Surrender Novena Day 1

Jesus, in this novena prayer, allows us to abandon ourselves to God. 

It is written as Our Lord's conversation with a soul who is experiencing suffering and worrying, as revealed to Don Delindo Ruotolo. Father Ruotolo was an Italian priest and at one time the spiritual director of Saint Padre Pio. Both men knew suffering very well and it guided their holiness. 

They, like Jesus, were so intimate with suffering that they understand our pain now in the Earthly life.

How to endure suffering? Surrendering ourselves to God. We invite Him to work within us. He provides the grace we desire if we give our pain, fear and worries to Him.

***

Why do you confuse yourselves by worrying? Leave the care of your affairs to me and everything will be peaceful. I say to you in truth that every act of true, blind, complete surrender to me produces the effect that you desire and resolves all difficult situations.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything. (Say 10 times.)

It's Saint Padre Pio's Birthday

 

A great modern saint of the Church was born today. 

Padre Pio was born on May 25, 1887, in Italy. Ordained a priest in 1910, he later received the wounds of Jesus's passion -- or the stigmata -- on September 20, 1918.  

His life was marked by intense suffering but filled with a deep love of God through his long hours of prayer and hearing confessions. His stigmatized wounds healed 50 years later on September 20, 1968, and he died three days later on September 23, 1968. He was canonized in 2002 by Pope John Paul II.

Padre Pio is a particularly powerful saint for anyone experiencing deep suffering, whether physical, spiritual, mental or emotional. He hears and he heals through Jesus's love for us. Padre Pio will be a spiritual father to us if we ask him. Go to him with this beautiful prayer of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

Efficacious Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

This novena prayer was recited every day by Padre Pio for all those who asked his prayers.

I. O my Jesus, You have said, ‘Truly I say to you, ask and it will be given you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you.’ Behold, I knock, I seek and ask for the grace of…

Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory be to the Father… Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.

II. O my Jesus, You have said, ‘Truly I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, He will give it to you.’ Behold, in Your name, I ask the Father for the grace of…

Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory be to the Father… Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.

III. O my Jesus, You have said, ‘Truly I say to you, heaven and Earth will pass away but my words will not pass away.’ Encouraged by Your infallible words, I now ask for the grace of…

Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory be to the Father…  Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, for whom it is impossible not to have compassion on the afflicted, have pity on us poor sinners and grant us the grace which we ask of You, through the Sorrowful and Immaculate heart of Mary, Your tender mother and ours.  

Hail, Holy Queen… Saint Joseph, foster father of Jesus, pray for us. Amen.

Saint Pio of Pietrelcina Feast Day

'Pray, Hope and Don't Worry'

“No matter how great the trial…never lose heart. Have recourse, with more childlike trust, to Jesus who will never be able to resist bestowing on you some little solace and comfort.” --Saint Padre Pio

Prayer to Saint Padre Pio

O God, You gave Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, Capuchin priest, the great privilege of participating in a unique way in the passion of Your Son, grant me through his intercession the grace of …

which I ardently desire; and above all grant me the grace of living in conformity with the death of Jesus, to arrive at the glory of the resurrection. Amen.

Glory be to the Father… (three times)

Novena to Saint Padre Pio, from the National Centre for Padre Pio in Pennsylvania. 

If you don't know of Saint Padre Pio, a humble Capuchin friar, now is the time to know him. 

Here are excerpts from a biography posted on the website of the Padre Pio shrine located at Saint John's Church in New York, N.Y. The shrine has on display a few relics, including the one pictured above as well as a brown fingerless woolen glove and a white linen sock, which has the stains of Padre Pio's blood from his stigmata.

The saint was born Francesco Forgione on May 25, 1887. His parents, Orazio and Giuseppa Forgione, were poor country people. The Forgiones had eight children, three of whom died in infancy and two of whom became professed religious. They lived in the little farming village of Pietrelcina, in the Province of Benevento, not many miles from Naples. They were God-fearing people.

Padre Pio in his youth was deeply religious and early in life showed a love for recollection and for the things of God. At school, he learned diligently and possessed a lively intelligence, so much so that his father was determined to help his son financially to become a priest. In 1903, he began his novitiate with the Capuchins in Morcone, received the habit and was given the religious name of Pio (Pius, in English). After seven years of studies, he was ordained on August 10, 1910 at the age of 23. Because of delicate health, he was permitted to practice his ministry for several years in his parochial church of Pietrelcina.

In 1912, he received intermittently the invisible stigmata. Christ's sacred wounds were invisibly imprinted on his hands, feet and side. The wounds could not be seen, but the pain and swelling of them were there. In 1916, his superiors sent him to the friary in San Giovanni Rotondo. He lived there until he died.

On September 20,1918, at 31 years old, a piercing cry escaped his lips during his thanksgiving after Mass. He was pierced and bleeding from five deep wounds in his hands, feet and side. The stigmata had become visible and was to remain with him until shortly before he died. He was the first priest to be so honored! There have been about 300 stigmatisms in the history of the Church.

Naturally, he was subjected to endless and often very painful medical examinations. All kinds of healing treatments were applied but without success. The wounds remained completely free from healing or any infection for 50 years.

His day consisted of constant prayer, usually the rosary, Holy Mass at 5 AM, confessions all day long and through his secretaries responses to the 500 to 600 pieces of mail each day. Most of the letters were requests for prayers, cures or advice. He never took breakfast or supper. Dinner at noon consisted of nibbling at his food, but never more than 500 calories a day.

He died a holy death on September 23,1968 at 2:30 AM with the words "Jesus and Mary" on his lips and his rosary in his hands. His funeral rites were a triumph. It is estimated that over 100,000 viewed his body and 100,000 participated in the funeral rites. 

Go to Padre Pio

A passage from "Stories of Padre Pio" by Madame Katharina Tangari.

San Giovanni Rotondo
May 20, 1956
Today Padre Pio was particularly fatherly with me. When I told him that in some personal business I had been mistaken in some matters and would probably have to suffer some losses, Padre Pio asked me why I did not ask for advice in my last Confession to him. I answered that I did not want to bother him. Instantly, Padre Pio replied, "But you should have the courage to bother me!"
That statement, delivered with such frankness, delighted me: it was Padre Pio in a nuthsell!

Prayer for the Intercession of St. Pio of Pietrelcina

Dear God, You generously blessed Your servant,
St. Pio of Pietrelcina,
with the gifts of the Spirit.
You marked his body with the five wounds
of Christ Crucified, as a powerful witness
to the saving Passion and Death of Your Son.
Endowed with the gift of discernment,
St. Pio labored endlessly in the confessional
for the salvation of souls.
With reverence and intense devotion
in the celebration of Mass,
he invited countless men and women
to a greater union with Jesus Christ
in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.

Through the intercession of St. Pio of Pietrelcina,
I confidently beseech You to grant me
the grace of (here state your petition).

Glory be to the Father… (three times). Amen.