Day 1 — Love

Words of Padre Pio

"Get used to the sufferings Jesus sends you. Jesus, who cannot bear to see you suffer, will come to seek you and comfort you, breathing new courage into your spirit."

Meditation

What led Christ to offer himself for our sins was love. Only love can lead us to give eternal thanks for so much unmerited suffering. Padre Pio understood this love and wished, humbly, to be another Christ to appease divine wrath. God the Father "gifted" him the very suffering of Jesus Christ to atone for the faults of sinners, and he answered with love: "Never forget: the axis of perfection is love. Whoever is centered on love lives in God, for God is Love."

Prayer of the Day

O glorious Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, you who from childhood loved recollection and prayer, so that you never had enough time to pray, awaken our soul drowsy in worldly lukewarmness and grant us the beauty and taste of converse with God! O Lord, in imitation of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, set our hearts on fire with love for You! Amen.

Prayer to Saint Pio of Pietrelcina (for all days)

Most beloved Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, you who bore on your body the stigmata of Our God Jesus Christ; you who also bore the cross for all of us, enduring the physical and moral sufferings that lashed your soul and body in a painful martyrdom: we beg you to intercede with almighty God that each of us may know how to accept the small and great crosses of life, transforming every suffering into a sure bond that binds us to eternal life.

(Our Father, Hail Mary, and Gloria.)