Wednesday - September 23, 2020
September 23, 2020
Memorial of St. Padre Pio
Reading 1
Galatians 2:19-20
Through the Law
I am dead to the Law, so that now I can live with God. I have been crucified
with Christ, and I live now not with my own life but with the life of Christ
who lives in me. The life I now live in this body I live in faith: faith in the
Son of God who loved me and who sacrificed himself for my sake.
………………………………………………………………
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 127(128):1-5
R. O blessed are those who fear the Lord.
O blessed are those who fear the Lord
and walk in his ways!
By the labour of your hands you shall eat.
You will be happy and
prosper.
O blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
in the heart of your
house;
your children like shoots of the olive,
around your table.
O blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Indeed thus shall be blessed
the man who fears the
Lord.
May the Lord bless you from Zion
all the days of your
life!
O blessed are those who fear the Lord.
……………………………………………………………………
Alleluia
2Co 5:19
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
God in Christ was reconciling the world to himself,
and he has entrusted to us the news that they are reconciled.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
……………………………………………………………………..
Gospel
Matthew 16:24-27
Jesus said to
his disciples: ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce
himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his
life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.
What, then, will a man gain if he wins the whole world and ruins his life? Or
what has a man to offer in exchange for his life?
‘For the Son of Man is going to come in the
glory of his Father with his angels, and, when he does, he will reward each one
according to his behaviour.’
******************************
“Far be it from
me to glory except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal 6:14).
Like the
Apostle Paul, Padre Pio da Pietrelcina placed at the centre of his life and
apostolic work the Cross of his Lord as his strength, his wisdom and his glory.
Inflamed by love of Jesus Christ, he became like him in the sacrifice of
himself for the salvation of the world. In his following and imitation of the
Crucified Christ he was so generous and perfect that he could have said: “I
have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who
lives in me” (Gal 2:20). And the treasures of grace which God had granted him
so lavishly and unceasingly he passed on through his ministry, serving the men
and women who came to him in ever greater numbers, and bringing to birth an
immense host of spiritual sons and daughters.
This worthy
follower of Saint Francis of Assisi was born on 25 May 1887 at Pietrelcina in
the Archdiocese of Benevento, the son of Grazio Forgione and Maria Giuseppa De
Nunzio. He was baptized the next day and given the name Francesco. At the age
of twelve he received the Sacrament of Confirmation and made his First Holy
Communion.
On 6 January
1903, at the age of sixteen, he entered the novitiate of the Capuchin Friars at
Morcone, where on 22 January he took the Franciscan habit and the name Brother
Pio. At the end of his novitiate year he took simple vows, and on 27 January
1907 made his solemn profession.
After he was ordained
priest on 10 August 1910 at Benevento, he stayed at home with his family until
1916 for health reasons. In September of that year he was sent to the friary of
San Giovanni Rotondo and remained there until his death.
Filled with
love of God and love of neighbour, Padre Pio lived to the full the vocation to
work for the redemption of man, in accordance with the special mission which
marked his entire life and which he exercised through the spiritual direction
of the faithful, the sacramental reconciliation of penitents and the
celebration of the Eucharist. The pinnacle of his apostolic activity was the
celebration of Holy Mass. The faithful who took part witnessed the summit and
fullness of his spirituality.
On the level of
social charity, he committed himself to relieving the pain and suffering of
many families, chiefly through the foundation of the Casa Sollievo della
Sofferenza (House for the Relief of Suffering), opened on 5 May 1956.
For the Servant
of God, faith was life: he willed everything and did everything in the light of
faith. He was assiduously devoted to prayer. He passed the day and a large part
of the night in conversation with God. He would say: “In books we seek God, in
prayer we find him. Prayer is the key which opens God's heart”. Faith led him
always to accept God's mysterious will.
He was always
immersed in supernatural realities. Not only was he himself a man of hope and
total trust in God, but by word and example he communicated these virtues to
all who approached him.
The love of God
filled him, and satisfied his every desire; charity was the chief inspiration
of his day: to love God and to help others to love him. His special concern was
to grow in charity and to lead others to do so.
He demonstrated
to the full his love of neighbour by welcoming, for more than fifty years,
countless people who had recourse to his ministry and his confessional, his
counsel and his consolation. He was almost besieged: they sought him in church,
in the sacristy, in the friary. And he gave himself to everyone, rekindling
faith, dispensing grace, bringing light. But especially in the poor, the
suffering and the sick he saw the image of Christ, and he gave himself
particularly to them.
He exercised to
an exemplary degree the virtue of prudence, acting and counselling in the light
of God.
His concern was
the glory of God and the good of souls. He treated everyone with justice,
frankness and great respect.
The virtue of
fortitude shone in him. He understood very early in life that his would be the
way of the Cross, and he accepted it at once with courage and out of love. For
many years, he experienced spiritual sufferings. For years he endured the pains
of his wounds with admirable serenity. He accepted in silence the many
interventions of his Superiors, and in the face of calumnies he always remained
silent.
He habitually
practised mortification in order to gain the virtue of temperance, in keeping
with the Franciscan style. He was temperate in his attitude and in his way of
life.
Conscious of
the commitments which he had undertaken when he entered the consecrated life,
he observed with generosity the vows he had professed. He was obedient in all
things to the commands of his Superiors, even when they were burdensome. His
obedience was supernatural in intention, universal in its scope and complete in
its execution. He lived the spirit of poverty with total detachment from self,
from earthly goods, from his own comfort and from honours. He always had a
great love for the virtue of chastity. His behaviour was modest in all
situations and with all people.
He sincerely
thought of himself as useless, unworthy of God's gifts, full of weakness and
infirmity, and at the same time blessed with divine favours. Amid so much
admiration around him, he would say: “I only want to be a poor friar who
prays”.
From his youth,
his health was not very robust, and especially in the last years of his life it
declined rapidly. Sister Death took him well prepared and serene on 23
September 1968 at the age of eighty-one. An extraordinary gathering of people
attended his funeral.
On 20 February
1971, barely three years after the death of the Servant of God, Pope Paul VI,
speaking to the Superiors of the Capuchin Order, said of him: “Look what fame
he had, what a worldwide following gathered around him! But why? Perhaps
because he was a philosopher? Because he was wise? Because he had resources at
his disposal? Because he said Mass humbly, heard confessions from dawn to dusk
and was – it is not easy to say it – one who bore the wounds of our Lord. He
was a man of prayer and suffering”.
Even during his
lifetime, he enjoyed a vast reputation for sanctity, because of his virtues,
his spirit of prayer, sacrifice and total dedication to the good of souls.
In the years
following his death, his reputation for sanctity and miracles grew steadily,
and became established in the Church, all over the world and among all kinds of
people.
God thus showed
the Church his desire to glorify on earth his faithful servant. In a short time
the Capuchin Order took the steps prescribed by canon law to begin the Cause of
Beatification and Canonization. After examining the case, the Holy See, in
accordance with the norm of the Motu Proprio “Sanctitas Clarior”, granted the
nihil obstat on 29 November 1982. The Archbishop of Manfredonia was thus
enabled to introduce the Cause and set up the informative process (1983- 1990).
On 7 December 1990, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints recognized its
juridical validity. When the Positio had been completed, there was the usual
discussion on whether the Servant of God had exercised the virtues to a heroic
degree. On 13 June 1997 the Special Meeting of the Theological Consultors was
held and gave a positive judgement. In the Ordinary Session on 21 October 1997,
with Bishop Andrea Maria Erba of Velletri-Segni, the Proposer of the Cause,
together with the Cardinals and Bishops, recognized that Padre Pio da
Pietrelcina had lived to a heroic degree the theological, cardinal and
associated virtues.
On 18 December
1997, in the presence of Pope John Paul II, the Decree on heroic virtue was
promulgated.
For the
Beatification of Padre Pio, the Postulation presented to the competent
Congregation the healing of Signora Consiglia De Martino of Salerno. The
regular canonical process concerning this case was held at the Ecclesiastical
Tribunal of the Archdiocese of Salerno-Campagna-Acerno from July 1996 to June
1997 and the case was recognized as valid by a decree dated 26 September 1997.
On 30 April 1998 at the Congregation for the Causes of Saints the Medical Board
examined the miracle, and on 22 June 1998 the Special Meeting of Theological
Consultors gave its judgment. On 20 October 1998 the Ordinary Congregation of
the Cardinals and Bishops belonging to the Congregation, together with the
Proposer, Bishop Andrea M. Erba, was held in the Vatican. On 21 December 1998
in the presence of Pope John Paul II the Decree on the miracle was promulgated.
COLLECT PRAYER
Almighty ever-living God, who, by a singular grace, gave the Priest Saint Pius a share in the Cross of your Son and, by means of his ministry, renewed the wonders of your mercy, grant that through his intercession we may be united constantly to the sufferings of Christ, and so brought happily to the glory of the resurrection. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
------------------------
God Bless You.....
The Rosary Family
The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”
No comments:
Post a Comment