Padre Pio - Pray for Me

I didn't have a special devotion to Padre Pio. I found myself invited to join a group on a Pilgrimage to San Giovanni Rotondo just a few weeks ago. God had a plan.



San Giovanni Rotondo - Church



 

Besides the awesome fact that I was on the trip with wonderful company and a guide who had met and knew St. Pio of Pietralcina years ago I didn't know quite what to expect. The grounds are now extensive. What was once a deserted town 'quite a ways a way' is still applicable (especially if you're travelling from Rome). Nevertheless, the Black and White stills hanging in the walls of the museum do not seem at all what we see today.

 

 

Statue of Padre Pio - Percile, Italy

 

 

At the center of the town stands the old Church of the Assunta (Our Lady of the Assumption). Within the small Church stands the Altar and Confessional where the 'Miracle Worker' performed his greatest miracles: Changing Bread and Wine to the Body and Blood of Jesus; Forgiving the Sins of the droves of people in search of Divine Mercy.

 

 

Brother Eric praying in the Choir Chapel of the Stigmata



For me the spiritual experience was in floor 'up above' of the Church - the Choir Chapel where Padre Pio received the Stigmata. Funny, Brother Eric, also felt it there. Padre Pio had prayed in the midst of the world's confusion, violence, and hatred to take upon himself - in reparation - for all things that hurt God to take the hurt upon himself.

 

There is something very priestly about it all.

 

I don't pray for stigmata or extra hurt but I do ask that our Lord bring down His Mercy and also offer the sacrifices of each and every day.

 

St. Pio, Pray for us!

 

 

 





Breakfast with a Cardinal

To breakfast is a gift...many do not wake up to corn flakes, coffee or croissants. Just yesterday I had breakfast with one of the many special guests in our seminary, Cardinal Tagle. The Cardinal-Archbishop of Manila (the second youngest member of the College of Cardinals- now aged 56) and the Spiritual Leader of the only "Catholic Country" in Asia - sat down, not with the rest of the 100+ Bishops - but with just ordinary seminarians.

It was out of the blue. I hadn't expected it one bit and it left an impression on me.

 



Greeting Cardinal Ouellet

 

The Cardinal is authentically Asian. He talks like an Asian. He smiles like an Asian and - best of all - he laughs like an Asian. I enjoyed about an hour in which he talked about many things - but most of all - about his vocation and about our faith. He loves them. He speaks about them often. Because you really can't live your vocation if you don't live your faith.

 

 

I don't know if I will have another chance to sit down with a Cardinal over breakfast again but I hope that chance comes again - and I hope it is with Him. I could sum up our meeting in two words:

 

Gaudium et Spes

Joy and Hope



Presiding Mass in the seminary - New Bishops Course in Session
(officially called "Pilgrimage to St. Peter's Tomb")