Every day with Padre Pio: 365 thoughts of the Saint from Pietrelcina

(Edited by Father Gerardo Di Flumeri)

January

1. We by divine grace are at the dawn of a new year; this year, of which only God knows if we will see the end, everything must be employed to repair for the past, to propose for the future; and holy operations go hand in hand with good intentions.

2. We say to ourselves with the full conviction of telling the truth: my soul, start doing good today, because you have done nothing so far. Let us move in the presence of God. God sees me, we often repeat to ourselves, and in the act that he sees me, he also judges me. Let us make sure that he does not always see the only good in us.

3. Those who have time do not wait for time. We do not put off until tomorrow what we can do today. Of the good of then the pits are thrown back…; and then who says to us that tomorrow we will live? Let us listen to the voice of our conscience, the voice of the real prophet: "Today if you will hear the voice of the Lord, do not want to block your ear". We rise and treasure, because only the instant that escapes is in our domain. Let's not put time between instant and instant.

4. Oh how precious time is! Blessed are those who know how to take advantage of it, because everyone, on the day of judgment, will have to give a close account to the supreme Judge. Oh if everyone came to understand the preciousness of time, certainly everyone would strive to spend it commendably!

5. "Let us begin today, brothers, to do good, for we have done nothing so far". These words, which the seraphic father St. Francis in his humility applied to himself, let us make them ours at the beginning of this new year. We have really done nothing to date or, if nothing else, very little; the years have followed one another in rising and setting without us wondering how we used them; if there was nothing to repair, to add, to take away in our conduct. We lived unexpectedly as if one day the eternal judge were not to call us and ask us for an account of our work, how we spent our time.
Yet every minute we will have to give a very close account, of every movement of grace, of every holy inspiration, of every occasion that we presented ourselves to do good. The slightest transgression of God's holy law will be taken into consideration.

6. After the Glory, say: "Saint Joseph, pray for us!".

7. These two virtues must always be held firm, sweetness with one's neighbor and holy humility with God.

8. Blasphemy is the safest way to go to hell.

9. Sanctify the party!

10. Once I showed the Father a beautiful branch of blooming hawthorn and showing the Father the beautiful white flowers I exclaimed: "How beautiful they are! ...". "Yes, said the Father, but the fruits are more beautiful than the flowers." And he made me understand that works are beautiful more than holy desires.

11. Start the day with prayer.

12. Do not stop in the search for truth, in the purchase of the supreme Good. Be docile to the impulses of grace, indulging its inspirations and attractions. Do not blush with Christ and his doctrine.

13. When the soul moans and fears to offend God, it does not offend him and is far from sinning.

14. Being tempted is a sign that the soul is well accepted by the Lord.

15. Never abandon yourself to yourself. Put all trust in God alone.

16. I increasingly feel the great need to abandon myself with more confidence to divine mercy and to place only my only hope in God.

17. God's justice is terrible. But let's not forget that his mercy is also infinite.

18. Let us try to serve the Lord with all our heart and with all will.
It will always give us more than we deserve.

19. Give praise only to God and not to men, honor the Creator and not the creature.
During your existence, know how to support bitterness in order to participate in the sufferings of Christ.

20. Only a general knows when and how to use his soldier. Wait up; your turn will come too.

21. Disconnect from the world. Listen to me: one person drowns on the high seas, one drowns in a glass of water. What difference do you find between these two; aren't they equally dead?

22. Always think that God sees everything!

23. In the spiritual life the more one runs and the less one feels fatigue; indeed, peace, a prelude to eternal joy, will take possession of us and we will be happy and strong to the extent that by living in this study, we will make Jesus live in us, mortifying ourselves.

24. If we want to harvest it is necessary not so much to sow, as to spread the seed in a good field, and when this seed becomes a plant, it is very important to us to ensure that the tares do not suffocate the tender seedlings.

25. This life does not last long. The other lasts forever.

26. One must always go forward and never step back in the spiritual life; otherwise it happens like the boat, which if instead of advancing it stops, the wind sends it back.

27. Remember that a mother first teaches her child to walk by supporting him, but he must then walk on his own; therefore you must reason with your head.

28. My daughter, love the Ave Maria!

29. One cannot reach salvation without crossing the stormy sea, always threatening ruin. Calvary is the mount of saints; but from there it passes to another mountain, which is called Tabor.

30. I want nothing more than to die or love God: or death, or love; for life without this love is worse than death: for me it would be more unsustainable than it is at present.

31. I must not then pass the first month of the year without bringing to your soul, my dear daughter, the greeting of mine and always assuring you of the affection that my heart has for yours, to which I never cease desire all sorts of blessings and spiritual happiness. But, my good daughter, I strongly recommend this poor heart to you: take care to make it grateful to our sweetest Savior day by day, and make sure that this year is more fertile than last year in good works, since as the years pass and eternity approaches, we must double our courage and raise our spirit to God, serving him with greater diligence in all that our Christian vocation and profession oblige us.

February

1. Prayer is the outpouring of our heart into that of God ... When it is done well, it moves the divine Heart and invites it more and more to grant us. We try to pour out our whole soul when we start to pray to God. He remains wrapped in our prayers to be able to come to our aid.

2. I want to be only a poor friar who prays!

3. Pray and hope; do not panic. Agitation is of no use. God is merciful and will listen to your prayer.

4. Prayer is the best weapon we have; it is a key that opens the heart of God. You must speak to Jesus also with the heart, as well as with the lip; indeed, in certain contingents, you must speak to him only from the heart.

5. Through the study of books one looks for God, with meditation one finds him.

6. Be assiduous in prayer and meditation. You have already told me that you have started. Oh, God this is great consolation for a father who loves you as much as his own soul! Continue to progress always in the holy exercise of love for God. Spin a few things every day: both at night, in the dim light of the lamp and between the impotence and sterility of the spirit; both during the day, in the joy and in the dazzling illumination of the soul.

7. If you can speak to the Lord in prayer, speak to him, praise him; if you cannot speak to be crude, do not be sorry, in the ways of the Lord, stop in your room like courtiers and make him reverence. He who sees, will appreciate your presence, will encourage your silence, and in another time you will be consoled when he takes you by the hand.

8. This way of being in the presence of God only to protest with our will to recognize ourselves as his servants is most holy, most excellent, most pure and of greatest perfection.

9. When you find God with you in prayer, consider your truth; talk to him if you can, and if you can't, stop, show up and don't take any more trouble.

10. You never fail in my prayers, which you ask for, because I cannot forget you who cost me so many sacrifices.
I gave birth to God in the extreme pain of the heart. I trust in charity that in your prayers you will not forget who carries the cross for everyone.

11. Madonna of Lourdes,
Immaculate Virgin,
pray for me!

In Lourdes, I have been many times.

12. The best comfort is that which comes from prayer.

13. Set times for prayer.

14. Angel of God, who are my keeper,
enlighten, guard, hold and rule me
that I was entrusted to you by heavenly piety. Amen.

Recite this beautiful prayer often.

15. The prayers of the saints in heaven and the just souls on earth are perfumes which will never be lost.

16. Pray to Saint Joseph! Pray to Saint Joseph to feel him close in life and in the last agony, together with Jesus and Mary.

17. Reflect and always have before the mind's eye the great humility of the Mother of God and ours, who, as the heavenly gifts grew in her, increasingly plunged into humility.

18. Maria, watch over me!
My mother, pray for me!

19. Mass and Rosary!

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 ».

MARCH

Holy Joseph,
Sponse Mariae Virginis,
Pater putative Iesu,
now pro me!

1. - Father, what do you do?
- I'm doing the month of St. Joseph.

2. - Father, you love what I fear.
- I don't like suffering in itself; I ask God, I yearn for the fruits it gives me: it gives glory to God, it saves me the brothers of this exile, it frees souls from the fire of purgatory, and what more do I want?
- Father, what is suffering?
- Atonement.
- What is it for you?
- My daily bread, my delight!

3. On this earth everyone has his cross; but we must make sure that we are not the bad thief, but the good thief.

4. The Lord cannot give me a Cyrenean. I only have to do God's will and, if I like him, the rest doesn't count.

5. Pray calmly!

6. First of all, I want to tell you that Jesus needs those who groan with him for human impiety, and for this he leads you through the painful ways of which you keep my word in yours. But may his charity always be blessed, which knows how to mix the sweet with the bitter and convert the transitory penalties of life into an eternal reward.

7. So do not be afraid at all, but consider yourself very fortunate to have been made worthy and a participant in the pains of Man-God. Therefore, it is not abandonment, but love and great love that God is showing you. This state is not punishment, but love and very fine love. Therefore bless the Lord and resign yourself to drinking from the cup of Gethsemane.

8. I am well understood, my daughter, that your Calvary becomes more and more painful for you. But think that on Calvary Jesus made our redemption and on Calvary the salvation of the redeemed souls must be accomplished.

9. I know you suffer a lot, but aren't these the Groom's jewels?

10. The Lord sometimes makes you feel the weight of the cross. This weight seems intolerable to you, but you carry it because the Lord in his love and mercy extends your hand and gives you strength.

11. I would prefer a thousand crosses, indeed each cross would be sweet and light to me, if I did not have this proof, that is, to always feel in the uncertainty of pleasing the Lord in my operations ... It is painful to live like this ...
I resign myself, but resignation, my fiat seems so cold, vain! ... What a mystery! Jesus must think about it alone.

12. Jesus, Mary, Joseph.

13. The good heart is always strong; he suffers, but hides his tears and consoles himself by sacrificing himself for his neighbor and for God.

14. Whoever begins to love must be ready to suffer.

15. Do not fear adversity because they put the soul at the foot of the cross and the cross puts it at the gates of heaven, where he will find the one who is the triumph of death, who will introduce it to the eternal gaudi.

16. After the Glory, we pray to Saint Joseph.

17. Let us go up Calvary generously for the love of him who immolated himself for our love and we are patient, certain that we will fly to Tabor.

18. Keep yourselves strongly and constantly united to God, consecrating all your affections, all your troubles, all of yourself, patiently waiting for the return of the beautiful sun, when the groom will like to visit you with the test of aridity, desolations and blinds of spirit.

19. Pray to Saint Joseph!

20. Yes, I love the cross, the only cross; I love her because I always see her behind Jesus.

21. The true servants of God have increasingly valued adversity, as more in conformity with the path that our Head traveled, who worked our health by means of the cross and the oppressed.

22. The fate of the chosen souls is suffering; It is suffering endured in a Christian condition, a condition to which God, the author of every grace and every gift leading to health, has determined to give us glory.

23. Always be a lover of pain which, in addition to being the work of divine wisdom, reveals to us, even better, the work of his love.

24. Let nature also resent itself before suffering, for there is nothing more natural than sin in this; your will, with divine help, will always be superior and divine love will never fail in your spirit, if you do not neglect prayer.

25. I would like to fly to invite all creatures to love Jesus, to love Mary.

26. After the glory, St. Joseph! Mass and Rosary!

27. Life is a Calvary; but it is better to go up happily. The crosses are the jewels of the Bridegroom and I am jealous of them. My sufferings are pleasant. I suffer only when I don't suffer.

28. The suffering of physical and moral evils is the most worthy offer you can make to the one who saved us by suffering.

29. I enjoy immensely in feeling that the Lord is always prodigal of his caresses with your soul. I know you are suffering, but isn't suffering a sure sign that God loves you? I know you suffer, but isn't this suffering the hallmark of every soul that has chosen a God and a crucified God for its portion and inheritance? I know that your spirit is always wrapped in the darkness of trial, but it is enough for you, my good daughter, to know that Jesus is with you and in you.

30. Crown in your pocket and in your hand!

31. Say:

St. Joseph,
Groom of Maria,
Putative Father of Jesus,
pray for us.

April

1. Does not the Holy Spirit tell us that as the soul approaches God it must prepare itself for temptation? Therefore, courage, my good daughter; fight hard and you will have the prize reserved for strong souls.

2. After the Pater, the Ave Maria is the most beautiful prayer.

3. Woe to those who do not keep themselves honest! They not only lose all human respect, but how much they cannot occupy any civil office ... Therefore we are always honest, chasing away every bad thought from our mind, and we are always with our hearts turned to God, who created us and placed us on earth to know him love him and serve him in this life and then enjoy him eternally in the other.

4. I know that the Lord allows these assaults on the devil because his mercy makes you dear to him and wants you to resemble him in the anxieties of the desert, of the garden, of the cross; but you must defend yourselves by distancing him and despising his evil insinuations in the name of God and holy obedience.

5. Observe well: provided that temptation will displease you, there is nothing to fear. But why are you sorry, if not because you don't want to hear her?
These temptations so importunate come from the malice of the devil, but the sorrow and suffering that we suffer from them come from the mercy of God, who, against the will of our enemy, withdraws from his malice the holy tribulation, by means of which he purifies the gold he wants to put in his treasures.
I say again: your temptations are of the devil and hell, but your pains and afflictions are of God and of heaven; the mothers are from Babylon, but the daughters are from Jerusalem. He despises temptations and embraces tribulations.
No, no, my daughter, let the wind blow and don't think that the ringing of the leaves is the sound of weapons.

6. Do not try to overcome your temptations because this effort would strengthen them; despise them and do not hold back on them; represent in your imaginations Jesus Christ crucified in your arms and on your breasts, and say kissing his side several times: Here is my hope, here is the living source of my happiness! I will hold you tight, O my Jesus, and I will not leave you until you have placed me in a safe place.

7. End it with these vain apprehensions. Remember that it is not sentiment that constitutes guilt but consent to such sentiments. Free will alone is capable of good or evil. But when the will groans under the tempter's test and does not want what is presented to it, not only is there no fault, but there is virtue.

8. Temptations do not dismay you; they are the proof of the soul that God wants to experience when he sees it in the forces necessary to sustain the fight and weave the wreath of glory with his own hands.
Up to now your life was in infancy; now the Lord wants to treat you as an adult. And since the tests of adult life are much higher than those of an infant, that is why you are initially disorganized; but the life of the soul will acquire its calm and your calm will return, it will not be late. Have a little more patience; everything will be for your best.

9. Temptations against faith and purity are goods offered by the enemy, but do not fear him except with contempt. As long as he cries, it is a sign that he has not yet taken possession of the will.
Thou shalt not be disturbed by what you are experiencing on the part of this rebel angel; the will is always contrary to its suggestions, and live calmly, because there is no fault, but rather there is the pleasure of God and the gain for your soul.

10. You must have recourse to him in the assaults of the enemy, you must hope in him and you must expect every good from him. Do not voluntarily stop on what the enemy presents to you. Remember that whoever runs away wins; and you owe the first movements of aversion against those people to withdraw their thoughts and appeal to God. Before him bend your knee and with great humility repeat this short prayer: "Have mercy on me, who am a poor sick person". Then get up and with holy indifference continue your chores.

11. Keep it in mind that the more the assaults of the enemy grow, the closer God is to the soul. Think and interpenetrate well of this great and comforting truth.

12. Take heart and do not fear Lucifer's dark ire. Remember this forever: that it is a good sign when the enemy roars and roars around your will, since this shows that he is not inside.
Courage, my beloved daughter! I utter this word with a great feeling and, in Jesus, courage, I say: there is no need to fear, while we can say with resolution, although without feeling: Long live Jesus!

13. Keep in mind that the more a soul is pleasing to God, the more it must be tried. Therefore courage and always go on.

14. I understand that temptations seem to stain rather than purify the spirit, but let's hear what the language of the saints is, and in this regard it suffices to know, among many, what St. Francis de Sales says: that temptations are like soap, which widespread on the clothes seems to smear them and in truth purify them.

15. Confidence I always inculcate you; nothing can fear a soul who trusts in his Lord and places his hope in him. The enemy of our health is also always around us to snatch from our heart the anchor that must lead us to salvation, I mean confidence in God our Father; hold on tight, hold this anchor, never allow it to abandon us for a moment, otherwise everything would be lost.

16. We increase our devotion to Our Lady, let's honor her with true filial love in all ways.

17. Oh, what happiness in spiritual battles! Just wanting to always know how to fight to certainly emerge victorious.

18. Walk with simplicity in the way of the Lord and do not torment your spirit.
You must hate your flaws, but with a quiet hatred and not already annoying and restless.

19. Confession, which is the washing of the soul, must be made every eight days at the latest; I don't feel like keeping souls away from confession for more than eight days.

20. The devil has only one door to enter our soul: the will; there are no secret doors.
No sin is such unless it was committed with the will. When the will has nothing to do with sin, it has nothing to do with human weakness.

21. The devil is like an angry dog ​​on the chain; beyond the limit of the chain he cannot bite anyone.
And you then stay away. If you get too close, you get caught.

22. Do not abandon your soul to temptation, says the Holy Spirit, since the joy of the heart is the life of the soul, it is an inexhaustible treasure of holiness; while sadness is the slow death of the soul and is of no use to anything.

23. Our enemy, conjured against us, becomes stronger with the weak, but with whoever confronts him with the weapon in his hand, he becomes a coward.

24. Unfortunately, the enemy will always be in our ribs, but let us remember, however, that the Virgin watches over us. So let us recommend ourselves to her, reflect on her and we are sure that the victory belongs to those who trust in this great Mother.

25. If you manage to overcome the temptation, this has the effect that the lye has on messy laundry.

26. I would suffer death countless times, before offending the Lord with my eyes open.

27. With thought and confession one must not go back to the sins accused in previous confessions. Because of our contrition, Jesus forgave them in the penance court. There he found himself before us and our miseries as a creditor in front of an insolvent debtor. With a gesture of infinite generosity he tore apart, destroyed the promissory notes signed by us by sinning, and which we certainly could not have paid without the help of his divine clemency. Going back to those faults, wanting to resurrect them only to still have their forgiveness, only for the doubt that they have not been really and largely remitted, would perhaps not be considered as an act of mistrust towards the goodness of which he had shown, tearing himself every title of the debt contracted by us by sinning? ... Come back, if this can be a reason of comfort to our souls, let your thoughts also turn to the offenses caused to justice, to wisdom, to the infinite mercy of God: but only to cry over them the redemptive tears of repentance and love.

28. In the tumultuar of passions and adverse events, the dear hope of his inexhaustible mercy sustains us: we run confidently to the tribunal of penance, where he anxiously awaits us at father's moment; and, while aware of our insolvency before him, we do not doubt the solemn forgiveness pronounced on our errors. We place on them, as the Lord has placed it, a sepulchral stone!

29. Walk happily and with a sincere and open heart as much as you can, and when you cannot always maintain this holy joy, at least never lose courage and confidence in God.

30. The trials to which the Lord submits and will subject you are all marks of divine delight and gems for the soul. My dear, winter will pass and the interminable spring will be all the more full of beauties, the harsher the storms.

May

1. When passing in front of an image of the Madonna we must say:
«I greet you, or Maria.
Say hi to Jesus
from me".

The Ave Maria
He accompanied me
lifetime.

2. Listen, Mommy, I love you more than all the creatures of earth and sky ... after Jesus, of course ... but I love you.

3. Beautiful Mommy, dear Mommy, yes you are beautiful. If there was no faith, men would call you goddess. Your eyes are more shining than the sun; you are beautiful, Mommy, I glory in it, I love you. Deh! help me.

4. In May, say many Ave Maria!

5. My children, love the Ave Maria!

6. May Mary be the whole reason for your existence and guide yourself to the safe harbor of eternal health. May she be your sweet model and inspirer in the virtue of holy humility.

7. O Mary, very sweet mother of priests, mediator and dispenser of all graces, from the bottom of my heart I beg you, I beg you, I beg you to thank today, tomorrow, always Jesus, the blessed fruit of your womb.

8. My mother, I love you. Protect me!

9. Do not leave the altar without shedding tears of pain and love for Jesus, crucified for your eternal health.
Our Lady of Sorrows will keep you company and be of sweet inspiration to you.

10. Do not be so dedicated to Martha's activity as to forget Mary's silence or abandonment. May the Virgin, who conciliates both offices so well, be of sweet model and inspiration.

11. Maria inflate and perfume your soul with ever new virtues and place her maternal hand on your head.
Hold ever closer to the Celestial Mother, because it is the sea through which you reach the shores of eternal splendor in the kingdom of dawn.

12. Remember what happened in the heart of our heavenly Mother at the foot of the cross. She was petrified before the crucified Son for the exuberance of pain, but you cannot say that she was abandoned by it. Indeed when he loved her better then that he suffered and could not even cry?

13. What should your children do?
- Love the Madonna.

14. Pray the Rosary! Always crown with you!

15. We too regenerated in holy baptism correspond to the grace of our vocation in imitation of our Immaculate Mother, applying ourselves unceasingly in the knowledge of God to always better know him, serve him and love him.

16. My mother, deep in me that love that burned in your heart for him, in me who, covered with miseries, admire in you the mystery of your Immaculate Conception, and that I ardently yearn for you to make my heart pure for it to love my and your God, pure the mind to rise to him and contemplate him, adore and serve him in spirit and truth, pure the body so that it will be his tabernacle less unworthy of possessing it, when he will deign to come in holy communion.

17. I would like to have such a strong voice to invite sinners from all over the world to love Our Lady. But since this is not in my power, I prayed, and I will pray my little angel to perform this office for me.

18. Sweet Heart of Mary,
be the salvation of my soul!

19. After the ascension of Jesus Christ to heaven, Mary continually burned with the most lively desire to reunite with him. Without her divine Son, she seemed to be in the hardest exile.
Those years in which she had to be divided from him were for her the slowest and most painful martyrdom, martyrdom of love that consumed her slowly.

20. Jesus, who reigned in heaven with the most holy humanity that he had taken from the bowels of the Virgin, also wanted his Mother not only with the soul, but also well with the body to meet him and fully share his glory.
And this was quite right and proper. That body which had not even been a slave to the devil and sin for an instant was not to be even in corruption.

21. Try to conform always and in everything to the will of God in every event, and do not be afraid. This conformity is the sure way to reach heaven.

22. Father, teach me a shortcut to get to God.
- The shortcut is the Virgin.

23. Father, when saying the Rosary should I be careful of the Ave or the mystery?
- At the Ave, greet the Madonna in the mystery you contemplate.
Attention must be paid to the Ave, to the greeting you address to the Virgin in the mystery you contemplate. In all the mysteries she was present, to all she participated with love and pain.

24. Always carry it with you (the crown of the Rosary). Say at least five stakes every day.

25. Always carry it in your pocket; in times of need, hold it in your hand, and when you send to wash your dress, forget to remove your wallet, but don't forget the crown!

26. My daughter, always say the Rosary. With humility, with love, with calm.

27. Science, my son, however great, is always a poor thing; it is less than nothing compared to the formidable mystery of divinity.
Other ways you have to keep. Clean your heart of all earthly passion, humble yourself in the dust and pray! Thus you will surely find God, who will give you serenity and peace in this life and eternal bliss in that other.

28. Have you seen a fully ripened wheat field? You will be able to observe that some ears are tall and luxuriant; others, however, are folded on the ground. Try to take the high, the most vain, you will see that these are empty; if, on the other hand, you take the lowest, the most humble, these are full of beans. From this you can deduce that vanity is empty.

29. Oh God! make yourself felt more and more to my poor heart and complete in me the work you started. I internally hear a voice that assiduously tells me: Sanctify and sanctify. Well, my dearest, I want it, but I don't know where to start. Help me too; I know that Jesus loves you so much, and you deserve it. So speak to him for me, that he may give me the grace of being a less unworthy son of St. Francis, who can be an example to my brothers so that the fervor continues and grows ever more in me to make me a perfect cappuccino.

30. Therefore always be faithful to God in the observance of the promises made to him and do not take care of the motions of the insipients. Know that the saints have always mocked the world and the worldly and have put the world and its maxims underfoot.

31. Teach your children to pray!

June

Jesus and Mary,
in vobis I trust!

1. Say during the day:

Sweet Heart of my Jesus,
make me love you more and more.

2. Love the Ave Maria very much!

3. Jesus, you always come to me. With what food should I feed you? ... With love! But my love is fallacious. Jesus, I love you very much. Make up for my love.

4. Jesus and Mary, I trust in you!

5. Let us remember that the Heart of Jesus called us not only for our sanctification, but also for that of the other souls. He wants to be helped in the salvation of souls.

6. What else will I tell you? The grace and peace of the Holy Spirit always be in the middle of your heart. Put this heart in the open side of the Savior and unite it with this king of our hearts, who in them stands as in his royal throne to receive the homage and obedience of all the other hearts, thus keeping the door open, so that everyone can approach to have always and at any time hearing; and when yours will speak to him, do not forget, my dear daughter, to make him speak also in favor of mine, so that his divine and cordial majesty makes him good, obedient, faithful and less petty than he is.

7. You will not be surprised at all about your weaknesses but, by recognizing yourself for who you are, you will blush with your infidelity to God and you will trust in him, abandoning yourself calmly on the arms of the heavenly Father, like a child on those of your mother.

8. Oh if I had infinite hearts, all the hearts of heaven and earth, of your Mother, or Jesus, all, all I would offer them to you!

9. My Jesus, my sweetness, my love, love that sustains me.

10. Jesus, I love you very much! ... it is useless for you to repeat it, I love you, Love, Love! You alone! ... only praise you.

11. May the Heart of Jesus be the center of all your inspirations.

12. Jesus be always, and in all, your escort, support and life!

13. With this (the crown of the Rosary) the battles are won.

14. Even if you had committed all the sins of this world, Jesus repeats you: many sins are forgiven because you have loved much.

15. In the turmoil of passions and adverse events, the dear hope of his inexhaustible mercy sustains us. We run confidently to the tribunal of penance, where he anxiously awaits us at all times; and, while aware of our insolvency before him, we do not doubt the solemn forgiveness pronounced on our errors. We place on them, as the Lord has placed it, a sepulchral stone.

16. The heart of our divine Master has no more lovable law than that of sweetness, humility and charity.

17. My Jesus, my sweetness ... and how can I live without you? Always come, my Jesus, come, you have only my heart.

18. My children, it is never too much to prepare for holy communion.

19. «Father, I feel unworthy of holy communion. I am unworthy of it! ».
Answer: «It is true, we are not worthy of such a gift; but it is another to approach unworthily with mortal sin, another is not to be worthy. We are all unworthy; but it is he who invites us, it is he who wants it. Let us humble ourselves and receive it with all our hearts full of love ».

20. "Father, why do you weep when you receive Jesus in holy communion?". Answer: "If the Church emits the cry:" You did not disdain the Virgin's womb ", speaking of the incarnation of the Word in the womb of the Immaculate Conception, what will not be said of us miserable ?! But Jesus said to us: "Whoever does not eat my flesh and drink my blood will not have eternal life"; and then approach the holy communion with so much love and fear. The whole day is preparation and thanksgiving for holy communion. "

21. If you are not allowed to be able to stay in prayer, readings, etc. for a long time, then you must not be discouraged. As long as you have Jesus sacrament every morning, you must consider yourself very lucky.
During the day, when you are not allowed to do anything else, call Jesus, even in the midst of all your occupations, with a resigned groan of the soul and he will always come and remain united with the soul through his grace and his holy love.
Fly with the spirit before the tabernacle, when you cannot go there with your body, and there you release your ardent desires and speak and pray and embrace the Beloved of souls better than if it were given to you to receive it sacramentally.

22. Jesus alone can understand what pain it is for me when the painful scene of Calvary is prepared before me. It is equally incomprehensible that relief is given to Jesus not only by pitying him in his pains, but when he finds a soul who for his sake asks him not for consolation, but to be made a participant in his own pains.

23. Never get used to Mass.

24. Every holy mass, well listened to and with devotion, produces in our soul wonderful effects, abundant spiritual and material graces, which we ourselves do not know. For this purpose do not spend your money unnecessarily, sacrifice it and come up to listen to the Holy Mass.
The world could also be sunless, but it cannot be without Holy Mass.

25. On Sunday, Mass and Rosary!

26. In attending the Holy Mass renew your faith and meditate as a victim immolates itself for you to divine justice to appease it and make it propitious.
When you are well, you listen to the mass. When you're sick, and you can't attend it, you say mass.

27. In these times so sad of dead faith, of triumphant impiety, the safest way to keep ourselves free from the pestiferous disease that surrounds us is to fortify ourselves with this Eucharistic food. This cannot be easily obtained by those who live months and months without satiating themselves of the immaculate meats of the divine Lamb.

28. I point, because the bell calls and urges me; and I go to the press of the church, to the holy altar, where the sacred wine of the blood of that delicious and singular grape continuously drips, of which only a lucky few are allowed to get drunk. There - as you know, I cannot do otherwise - I will present you to the heavenly Father in the union of his Son, who, through whom and through whom I am all yours in the Lord.

29. Do you see how many contempt and how many sacrileges are committed by the children of men towards the sacrosanct humanity of his Son in the sacrament of Love? It is up to us, since from the goodness of the Lord we have been chosen in his Church, according to St. Peter, to "royal priesthood" (1Pt 2,9), it is up to us, I say, to defend the honor of this most gentle Lamb, always solicitous when it comes to patronizing the cause of souls, always silent when it is a question of one's own cause.

30. My Jesus, save everyone; I offer myself a victim for everyone; strengthen me, take this heart, fill it with your love and then command me what you want.

July

1. God does not want you to feel the feeling of faith, hope and charity sensibly, nor to enjoy it, if not enough to use it on occasions. Alas! How happy we are to be held so closely by our heavenly guardian! All we have to do is what we do, that is, to love divine providence and abandon ourselves in her arms and in her breast.
No, my God, I don't want more enjoyment of my faith, my hope, my charity, only to be able to say sincerely, albeit without taste and without feeling, that I would rather die than abandon these virtues.

2. Give me and keep that living faith that makes me believe and work for your love alone. And this is the first gift that I present to you, and united with the holy magi, at your prostrate feet, I confess to you without any human respect before the whole world for true and only our God.

3. I cordially bless God who made me know of truly good souls and I also announced to them that their souls are the vineyard of God; the cistern is faith; the tower is hope; the press is holy charity; the hedge is the law of God that separates them from the sons of the century.

4. The living faith, the blind belief and the complete adhesion to the authority constituted by God above you, this is the light that risked the steps to the people of God in the desert. This is the light that always shines in the high point of every spirit accepted by the Father. This is the light that led the Magi to worship the born Messiah. This is the star prophesied by Balaam. This is the torch that directs the steps of these desolate spirits.
And this light and this star and this torch are also what illuminate your soul, direct your steps so that you do not falter; they fortify your spirit in divine affection and without your soul knowing them, it always advances towards the eternal goal.
You don't see it and you don't understand it, but it's not necessary. You will see nothing but darkness, but they are not those which involve the children of perdition, but are those which surround the eternal Sun. Hold firm and believe that this Sun shines in your soul; and this Sun is precisely that of which the seer of God sang: "And in your light I will see the light".

5. The most beautiful creed is the one that bursts from your lip in the dark, in sacrifice, in pain, in the supreme effort of an infallible will for good; it is that which, like lightning, pierces the darkness of your soul; it is that which, in the flash of the storm, raises you up and leads you to God.

6. Practice, my dearest daughter, a particular exercise of sweetness and submission to the will of God not only in extraordinary things, but also in those small things that happen daily. Make deeds not only in the morning, but also during the day and in the evening with a calm and joyful spirit; and if you happen to miss, humble yourself, propose and then get up and carry on.

7. The enemy is very strong, and everything calculated seems that the victory should laugh at the enemy. Alas, who will save me from the hands of an enemy so strong and so powerful, who does not leave me free for an instant, day or night? Is it possible that the Lord will allow my fall? Unfortunately I deserve it, but will it be true that the goodness of the heavenly Father must be overcome by my malice? Never, never, this, my father.

8. I would love to be pierced with a cold knife, rather than to displease someone.

9. Seek solitude, yes, but with your neighbor do not miss charity.

10. I cannot suffer from criticizing and saying evil of the brothers. It's true, sometimes, I enjoy teasing them, but the murmur makes me sick. We have so many flaws to criticize in us, why get lost against the brothers? And we, lacking in charity, will damage the root of the tree of life, with the danger of making it dry.

11. Lack of charity is like hurting God in the pupil of his eye.
What is more delicate than the pupil of the eye?
Lacking charity is like sinning against nature.

12. Charity, wherever it comes from, is always the daughter of the same mother, that is, providence.

13. I am so sorry to see you suffer! To take away someone's sorrow, I wouldn't find it difficult to get a stab in the heart! ... Yes, this would be easier!

14. Where there is no obedience, there is no virtue. Where there is no virtue, there is no good, there is no love and where there is no love there is no God and without God one cannot go to heaven.
These form like a ladder and if a stair step is missing, it falls down.

15. Do everything for the glory of God!

16. Always say the Rosary!
Say after each mystery:
St. Joseph, pray for us!

17. I urge you, for the meekness of Jesus and for the bowels of mercy of Heavenly Father, never to cool off in the way of good. Always run and never want to stop, knowing that in this way standing still is equivalent to returning on your own steps.

18. Charity is the yardstick by which the Lord will judge us all.

19. Remember that the pivot of perfection is charity; whoever lives in charity lives in God, because God is charity, as the Apostle said.

20. I was very sorry to know that you have been ill, but I enjoyed very much in knowing that you are recovering and even more I enjoyed seeing the real piety and Christian charity shown in your infirmity flourish among you.

21. I bless the good God of the holy sentiments who gives you his grace. You do well to never begin any work without first begging for divine help. This will obtain the grace of holy perseverance for you.

22. Before meditation, pray to Jesus, Our Lady and Saint Joseph.

23. Charity is the queen of virtues. Just as pearls are held together by thread, so are virtues from charity. And how, if the thread breaks, the pearls fall; thus, if charity is lost, the virtues are dispersed.

24. I suffer and suffer greatly; but thanks to the good Jesus I still feel a little strength; and what is the creature helped by Jesus not capable of?

25. Fight, daughter, when you are strong, if you want to have the prize of strong souls.

26. You must always have prudence and love. Prudence has eyes, love has legs. The love that has legs would like to run to God, but his impulse to rush towards him is blind, and sometimes he could stumble if he were not guided by the prudence he has in his eyes. Prudence, when he sees that love could be unbridled, lends his eyes.

27. Simplicity is a virtue, however up to a certain point. This must never be without prudence; cunning and shrewdness, on the other hand, are diabolical and do so much harm.

28. Vainglory is an enemy proper to the souls who consecrated themselves to the Lord and who gave themselves to the spiritual life; and therefore the moth of the soul that tends to perfection can rightly be called. It is called by the Saints woodworm of holiness.

29. Do not let your soul disturb the sad spectacle of human injustice; this too, in the economy of things, has its value. It is upon it that you will see the unfailing triumph of God's justice one day!

30. To entice us, the Lord gives us many graces and we believe we touch the sky with a finger. We do not know, however, that in order to grow we need hard bread: the crosses, the humiliations, the trials, the contradictions.

31. Strong and generous hearts are sorry only for great reasons, and even these reasons do not make them penetrate too deeply.

AUGUST

1. Pray a lot, always pray.

2. We too ask our dear Jesus for the humility, trust and faith of our dear Saint Clare; as we pray to Jesus fervently, let us abandon ourselves to him by detaching ourselves from this lying apparatus of the world where everything is madness and vanity, everything passes, only God remains to the soul if he has been able to love him well.

3. I am only a poor friar who prays.

4. Never go to bed without first examining your awareness of how you spent the day, and not before directing all your thoughts to God, followed by the offer and consecration of your person and all Christians. Also offer the glory of his divine majesty the rest you are about to take and never forget the guardian angel who is always with you.

5. Love the Ave Maria!

6. Mainly you must insist on the basis of Christian justice and on the foundation of goodness, on the virtue, that is, of which Jesus explicitly acts as a model, I mean: humility (Mt 11,29:XNUMX). Internal and external humility, but more internal than external, more felt than shown, deeper than visible.
Esteemed, my beloved daughter, who you really are: nothingness, misery, weakness, a source of perversity without limits or mitigating, capable of converting good into evil, of abandoning good for evil, of attributing good to you or justify yourself in evil and, for the sake of the same evil, to despise the highest Good.

7. I am sure that you wish to know which are the best abjections, and I tell you to be the ones we have not elected, or to be the ones who are least grateful to us or, to put it better, those to which we have no great inclination; and, to put it plainly, that of our vocation and profession. Who will grant me grace, my dearest daughters, that we love our abjection well? No one else can do it than the one who loved his so much that he wanted to die to keep it. And this is enough.

8. Father, how do you recite so many Rosaries?
- Pray, pray. Whoever prays a lot is saved and saved, and what more beautiful prayer and accept to the Virgin than she herself taught us.

9. The true humility of the heart is that felt and lived more than shown. We must always humble ourselves before God, but not with that false humility that leads to discouragement, generating despair and despair.
We must have a low concept of ourselves. Believe us inferior to all. Do not put your profit before that of others.

10. When you say the Rosary, say: "Saint Joseph, pray for us!"

11. If we have to be patient and endure the miseries of others, all the more we have to endure ourselves.
In your daily infidelities humiliated, humiliated, always humiliated. When Jesus sees you humiliated to the ground, he will stretch out your hand and think of himself to draw you to himself.

12. Let us pray, pray, pray!

13. What is happiness if not the possession of all sorts of good, which makes man completely satisfied? But is there ever anyone on this earth who is fully happy? Of course not. Man would have been such if he had remained faithful to his God. But since man is full of crimes, that is, full of sins, he can never be fully happy. Therefore happiness is found only in heaven: there is no danger of losing God, no suffering, no death, but eternal life with Jesus Christ.

14. Humility and charity go hand in hand. One glorifies and the other sanctifies.
Humility and purity of morals are wings that lift up to God and almost deify.

15. Every day the Rosary!

16. Humble yourself always and lovingly before God and men, because God speaks to those who keep his heart truly humble before him and enrich him with his gifts.

17. Let's look up first and then look at ourselves. The infinite distance between the blue and the abyss generates humility.

18. If standing up depended on us, surely at the first breath we would fall into the hands of our healthy enemies. We always trust in divine piety and thus we will experience more and more how good the Lord is.

19. Rather, you must humble yourself before God instead of being discouraged if he reserves the sufferings of his Son for you and wants you to experience your weakness; you must raise to him the prayer of resignation and hope, when one falls due to fragility, and thank him for the many benefits with which he is enriching you.

20. Father, you are so good!
- I am not good, only Jesus is good. I don't know how this Saint Francis habit I wear doesn't run away from me! The last thug on earth is gold like me.

21. What can I do?
Everything comes from God. I am rich in one thing, in infinite misery.

22. After each mystery: Saint Joseph, pray for us!

23. How much malice there is in me!
- Stay in this belief too, humiliate yourself but don't get upset.

24. Be careful never to be discouraged from seeing yourself surrounded by spiritual infirmities. If God lets you fall into some weakness it is not to abandon you, but only to settle in humility and make you more attentive for the future.

25. The world does not esteem us because children of God; let's console ourselves that, at least once in a while, it knows the truth and doesn't tell lies.

26. Be a lover and practicer of simplicity and humility, and do not care about the judgments of the world, because if this world had nothing to say against us, we would not be true servants of God.

27. Self-love, the son of pride, is more malicious than the mother herself.

28. Humility is truth, truth is humility.

29. God enriches the soul, which strips itself of everything.

30. By doing the will of others, we must make an account of doing the will of God, which is manifested to us in that of our superiors and our neighbor.

31. Always keep close to the holy Catholic Church, because she alone can give you true peace, because she alone has the sacramental Jesus, who is the true prince of peace.

September

Sancte Michaël Archangele,
now pro me!

1. We must love, love, love and nothing more.

2. We must continually beg for the sweetest of our two things: to increase love and fear in us, since that will make us fly in the ways of the Lord, this will make us look where we put our foot; that makes us look at the things of this world for what they are, this makes us regard every neglect. When then love and fear kiss each other, it is no longer in our power to grant affection to the things below.

3. If God does not offer you sweetness and sweetness, then you must be of good cheer, remaining in patience to eat your bread, albeit dry, fulfilling your duty, without a present reward. In so doing, our love for God is selfless; we love and serve God in our own way at our own expense; this is precisely of the most perfect souls.

4. The more bitter you will have, the more love you will receive.

5. A single act of love of God, done in times of dryness, is worth more than a hundred, done in tenderness and consolation.

6. At three o'clock, think of Jesus.

7. This heart of mine is yours ... My Jesus, take this heart of mine, fill it with your love and then command me what you want.

8. Peace is the simplicity of the spirit, the serenity of the mind, the tranquility of the soul, the bond of love. Peace is order, it is harmony in all of us: it is a continuous enjoyment, which is born from the witness of good conscience: it is the holy joy of a heart, in which God reigns there. Peace is the path to perfection, indeed perfection is found in peace, and the devil, who knows all this very well, makes every effort to make us lose peace.

9. My children, let us love and say the Hail Mary!

10. You light Jesus, that fire that you came to bring on earth, so that consumed by it you immolate me on the altar of your charity, as a burnt offering of love, because you reign in my heart and in the heart of all, and from all and everywhere raise a single song of praise, of blessing, of thanks to you for the love that you have shown us in the mystery of your birth of divine tenderness.

11. Love Jesus, love him very much, but for this he loves sacrifice more. Love wants to be bitter.

12. Today the Church presents us with the feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary to remind us that we must always pronounce it in every moment of our life, especially in the hour of agony, so that it opens the gates of Heaven for us.

13. The human spirit without the flame of divine love is led to reach the line of beasts, while on the contrary charity, the love of God raises it so high that it reaches the throne of God. Give thanks to the liberality of such a good Father and pray to him that he will increase more and more the holy charity in your heart.

14. You will never complain about the offenses, wherever they are done to you, remembering that Jesus was saturated with oppression by the malice of the men whom he himself had benefited.
You will all apologize to Christian charity, keeping in front of your eyes the example of the divine Master who even excused his crucifixors before his Father.

15. We pray: those who pray a lot save themselves, those who pray little are damned. We love the Madonna. Let's make her love and recite the holy Rosary that she taught us.

16. Always think of Heavenly Mother.

17. Jesus and your soul agree to cultivate the vineyard. It is up to you to remove and transport stones, to tear thorns. To Jesus the task of sowing, planting, cultivating, watering. But even in your work there is the work of Jesus. Without him you can do nothing.

18. To avoid the Pharisaic scandal, we are not required to abstain from good.

19. Remember: the wrongdoer who is ashamed to do evil is closer to God than the honest man who blushes to do good.

20. Time spent on the glory of God and the health of the soul is never badly spent.

21. Arise therefore, O Lord, and confirm in your grace those you have entrusted to me and do not allow anyone to lose themselves by deserting the fold. Oh God! Oh God! do not allow your inheritance to go to waste.

22. Praying well is not a waste of time!

23. I belong to everyone. Everyone can say: "Padre Pio is mine." I love my brothers in exile so much. I love my spiritual children like my soul and even more. I regenerated them to Jesus in pain and love. I can forget myself, but not my spiritual children, indeed I assure you that when the Lord calls me, I will say to him: «Lord, I remain at the door of Heaven; I enter you when I have seen the last of my children enter ».
We always pray in the morning and in the evening.

24. One looks for God in books, is found in prayer.

25. Love the Ave Maria and the Rosary.

26. It pleased God that these poor creatures should repent and truly return to him!
For these people we must all be mother's bowels and for these we must have utmost care, since Jesus makes us know that in heaven there is more celebration for a repentant sinner than for the perseverance of ninety-nine righteous.
This sentence of the Redeemer is truly comforting for so many souls who unfortunately sinned and then want to repent and return to Jesus.

27. Do good everywhere, so that anyone can say:
"This is a son of Christ."
Bear tribulations, infirmities, sorrows for the love of God and for the conversion of poor sinners. Defend the weak, console those who weep.

28. Don't worry about stealing my time, since the best time is spent on sanctifying the soul of others, and I have no way of thanking Heavenly Father's mercy when he presents me with souls that I can help in some way .

29. O glorious and strong
Archangel St. Michael,
be in life and in death
my faithful protector.

30. The idea of ​​some revenge never crossed my mind: I prayed for the disparagers and I pray. If ever I have sometimes said to the Lord: "Lord, if to convert them you need a boost, from the pure, as long as they are saved."

October

1. When you recite the Rosary after the Glory you say: «Saint Joseph, pray for us!».

2. Walk with simplicity in the way of the Lord and do not torment your spirit. You must hate your faults but with a quiet hatred and not already annoying and restless; it is necessary to have patience with them and take advantage of them by means of a holy lowering. In the absence of such patience, my good daughters, your imperfections, instead of diminishing, grow more and more, since there is nothing that nourishes both our shortcomings as much as the restlessness and the concern to want to remove them.

3. Beware of anxieties and anxieties, because there is nothing that most hinders walking in perfection. Place, my daughter, gently your heart in the wounds of our Lord, but not by force of arms. Have great confidence in his mercy and goodness, that he will never abandon you, but do not let him embrace his holy cross for this.

4. Do not worry when you cannot meditate, cannot communicate and cannot attend to all devout practices. In this meantime, try to make up for it differently by keeping yourself united with our Lord with a loving will, with prayer prayers, with spiritual communion.

5. Dispel perplexities and anxieties once and for all and enjoy the sweetest pains of the Beloved in peace.

6. In the Rosary, Our Lady prays with us.

7. Love the Madonna. Recite the Rosary. Recite it well.

8. I really feel my heart crashing in feeling your sufferings, and I don't know what I would do to see you relieved. But why are you so upset? why do you crave? And away, my daughter, I have never seen you give so many jewels to Jesus as now. Never have I seen you so dear to Jesus as now. So what are you afraid of and trembling about? Your fear and trembling is similar to that of a child who is in his mother's arms. So yours is foolish and useless fear.

9. In particular, I have nothing to try again in you, apart from this somewhat bitter agitation in you, which does not make you taste all the sweetness of the cross. Make amends for this and continue to do as you have done up to now.

10. Then please do not worry about what I am going and I will be suffering, because suffering, however great it is, faced with the good that awaits us, is delightful for the soul.

11. As for your spirit, keep calm and entrust your whole self to Jesus more and more. Strive to conform yourself always and in all to the divine will, both in favorable and adverse things, and do not be solicitous for tomorrow.

12. Do not fear on your spirit: they are jokes, predilections and tests of the celestial Spouse, who wants to assimilate you to him. Jesus looks at the dispositions and the good wishes of your soul, which are excellent, and he accepts and rewards, and not your impossibility and incapacity. So don't worry.

13. Do not tire yourself around things that generate solicitude, disturbances and worries. Only one thing is necessary: ​​lift the spirit and love God.

14. You worry, my good daughter, to seek the highest Good. But, in truth, it is within you and it keeps you stretched out on the naked cross, breathing strength to sustain unsustainable martyrdom and love to love bitterly Love. So the fear of seeing him lost and disgusted without realizing it is as vain as he is close and close to you. The anxiety of the future is equally vain, since the present state is a crucifixion of love.

15. Poor unfortunate those souls who throw themselves into the whirlwind of worldly concerns; the more they love the world, the more their passions multiply, the more their desires ignite, the more incapable they find themselves in their plans; and here are the anxieties, the impatiences, the terrible shocks that break their hearts, which do not palpate with charity and holy love.
Let us pray for these wretched, miserable souls that Jesus will forgive and draw them with his infinite mercy to himself.

16. You don't have to act violently, if you don't want to take the risk of making money. It is necessary to put on great Christian prudence.

17. Remember, O children, that I am an enemy of unnecessary desires, no less than that of dangerous and evil desires, for although what is desired is good, nevertheless desire is always defective in regard to us, especially when it is mixed with overwhelming concern, since God does not demand this good, but another in which he wants us to practice.

18. As for the spiritual trials, to which the paternal goodness of the heavenly Father is subjecting you, I beg you to be resigned and possibly quiet to the assurances of those who hold the place of God, in which he loves you and desires you every good and in which name speaks to you.
You suffer, it is true, but resigned; suffer, but do not fear, because God is with you and you do not offend him, but love him; you suffer, but also believe that Jesus himself suffers in you and for you and with you. Jesus did not abandon you when you ran away from him, much less will abandon you now, and later on, that you want to love him.
God can reject everything in a creature, because everything tastes of corruption, but he can never reject in it the sincere desire to want to love him. So if you don't want to convince yourself and be sure of heavenly pity for other reasons, you must at least make sure of that and be calm and happy.

19. Nor should you confuse yourself with knowing whether you allowed or not. Your study and vigilance are directed towards the rectitude of intention that you must keep in operating and always fighting the evil arts of the bad spirit valiantly and generously.

20. Always be cheerfully at peace with your conscience, reflecting that you are at the service of an infinitely good Father, who by tenderness alone descends to his creature, to elevate it and transform it into him its creator.
And flee the sadness, because it enters the hearts that are attached to the things of the world.

21. We must not be discouraged, because if there is a continuous effort to improve in the soul, in the end the Lord rewards her by making all the virtues bloom in her suddenly as in a flower garden.

22. The Rosary and the Eucharist are two wonderful gifts.

23. Savio praises the strong woman: "His fingers, he says, handle the spindle" (Prv 31,19).
I will gladly tell you something above these words. Your knees are the accumulation of your desires; spin, therefore, every day a little, pull your designs wire by wire until the execution and you will infallibly come to the head; but warn not to hurry, because you would twist the thread with knots and cheat your spindle. Walk, therefore, always and, although you will go slowly forward, you will make a great journey.

24. Anxiety is one of the greatest traitors that true virtue and firm devotion can ever have; it pretends to warm up to the good to operate, but it does not do so, only to cool down, and makes us run only to make us stumble; and for this reason one must beware of it on every occasion, particularly in prayer; and in order to do it better, it will be good to remember that the graces and tastes of prayer are not waters of the earth but of the sky, and that therefore all our efforts are not enough to make them fall, although it is necessary to arrange oneself with great diligence yes, always humble and calm: you must keep your heart open to the sky, and wait for the heavenly dew beyond.

25. We keep what the divine Master says well carved in our mind: in our patience we will possess our soul.

26. Do not lose courage if you have to work hard and collect little (...).
If you thought how much a single soul costs Jesus, you would not complain.

27. The spirit of God is a spirit of peace, and even in the most serious shortcomings it makes us feel a peaceful, humble, confident pain, and this depends precisely on his mercy.
The spirit of the devil, on the other hand, excites, exasperates and makes us feel, in the same pain, almost anger against ourselves, while instead we must use the first charity precisely towards ourselves.
So if some thoughts agitate you, think that this agitation never comes from God, who gives you tranquility, being a spirit of peace, but from the devil.

28. The struggle that precedes the good work that is intended to be done is like the antiphon that precedes the solemn psalm to be sung.

29. The momentum of being in eternal peace is good, it is holy; but we must moderate it with the complete resignation to the divine wills: it is better to do the divine will on earth than to enjoy paradise. "To suffer and not to die" was the motto of Saint Teresa. Purgatory is sweet when you are sorry for God's sake.

30. Patience is more perfect as it is less mixed with concern and disturbance. If the good Lord wants to prolong the hour of testing, do not want to complain and investigate why, but always keep in mind this that the children of Israel traveled forty years in the desert before setting foot in the promised land.

31. Love the Madonna. Recite the Rosary. May the blessed Mother of God reign supreme over your hearts.

NOVEMBER

1. Duty before anything else, even holy.

2. My children, being like this, without being able to perform one's duty, is useless; it is better that I die!

3. One day his son asked him: How can I, Father, increase love?
Answer: By doing one's duties with exactness and righteousness of intention, observing the law of the Lord. If you do this with perseverance and perseverance, you will grow in love.

4. My children, Mass and Rosary!

5. Daughter, to strive for perfection one must pay the greatest attention to act in everything to please God and try to avoid the smallest defects; do your duty and all the rest with more generosity.

6. Think about what you write, because the Lord will ask you for it. Be careful, journalist! The Lord give you the satisfactions you desire for your ministry.

7. You too - doctors - came into the world, as I came, with a mission to accomplish. Mind you: I speak of duties at a time when everyone talks about rights ... You have the mission of treating the sick; but if you don't bring love to the patient's bed, I don't think drugs are of much use ... Love cannot do without speech. How could you express it if not in words that lift the sick spiritually? ... Bring God to the sick; will be worth more than any other cure.

8. Be like little spiritual bees, who carry nothing but honey and wax in their hive. May your home be full of sweetness, peace, concord, humility and pity for your conversation.

9. Make Christian use of your money and your savings, and then so much misery will disappear and so many aching bodies and so many afflicted beings will find relief and comfort.

10. Not only do I not find fault that in returning to Casacalenda you return visits to your acquaintances, but I find it very necessary. Piety is useful for everything and adapts to everything, depending on the circumstances, less than what you call sin. Feel free to return the visits and you will also receive the obedience prize and the blessing of the Lord.

11. I see that all seasons of the year are found in your souls; that sometimes you feel the winter of many sterility, distractions, listlessness and boredom; now the dew of the month of May with the smell of the holy florets; now the heats of desire to please our divine Bridegroom. Therefore, there remains only the autumn of which you do not see much fruit; however, it is often necessary that at the time of beating the beans and pressing the grapes, there are larger collections than those promised to be reaped and harvested. You would like everything to be in spring and summer; but no, my beloved daughters, it must be this vicissitude both inside and outside.
In the sky everything will be of spring as for beauty, all of autumn as for enjoyment, all in summer as for love. There will be no winter; but here winter is necessary for the exercise of self-denial and of a thousand small but beautiful virtues which are exercised in the time of sterility.

12. I beg you, my dear children, for the love of God, do not fear God because he does not want to hurt anyone; love him very much because he wants to do you great good. Simply walk with confidence in your resolutions, and reject the reflections of spirit that you make over your evils as cruel temptations.

13. Be, my beloved daughters, all resigned in the hands of our Lord, giving him the rest of your years, and always beg him to use them to make use of them in that fate of life that he will most like. Do not worry your heart with vain promises of tranquility, taste and merits; but present to your divine Bridegroom your hearts, all empty of any other affection but not of his chaste love, and implore him to fill him purely and simply with the movements, desires and wills that are of his (love) so that your heart, as a mother of pearl, conceive only with the dew of heaven and not with the water of the world; and you will see that God will help you and that you will do much, both in choosing and in performing.

14. The Lord bless you and make the family's yoke less heavy. Always be good. Remember that marriage brings difficult duties that only divine grace can make easy. You always deserve this grace and the Lord will keep you until the third and fourth generation.

15. Be a deeply convinced soul in your family, smiling in the self-sacrifice and constant immolation of your whole self.

16. Nothing more nauseating than a woman, especially if she is a bride, light, frivolous and haughty.
The Christian bride must be a woman of firm pity towards God, an angel of peace in the family, dignified and pleasant towards others.

17. God gave me my poor sister and God took it from me. Blessed be his holy name. In these exclamations and in this resignation I find the sufficient strength not to succumb under the weight of pain. To this resignation in the divine will I also urge you and you will find, like me, the relief of pain.

18. May the blessing of God be your escort, support and guide! Start a Christian family if you want some peace in this life. The Lord give you children and then the grace to direct them on the way to heaven.

19. Courage, courage, children are not nails!

20. Comfort then, good lady, comfort yourselves, since the hand of the Lord to support you has not been shortened. Oh! yes, he is the Father of all, but in a most singular way he is for the unhappy, and in a much more singular way he is for you who are a widow, and a widow mother.

21. Throw in God only your every concern, since he takes great care of you and of those three little angels of children with whom he wanted you to be adorned. These children will be there for their conduct, comfort and consolation throughout their lives. Always be solicitous for their education, not so much scientific as moral. Everything is close to your heart and have it dearer than the pupil of your eye. By educating the mind, through good studies, make sure that the education of the heart and of our holy religion should always be coupled; the one without this, my good lady, gives a mortal wound to the human heart.

22. Why evil in the world?
«It is good to hear ... There is a mother who is embroidering. Her son, seated on a low stool, sees her work; but upside down. He sees the knots of the embroidery, the confused threads ... And he says: "Mommy can you know what you are doing? Is your job so unclear ?! "
Then mom lowers the chassis, and shows the good part of the job. Each color is in its place and the variety of threads is composed in the harmony of the design.
Here, we see the reverse side of the embroidery. We are sitting on the low stool ».

23. I hate sin! Fortunate our country, if it, mother of law, wanted to perfect its laws and customs in this sense in the light of honesty and Christian principles.

24. The Lord shows and calls; but you don't want to see and respond, because you like your interests.
It also happens, at times, by the fact that the voice has always been heard, that it is no longer heard; but the Lord illuminates and calls. They are the men who put themselves in the position of not being able to hear anymore.

25. There are such sublime joys and such profound pains that the word could hardly express. Silence is the last device of the soul, in ineffable happiness as in supreme pressure.

26. It is better to tame with sufferings, which Jesus will like to send you.
Jesus, who cannot suffer for long to keep you in affliction, will come to solicit and comfort you by instilling new spirit into your spirit.

27. All human conceptions, wherever they come from, have the good and the bad, one must know how to assimilate and take all the good and offer it to God, and eliminate the bad.

28. Ah! That it is a great grace, my good daughter, to begin to serve this good God while the flourishing of age makes us susceptible to any impression! Oh !, how the gift is appreciated, when the flowers are offered with the first fruits of the tree.
And what could ever keep you from making a total offer of yourself to the good God by deciding once and for all to kick the world, the devil and the flesh, what our godparents did so resolutely for us baptism? Doesn't the Lord deserve this sacrifice from you?

29. In these days (of the novena of the Immaculate Conception), let us pray more!

30. Remember that God is in us when we are in a state of grace, and outside, so to speak, when we are in a state of sin; but his angel never abandons us ...
He is our most sincere and confident friend when we are not wrong to sadden him with our misconduct.

December

1. Forget it, son, let publish what you want. I fear the judgment of God and not that of men. Only sin frightens us because it offends God and dishonors us.

2. Divine goodness not only does not reject repentant souls, but also seeks obstinate souls.

3. When you are in abjection, do as the halcions that nest on the antennas of ships, that is, rise from the earth, rise in thought and heart to God, who is the only one who can console you and give you strength to stand the test in a holy way.

4. Your kingdom is not far away and you make us participate in your triumph on earth and then participate in your kingdom in heaven. Grant that, not being able to contain the communication of your charity, we preach your divine royalty by example and works. Take possession of our hearts over time to possess them in eternity. That we never take off from under your scepter, neither life nor death is worth separating from you. Let life be life drawn from you in large sips of love to spread on humanity and make us die at every moment to live only on you and spread you in our hearts.

5. We do good, while we have time at our disposal, and we will give glory to our Heavenly Father, we will sanctify ourselves and set a good example for others.

6. When you cannot walk with great strides on the way that leads to God, content yourself with small steps and wait patiently for you to have legs to run, or rather wings to fly. Happy, my good daughter, to be for now a small nest bee that will soon become a great bee capable of making honey.

7. Humble yourselves lovingly before God and men, because God speaks to those who keep their ears low. Be a lover of silence, because talking a lot is never without fault. Keep in retreat as much as possible, because in the retreat the Lord speaks freely to the soul and the soul is more able to listen to his voice. Decrease your visits and endure them in a Christian way when they are made to you.

8. God serves himself only when he serves as he wishes.

9. Thank and gently kiss the hand of God that strikes you; it is always the hand of a father who strikes you because he loves you.

10. Before Mass, pray to Our Lady!

11. Prepare well for Mass.

12. Fright is an evil worse than the evil itself.

13. Doubting is the greatest insult to divinity.

14. Those who attach themselves to the earth remain attached to it. It is better to break away a little at a time, rather than everything once. We always think of the sky.

15. It is by means of evidence that God binds souls to him beloved.

16. Fear of losing you in the arms of divine goodness is more curious than the fear of the child held in the maternal arms.

17. Come on, my beloved daughter, we must carefully cultivate this well-formed heart, and do not spare anything that can be useful to his happiness; and, although in every season, that is, in every age, this can and must be done, this, however, in which you are, is the most suitable.

18. About your reading there is little to admire and almost nothing to edify. It is absolutely necessary that you add to similar readings that of the Holy Books (Sacred Scripture), so much recommended by all the holy fathers. And I cannot exempt you from these spiritual readings, taking too much care of your perfection. It is better for you to lay aside the prejudice you have (if you want to derive the much unexpected fruit from such readings) about the style and form in which these Books are exhibited. Make an effort to do this and commend it to the Lord. There is a serious deception in this and I cannot hide it from you.

19. All the feasts of the Church are beautiful… Easter, yes, it is glorification… but Christmas has a tenderness, a childlike sweetness that takes my whole heart.

20. Your tendernesses conquer my heart and I am taken by your love, O celestial Child. Let my soul melt out of love with your fire, and your fire consumes me, burns me, incinerates me here at your feet and remains liquefied for love and magnifies your goodness and your charity.

21. Mother my Mary, lead me with you to the cave of Bethlehem and make me sink into the contemplation of what is great and sublime to unfold in the silence of this great and beautiful night.

22. Baby Jesus, be the star to guide you along the desert of present life.

23. Poverty, humility, abjection, contempt surround the Word made flesh; but we from the darkness in which this Word made flesh is wrapped understand one thing, hear a voice, glimpse a sublime truth. You did all this out of love, and you invite us only to love, you only speak to us of love, you only give us proof of love.

24. Your zeal is not bitter, is not fussy; but be free from all defects; be sweet, kind, graceful, peaceful and uplifting. Ah, who does not see, my good daughter, the dear little Child of Bethlehem, for the advent of which we are preparing, who does not see, I say, that his love for souls is incomparable? He comes to die in order to save, and he is so humble, so sweet and so lovable.

25. Live cheerful and courageous, at least in the upper part of the soul, in the midst of the trials in which the Lord places you. Live cheerful and courageous, I repeat, because the angel, who predicts the birth of our little Savior and Lord, announces by singing and sings announcing that he publishes joy, peace and happiness to men of good will, so that there is none who do not. know that, to receive this Child, it is enough to be of good will.

26. From birth Jesus points out to us our mission, which is to despise what the world loves and seeks.

27. Jesus calls the poor and simple shepherds by means of the angels to manifest himself to them. Call the wise by their own science. And all, moved by the interior influence of his grace, run to him to adore him. He calls all of us with divine inspirations and communicates himself to us with his grace. How many times has he lovingly invited us too? And how quickly did we respond to him? My God, I blush and feel full of confusion in having to answer such a question.

28. The worldly, engulfed in their affairs, live in darkness and error, neither bothered to know the things of God, nor any thought of their eternal salvation, nor any concern to know the coming of that long-awaited Messiah and longed for by the people, prophesied and foretold by the prophets.

29. Once our last hour has struck, the beating of our hearts having ceased, everything will be over for us, and the time to deserve and also the time to demeritate.
Such as death will find us, we will present ourselves to Christ the judge. Our cries of supplication, our tears, our sighs of repentance, which still on earth would have earned us the heart of God, could have made us, with the help of the sacraments, from sinners of the saints, today more to nothing are worth; the time of mercy has passed, now the time of justice begins.

30. Find Time to Pray!

31. The palm of glory is reserved only for those who fight bravely to the end. Let us therefore begin our holy fight this year. God will assist us and crown us with eternal triumph.