FEBRUARY: Month of the Sacred Passion of Our Lord

Let us not forget that February 11^th is the World Day of Prayer for the Sick that meant so much to John Paul 11. 2012 marks the 20^th Anniversary of this now crucial event in the Catholic calendar that brings together millions of people in prayer. When you, or someone close to you is sick, it is a stressful and deeply worrying experience for everyone concerned. It can be difficult to stay positive. It’s at times like this that you need your family around you. This includes the ‘family’ of Saint Pio Prayer Groups that are scattered throughout the world and who include all the members of the Groups worldwide in their intentions. That means that there is someone, somewhere, praying for us most of the time.

Saint Pio has taught us that prayer is the most deep sign of our love for God. God has begun a union with each one of us in a unique way, so each one of us has a different way to communicate our relationship with Him. Our prayer can take the form of communal prayer in our Prayer Groups as Our Lord has told us that: “Where two or three are gathered together in prayer, I will be among them.” Our time of prayer makes us aware of this blessing that God shares with us and it overflows into everything we do.  We should be living our prayers and not just saying them, which we show in the way we relate to others. We never go to God by ourselves in prayer; we bring the world with its burdens and sufferings along with us. We intercede for the living and the dead because we know that the power of God’s love experienced in prayer does have an effect on the hearts of others and, without a doubt, the world. The effects of prayer in our lives can also be found in our interaction with ourselves. Prayer often brings us face to face with our sometimes confused and disturbed hearts. We become aware that we have drifted away from God, and have become restless and have not allowed enough time for listening to God’s words in reading the Scriptures. A special expression of love that has been taught us by Saint Pio and has been confirmed by the Holy Father is the praying of the Rosary. Our Lady never refused Saint Pio a grace through his recitation of the Rosary.

Saint Pio dressed in a humble habit; girded his cord with the rosary and, on his bare feet, he wore sandals. He wanted to be a Capuchin Friar; a true witness of simplicity, austerity, prayer and poverty, in order to teach the world “the royal path which leads to God.” He chose ‘suffering’ without any conditions or limits. He asked Jesus to unite him to His martyrdom, to His mission, as a ‘Redeemer’ of the world; to cancel the sins of the world; to bring once again into the heart of men, the freedom and liberty of sons of God. The ‘Way of the Cross’ was his favourite path. He took up the cross from the shoulders of Christ and gathered it onto his own, becoming ‘Everyone’s Cyrenean,’ replacing others in an important and difficult task. On the cross of Christ with the tremendous weight of the sins of men, in everybody’s name he carried that weight at all times: Every hour, every day for more than fifty years; a living visible crucifix, in order to relieve the pains of Christ for the redemption and salvation of all his brothers and sisters.

Saint Pio has advised us that: “ The Supreme Goodness is in yourselves. He keeps you on the cross yearning to bear an unbearable martyrdom, and also, to bitterly love. LOVE. Therefore, the fear of losing Him, and of displeasing Him unintentionally, is as strong as His nearness and closeness to you. Anxiety for the future is also useless, since your present state is a crucifixion of love. As for the spiritual trials to which the fatherly goodness of our Heavenly Father subjects you, I beg you to be comforted, and if possible, to be calmed by Him who takes God’s place for you, who loves you because of Him, who wishes you every good, who speaks to you in His name. Suffer, by all means, but with resignation. Suffer, but do not fear, because God is with you, and you do not offend Him. Suffer, but also believe that Jesus, Himself, suffers in you, for you, and with you. Jesus did not forsake you when you were running away from Him; much less will He forsake you now that you wish to love Him. Therefore, if other reasons cannot convince you of heavenly mercy, this one should reassure you, and you should become calm and happy.”

As God has made us sharers in His mercy and even more than that, distributors of that mercy, we should therefore have great love for each soul, beginning with the elect and ending with the soul that does not yet know God. By prayer and mortification, we will make our way to the most uncivilized countries, paving the way for the missionaries. We will bear in mind that a soldier on the front line cannot hold out long without the support of the rear forces that do not actually take part in the fighting but provide for all his needs; and that such is the role of prayer, and that therefore, each one of us is to be distinguished by an apostolic spirit. And always and in everything, our intention should be pure and done in a spirit of humility. We should love one another with an enriching love, with a pure love, seeing God’s likeness in every member. Love should be the special characteristic of our Prayer Groups, not close our hearts but open them up to the whole world, showing mercy to every soul through prayer. If we live in this spirit of mercy, we ourselves will obtain mercy.

When our faith is weak, when we are troubled, distressed, overburdened or simply upset, we can feel disapproving and even angry with God. How could God, who is love, have allowed His beloved Son to have suffered such rejection, pain, anguish and fear. This came about because of the crushing and degrading effects of sin. Looking at the Crucifix, can also bring us comfort and gratitude for the tremendous love and compassion that God, in the person of Jesus Christ, has lavished on us all. The Cross stands at the heart of the Paschal mystery – the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world.  It is the sign and symbol of God’s total love and concern for each one of us. It is the sign and symbol that points to the reality of Christ’s victory over sin and death once and for all, that Jesus Christ never gave way to the temptation to detach Himself from our weak and suffering humanity. He immersed Himself completely in it and identified totally with each of us in our suffering – whatever form that suffering takes. He showed us that He too was genuinely human and vulnerable. He never wanted in any way to escape the restrictions and the problems of the human condition. In the same way, we cannot expect God to free us in this life, although we are ‘filled with the Holy Spirit.’ Our journey of faith can at times be extremely hard going – we can lose our way, lose our nerve. We can lose our faith and hope when we are overwhelmed by the sufferings, trials and disappointments of this life. But Jesus teaches us that the way of the Cross is the way of eternal life. Let us ask for the grace to accept it with compassion and confidence. Without the Cross there is no Resurrection.

Saint Pio calls us to imitate that kindness and consideration in the way we relate to each other and especially to the poor, the weak and the helpless.  Our faith, our love and our hope should not stay locked up in our heads and hearts, but should be shown in the way we live and relate to God and to others.

Let us return to prayerful meditation of the Scriptures in which we meet Christ once again, day by day. This will lead us to active faith, hope and love, the sign of true discipleship. Lives lived in imitation of the self-giving of Jesus Christ who came to bring good news to the poor, the materially poor, the spiritually poor and the emotionally poor.

THOUGHT FOR THE MONTH:

So that Saint Pio could carry out his priestly ministry in the confessional more effectively, the Holy Spirit gave to him the charism of the scrutiny of hearts, a gift which is bestowed especially for the good of others. This is a gift through which the person who receives it knows and is able to let somebody see, by supernatural means, the secrets enclosed in the hearts of others which are known only to God and to the conscience of the individual. This must not be confused with the “reading of the mind” claimed by magicians and mystics. A woman during a pilgrimage went to confession in one of the shrines along the route. When she arrived in San Giovanni Rotondo, she did not want to miss the chance of going to confession to Saint Pio; she repeated the same sins to the Friar that had already been forgiven her. Saint Pio suddenly interrupted, to the surprise of the penitent, and said: “Why are you confessing to me sins that you already confessed in Assisi?”

When you have come to experience the Lord’s forgiveness and compassion, it is a very personal moment in your relationship with God. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is an act of God’s love, a personal moment to be lived in a relationship of love with God. It is very much part of a personal renewal which takes place in each person, in San Giovanni Rotondo or wherever you make your confession. The call to reconcile with God is recognised in every single crucifix or cross.

When our Blessed Mother was told that Jesus was arrested, she did what any good mother would do; she rushed out to be with Him. What a shock she must have got when she saw how mutilated He was. She could feel that heavy Cross burning into His Sacred Shoulder and back, seeing His beautiful, blood stained face, the blood seeping through His clothes. As Jesus and His Holy Mother looked at each other, what love and pain must have passed between them. We find here one of the mysteries of suffering and perhaps also one of the answers. He was God and could have managed to spare His Mother, who He loved the most, His whole passion and death that would be over before she heard about it. But Jesus does sometimes invite some of His strongest friends to help Him in saving the world. Let all suffering parents identify with Mary when they lose their children or watch them suffer. Mary must have known that the moment of death was almost at hand for Him. The work He had come to do in the world had been finished. He had atoned for all the sins of the world, reconciled mankind with God and opened the gates of Heaven for all women and men if only they would co-operate with the help and encouragement that God would send to them.

PRAYER:

Dear Blessed Mother, grant that when I come to the end of my life, I, too, will have done whatever God had asked me to do with my life. But even if I make a fool of myself and fail Him, please give me the grace to throw myself on His love and mercy, and hope that in some way He will get some more generous soul than mine to do what I should have done. As Jesus died, He said: “Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend My Spirit.” Blessed Virgin Mary, please pray for a happy death for me – a death united with the death of Jesus. How could I be afraid to die when Jesus has gone through death before me? I hope I will be able to repeat those words of Your Son when the time comes, or at least let someone say them on my behalf.

:

‘We thank You, Jesus, Our Saviour and friend, for suffering Your Passion to the bitterest end;

For the scourging with whips and the blood that You shed, for the crowning with thorns on Your innocent head;

For the nails that were driven in Your hands and Your feet, for suffering in agony our sins to defeat;

For dying for all upon the Cross, and for rising again to make up our loss.

Thank you Lord. AMEN.’

Prayer is the foundation on which we build our GROUPS of PRAYER.

                    Love and Prayers,      Josephine.            www.padrepio.org.uk/