# 29 OF 45 - THIS HAPPY BOOK REPORT ON PADRE PIO!

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

IN PURSUIT OF THE TRUTH - HTTP://WWW.CINOPSBEGONEBLOGSPOT.COM - SUN. JULY 7/2019

PADRE PIO - THE TRUE STORY BY C. BERNARD

CHAPTER 11 - THE SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR - 139-142

"On retiring, Pio advised  "Never lie down to sleep without having first examined  your conscience on the way you have spent the day and without first turning your conscience to God. Then offer and consecrate your whole person and that of every Christian ... to God." He added, "Offer, moreover, to the glory of His Divine Majesty the rest you are to take and never forget your Guardian Angel, who is always close to you, no matter how badly you treat him." ....

"Trying to explain Pio's indulgence with new disciples, Campanile wrote, "He won souls ... by first showing compassion and catering to their wishes so that they might not fail into sin. He felt that people deeply attached to material things cannot suddenly be divorced from them without the danger of falling into deep despair or losing interest in spiritual commitment. He had an earthy way of expressing this predicament, an antiseptic translation of which is: "Outside the sewer the cockroach dies."

Padre Pio's advice to his spiritual children can be summed up in ten points, all of which apply daily:

1. Put your trust in Christ as your personal Savior. Padre Pio often counseled his disciples to abandon themselves to Jesus. "like a child to his mother's arms." He urged them to pray to Christ: "Whom have  on earth beside Thee? Whom have I in heaven but Thee, my Jesus! Thou are the God of my heart and my inheritance, whom I desire eternally!"

2. Know that you have no righteousness of your own.... He gave Gargani the following rules: +Never be pleased with yourself. +Do not complain about offenses perpetuated against you. +Forgive everyone with Christian charity. +Always groan as a poor wretch before your God. +Never marvel at your weakness, but recognize yourself for what you are; blush over your inconstancy and faithfulness to God, and confide in Him, tranquilly abandoning yourself to the arms  of the Heavenly Father like a babe in arms of his mother. + Never exult in any way, in any virtues, but ascribe everything to God, and give Him all the glory and honor.... He  reminded his spiritual children. "The Scripture saw that we of ourselves cannot say the name of Jesus if it under the action of the Holy Spirit."...He told Raffaelina, "If the Lord were to judge us according to strict justice, none of us, perhaps, would be saved."

3. Remember that good works come only through Christ. Good works, Padre Pio taught, are produced only in union with Christ. He told Maria Gargani that all of our actions are mixed with inclinations toward pride, vanity, self-love, and similar sins. But if our motives are God-centered and our actions consecrated to God, they are accepted and used for his glory. To the Ventralla sisters he wrote that a Christian should not worry about what he does so long as it is done with a desire to please God.

4. Recognize that the devil is a real individual.... He once told a group of his disciples that the number of devils active in the world was greater than that of all the human beings who had lived since Adam.... "Your adversary, the devil, like a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking someone to devour. Resist him strongly in the faith."

5. Always pray to God and say, in every circumstance, "Thy will be done." ... "In all human affairs ... learn most of all to recognize and adore God's will in everything. Frequently repeat the divine words of our dear Master, 'Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.'... May this beautiful exclamation always be in your heart and on your lips in all vicissitudes... Repeat it in temptations and in the trials in which will be pleased to subject you.... This will be your anchor and salvation." ... Padre Pio had an intense belief that prayer changes things, even to the extent that, from a human point of view, God seems to change his mind as a result of prayer...

In no way, however, did he feel that men could manipulate God or obtain anything they wanted. A good example of this would be the case of his sister, Pellegrina, for whom no amount of prayer or suffering to avail to effect her conversion. Yet, as he once told a spiritual son, some things are decreed from eternity, but other things depend on the prayers of men and women."...

George H. Kubeck