The Trap

A trader from Genoa had to visit Foggia to negotiate an oil sale. One of his friends who knew he had been away from the church for a long time planned to lay a trap for him. He asked him to make a detour to San Giovanni Rotunda to deliver a letter to Padre Pio, hoping that his friend would meet the priest. He agreed and went to the monastery to deliver the letter and wait for the reply. 

When Padre Pio saw him , he approached him and asked “what do you want ?” He replied he was just waiting for a reply to the letter. “Ah Yes the letter” Padre Pio replied “But what about you, Don’t you want to go to confession ?”

The man admitted that he had not practiced his religion in a long time. Padre Pio asked him “how long since your last confession ?” I was 7 years old said the trader. The priest looked at him as though he saw into his soul and said “how long do you intent to live this disgusting kind of life ?” 

In a flash the man saw how his life had been lived without God, repented, went to confession and was filled with Joy. He stayed on another week and attended the Mass each day.

Lack of Masculinity

Following the latest shooting incident in the US, there was much debate on gun laws and the availability of these high powered automatic weapons; but very little on addressing what is at the heart of the problem with so many shootings.

Large numbers of casualties grab the headlines but if one looks at the trend of say knife and other violent crime in England or other western countries it is also seen that they are on the rise and very numerous, although fortunately causing fewer casualties per attack.

A former special forces soldier appeared on one of the news channels with his take on this and quite rightly I think identified that these kind of attacks by very angry young men are not the product of toxic masculinity but the complete absence of masculinity.

The role of men in western society is far from what it used to be – to defend and protect others, to provide, to uphold and fight for what is right; these roles have been somewhat discouraged if anything in many western countries even to the point of putting a very high proportion of boys (more than double the number of girls in the US) on ADHD medicines to control their natural wildness and manliness. The frustration created in young men at not being what they ought to be as well as having no real direction from their fathers, with the high levels of divorce, separation and abandonment, makes this tragic cocktail even worse.

The natural aggression and wildness of boys, is God’s design and therefore should be encouraged, not suppressed with drugs or regulations; developed by good example and guidance through their youth to bring out their true nature and calling, an authentic masculinity of nobility, integrity and courage. 

Padre Pio …. Give me a sign

Aure Caviggioli, an antique dealer from Monte Carlo, had been away from the church for a long time. One day he went to the Rome-Termini station and without knowing why, bought a ticket for Foggia. During the journey he dozed off and when he woke up he became aware of a strong perfume but could not identify its source.

On his arrival in Foggia , he took the bus for San Giovanni Rotunda and checked in at the hotel. Next morning, on his way to Padre Pio’s Mass, he was aware of the same perfume he had smelt on the train.

During the celebration he was fascinated by the priest’s presence. He wanted to get near but the crowd was dense. The next day, thanks to some brothers, he was able to get close to Padre Pio who asked him, “what do you want?” Caviggioli was embarrassed for a moment and then remembered that one of his grand-daughters, living in Switzerland had a brain tumour, so he recommended her to his prayers. Padre Pio advised him to go home because the child had been cured. The cure had in fact been immediate and complete, so much so that the doctors would not take their fees as they concluded that they had done nothing in this case.

This excited Caviggioli’s curiosity and he went back several times to San Giovanni Rotunda to meet Padre Pio and make his confession to him. But a certain fear held him back. Two years passed and he decided to make Padre Pio a gift of a painting of the Virgin Mary carrying the child Jesus, the work of a sixteenth century painter. A friend who came to look at it asked Caviggioli how much it was worth. He answered that it was worth millions! But during the night Padre Pio came to him in a dream and looking at him very severely said “What are you talking about ? you paid only 25,000 lira for that painting!” When he woke up , the antique dealer recalled that in fact that was the price he had paid for it to a Jew who had been deported during World War II.

When Caviggioli went to San Giovanni Rotunda he presented the painting to Padre Pio who asked him “what did you dream last night , you rogue ?” and burst out laughing.

However, even on this occasion Padre Pio would not hear his confession. Back in his hotel, alone and looking at the monastery he cried out “Listen Padre Pio, give me a sign that I may know when to come to confession” To his utter amazement, he had hardly finished the sentence when Padre Pio appeared before him, took him by the hand and then disappeared. Caviggioli was filled with fear and quite stunned by this. Next day the priest heard his confession and apologized for having scared him by appearing at his hotel !

Freedom

There is a story told in Poland about Stalin; drinking vodka late at night, thinking about Poland, and mumbling that ‘trying to get Poles to embrace communism was like trying to put a horse’s saddle on a pig’

What is more surprising to me is how anyone managed to export the ideology to the Chinese, to whom it must have seemed equally unnatural. Thousands of years of innovation, faith and dynamism swept aside to make way for the monotony of a godless, humorless autocracy. As a creative, freedom-loving nation, it must have been stifling to have every aspect of life controlled, monitored and restricted in the manner it has been during its short epoch.

During his struggle with the British Empire, Gandhi noted that the small number of colonists cannot control millions of Indians once they decided not to be controlled anymore and his non-violent invitation for the British to leave was ultimately successful.  A handful of hard line Communists are beginning to realize that too, as many of their nation’s one billion souls long to be free again.

No one in China has forgotten the Tiananmen Square massacre; the broken tip of an enormous and growing iceberg of dissent and resistance; and all eyes are now on Hong Kong to see if the people there are ready to stand firm before the vice grips of the mainland regime close in on them and on the very core of what it is to be free. 

Perhaps in our lifetime we will see the return of China to greatness having rid herself of the malaise of Mao’s failed experiment and the streets of Peking (and Hong Kong) may be lit up with the joy of freedom, an inherent gift of God, once again; but not without struggle; not without blood, I suspect.

Called in his Sleep

A young engineer from Bologna who had been away from the church for years, dreamt one night of Padre Pio. The friar gazed at him for a long time and then disappeared after saying ‘It is fortunate for you that you could sustain my scrutiny’ The man had never heard of Padre Pio at that stage but was intrigued and made enquiries about him. He had a great desire to meet him and at the same time felt his conscience pricking him. He wanted to come out of his situation but did not feel he had the inner strength to do so and sank back into his lethargy and eight years passed by.

It took a catastrophe to shake him out of his apathy. An earthquake shook Bologna. He decided to visit Padre Pio and took a train to San Giovanni Rotondo, but after several kilometers he felt ill and had to return home. He wrote to Padre Pio to explain and he replied telling him to be patient and carry out charitable works until the right moment came along to visit.  Eventually he did visit and when he saw Padre Pio at the monastery he recognized him as looking exactly as he did in his dream 8 years earlier and fell to his knees weeping and blurted out “ I have known your reputation for holiness for 8 years” Padre Pio responded ‘what good has it done you, you have lived as you wished’ Change your life my son’

This time he accepted his advice , went to confession, received absolution and returned to Bologna a  new man and gave witness to God’s grace through Padre Pio.

An opera singer ‘s conversion .. a Padre Pio Story

A famous Italian tenor, Beniamino Gigli wanted to meet Padre Pio. He arrived in San Giovanni Rotondo in a luxurious car with a uniformed Chaffuer. When Gigli was introduced to Padre Pio, the priest gave him that searching look of his which went to the heart of things without being influenced by appearences. He went up to him and said point blank “ you call yourself ‘Gigli’ like the Lily which is a symbol of purity but you are a sullied lily because you are cheating on your wife and have a secret relationship with another woman” You call yourself ‘Beniamino’ which means beloved of God but God does not love you at all because of the state of your soul” One can imagine how upset the tenor was on hearing what Padre Pio had read in his soul which others had chosen to ignore and confronted him with the responsibility. Beniamino however had the strength and humility to accept this brutal indictment and changed his ways, broke off the extramarital affair and until his death became a faithful friend of Padre Pio.