PADRE PIO ON HOW YOU MAY GET THE DESIRE FOR CHRISTIAN PERFECTION
At the time, Pio had time on his hands, he was nestled in his home village and was unknown to the masses so he did not have hordes of people to see everyday, and he could write at length. This was before he became a holy celebrity, and he lavished attention on Raffaelina, a woman living like a cloistered nun some 77 miles from him.
Pio was a very smart man, of high intelligence, something that does not often get mentioned because his mysticism is so fascinating it makes talk of his IQ seem boring. But Raffaelina was also highly intelligent, and he treated her as his equal intellectually. He did not hold back from giving her the richest meat of spiritual guidance, while for his other spiritual daughters who were much less sophisticated minds, he gave them sweet milk. Raffaelina's high intelligence could mean she was prone to certain faults and deflections, in ways that did not always beset the other spiritual daughters. In an early letter to Pio, Raffaelina showed herself envious of the spiritual development of others (notably her sister). She found ways to belittle and diminish great pious offerings to Our Lord in clever ways. So Pio rebuked Raffaelina in the strongest terms for her envy of the generous sacrifices others made to God.
Raffaelina had conquered her problem with envy by the time Pio sent her this particular letter which is really is a blueprint as to how to be flawless in the eyes of Our Lord.
Yet, to put into practice the advice Pio gives is hard work and firstly there is some effort required on the part of our minds to learn the truths and discern which of them are most necessary for us so that we may do what is best of our souls. So many of us feel sluggish of soul. I know that I, for one, have yet to study this letter much more thoroughly. I read it first and took what I needed to curb my vices, but now I need to re-study it so that I may grasp the dangers that Pio said surround vices that are not mine such as anger (I am very slow to anger, that makes me quite abnormal as an Irish person).
It is easy to feel beaten back, and before we do all we can to have Christian perfection, we need the desire for it, the urgency to strive for perfection. Also, you and I may want that our loved ones want Christian perfection, but we acknowledge that first they need motivation in their wills. And how do you and I make our actions immune from sin which is the ultimate impediment to Christian perfection?
Thankfully, Pio revealed how you and I may feel continually motivated and how we may avoid sin: we need do all in the Holy Name and give thanks to God through the Name of Jesus. First Pio reminded Raffaelina of Colossians 3:17 "Let us listen to the apostle's teaching, Whatever you do, he says, in word or deed, do everything in the Name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him", and then Pio instructed her, "By the faithful use of this simple means we do not merely keep far from any sin, but feel the continual urge to aim constantly at perfection."
"This simple means" is how Pio described the mode by which you and I say and do everything in the Name of Jesus so we may "keep far from any sin" and be endowed with the desire for impeccability of soul.
The immediate gift is that it takes Christian perfection, which appears so arduous, so seemingly Sysiphean, and makes it possible when you and I allow our souls to use the power of the Name of Jesus to spur us heavenwards.
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The letter that is the subject of this post was written on November 16, 1914 and is found in Volume II of the letters of Padre Pio.
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