Join Msgr. John Esseff, as he offers this novena in honor of St. Pio
Stay with me, Lord, for it is necessary to have you present
so that I do not forget You. You know how easily I abandon You
Stay with me, Lord, for You are my life and without You I am
without fervor.
Stay with me, Lord, for You are my light and without You I am in
darkness.
Stay with me, Lord, so that I hear Your voice and follow You.
Stay with me, Lord, for I desire to love You very much and alway
be in Your company.
Stay with me, Lord, if You wish me to be faithful to You.
Stay with me, Lord, as poor as my soul is I want it to be a place
of consolation for You, a nest of Love.
Stay with me, Jesus, for it is getting late and the day is coming
to a close and life passes, death, judgment and eternity approach. It is
necessary to renew my strenth, so that I will not stop along the way and
for that, I need You. It is getting late and death approaches, I fear
the darkness, the temptations, the dryness, the cross, the sorrows. O
how I need You, my Jesus, in this night of exile!
Stay with me tonight, Jesus, in life with all its dangers, I need
You.
Let me recognize You as Your disciples did at the breaking of the
bread, so that the Eucharistic Communion be the Light which disperses
the darkness, the force which sustains me, the unique joy of my heart.
Stay with me, Lord, because at the hour of my death, I want to
remain united to You, if not by Communion, at least by grace and love.
Stay with me, Lord, for it is You alone I look for, Your Love,
Your Grace, Your Will, Your Heart, Your Spirit, because I love You and
ask no other reward but to love You more and more.
With a firm love, I will love You with all my heart while on earth
and continue to love You perfectly during all eternity. Amen.
Novena to St. Padre Pio
(9 days)
PRAYER TO THE SACRED HEART
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." 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
promise, 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 and grant us the grace
which we ask of You, through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of
Mary, Your Mother and ours.
... the Hail Holy Queen ... St. Joseph, Foster Father of Jesus, pray
for us.
First Day
St. Pio of Pietrelcina, you had the signs of the Passion of Christ on
your body. You carried the stigmata for everyone, enduring both the
physical and mental sufferings in a continual sacrifice. We ask you to
pray for us, so that we may be able to accept the crosses we too must
bear during our life here and offer our sufferings to God.
“It is to your advantage to commit yourself to the sufferings that
Jesus will send to you. Jesus cannot tolerate seeing you afflicted and
he will come to you and comfort you, blessing you with many graces for
your soul”. Padre Pio
PRAYER TO THE SACRED HEART (above)
Second Day
Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, together with Our Lord, you were able to
withstand the temptations of the Evil One. You suffered beatings and
oppression from the demon of hell, who wanted to have you abandon your
journey of holiness. We ask you to pray for us so that, with your help
and the help of all of the Heavenly Kingdom, we will find the strength
to renounce sin and persevere in faith until the moment of our death.
“Have courage and do not fear the assaults of the Devil. Remember this
forever; it is a healthy sign if the devil shouts and roars around
your conscience, since this shows that he is not inside your will”.
Padre Pio
PRAYER TO THE SACRED HEART (above)
Third Day
St. Pio of Pietrelcina, you love Our Lady and you received graces and
consolations daily through her intercession. We ask you to pray to
Mary for us. Place our petitions in her hands, so that, as at Cana,
her Son may say ‘yes’ to her and grant our prayers.
“Mary has to be the star that illuminates your path and she will show
you the secure way to go to the Celestial Father. She will be an
anchor to which you must cling in the hour of temptation”. Padre Pio
PRAYER TO THE SACRED HEART
Fourth Day
St. Pio of Pietrelcina, you loved your guardian angel, who served you
well as your guide, defender and messenger. Angels would often bring
to you the prayers and petitions of your spiritual children. Pray for
us, that we may learn to call on our own guardian angel, who is always
ready to inspire us to what is truly good and holy.
“Invoke your Guardian Angel, who will enlighten you and guide you. God
has given him to you for your protection, therefore, you should use
him accordingly”. Padre Pio
PRAYER TO THE SACRED HEART
Fifth Day
St. Pio of Pietrelcina, you had a great devotion to the souls in
purgatory, for whom you offered yourself in order to cancel their
debt. Pray for us, and ask God to send us the same interest,
compassion and love that you have for these souls. In this way, we
will also contribute to reducing their suffering and, with our
sacrifices and prayers, win for them their necessary Indulgences.
“My God, I beg you; let me bear the punishments that have been
prepared for sinners and the souls in Purgatory. Multiply these
punishments for me, so that you may forgive and save the sinners and
free their souls from purgatory”. Padre Pio
PRAYER TO THE SACRED HEART
Sixth Day
Obedient St. Pio of Pietrelcina, you loved the sick more than
yourself, because you saw Jesus in them. You performed miracles by
healing patients in the name of Jesus, thereby giving them peace of
mind. We beg you to pray for us, so that sick patients, through the
intercession of Mary, can be healed and their bodies restored so that
they may thank and praise God forever.
“If I knew that a person was afflicted in his mind, body or soul, I
would beg God to set him free of his affliction. I would gladly accept
the transfer of his affliction to myself, so that he may be saved, and
I would ask that he benefit from the fruits of these sufferings... if
the Lord would allow me to do it”. Padre Pio
PRAYER TO THE SACRED HEART
Seventh Day
Blessed St. Pio of Pietrelcina, you have worked in “God’s Plan for
Salvation”, by offering your sufferings to free sinners from the
chains of the Devil. We beg you to pray for us, so that unbelievers
will be converted to the faith, that all sinners will repent in their
hearts and that those with lukewarm hearts will find renewed
enthusiasm for a Christian life. Finally, pray for all those who are
faithful, so that they will persevere on their way to salvation.
“If the people of the World could only see the beauty of ones soul
when it is in the grace of God, all sinners and unbelievers of this
world would be instantly converted”. Padre Pio
PRAYER TO THE SACRED HEART
Eighth Day
Pure St. Pio of Pietrelcina, you experienced great love for your
spiritual children and have helped them by purchasing them for Christ
with the giving of your blood. Please grant us, who have not met you
personally, the opportunity to be considered your spiritual children.
In this way, with your protection, guidance and strength, you will
obtain for us a special blessing from God, so that we may meet Him on
the day of our death at the gates of Heaven.
“It would be most fulfilling, if God would grant me just one wish (if
it were possible); that He would say, “Enter Heaven!” This is my one
true wish; “That God would take me to Heaven at the same time that the
last of my children and the last of the people who submitted to my
priestly care have entered”. Padre Pio
PRAYER TO THE SACRED HEART
Ninth Day
Humble St. Pio of Pietrelcina, you who loved the Roman Catholic
Church, pray for us. May the Master send workers to the harvest and
give them the strength and knowledge needed to be children of God.
Pray that Our Holy Lady will unite Christian people everywhere,
comforting all of them in one great house of the Lord, the lighthouse
of our salvation in the storm of life, as a lighthouse is a beacon for
safe return when there is a storm at sea.
“You must always keep yourself on the straight and narrow path in the
Holy Catholic Church because She is the only Bride of Christ and can
bring you peace. She alone possesses Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament,
who is the true Prince of Peace”. Padre Pio
Pio (Padre Pio)
1887-1968
Feast Day: September 23
Patron of: Forgiveness
Keywords: healing, miracles
“Pray, hope, and don’t worry.”
Symbols: crucifix, stigmata
Denounced by Vatican officials as a fraud, and his mystical gifts
frequently viewed with suspicion by his immediate superiors, Pio of
Pietracelina was sequestered away in the remote monastery of San
Giovanni Rotondo where it was expected that he would labor as a monk in
obscurity. His adeptness in both physical and spiritual healing and his
ability to read hearts and minds while in confession made him wildly
popular among the common people of that impoverished region of Italy.
Today, the town of San Giovanni Rotondo is the second most visited place
by religious pilgrims who venture there to pay homage to one of the most
popular saints of the twentieth century, Padre Pio. Made a saint in
2002, Padre Pio has no official patronage. Because of his devotion to
the powers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and his own suffering due to the
mistrust of his superiors, he is frequently invoked to bring the grace
of forgiveness to a situation.
Born Francesco Forlione in Pietracelina, a town north of Naples, he
was named for his patron saint, Francis of Assisi. Coming from a
religious family, he said he had spiritual visions of Christ and the
Virgin Mary from a very young age. He never mentioned them to anyone as
he assumed all people had such gifts. He was ordained as a Capuchin
friar in 1910 taking the name Pio (meaning “Pious”) but was sent home
due to a diagnosis of tuberculosis. While convalescing he offered
himself as a conduit of suffering in exchange for the salvation of
others. Eventually, in 1916 he was conscripted into the army where he
contracted such a high fever that he was sent home to die. Upon his
miraculous recovery from this illness, the Capuchin order sent him to
the very remote monastery of Our Lady of Grace in San Giovanni Rotondo
in Puglia, a province of Southern Italy. On September 20, 1918, while
praying in the stillness of the church, Pio went into a trancelike state
where he saw Christ standing before him bleeding from the wounds of the
crucifixion. Pio’s heart almost burst in sympathy before coming out of
the state in intense pain. Upon regaining consciousness he found himself
to be afflicted with the same wounds of the crucifixion. It was this
condition which only ended at his death in 1968, which would bring him
under intense scrutiny by church officials for the rest of his life.
Pio’s talents for deciphering what people meant to tell him during
confession but were too embarrassed or ashamed to bring up, became
immediate apparent to the local townspeople and he developed a great
following among them. They credited him with an incredible capacity of
healing, mending physical ills, familial squabbles, and curing spiritual
desolation. When Vatican Officials severely limited his official duties,
the one mass he was allowed to say at 5 AM, had thousands lining up the
night before so that they may be with him. Without ever leaving the
monastery, he was known as “the living saint” as he sighted in hospitals
and at sickbeds hundreds of miles away. The onset of World War Two
spread his cult on an international level as soldiers from Australia,
other parts of Europe, and the United States witnessed his miraculous
abilities. By the late 1940’s he was receiving hundreds of international
prayer requests per day. He eventually founded a hospital for the
hopelessly ill, the internationally acclaimed House for the Relief of
Suffering, which treats tens of thousands of people each year and
survives solely on charitable donations.
The animosity that many Vatican officials had against Padre Pio was
dissolved in 2002 when Pope John Paul II declared him a saint. This pope
knew Pio’s powers firsthand as he had visited him fifty years before as
a young seminarian in the hopes of obtaining a cure for a friend. Not
only did his friend’s cancer go into remission, but Pio’s strange
prediction of this obscure Polish priest’s rise to pope also came true.
Novena to Padre Pio
(It is important to note that Padre Pio himself recited the Novena to
the Sacred Heart of Jesus for the intentions of those who requested his
prayers every day.)
Dear God, Thou hast generously blessed Thy servant, St. Pio of
Pietrelcina, with the gifts of the Spirit. Thou hast marked his body
with the five wounds of Christ Crucified, as a powerful witness to the
saving Passion and Death of Thy 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 Thee to grant me the grace of (mention your intentions here).
Amen.
Recite three Glorias.
Philippine
Centre for St. Pio of Pietrelcina!
Our center was established and
registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1983
principally to promote religious devotion to St. Pio and
coordinate his growing number of devotees in the country.
We are a non-stock, non-profit
organization whose main goals are centered on encouraging
formation of St. Pio prayer groups all over the country and
further advancing the awareness of the Filipino people with
regards to the social and charitable programs of the late St. Pio.
The center fosters, solicits and
encourages devotions to St. Pio and spreads his good works with
the help of charitable contributions from the public. If you
would like to help us advance our mission of promoting St. Pio and
his ideals,
The
Philippine Center for St. Pio of Pietrelcina was given the
privilege of owning a number of relics of St. Pio. These relics
are venerated after our Masses and novena prayers in our chapel.
A reader of my blog asked me to make post on this, and I
was more than happy to do so.
St. Padre Pio (1887 - 1968) lived in our modern world but
was everything other than ordinary. On September 20, 1918,
St. Padre Pio received the stigmata, the five wounds of
Christ. He is the only priest in history to receive the
Stigmata. Roughly 300 others in Church history have also
received it including St. Francis of Assisi, St. Catherine
of Sienna, St. Frances of Rome, and others. While the
Church has yet to issue an official statement on this
phenomena, it is surely an act in accordance with the
Divine Will.
Doctors examined St. Padre Pio and could find no natural
cause of the wounds. These wounds remained his entire life
until his death when, as he predicted, they were healed.
However, there was no scarring of the flesh. The blood
that flowed from the stigmata was reported by others to
have a smell of roses and flowers. St. Padre Pio was a
living example of how holy an individual can become by
faith.
He had the gift of Bilocation:
"Among the most remarkable of the documented cases of
bilocation was the Padre's appearance in the air over San
Giovanni Rotondo during World War II. While southern Italy
remained in Nazi hands American bombers were given the job
of attacking the city of San Giovanni Rotondo. However,
when they appeared over the city and prepared to unload
their munitions a brown-robed friar appeared before their
aircraft. All attempts to release the bombs failed. In
this way Padre Pio kept his promise to the citizens that
their town would be spared. Later on, when an American
airbase was established at Foggia a few miles away, one of
the pilots of this incident visited the friary and found
to his surprise the little friar he had seen in the air
that day over San Giovanni." (Source: EWTN)
There are numerous other bilocation miracles that have
been confirmed by numerous eyewitnesses.
"In order to attract us, the
Lord grants us many graces that we believe can easily
obtain Heaven for us. We do not know, however, that in
order to grow, we need hard bread: the cross, humiliation,
trials and denials." Padre Pio
He had the Gift of Levitation:
In his life, St. Padre Pio was a miracle worker. He also
could levitate. On one occasion, St. Padre Pio levitated
through the air in order to reach the Confessional without
being seen and stopped. He immediately began to receive
penitents. A man in the church was amazed how the priest
had gotten to the confessional because so many people were
outside of his door waiting to talk with him. St. Padre
Pio said to him that God made him invisible and he walked
on their heads to the confessional.
He healed others:
In 1919, St. Padre Pio received a penitent using two
canes. The doctors could not help the 62-year-old man, but
after Confession St. Padre Pio said, "Stand up and go
away! You have to throw away these canes." The man could
walk perfectly again. There have been numerous other
healings too.
He had the Gift of Perfume:
Sometimes God allows saints to emit a beautiful perfume in
order to draw more people to Himself and holiness. This
perfume is smelt only by a privileged few, not all. St.
Padre Pio had this gift and the smell of roses, incense,
ammonia, and others was emitted from him. He said to some
inquiring about them: "They are only a sign of my
presence."
Father Agostino of San Marco in Lamis had a malfunctioned
olfactory gland and could only smell strong odors. He
said, "I smelt a number of times the perfume that many
people smell. Even when I was distant from San Giovanni
Rotondo I smelt it." The Gift of Perfume continued after
St. Padre Pio's death. Not just places connected with him
but also places in American and distant places of the
world smelt the distinct perfume.
The Gift of Light:
On October 5, 125, Dr. Giorgio Festa operated on St. Padre
Pio for a hernia. Before he had to stitch the would, the
doctor noticed St. Pio had lost consciousness. He took
advantage of this and look at his left side - the place of
Jesus' wound from his stigmata. And, he was the wound was
"fresh and of a vermilion red and in the shape of a
cross...From the edges of the wound emitted small but
unmistakable rays of light." Dr. Giorgio put on the
bandage and St. Padre Pio regained his senses.
He also had the Gift of Visions, the spirit of
Prophesy, Clairvoyance, the power to read hearts in
Confession, and Xenoglossy (The ability to write,
speak, or understand an unknown language).
