Happy Feast Of Saint Pio!

Today marks the feast day for Saint Padre Pio, a beloved almost-contemporary saint. He died in 1968 and was canonized by Saint Pope John Paul 2 in 2002.

My wife and I went down to the National Centre for Padre Pio, in Barto, PA today to celebrate and ask his intercession.
They were having a procession with his relics, (sadly no exposition of the Eucharist, a long story)
and there were a few hundred faithful there to celebrate his feast.

In his life, he manifested the stigmata, he could bi-locate( be in two places at once) and could read the minds and hearts of those in the confessional. When he celebrated Holy Mass, it would sometimes take upwards of two hours due to his slow and attentive approach to the liturgy.

He also wrote many tips for living a good spiritual life, which I enjoy learning about.

Here's a list of five:

1. Weekly Confession

"A room needs to be dusted once a week, even if nobody is in there." - Padre Pio to Maria Campanile (a spiritual daughter).

2. Daily Communion

"Unless you are positive that you are in mortal sin, you ought to take Communion every day." - Padre Pio to some of the ladies who were afraid they were unworthy of taking communion every day. 

3. Spiritual Reading

Pio urged them to study Scripture and suggested spiritual books from the friary library.  

4. Meditation

"Meditation," Padre told Maria, "is the key to progress in the knowledge of self as well as the knowledge of God, and through it we achieve the goal of the spiritual life, which is the transformation of the soul in Christ."

5. Examination of Conscience

Padre Pio urged two periods of meditation daily, as well as two periods of self-examination: in the morning, "to prepare for battle," and in the evening, "to purify your soul from every earthly affection that might have been attach itself to you during the day."  Each of these periods of reflection and recollection was to last at least a half hour.  

Source: Padre Pio: The True Story, by C. Bernard Ruffin