PADRE PIO: "I BELONG TO EVERYONE"

My great friend of many years, Jeanette Salerno has left this splendid review. I am quite bowled over, especially since Jeanette met Padre Pio in the 1960s and spent time with him. 

"Mary O'Regan's new book Padre Pio and You is a stunning life of St. Padre Pio in fascinating detail, I have read many books about Padre Pio since the very early sixties and thought everything about him had been mined. And yet, reading Mary O'Regan's book, a new door opens. People and happenings spring to new, vivid life and meaning. First, her Introduction on how she came to know Padre Pio - a personal, mystical meeting with him when she was fourteen. He told her "I am waiting for you." The incident haunted her and transformed her and eventually led to her mystical understanding that she had become a spiritual daughter of Padre Pio, a disciple, researching Pio to the depth over the years. The result: this beautifully written book flows like silk as she tells of Pio's incredible life, and brings attention to the spiritual lessons to be gained from his life, his holiness, his teachings - the parables of Padre Pio. 

It's all in the book; the drama of the stigmata, the miracles, bilocations, charisms, the hospital he built, the prayer groups he started, the conversions, the persecutions he endured, the betrayals. the uprising, the sorrows, the legends, a bounty of astounding stories. One comes to see how through his profound holiness he was able to bear it all. There is so much in one great life filled with a cast of characters you fall in love with - except for the bad boys. 

A very fast read as you easily keep up. Through all this Padre Pio's world was people. They came to see him in the thousands...Souls to be saved, that was the mission, tirelessly, day after day, They loved him. What would they do without him? He answered: his real mission would begin when he is gone . He could help us more from Heaven. He also famously said and wrote "I belong to everyone." and it is reasonable to deduce that he is waiting for us to call on him...The door is open. The title of Mary O'Regan's book is the welcoming. And so we might say that we, here and now and hereafter, are Padre Pio's "real mission.." Highly recommended."

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The image accompanying this post was obtained here. You may buy your copy of Padre Pio and You from the Sophia Press website.