Christmas – Baby Jesus, Padre Pio Prayer Group on 1-5-2019

When Padre Pio celebrated Christmas the Baby Jesus would miraculously appear

Article by Philip Kosloski, in Aletia on Dec. 16th 2018

Witnesses attest to seeing a vision of Baby Jesus in the arms of Padre Pio.

St. Padre Pio loved Christmas. He had a special devotion to the Baby Jesus ever since he was a child.

According to Capuchin priest Fr. Joseph Mary Elder, “At his home in Pietrelicina, he prepared the crib himself. He would often begin working on it as early as October. While pasturing the family’s sheep with friends, he would search for clay to use to fashion the small statues of shepherds, sheep, and the magi. He took particular care in crafting the infant Jesus, making and re-making it continually until he felt he had it just right.”

This devotion remained with him during his entire life. In a letter to spiritual daughter, he wrote, “When the Holy Novena begins in honor of the Baby Jesus, it felt as though my spirit were being born again to a new life. I felt as though my heart were too small to embrace all our heavenly blessings.”

Midnight Mass in particular was a joyous celebration for Padre Pio, who celebrated it every year, taking many hours to carefully celebrate the Holy Mass. His soul was lifted up to God with great joy, a joy that other could easy see.

Additionally, witnessed have recounted how they would see Padre Pio holding the Baby Jesus. This was not a porcelain statue, but the Baby Jesus himself in a miraculous vision.

Renzo Allegri recounts the following story.

We were reciting the rosary while waiting for the Mass. Padre Pio was praying with us. All of a sudden, in an aura of light, I saw the Baby Jesus appear in his arms. Padre Pio was transfigured, his eyes gazing upon the glowing Child in his arms, his face transformed by an astonished smile. When the vision disappeared, Padre Pio realized from the way I was looking at him that I had seen everything. But he drew close to me and told me not to mention it to anyone.

A similar story is told by Fr. Raffaele da Sant’Elia, who lived next to Padre Pio for many years.

I had got up to go to the church for the Midnight Mass of 1924. The corridor was huge and dark, and the only illumination was the flame of a small oil lamp. Through the shadows I could see that Padre Pio, too, was making his way to the church. He had left his room and was making his way slowly along the corridor. I realized he was swathed in a band of light. I took a better look and saw that he had the Baby Jesus in his arms. I just stood there, transfixed, in the doorway on my room, and fell to my knew. Padre Pio passed by, all aglow. He didn’t even notice I was there.

These supernatural events highlight the deep and abiding love of Padre Pio for God. His love was further marked by simplicity and humility, with a heart wide open to receive whatever heavenly grace God had planned for him.

May we too open our hearts to receive the Baby Jesus on Christmas day and let God’s unfathomable love overcome us with Christian joy.

Spiritual Father – Padre Pio Prayer Group on 12-1-2018

What was Padre Pio Like as a Spiritual Father?

“Stories of Padre Pio” by Madame Katharina Tangari

When we speak of Padre Pio as a spiritual father, we need to keep in mind that he was not a spiritual father in the ordinary sense. His way of guiding souls was completely different – indeed necessarily different – from the common way, because he did not have available the ordinary means and possibilities required for spiritual guidance. Thus, for example, Padre Pio was not always able to give us personal attention; there was not enough time for long discussions, conversations or instructions. Nor were we able to be guided by him in writing; only his very first spiritual children had the benefit of having been guided and supported by his highly inspired letters. However, after 1924, the ever-growing ranks of Padre Pio’s spiritual children to longer had this benefit.

Nor was it always easy to reach Padre Pio: innumerable obstacles would come between him and us. Granted, we could use our Confessions to him to ask for his advice, but is was not always so simple to get to these Confessions, which for that matter were restricted to a very limited time, a few minutes. Nor was Padre Pio a preacher, who could guide us by his living word, nor a writer, who could convey his teaching to us through his writings. For decades he lived in the faraway, isolated monastery of San Giovanni Rotondo, and his days were spent exclusively in the monastery or in the church.

How then was he able to gather around himself a multitude of innumerable spiritual children, spread throughout the world? Was it possible for him to be a real spiritual father for all these children? What was the basis for his care of souls? What means did he adopt? And what was the secret of his success? To all these questions there is only one answer: the real and proper source of his mission, of his apostolate, was his intimate union with Christ – above al with Christ Crucified – the union by which he lived and from which he drew all gifts for himself and for us.

His art of quiding  souls was based solely on this union of his with Christ and upon the graces that flow from it. From this union alone he received the necessary means, and among these, in the first place, were assiduous prayer, absolute purity of life, intense participation in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass – in which he always included his spiritual children – and the surprising constancy and fortitude in offering with simplicity, humility and docility his own sufferings for the love of Jesus and of souls. It should not surprise us that his care for souls, which rested on this basis and used such means, should have an efficacy all its own and be capable of moving with great simplicity, and quite naturally, in the sphere of the supernatural. It would instead be surprising if that were not the case.