the old church.

    As he approached his eightieth birthday, Pio's health worsened further. His sight was so bad that he requested and receive a dispensation from his obligation to pray the Holy Office. His legs were not only weak, but were numb as well, and he was given permission to say Mass in a seated position...

 

    On April 26, 1968, Padre Pio was told that eighty-year-old Maria Pyle had been taken to the Casa after suffering another stroke. Would he like to visit her? "No, I am going to pray to the Lord to take her home to heaven to be with the angels."

    Although most of those whom Padre Pio had loved best now slept in the town cemetery, he knew he was not destined to rest beside them. A tomb was being prepared in the crypt under the new church to receive his remains. He predicted that when the tomb was complete, he would die.

 

    By now the stigmata were disappearing. For more than a year they had disappeared from his feet, although his feet hurt so intensely that it proved a veritable martyrdom when one of his assistants put on his sock and sandals. The wound in the side no longer bled and, by the spring of 1968, the stigmata on the hands were vanishing.By summer there were now only scabs, with just a touch of redness. One of his attendants, Padre Onorato, recognized this as a sign of approaching death, "The ministry was finished, so the signs were finished."

    By July Padre Pio was virtually bedridden and frequently in great pain, often unable to celebrate Mass... Pio coughed constantly and had violent fits of suffocation, relieved only when he was "able to emit an abundant, viscous expectoration." ... "I can't take it anymore! Lord, what am I doing here on earth now? Come and get me!"...

 

On Sept. 12, 1968, Padre Pio dictated a last letter to Pope Paul VI., who was overwhelmed by the worldwide criticism that followed his "birth control encyclical." Humanae Vitae, Pio told Paul:

    I  know that your heart is suffering much these days in the interest of the Church, for the peace of the world, for the innumerable necessities of the people of the world, but, above all, for the lack of obedience of some, even Catholics, to the high teachings that you, assisted by the Holy Spirit and in the name of God, are giving himself. I offer you my prayers and daily sufferings as a small but sincere contribution on the part of the least of your sons in order that God may give you comfort...

George H. Kubeck