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Thank you.
Let me preface this post by saying that it is NOT intended to be argumentative. I am looking for explanations and help from a variety of sources, and the collective wisdom of the fine Christians on FR is one of them.
Also by way of preface: I am a Protestant, raised as an Episcopalian, in the past twenty or so years a member of a very conservative Christian church that has gradually grown into a mega-church. Something has been nagging me for years, a curiosity and attraction for Catholicism. I’m not ready to convert quite yet, but I’m slowly moving toward it. It’s starting to feel as though I almost have no choice, I’m being dragged into the Church kicking and screaming. And there is no human agency influencing me. Very odd sensation.
Also have read about Padre Pio, very inspiring and enlightening. It’s so good to read the truth when it’s clearly illuminated this way.
My questions are, does one pray to God asking that Padre Pio will hear the prayers and help one make spiritual progress? Or does one pray (as I was taught) just to God? Do we know padre Pio can hear the prayers now that he is dead? Can he intercede with the Lord? Does anyone have experience of this?
I think what’s holding me up on this point is that I don’t want to be in a position of demanding things of the Lord or nagging Him for things I want that He is not otherwise inclined to grant in response to prayers directed just at Him, whether those things are spiritual gifts or material ones. I’m afraid that if I ask a saint to help out, it’s a way of saying “Padre Pio, God didn’t do what I want, can you talk to Him for me? Persuade Him?”
Explanations would be gratefully accepted. It would be nice, rather comforting, to believe that someone like Padre Pio can work miracles or help people he didn’t even know in life, now that he is dead.
This is so interesting.
Mr Luzzatto said his discoveries did not detract from Padre Pio's importance in religious history or his power to attract millions of followers. He said Benedict XV and Pius XI had also been sceptical about the monk, but Pius XII had encouraged the Padre Pio cult, as did Paul VI and then John Paul II, who presided over the canonisation process.
Mr Luzzatto told Corriere della Sera he had found a note written by John XXIII dated 25 June 1960 recording his receipt of "very serious information on PP (Padre Pio) at San Giovanni Rotondo" from a Vatican investigator, Monsignor Pietro Parente of the Holy Office, who had taken notes and made secret films.
The note says Monsignor Parente "looked, and was, broken hearted". The Pope wrote: "I am sorry for PP, who has a soul to be saved, and I pray for him intensely. What happened - that is, the discovery because of the films - si vera sunt quae referentur (if it is true what they say) - of his intimate and incorrect relations with the women who constitute his Pretorian guard, which even now stands firm around him, leads one to think of a vast disaster of souls which has been diabolically set up to discredit the Holy Church in the world, and especially in Italy."
John XXIII added: " In the calmness of my spirit I humbly persist in believing that the Lord faciat cum tentatione provandum (is doing this as a test of faith), and that from this immense deception will come a teaching of clarity and health for a great many."
Monsignor Parente named three of Padre Pio's "most faithful female followers" as Cleonilde Morcaldi, Tina Bellone, and Olga Ieci, as well as a "mysterious countess", telling the Pope he suspected their devotion to the monk was "not merely spiritual"."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2739751.ece
THE HOLY WOUNDS OF CHRIST & Padre Pio's Secret: His Shoulder Wound [Devotional]
Popular Italian Catholic saint exhumed 40 years on (Padre Pio's body in fair condition)
Letter 33 - Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, 16 November 1914.
Padre Pio and the Mother Co-redemptrix(CATHOLIC CAUCUS)
Saint Padre Pio letters #29Correspondence with Raffaelina Cerase
Message, St. Padre Pio During Mass
Padre Pio and the Guardian Angel
Spiritual Counsels from Saint Padre Pio
What Does It Means To Be Canonized.(Padre Pio example)
Feast of St. Pio this FRIDAY! (Padre Pio - Pray for Texas!)
Padre Pio's Love for the Blessed Mother
St. Padre Pio
Padre Pio's Shrine, as the Architect Sees It - Renzo Piano Talks about Church, San Giovanni Rotondo
Padre Pio Aid Says Saint Accepted New Mass
Padre Pio: on Spirituality, Vatican II and the Novus Ordo Missae
Remarkable Transformation: Padre Pio
Cardinal Schotte (Head of the Synod of Bishops) and his view on Dallas; Rose petals for Padre Pio
Saint Padre Pio's Body Not Found in His Tomb?
Padre Pio Now A Saint - Wrestled With Devil, Predicted Future
Padre Pio Wrestled with Devil, Predicted Future
Pope Bestows Sainthood on Padre Pio
PADRE PIO DA PIETRELCINA
Padre Pio to be Canonized This June
St. Pio Of Pietrelcina, 1887-1968
His Friends Remember Padre Pio
St. Padre Pio
St. Pio Of Pietrelcina, 1887-1968
Padre Pio: on Spirituality, Vatican II and the Novus Ordo Missae
Padre Pio Now A Saint - Wrestled With Devil, Predicted Future
Padre Pio Wrestled with Devil, Predicted Future
Pope Bestows Sainthood on Padre Pio
Remarkable Transformation: Padre Pio
His Friends Remember Padre Pio
PADRE PIO DA PIETRELCINA
Padre Pio was only canonized a few years ago, but already I rank him among the great post-Biblical Saints of the Church-—with St. Francis, St. Anthony, St. Basil, St. Theresa of Avila and so many others.
