THE AWESOME HOLY MASS OF PADRE PIO

Pio always set his alarm clock for 2:30 or 2:40 a.m. and then he did lengthy preparation. The other friars saw him moving the rosary beads between his fingers as he walked to the sacristy so he could vest. Then a deathly solemnity overcame him because on that altar, Pio was about to be crucified and die mystically. After he had hung the sacred vestments from his shoulders and as he walked into the chapel, he prayed the Miserere, and in a low voice he begged God for mercy and that he be washed of his sin. With slow, unsteady steps, Pio climbed to the altar as though he were climbing the rock-road to Calvary. 

As with every Mass Pio offered, his true character shone through more so than any other time. Pio read the Epistle and the Gospel extremely calmly; Christ’s peace infused every word that Pio said so delicately. No one could accuse him of being angry, as they so often did. At times his head twitched as though he were being bothered by invisible pests; most likely demonic attack. Pio’s Mass became the cross at Calvary.  Pio defined the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as, “a sacred accomplishment of the Passion of Jesus”. When Pio offered Mass, he was suffering all the physical pain Our Lord suffered on the Cross “I suffer inadequately all that Jesus suffered on the Cross”, but Pio explained it was confined to his human nature, “I suffer…as much as is possible for a human creature”. I am going to draw the most crucial distinction between Christ and Pio: Christ had a dual nature, human and Divine, but Pio had only a human nature. As a human creature, Pio’s agony during Mass was limited to the full capacity a human has for agony. While Padre Pio experienced Christ’s crucifixion in his human nature, Christ experienced the crucifixion in both His Human Nature and in His Divine Nature simultaneously. Pio was not a Divine Person like Christ, so Pio’s agony during Mass was only “as much as is possible” for a human, but he revealed that which sustained Our Lord on the Cross, also sustained him, once Pio was asked, “You are nailed to the Cross for the whole duration of Mass?” Pio replied, “Yes”. When asked how he did not collapse while he offered Mass and suffered a crucifixion, Padre Pio said, “In the same way as Jesus remained upright on the Cross.”  

 

At the Offertory, when Pio offered to God the Father the bread and wine, he had his eyes glued on the crucifix, and looked as still as a statue. Pio’s vestments could be seen to shine as bright as stars. At the consecration, Pio raised the paten and chalice as his sleeves fell and the lesions on his hands could be seen in all their bloodiness and his body contracted painfully, and his teeth could be heard clicking as he ground them in agony. He sobbed and heavy tears fell from his eyes like rainfall. The sacred, shared union between Pio and Christ was consummated; he was a human victim soul who took in his hands the Divine Victim. Tears turned to ecstasy when he elevated the Host, Pio was seen smiling with joy on beholding his Savior. Padre Pio offered his agony in atonement for the sins of mankind. Thus, while Pio was not Divine and not the Savior, he was an instrument in the redemption of souls. It was also at the consecration, that Pio could be seen wearing three braided crowns of thorns on his head, like a large wreath of thorns while blood streamed down his face. When his beloved spiritual daughter, Cleonice Morcaldi asked Pio which sins Jesus paid for with the crown of thorns, Pio answered, “All of them, particularly sinful thoughts.”

 

Padre Pio clarified to Cleonice that everything that happened to him during Mass was none of his own doing, “All of it at no merit of my own and only because of His Goodness”.  While Pio suffered “all” of the sufferings of Christ’s crucifixion proper to his human nature, the graces which came through Pio’s agony came from Christ’s Goodness.  While Pio was given “all” the human sufferings of Our Lord, Pio collaborated by fully accepting all the pain. Pio may have been a mortal man, but he offered up his entire human nature to be filled with pain, this was Pio’s gift and the way he assisted in the work of our salvation. But Pio was not the Cause of our salvation. Jesus was the Cause.  While Pio suffered the same agony in his human flesh as Christ did, Pio was wholly dependent on Our Lord’s Sacrifice for his own salvation. When Pio offered Mass his face was wet with tears, and his face had a heavenly glow.  

 

When he offered the Holy Sacrifice of Mass Padre Pio was experiencing the exact process of being crucified – and he died a mystical death – Pio said as much, “I die mystically during Holy Communion”. You and I might readily think he died of pain, but no, he said his death on the altar was from, “love rather than pain”. Before Pio consumed the Body of Christ, he beat his chest in so self-punishing a way with a violent fierceness and pronounced the words, “Lord, I am not worthy”, with palpable humility. After receiving the Body and Blood of Christ Pio made a bow where he remained for a long time in this submissive posture. He went from being a victim to worshipping the Victim, and he went on his knees to adore the Divine Victim.  He worshipped Our Lord as you and I are meant to do, we are invited to have the same disposition as Pio. When he had rendered sufficient thanks to Our Lord, he cleared the paten and chalice in a forensic way. At the end of Mass when he read the Gospel his voice trembled when he uttered the words, “and the Word was made flesh”.  

We may be tempted to think that it would have been better had we assisted at Pio’s Mass, than at the Mass we may assist at today, but Pio said that “Every Holy Mass, heard with devotion, produces in our souls marvelous effects, abundant spiritual and material graces which we ourselves, do not know.” Taking Pio at his word, every time we assist devoutly at Mass, our soul is enriched with marvels and graces.

I invite you to ask yourself: When Pio offered Mass, did he see you?  I’m completely in earnest. During his life Pio said that every time he offered Mass, he saw “all” of his children, by “all” he meant all the souls God had entrusted to his care. If we take Pio strictly at his word, “all” meant that no soul was left out of this vision, all the souls of his spiritual children who were alive then, and all the souls of his spiritual children yet to be born. I believe Pio saw my soul and may have seen your soul, too. When he was at the altar, Padre Pio was being shown a mystical vision of his spiritual sons and daughters – the souls in Heaven who had not yet come into the world. If you are a spiritual son or daughter of Pio’s, trust he would have seen you. He told Cleonice, “I see all my children who come to the altar, as if in a mirror”. Were you to pray to Pio, he will reveal to you if are one of the souls entrusted to him and if he saw you when he offered Holy Mass.

* * *

A slightly shorter version of this piece appears in Mass of Ages, magazine of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales, and is a foretaste of my forthcoming book, Padre Pio and You.  It looks likely to be published in spring 2025. More details will follow. God bless you all for your patience with me, the book has taken 7 years. In the last 18 months, I rewrote the book and it seems ready to be released.