Padre Pio's Christmas Meditation

From http://www.sanpadrepio.com/PadrePioChristmas.htm

 Appearing in volume four of the Italian-language edition of Padre Pio's letters, this essay was taken from Padre Pio's hand-written notebooks. To the best of my knowledge, it is presented here for the first time in English.

Translated by Frank M. Rega, December 2005.

"Padre Pio da Pietrelcina: Epistolario IV," Edizioni Padre Pio, San Giovanni Rotondo, 2002, pages 1007-1009.

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Far into the night, at the coldest time of the year, in a chilly grotto, more suitable for a flock of beasts than for humans, the promised Messiah – Jesus – the savior of mankind, comes into the world in the fullness of time. There are none who clamor around him: only an ox and an ass lending their warmth to the newborn infant; with a humble woman, and a poor and tired man, in adoration beside him. Nothing can be heard except the sobs and whimpers of the infant God. And by means of his crying and weeping he offers to the Divine justice the first ransom for our redemption. He had been expected for forty centuries; with longing sighs the ancient Fathers had implored his arrival. The sacred scriptures clearly prophesy the time and the place of his birth, and yet the world is silent and no one seems aware of the great event. Only some shepherds, who had been busy watching over their sheep in the meadows, come to visit him. Heavenly visitors had alerted them to the wondrous event, inviting them to approach his cave. So plentiful, O Christians, are the lessons that shine forth from the grotto of Bethlehem! Oh how our hearts should be on fire with love for the one who with such tenderness was made flesh for our sakes! Oh how we should burn with desire to lead the whole world to this lowly cave, refuge of the King of kings, greater than any worldly palace, because it is the throne and dwelling place of God! Let us ask this Divine child to clothe us with humility, because only by means of this virtue can we taste the fullness of this mystery of Divine tenderness. Glittering were the palaces of the proud Hebrews. Yet, the light of the world did not appear in one of them. Ostentatious with worldly grandeur, swimming in gold and in delights, were the great ones of the Hebrew nation; filled with vain knowledge and pride were the priests of the sanctuary. In opposition to the true meaning of Divine revelation, they awaited an officious savoir, who would come into the world with human renown and power. But God, always ready to confound the wisdom of the world, shatters their plans. Contrary to the expectations of those lacking in Divine wisdom, he appears among us in the greatest abjection, renouncing even birth in St. Joseph’s humble home, denying himself a modest abode among relatives and friends in a city of Palestine. Refused lodging among men, he seeks refuge and comfort among mere animals, choosing their habitation as the place of his birth, allowing their breath to give warmth to his tender body. He permits simple and rustic shepherds to be the first to pay their respects to him, after he himself informed them, by means of his angels, of the wonderful mystery. Oh wisdom and power of God, we are constrained to exclaim – enraptured along with your Apostle – how incomprehensible are your judgments and unsearchable your ways! Poverty, humility, abjection, contempt, all surround the Word made flesh. But we, out of the darkness that envelops the incarnate Word, understand one thing, hear one voice, perceive one sublime truth: you have done everything out of love, you invite us to nothing else but love, speak of nothing except love, give us naught except proofs of love. The heavenly babe suffers and cries in the crib so that for us suffering would be sweet, meritorious and accepted. He deprives himself of everything, in order that we may learn from him the renunciation of worldly goods and comforts. He is satisfied with humble and poor adorers, to encourage us to love poverty, and to prefer the company of the little and simple rather than the great ones of the world. This celestial child, all meekness and sweetness, wishes to impress in our hearts by his example these sublime virtues, so that from a world that is torn and devastated an era of peace and love may spring forth. Even from the moment of his birth he reveals to us our mission, which is to scorn that which the world loves and seeks. Oh let us prostrate ourselves before the manger, and along with the great St. Jerome, who was enflamed with the love of the infant Jesus, let us offer him all our hearts without reserve. Let us promise to follow the precepts which come to us from the grotto of Bethlehem, which teach us that everything here below is vanity of vanities, nothing but vanity.

Padre Pio and Confession

Confession was the principal daily activity of Padre Pio. He had the ability to look within the souls of his penitents. It was not possible to lie to Padre Pio during a confession. He saw inside people’s hearts. Often, when the sinners were timid, Padre Pio listed their sins during the confession.
Padre Pio invited all believers to confess at least once a week. He said: "Even if a room is closed, it is necessary to dust it after a week."
In the sacrament of confession Padre Pio was very demanding. He couldn't bear people that went to him only out of curiosity.

A monk once told the following story: "One day Padre Pio didn't give absolution to a penitent and he told him: "If you go to confess to another priest to have gain absolution you will go to hell together with him". He meant that the sacrament of confession is profaned by people that don't want to change their lives. They are guilty in front of God.

A man once went to St. Giovanni Rotondo to confess to Padre Pio. It was between 1954 and 1955. When he finished the accusation of his sins Padre Pio said: "Do you have anything else to confess?" and he said, "No Father!" He repeated the question: "Do you have anything else to confess?" "No Father!" For a third time Padre Pio asked him: "Do you have anything else to confess? At this third negative answer the hurricane exploded. With the voice of the Holy Spirit Padre Pio howled: "Go away! Go away! Because you are not reformed of your sins!"

The man was also petrified because of the shame that he felt in front of so many people. Then he tried to say something but Padre Pio said: "Keep silent, gossiper, you have spoken enough; I now want to speak. Is it true that you go to discos?” "Yes, Father." "Do you know that dancing is an invitation to the sin?" The man was surprised and he didn't know what to say: he had the membership card of a disco in his wallet. The man promised not to commit any other sins and after a lot of effort he received absolution.

One day, a man told Padre Pio: "Father, I tell lies when I am with some friends of mine. I do it in order to make everybody happy". And Padre Pio said: "Oh, do you want to go to hell by joking?!"

When a person speaks badly of a friend, he destroys the reputation and the honour of a brother who has the right to enjoy respect.
One day Padre Pio said to a penitent: "When you gossip about a person it means that you have removed the person from your heart. But be aware, when you remove a man from your heart, Jesus also goes away from your heart with that man."
Once, Padre Pio was invited to bless a house. But when he reached the entrance of the kitchen he said: "There are snakes here. I do not want to go in". And then he said to a priest that often went to that house to eat: “Don't go to that house because they say unpleasant things about their brothers and sisters.”

A man was born in the region of Italy called Marche. He and a friend left their town in a truck, with some furniture they had to transport nearby to St. Giovanni Rotondo. While they were taking the last slope, before reaching their destination, the truck broke-down and it stopped. They tried to start the engine again but without success. At that point the driver lost his calm and full of anger he cursed. The day after the two men went to St. Giovanni Rotondo where one of the men had a sister. With the help of his sister they succeeded in going to Padre Pio to confession. The first man entered the confessional but Padre Pio sent him away. Then it was the turn of the driver. He started saying something to Padre Pio: "I have been angry". But Padre Pio shouted: "Wretch! You have cursed our Mother! What did she do to you, Our Lady?" Then he sent him away as well.

In a hotel in St. Giovanni Rotondo it was not possible to rest neither during the day nor at night because there was a girl who was possessed and shouted for hours. Everybody was frightened of her. The child’s mother brought her every day to the church. She hoped that Padre Pio would free the child from the evil spirit. The child also shouted a lot in the church. One day, when Padre Pio had finished hearing the women’s confessions, he met the child that howled fearfully in front of him. The child was being held back with difficulty by two or three men. The Saint was annoyed by the whole uproar and kicked the child with his foot and then he struck the child’s head and he said: "Stop! Enough!" The child fell to the ground as if she was sleeping. Padre Pio told a doctor who was standing there, to bring the child to St. Michael, in the sanctuary of Monte Sant’Angelo. When the group reached the destination, they entered the cave where Saint Michael had appeared. The child revived but nobody succeeded in bringing her near to the altar of the Angel. In the midst of the confusion, a monk took the hand of the child and touched the altar. She fell down as if she had been struck by lightening. A few minutes later she woke up and as if nothing had happened she asked her mother: "Could you buy me an ice-cream?" At that point the group of people returned to St. Giovanni Rotondo in order to inform and to thank Padre Pio. But Padre Pio told her mother: "Say to your husband not to curse anymore, otherwise the demon will return."

In about 1950, a young doctor went to confess to Padre Pio. He confessed his sins and then he remained silent. Padre Pio asked the young doctor if he had other things to add but the doctor answered he had nothing else. Then Padre Pio told the doctor: "Keep in mind that on holy days you cannot miss Mass, because this is a mortal sin". Suddenly the doctor remembered he had "jumped" Mass with a Sunday appointment, a few months before.

Padre Pio prohibited all magic, spiritism and practices of bad magic. A lady said: "I confessed to Padre Pio in November, 1948. Among the things I told him was that we were worried about our aunt who read Tarot cards in our family”. Padre Pio in a peremptory tone said: "Throw that stuff away, as soon as you can."

In the united and holy family, Padre Pio saw the place where the faith can grow and develop. He said: “Divorce is the passport to hell".
A young lady finished the confession of her sins. She received her penance from Padre Pio who said: "You have to immerse yourself in the silence of prayer and you will save your marriage." The lady was amazed since her marriage didn't have any problems. After a long time, her marriage began to experience trouble. However she was ready to face the problems and overcame them and so avoided the destruction of the family because she had been following the suggestion that Padre Pio gave her.

One day, Padre Pellegrino asked Padre Pio: "Father, this morning you denied absolution to a lady who confessed to an abortion. Why have you been so rigorous with this poor unfortunate? ". Padre Pio said: "The day, in which people, frightened by the economic boom, from physical damages or from economic sacrifices, will lose the horror of the abortion, it will be the most terrible day for humanity. Abortion is not only homicide but also suicide. And with these people we see on the point of committing two crimes…do we want to show our faith? Do we want to save them? " "Why suicide?” Padre Pellegrino asked. "You would understand this suicide of the human race, if with the eye of reason, you could see the Heart populated by old men and depopulated by children: burnt as a desert.”

Touched by Padre Pio's guardian angels

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=490062&publicationSubCategoryId=87
PURPLE SHADES By Letty Jacinto-Lopez July 26, 2009
The main altar at the church where Padre Pio used to say Mass
It was 1965. My brother and sister-in-law (“sis” for short) had wanted to have a baby in the first five years of their married life but all attempts failed. Anxious and getting desperate, my sis agreed to travel to a then-sleepy town called San Giovanni Rotondo — about a four-hour drive from Rome, Italy — to meet Padre Pio, the Capuchin friar who bore the nail wounds of Jesus on the cross.
She said, “I waited for three hours at the confessional room. Finally, I saw Padre Pio motioning to me to speak. I was holding my knees to keep them from shaking. My confession was brief but I felt that he knew that I was there for something more important. After giving me the Absolution, he looked up and whispered, ‘Next year, you will have a baby boy.’”
“Wow!” my sis exclaimed. “He closed his eyes and made the sign of the cross on my forehead. Immediately, I felt a warm glow, both calming and comforting.”
The following year — as promised by Padre Pio — my sis gave birth to a healthy boy and she named him (you guessed it) Pio. My nephew, Pio, is now 43 years old, happily married and a loving father to two kids.
All the time, one teeny question kept popping into my head: “How did my sister-in-law and Padre Pio communicate? She didn’t speak a word of Italian, nor did Padre Pio speak English.
Simple. Padre Pio’s guardian angel had acted as his translator and spokesman. “You don’t say!” I yelped. “Yes,” said my sis. “I heard Padre Pio speak to me in English!” Still, I was not completely convinced. Maybe there was a hidden booth somewhere with UN-trained translators. That is, until I read a similar incident written by Father Alessio Parente, author of the book on Padre Pio entitled Send Me Your Guardian Angel:
“A little American girl was brought to Padre Pio so that he could hear her first confession. Since she didn’t speak a word of Italian, an American religious sister by the name of Mary Pyle, who was close to Father Pio, brought the little girl to him. ‘Father, I’m here to help you as this little girl doesn’t understand any Italian at all.’
“‘Mary,’ said Padre Pio, ‘you can go, as the little one and I will take care of this.’ Mary Pyle waited outside and when the little girl emerged from confession, she asked her, ‘Did Padre Pio understand you?’ ‘Yes,’ came the reply. Mary, a little surprised, asked one more question: ‘Did he speak in English?’ ‘Yes, in English,’ said the little girl.”
If you enter the area called Ricordi di Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo, you will walk into a room containing some of Padre Pio’s memorabilia. You will see thousands of letters from devotees all over the world encased in glass cabinets. It was a known fact that Padre Pio could only read, write and speak in Italian yet he was able to reply to these letters. How? He counted on his multi-lingual guardian angel and kept him busy and on his toes, in his “translation booth,” so to speak, all the time.
Padre Pio kept an active and vivacious relationship with all guardian angels — including his own — fulfilling a promise he made long ago to all his spiritual children that “If you are too busy to see me, send your guardian angel!” (Note: A special liaison that Padre Pio promised to continue even after his death.)
For example, there was a woman who never failed to attend the daily Mass celebrated by Padre Pio. One day, she was running late so she sent her guardian angel to Padre Pio to “delay” the Mass so she wouldn’t miss it. As a sign that her guardian angel would do this task for her, she told him to hide the skullcap of Padre Pio. When she reached the church, there was Padre Pio, indeed a little late, but ready to say Holy Mass. The woman confessed to Padre Pio what she did. Nonchalantly, Padre Pio replied, “I know that. Your guardian angel hid my skullcap and I could not find it in the usual place and only pointed me to where he kept it after a few minutes.” This guardian angel had played “hide and seek” with Padre Pio in complete obedience to his ward.
A Capuchin brother used to hear Padre Pio talking to himself in his private cubicle. This got him very curious so he asked Padre Pio, “Who were you talking to?” Padre Pio replied, “Guardian angels. They came with petitions and requests and they kept me up late again last night.”
Mind you, Padre Pio was physically beaten up and tormented by the devil, but he remained unyielding, thanks to the encouragement and protection of his personal guardian angel.
There are many more amusing stories of Padre Pio’s interaction with guardian angels and when I finished reading these inspiring stories, I was struck by Padre Pio’s consistent reminder not to forget the Virgin Mother. In the thick of all these amazing “save and rescue” operations, we must remember that our beloved Mary is the Queen of all Angels. They would not have made any move without her stamp of blessed approval (or is it “blessed conspiracy”?).
Incidentally, Padre Pio also had something to say about our tears. “Your tears are collected by the angels and are placed in a gold chalice and you will find them when you present yourself before God.” Now, who wouldn’t want to cry me a river or gather a bucket of tears or let the floodgates (of tears) open?
After a full day of touring San Giovanni Rotondo which included a private Mass in the same church where Padre Pio said Mass, watching videos on Padre Pio’s ministry, shopping for some religious souvenirs and posing for a group photo, Father Dave Concepcion, our tour chaplain, gave us something to think about. “You will notice that all the saints manifest three deep loves in their lives: the love for God, the love for the Holy Eucharist, and the love for Mama Mary.”
I turned to my co-pilgrims and said, “Hey, doesn’t that apply to us as well? Could it be possible that we can also become saints, someday?”
They all laughed — nervously, but maybe hopefully, too.