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.

Special Treatment

The commemoration of the 75^th anniversary of the D-day landings was important not only to remind us of the courage and sacrifice of the previous generation in fighting the evils of Nazism but also to remind us that contending with evil now falls to this generation. There is always something that needs to be revealed, opposed and conquered.

There are dark clouds gathering over Europe once again; it is the same atheistic spirit that moved the Nazi’s and the Communists to the horrors they inflicted on humanity. And like them they conceal their works and objectives with their own new language to rationalise and sanitise.

Now that people have gotten used to eliminating the unborn; it’s natural for their eyes to fall upon the elderly, the infirm, those with mental or physical disability and push society towards mercy killing or special treatment as the SS used to call it.

Assisted suicide, a precursor of voluntary (and not so voluntary) Euthanasia is already well established in Holland, Luxemburg and Belgium. The laws were made loose to enable its extension or a liberal interpretation of them and already from an initial position of being for those in unbearable pain with no hope of recovery it is already found its way to the disabled and even the depressed at the ‘end of life clinics.’ In Holland a child of 12 can request Euthanasia.

We need to show that every life and every stage of it is important, has its own dignity and purpose, regardless of appearances and each human being has an immortal soul, a unique role in eternity.

It’s as important to keep this kind of legislation away from our shores as it was to keep an invading foreign power away. This is our fight, (or one of them) and as with all spiritual battle only prayer will decide the outcome.

Vanquish the Enemy

"It is the image of God reflected in you that so enrages hell; it is this on which the demons hurl their mightiest weapons."

Anyone seeking to live a Christian life will discover that our adversary will quickly move from anonymity to bullying and intimidation. But we have been given a wonderful gift, as Catholics, in that we have at our disposal a means to counter whatever comes, Mary, the mother of God. She is charged with the task of ‘crushing the head of the serpent’ (Gen 3:15).

Protestant churches have been robbed of this knowledge and struggle on without this important heavenly help, perhaps not understanding why the Lord delegated in this way.

Fr Amorth, a prolific exorcist from Italy, noticed that whenever he invoked the name of Mary during an exorcism the person became more agitated and violent; having authority over the evil one, he questioned him about it.

He asked why he seemed more afraid at the name of Mary than the name of Jesus Christ: He replied that ‘I am more afraid when you say the Madonna’s name, because I am more humiliated by being beaten by a simple woman, than by Him..’ Her power over him is such :- “Because she always defeats me, because she was never compromised by any taint of sin!”

It’s analogous to a school bully who terrorises everyone and is then laid out cold by a punch from the smallest girl, in front of everyone. God makes his humiliation fitting to his pride.

When Fr Amorth questioned further it was revealed that ‘every hail Mary makes hell tremble’ and the most noteworthy point I think was that ‘if Christians knew the power of the Rosary, it would be the end of me!’

No wonder the greatest saints were champions of the Rosary; with this weapon we can protect ourselves and Our Lady can vanquish the enemy.

Time Square

A few days ago there was a prolife event in Times Square, New York where legislation against the unborn is currently at its most harsh.

There was the usual mix of speakers, abortion survivors and prolife advocates and a crowd of 20,000 supporters. A group of 2,000 pro-abortion supporters also attended to disrupt the event but they got more than they bargained for. One of the speakers prayed for the protesters; others who had had abortions themselves and had previously shared their views expressed their sorrow and regret.

Towards the close of proceedings, the former Planned Parenthood Director (turned pro-lifer) Abby Johnson was in the back of a van hooked-up to a 4D ultrasound machine scanning her new baby in her womb. The sleepy baby’s face, in great picture clarity, was beamed to large screens on the stage and the audience fell silent. 

After a few moments the technician doing the scan amplified the sounds coming from the womb, and a thunderous heart beat reverberated around the square. A more concise or eloquent testimony cannot be imagined.

All else was silent, even the pro-abortion protesters skulked away in defeat.