Novena for those working on themselves – Padre Pio
Day 1. Always in front of God and in cooperation with Him.
It's the first sin, the most terrible of all, caused, that man began to hide from God. Soul and body, contaminated with the poison of Satan, they gravitate towards hell as a place of eternal escape and isolation. Striving for God, how difficult from then on, "Through thistles and thorns and the pains of childbirth", it is the way of sanctifying each of us. We are to give everything to God, subordinate, want to make Him happy, glorify Him with every thought, in word and deed. We call this achievement of holiness.
Let us repeat ourselves often: God can see me. By this act itself, which I am doing, He sees me, and also evaluates. So let's do this, lest God see anything else in us, as only good itself.
The Lord Jesus and your soul should harmoniously cultivate the vineyard. It is your responsibility to collect and take out the stones, as well as picking up stinging weeds. It is up to Jesus to sow, planting, nurturing and watering. However, in your work there is also an action of the Lord Jesus. Without Him, you cannot do anything.
Day 2. Eagerly taking advantage of every moment of time.
How short is earthly life in the face of eternity, like one eye in the blink of an eye! However, each moment of it has infinite value, because it depends on each of them, how great our eternal happiness will be (or eternal torment). How seldom do we think about it! Immersed in mortality, we live in an illusion, that our real life is here, and with the time given to us, we can do whatever we want, for example, make it pleasant to your liking. Meanwhile…
But! If everyone could understand, how great value is time, surely everyone would make a huge effort, to use it in a praiseworthy way!
Who has time, let him not lose it and wait for a convenient moment. Let's not put it off until tomorrow, what can we do today. By saying: "I'll do it later” Hell's vestibule is paved… Anyway, who can provide us, that we will live tomorrow? […] So let's get down to work and [let's start] accumulate spiritual treasures, because only this time, who runs away, is our property.
When our last hour strikes, the beating of our heart will cease, everything will end for us, so it is the time of our deserving and undeserving. Such, who we are, death will meet us, and this is how we will stand before Christ the Judge. Our pleading cries, our tears, our acts of regret, which still on earth would win the heart of God […], at that point they would be of no value; the time of mercy will pass, and the time of justice will begin.
Day 3. Seeking God's will in everything.
"Thy will be done, father, as in heaven also on earth "… God is constantly creating not only us, but also all the circumstances of our life, to give us the opportunity to deserve heaven. It makes them perfect, because it comes from His heart, for his love, even if they sometimes seem to be accidental to us, misfortune, obstacle… Admittedly, he sometimes allows evil, but only for our own good. How happy we would be already (on the ground, if we strive to follow a heavenly pattern. God would support us with his grace and the fullness of his gifts at every step.
God is served only then, when he is served like this, as he wants.
With the help of that "yes”, uttered by the Blessed Virgin Mary, mankind has been redeemed. Let us also do God's will and always say to the Lord “yes”.
Better to do God's will on earth, than to rejoice in heaven.
Let's try to learn this, to recognize and honor the will of God in all human events.
Thank and kiss the hand of God, that hits you. It is always the hand of the Father, who is punishing you, because he loves you.
To put on Jesus Christ, the human "I" must necessarily die”.
I wish you, that you come to this state, to breathe his last with the Lord Jesus on the cross! May you call out with Him: It is done!
Day 4. Following the path of duties.
What a mistake it is to be persuaded, that our holiness is the necessity to look for extraordinary ways, it is traveling somewhere far away, where we will finally feel "like in paradise", isolated from people and everyday troubles… Meanwhile, the most important thing is to fulfill your duties, and with pure intention- disinterestedly, with love, with a desire to please God.
The fulfillment of the obligation should come sooner than anything else, even if that other was holy.
Carry out your duties carefully and have a good intention, keeping the law of God. If you will do it consistently and persistently, then you will grow in love.
You will be like that, what God wants you to be, if in any matter and you will always have the right intention, greater accuracy, greater punctuality, greater generosity in the service of God.
If God doesn't feed you with sweets and goodies, then eat your bread patiently, even dry, fulfilling its duty, without immediate payment. Doing so shows our selfless love. In this way, you love God and serve Him at your own expense. This is a characteristic of perfect souls.
Day 5. Following Jesus on the way of the daily cross.
Chased out of paradise, we have been given a chance to return to God and His love through suffering, though even that, as well as our other deeds, they couldn't open heaven to us. Only the innocent torment of the Most Holy Redeemer could do this. He also gave our suffering a salvific value, when we combine them with his passion. Who could understand it better and apply it in life, than Saint Padre Pio? Let us therefore learn from him and with his help let us carry our cross with Christ.
I don't love suffering itself; I am asking God for them, I want it because of the fruit, which he gives me. For it gives glory to God, he saves his fellow men in this exile, frees souls from the fire of purgatory; and what more can I ask for?
Let's not deny it, that suffering is absolutely necessary for our soul, and the cross should be our daily bread. How the body needs food, so the soul needs a cross – day by day – to purify himself and to detach himself from creatures. Let's understand, that God neither will nor can save or sanctify us without the cross. The more it attracts a soul to itself, the more he purifies her through the cross.
Only suffering allows the soul to say with full conviction: My God, you know well, that I love you!
The more bitterness you get, the more love you will receive.
Day 6. Following the path of true repentance.
The extraordinary gift of getting to know the state of human consciences attracted crowds of people from all over the world to Padre Pio's confessional, although he sent many back without absolution. Most of the latter, however, wanted to come back and start a really new life. This fact should tell us a lot: without deep regret and a firm resolve to improve, let us not approach the tribunal of God's mercy, for it could be sacrilege! Let us ask the Saint for the grace of a good confession.
Sin is man's rebellion, refusing to love God.
Never go to bed without examining your conscience for the past day and turning all your thoughts to God.
You repent, thinking with pain about the offenses done to God. It is penance to be persistent in doing good; it is penance to fight your faults.
In the tangle of passions and adversities, let us be sustained by the precious hope of God's inexhaustible mercy. Let us run full of confidence to the tribunal of penance, where he, with fatherly anxiety, awaits us at every moment. And although we are aware of our insolvency towards Him, but let us not doubt the solemn forgiveness of our mistakes. Let's put on them, as the Lord did, tombstone.
Is truth, that I made this offering to God several times, invoking Him, that he would be willing to transfer to me the punishments prepared for sinners […], and even a hundredfold before me, if only he would convert and save sinners.
Day 7. The way of humility and humility.
How often and how deeply our Saint spoke about the necessity to follow this path. So let even the few thoughts he has posted here encourage us to follow the narrow and narrow path, through the thorns of trials and tests, follow Christ meek and humble of heart. We will not enter heaven without humility, and it is not won without painful humiliation.
Humility is truth, and the truth is humility.
Truth – as far as I am concerned – she is that, that (thistle nothing, and that's it, what is good in me, it is the property of God.
Humility and love go hand in hand. The first brings glory, and the other sanctifies.
That we may meet God, we should go up, and he will come down. When we can no longer go higher, let's stop and humiliate; then in this humility we will meet God, because He descends into a humble heart.
You must always humble yourself before God, but not with this false humility, which leads to discouragement, giving rise to despondency and despair.
If God lets you fall into some weakness, that's not why, to leave you, but only because,and to ground you in humility and to make you, so that you will be more careful in the future.
When you can't take big steps on the way to God, be content with the small steps and wait patiently, until you have running legs, or better – wings, so you can fly. My good daughter, settle for being the little bee on the comb now, which will very quickly become a huge bee, capable of producing honey.
Reflect and keep before the eyes of your soul the great humility of Our Lady – our mother. As she was enriched with gifts from heaven, she was immersed deeper and deeper in humility.
Day 8. The way of love and fight against selfishness.
Love is the queen of virtues. Like pearls, they are held together by a thread, so the virtues are joined by love. If a thread breaks, the pearls will fall apart; so do virtues, if love is waning.
Where there is no obedience, there is no virtue there, Where there is no virtue, there is no good there, there is no love and where there is no love, God is not there, and without God one does not go to heaven. All these virtues form a kind of ladder, and if it lacks at least one rung, it goes down.
Love the Lord Jesus, love him very much, but for this reason love your self-sacrifice even more. Love wants to be bitter.
One must always have prudence and love. Prudence has eyes, and love your feet. […] Prudence when he sees, that love might not be in control of itself, lends her eyes.
Here are the two main dangers along the way:
Vain glory is the enemy of these souls, who have dedicated themselves to God and dedicated themselves to the spiritual life. Therefore, it can rightly be called the mole of the soul striving for perfection. The saints called her the worm of holiness.
Remember that, that the thief is closer to God, who is ashamed of it, that he is doing wrong, than an honest man, who is ashamed of it, that he is doing something right.
Day 9. Drawing strength to live from Holy Communion.
Our union with the Lord Jesus – communion – it is a foretelling of being with Him forever in heaven, and since God Himself is Heaven for His creatures, Sky (in a way that is usually imperceptible) we carry within! The tabernacle and the altar are places where Heaven meets earth, so the most important and dearest place on earth for human hearts. Saint Padre Pio lived this truth every day and he often referred to it. During one of the ecstasies after Holy Communion, people heard, among others,. such are his words: "Ah my Jesus, forgive me… I feel you in my heart like students in Emmaus. I feel you… with your sweetness…
I'm not thirsty anymore… Ah my Jesus, my sweetness… How could I live without you? Come always, my Jesus, come on. My heart Belongs to you… O, if I had an infinite number of hearts, all hearts of heaven and earth, and even your mother's heart, I would offer them all to you… my Jesus, my sweetness, my love, the love that sustains me… thanks… until we meet again. .. goodbye…”
The world could exist even without the sun, but it cannot exist without Mass.
My sons! There is never too much” time, to prepare for Holy Communion.
Let the whole day be preparation for Holy Communion and thanksgiving after it.
[…] We all are [Her] unworthy, but He is It, who invites us and wants it. Let us humble ourselves and welcome him with all our hearts filled with love.
Fly in spirit to the tabernacle, when you cannot physically go there, and give vent to holy desires: speak, beg and embrace human souls with your arms. Do it so much more, than if you were to receive Him in Holy Communion.
End
Lord Jesus, You have given us the time and the chance to deserve heaven, if only we want to do your will, denying one's own will and fighting selfishness, fulfilling their duties well, walking on the way of the cross, humility and true repentance, and drawing strength from union with you in Holy Communion.
Being faithful to your teaching, which we see in Saint Padre Pio on his very difficult way of life, inspires our admiration, and even delight. We ask you, to draw abundantly from your Heart, to whom is so near in the glory of heaven, he made us understand our path, the ability to use all God's favors on it and to achieve the full sanctity that we all have. Who live and reign for ever and ever. Amen.