St. Pio's Counsels and Exhortations

[Denise]

Be comforted with this divine thought that your spiritual and physical pains are a test of the Divine Will. All lovers of Jesus must conform themselves always more to this divine and eternal model. Jesus went to the limits of abandonment of the spirit. Jesus wanted to experience in his humanity this incomprehensible pain of seeing Himself abandoned by His Heavenly Father.

[Denise]

You should rather humble yourself before God than be distressed if He reserves for you the sufferings of His Son and makes you experience your weakness. You should offer up to Him the prayer of resignation and hope, even when you fall through frailty, and thank Him for all the benefits with which he continually enriches you.

[Denise]

You are suffering, it is true, but with resignation. Fear not, because God is with you. You do not offend Him but love Him. You suffer, but believe also that Jesus Himself suffers in you and for you.

[Denise]

Crosses are the necklaces of the Spouse and I am jealous of them. My sufferings are pleasant; I only suffer when I don't suffer.

[Denise]

The ardent desire to be in eternal peace is good and holy. But it is necessary to moderate it by a complete resignation to the Divine Will. It is better to do the Divine Will on earth than to enjoy Heaven. To suffer and not to die was the motto of St. Therese. Purgatory is sweet when one suffers for the love of God.

[Denise]

Why should you worry whether God wants you to reach the heavenly home by way of the desert or by the fields, when by the one as well as by the other, one arrives all the same at the Blessed Eternity? Keep far from you all excessive preoccupation which arises from trials which the Good God wishes to visit upon you. And if this is not possible, put away the thoughts, and in all live resigned to the Divine Will.

[Denise]

You should feel at home with the sufferings which it pleases Jesus to send you since you always have to live with them. Acting thus, you think less of being freed from them. Jesus, who cannot suffer long to keep you in affliction, will come to relieve you and comfort you by infusing fresh courage into your soul.

[Denise]

Strong and generous hearts are not grieved except for serious reasons, and then do not allow such motives to penetrate into their inmost heart. Let us ascend Calvary, burdened with the Cross but without tiring. And let us be convinced that our ascent will lead us to the heavenly vision of our Sweetest Savior.

[MarieT]

sadly sometimes they are grieved when they see their fellow humankind transgress, despite them praying for the salvation of all souls

[Denise]

The longer the trial to which God subjects you, the greater the goodness in comforting you during the time of trial and in the exaltation after the combat.

[Denise]

When you are exposed to any trial, be it physical or moral, bodily or spiritual, the best remedy is to think of Jesus who is our life, and not to think of the trial without joining it to the thought of Jesus.

[Denise]

Don't draw back, and worse still, don't stop going up the Calvary of life. Jesus will extend His hand to steady you. The thought of the sustaining grace of God and the prize that Jesus has reserved for you will be a sweet comfort.

[Denise]

Prayer and Meditation

Why do you distress yourself because you cannot meditate, as you suppose? Meditation is a means to rise to God, but not an end. The final purpose of meditation is the love of God and one's neighbor. Love the first with all your soul and without reservation. Love the second as another self, and you will arrive at the final purpose of meditation. I beg of you therefore, not to spoil the work of God in yourself when the soul feels itself called to contemplate God. Be it in Himself or in His attributes, let yourself be conquered and don't desire to have the presumption to rise up to Him by the discursive way, which would be the first part of meditation. Apply yourself to move towards God, which would be the second part of meditation, and I would almost say, the all. Use the first part of the meditation when you must come to the second part. But, when the good God already places you in the second part, don't wish to turn back, which would be the same as spoiling everything.

[Denise]

One thing is necessary; to be near Jesus. You know well that at the birth of our Lord the shepherds heard the angelic and divine chants of the heavenly spirits. The Scriptures say so. But they do not say that His Virgin Mother and St. Joseph , who were nearer to the Child, heard the voices of the angels or saw those miracles of splendor. On the contrary, they heard the Child weeping and saw by the light of a poor lantern the eyes of the Divine Child all bathed in tears, in sighs and shivering cold. Now I ask you: Would you not have preferred to have been in the dark stable, filled with the cries of the little Child, rather than to have been with the shepherds, beside yourself with joy over those sweet melodies from heaven and the beauties of this wonderful splendor?

[MarieT]

Ahead! Courage! In the spiritual life, he who does not advance goes backward. It happens as with a boat which always must go ahead. If it stands still the wind will blow it back.