Devotion to the Saints: the thought of Padre Pio today September 22th

20. Bring the Miraculous Medal. Say often to the Immaculate Conception:

O Mary, conceived without sin,
pray for us who turn to you!

21. In order for imitation to be given, daily meditation and assiduous reflection on the life of Jesus is necessary; from meditating and reflecting comes the esteem of his acts, and from esteem the desire and comfort of imitation.

22. Like bees, which without hesitation sometimes cross the vast expanses of fields, in order to reach the favorite flowerbed, and then tired, but satisfied and full of pollen, return to the honeycomb to perform the wise transformation of the nectar of flowers in nectar of life: so you, after having collected it, keep the word of God closed in your heart; go back to the hive, that is, meditate on it carefully, scan its elements, search for its deep meaning. It will then appear to you in its luminous splendor, it will acquire the power to annihilate your natural inclinations towards matter, it will have the virtue of transforming them into pure and sublime ascensions of the spirit, of binding ever more closely yours to the divine Heart of your Lord.

23. Save souls, always praying.

24. Have patience in persevering in this holy exercise of meditation and be content to begin in small steps, as long as you have legs to run, and better wings to fly; content to do obedience, which is never a small thing for a soul, who has chosen God for its portion and resigned to be for now a small nest bee that will soon become a great bee able to manufacture the honey.
Always humble yourself and lovingly before God and men, because God truly speaks to those who keep his humble heart before Him.

25. I can not believe at all and therefore exempt you from meditating just because you seem to get nothing out of it. The sacred gift of prayer, my good daughter, is placed in the right hand of the Savior, and to the extent that you will be empty of yourself, that is, of the love of the body and of your own will, and that you will be well rooted in the saint humility, the Lord will communicate it to your heart.

26. The real reason why you can't always do your meditations well, I find it in this and I'm not mistaken.
You come to meditate with a certain kind of alteration, combined with a great anxiety, to find some object that can make your spirit happy and consoled; and this is enough to make you never find what you are looking for and do not place your mind in the truth you meditate.
My daughter, know that when one searches in a hurry and greedily for a lost thing, he will touch it with his hands, he will see it with his eyes a hundred times, and he will never notice it.
From this vain and useless anxiety, nothing can arise but a great tiredness of spirit and impossibility of mind, to stop on the object that keeps in mind; and from this, then, as from its own cause, a certain coldness and stupidity of the soul specifically in the affective part.
I know of no other remedy in this regard other than this: to get out of this anxiety, because it is one of the greatest traitors that true virtue and firm devotion can ever have; he pretends to warm up when he does well, but he does it only to cool down and makes us run to make us stumble.

27. I do not know how to pity you or forgive you that way of easily neglecting communion and holy meditation. Remember, my daughter, that health cannot be achieved except through prayer; that the battle is not won except through prayer. So the choice is yours.

28. Meanwhile, do not afflict yourself to the point of losing internal peace. Pray with perseverance, with confidence and with a calm and serene mind.

29. Not all of us are called by God to save souls and spread his glory through the high apostolate of preaching; and also know that this is not the one and only means of achieving these two great ideals. The soul can propagate the glory of God and work for the salvation of souls through a truly Christian life, praying incessantly to the Lord that "his kingdom come", that his most holy name "be sanctified", that "lead us not into temptation », that« free us from evil ».