In this entry Padre Pio speaks
to us of an experience which is so common to human
life especially for those who suffer, he relates
of his own extreme
desolation and how difficult it is to bear this agony;
he describes it as being in
a wilderness.
Yet, deep within his
spirit, the padre is aware of a feeble light that penetrates
and allows him to feel the presence of the Father. Notice
that despite the agony
and darkness of suffering deep within in
the apex of his spirit
he feels the stirrings a gentle spring breeze—this is a touch
of grace from above.
In all our sufferings if we be
still before Him
in Deep Silence and expectant faith, we will know His touch
and the
breeze of
Heaven.
Spend time reading and
meditating on these penetrating words from
Padre Pio:
“Our good Jesus
has placed my soul in extreme desolation and I find it difficult to think that I am
living the life of God’s children.
I am in a wilderness where my
soul knows no comfort in these moments
of trepidation
and hope.
Now and again a most feeble light penetrates
from above, just enough to reassure my poor should that all is
being directed by Divine Providence
and that through joy and tears the heavenly
Father is leading me by inscrutable
secret ways to the end he has in view. This is
nothing else than the perfection of my soul and
its union with God. But then,
alas, a little later my poor soul is plunged
into a more tragic desolation
than before.
I cannot understand
how one can live when our
blessed God places the soul in such straits. All I can say is that
my soul in this state seems to glimpse a concealed hand which can be none other than
the hand of God. Moreover, at the apex
of my
spirit I feel, like the stirring of a gentle spring breeze, the
divine Master’s most beautiful assurance
that not a hard of our heads will perish
without the permission of our heavenly Father, that he watches over the soul
with fatherly love and that when he tries it by similar
desolation he invariably
does so out of love and for the soul's perfection.” (Letters, I, #264)
Thanks be to God that I have never experienced the "extreme desolation" of which the holy Padre speaks. It sounds terrifying! St Pio's words are a reminder to me that I am not alone -- that Jesus is always at my side, and wants me to trust in Him -- in whatever trial or suffering I find myself.
ReplyDeleteWB