Pray and watch

 

Happy Birthday Padre Pio

"I have often raised my hand in the silence of the night and in my solitary cell, blessing you all and presenting you to Jesus and to our father, St. Francis of Assisi." - Padre Pio of Pietrelcina

Novena to St. Padre Pio.

I am blessed to share a birthday with Padre Pio. And I pray to him often. Pio used to say, "Pray, hope and don't worry." We all need to heed his advice. Especially in our troubled times.

Meditation: Matthew 6: 25-34.

"The messages which I give...are not taken into consideration."

Our Lady told Father Gobbi on December 31, 1983, "The signs the Lord sends are neither understood nor accepted; the dangers pointed out by 'my Pope,' who courageously and anxiously is predicting the storm awaiting you, are not believed. The messages which I give, through simple and little souls chosen by me in every part of the world, are not taken into consideration....The appearances which I am still making, often in faraway and dangerous places, are ignored. And yet you are only inches from your ruin. When all are shouting for peace, a new world war could suddenly fall upon you, spreading death and destruction everywhere."

This week's Catholic Free Press has a CNS article written by Dennis Sadowski entitled "Financial woes leave millions wondering how far down economy can go." But Our Lady, whose messages indeed are seldom taken into consideration by many Catholics (and most especially those in positions of "power" or influence) has already answered this question. Read here.

Do we believe ourselves to be "wiser" than Our Lady? Recall the words Our Heavenly Mother spoke to Mother Elena (a longtime spiritual daughter of St. Padre Pio): "If penance is not done, and they do not pray, the punishments will be ghastly...there will be death everywhere...Awareness of the terrible reality is urgent....I have given messages in all parts of the world with tears of blood, and humanity is not conscious of the terrible reality."

This message corresponds with that of Our Lady to Fr. Gobbi: "That which is awaiting you is suffering such as the world has ever known" and the prophecy of the Countess Francesca de Billiante: "Those nations which have rebelled against the Law of Christ will perish by fire. Europe will then be too large for them who survived."

Pride blinds. It was pride which motivated the people to laugh at Noah and his sons as they prepared an ark. Today, as faithful Catholics enter into the safe refuge of the New Ark (Our Lady), there is still laughter. Jesus prophesied this in Matthew 24: 39. We should not, therefore, be surprised.

Over the last few years, I have reminded readers of this Blog of what Our Lady told Fr. Gobbi back in 1990 (at Malvern, Pennsylvania):

"I announce to you that the hour of the great trial is on the point of arriving. The great trial has arrived for your country. How many times, as a concerned and sorrowing mother, have I endeavored to urge my children to follow the path of conversion and of return to the Lord. I have not been listened to. You have continued to walk along the way of rejection of God, and of His law of love. Sins of impurity have become ever more widespread, and immorality has spread like a sea which has submerged all things. Homosexuality, a sin of impurity which is against nature, has been justified; recourse to the means of preventing life have become commonplace, while abortions - these killings of innocent children, that cry for vengeance before the face of God - have spread and are performed in every part of your homeland.The moment of divine justice and of great mercy has now arrived. You will know the hour of weakness and of poverty; the hour of suffering and defeat; the purifying hour of the great chastisement.

The great trial has arrived for your Church. How great is your responsibility, O Pastors of the Holy Church of God! You continue along the path of division from the Pope and of the rejection of his Magisterium; indeed, in a hidden way, there is in preparation a true schism which could soon become open and proclaimed...And then, there will remain only a small faithful remnant, over which I will keep watch in the garden of my Immaculate Heart.The great trial has arrived for all humanity. The chastisement, predicted by me at Fatima and contained in that part of the secret which has not yet been revealed, is about to take place. The great moment of divine justice and of mercy has come upon the world."