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

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

IN PURSUIT OF THE TRUTH - HTTP://WWW.CINOPSBEGONEBLOGSPOT.COM  - TUES. APR. 30/19

PADRE PIO - THE TRUE STORY BY C. BERNARD

THE DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL - 110-114

    "Again, Pio speaks of his longing to be united with Jesus in heaven when he writes Agostino a New Year's letter on December 29, 1912, speaking of another year "about to lose itself in eternity." have entered into the house of Jesus, there to remain forever! ... Life here below is bitter grief to me, a life of exile that is a torment so bitter to me that I can scarcely bear it. The thought that any moment I could lose Jesus distresses me in an unspeakable way....

    
"Not only is he horrified by his actual sins, he is filled with terror at his potential to sin. In September 1915 he writes to Agostino that "the thought of going astray and ... offending God fills me with terror. It paralyzes my limbs, and both body and soul feel as if they are being squeezed in a powerful vise. My bones feel as if they were being dislocated ... crushed and ground up." All this anguish at the mere thought of sinning....

  
  "Padre Pio goes on to explain how God purged the soul, totally emptying it of itself. All self-centeredness must be replaced by "a new way of thinking and wishing that is simply and purely supernatural and celestial." In order to arrive at this state, the Christian must be subjected to this painful trial whereby he is purged by an intense light that reveals faults hitherto unseen. He sees God not as a loving Father, but as a terrifying Judge. He feels as if God were casting him out, he feels hopelessly lost..

   
 "Padre Pio continued to be subject to attacks by demonic forces. In August, 1912, for a space of several days, whenever days, whenever he decided to write to his superiors, he was seized with violent migraine headaches and spasms in his writing arm. Recognizing devilish interference, he prayed and as able to write. The devil continued to visit him through temptations against purity, which, in his modesty, he did not detail. In addition, he continued being subject to physical attacks by infernal forces, attacks accompanied by terrifying noises clearly audible to neighbors. But he continued to receive visits from his guardian angel, as well as from Jesus and Mary. It was his angel who frequently rescued him from physical assaults from demonic powers....

   
 "In March 1913, Padre Pio describes a vision in which Jesus deplores the lack of spirituality among modern Christians and a lack of dedication among the clergy. In his bodily vision, Jesus appeared in human form and spoke words perceptible to the organs of hearing. At times Jesus was silent, ar other times his throat was choked with sobs, as he lamented that people "make no effort to control themselves amidst their temptations and ... even delight in their iniquity. The souls in which I most delight lose their faith when they are put to the test. They ignore me day and night, in the churches.

   
  "They no longer care about the sacrament of the Altar .... No one cares any more about the love that I bear them. I am continually saddened. My house has become for many a theatre of amusements ... My ministers ...whose I have loved as the apple of my eye ... ought to have comforted my heart which is now filled with sorrow. They ought to have aided me in redemption of souls, but instead  ... I receive ingratitude and thanklessness from them. Son, I see many of them who ... betray me with hypocritical countenances and ... sacrilegious communions....

   
 "Jesus seems humanly petulant in this vision, but perhaps the Lord was appearing to Padre Pio in a manner that the friar could comprehend and interpret to those he served. The result of the vision was a kindling of Pio's zeal to win souls for Christ and renew his offering of himself as a victim. In other visions and revelations, as we have seen, Jesus sometimes presented souls to Padre Pio whom he had never met before. Through the visions Pio learned about the interior state of these souls so that they would be in a position to help them.

    
There are doubtless many readers of modern and secular bent who, after reading about Padre Pio's spiritual life, would still be inclined to dismiss Capuchin as a madman or, at least, a fellow with a very vivid imagination. But they must admit that many of these supernatural experiences, particularly the hellish assaults, were accompanied by phenomena that could be seen and heard by people nearby; that the revelations and locutions usually corresponded to some general observable reality:that the supersensible communications almost always resulted in some act of kindness or concern; and that all the supernatural experiences centered on the love for God and man....   George H. Kubeck