The prayer to the Guardian Angel that Padre Pio recited every day to ask him for a grace
O holy guardian angel, take care of my soul and my body.
Light up my mind to get to know the Lord better
and love it with all your heart.
Assist me in my prayers so that I do not give in to distractions
but pay the greatest attention to it.
Help me with your advice, to see the good
and do it generously.
Defend me from the pitfalls of the infernal enemy and support me in temptations
because he always wins.
Make up for my coldness in the worship of the Lord:
do not cease to wait in my custody
until he takes me to heaven,
where we will praise the Good God together for all eternity.
The Guardian Angel and Padre Pio
"Talking" about the Guardian Angel means talking about a very intimate and discreet presence in our existence: each of us has established a particular relationship with his own Angel, whether we have consciously accepted it or ignored it. Of course the Guardian Angel is not a prerogative of the great religious personalities: the "not seeing" and "not hearing" of many common men, immersed in the hectic life of everyday life, does not in the least affect his presence beside us.
The thought of Padre Pio about this special angel for each of us is always clear and consistent with Catholic theology and traditional ascetic-mystical doctrine. Padre Pio recommends to all "great devotion to this beneficial angel" and regards "a great gift of Providence for the presence of an angel who guards us, guides and illuminates us on the way to salvation".
Padre Pio of Pietralcina had a very strong faith for the Guardian Angel. He turned to him constantly and instructed him to perform the strangest tasks. To his friends and spiritual children Padre Pio said: "When you need me, send me your Guardian Angel".
Often he too used, like Santa Gemma Galgani, the Angel to deliver letters to his confessor or his spiritual children scattered around the world.
Cleonice Morcaldi, her favorite spiritual daughter, left in her diaries this exceptional episode written: «During the last war my nephew was taken prisoner. We hadn't heard from him for a year. We all believed dead there. Her parents went crazy with pain. One day, my aunt jumped at the feet of Padre Pio who was in the confessional and said to him: “Tell me if my son is alive. I won't get out of your feet if you don't tell me. " Padre Pio was moved and with tears streaming down his face he said: "Get up and go quietly". “Some time passed and the situation in the family had become dramatic. One day, no longer able to bear the heartfelt crying of my uncles, I decided to ask the Father for a miracle and, full of faith, I said to him: “Father, I am writing a letter to my nephew Giovannino. I put the only name on the envelope because I don't know where he is. You and your Guardian Angel take her where he is. " Padre Pio did not answer me. I wrote the letter and placed it on the bedside table the night before I went to bed. The next morning, to my surprise, and also with fear, I saw that the letter was gone. I went to thank the Father and he said to me: "Thank the Virgin." After about fifteen days, the family wept for joy: a letter had arrived from Giovannino in which he replied exactly to everything I had written to him.
Padre Pio's life is full of similar episodes - says Monsignor Del Ton, - as indeed that of many other Saints. Joan of Arc, speaking of the guardian angels, declared to the judges who questioned her: "I have seen them many times among Christians".