The letter from Padre Pio that teaches you to pray

Pio - Cappuccino: this is how Padre Pio signed himself in the letter we would like to talk to you about today. It is Padre Pio's answer to the questions and concerns of one of his devotees regarding prayer and meditation. According to Padre Pio his error consisted in identifying in the joy of the spirit the proof of the good outcome of his meditation:

"YOU COME TO MEDITATE WITH A CERTAIN SPECIES OF ALTERATION, JOINED WITH A GREAT ANXIETY, TO FIND SOME OBJECT THAT MAY MAKE YOUR SPIRIT CONTENT AND CONSOLED AND THIS IS ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU NEVER FIND WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR YOUR MIND IN THE TRUTH YOU MEDITATE AND YOUR HEART EMPTY WITH AFFECTION ”.

The Saint's advice is of a disarming simplicity: "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 only devotion can ever have".

But how can we abandon this anxiety? Just as simple: to face God in prayer and meditation there are two ways. The first consists in presenting oneself in front of him "not to speak to him or to listen to him", but to be looked at in one's awareness of being servants.

The second in presenting himself in front of him to speak to him, without necessarily expecting an answer:

"HE WHO WILL SEE WILL LIKE YOUR PATIENCE, HE WILL FAVOR YOUR SILENCE AND ONCE AGAIN YOU WILL BE CONSOLED, WHEN HE WILL TAKE YOU BY THE HAND, HE WILL TALK TO YOU, HE WILL DO ONE HUNDRED WALKS IN YOUR COMPANY FOR THE ROOMS OF HIS GARDEN AND GARDEN THIS NEVER HAPPENED, WHICH IS SAID IMPOSSIBLY, BECAUSE THIS FATHER YES TEN WILL NOT GIVE HIM THE HEART OF SEEING HIS CREATURE IN PERPETUAL FLUCTUATION, GIVEN BECAUSE OUR OBLIGATION IS FOLLOWING YOU, GREATLY CONSIDERING THAT THEREFORE, CONSIDERING THAT WE WILL TOLERATE US IN HIS PRESENCE. IN THIS FORM YOU WILL NOT RETURN TO TALK TO HIM, BECAUSE THE OTHER OPPORTUNITY TO STAY CLOSE TO HIM IS NOT LESS USEFUL, EVEN MAYBE MUCH MORE, EVEN IF IT IS LESS COMPLIANT WITH OUR TASTE ”.