PADRE PIO ON HOW TO CULTIVATE TRUE HUMILITY

The very insightful Dr. Tom Curran and I had a rich discussion on Padre Pio, and I shared Padre Pio's method for developing humility, which I included in Padre Pio and You.

Once Pio had a blunt conversation with another priest, a certain Padre Giovanni, whom Pio admonished, “Pride oozes from every pore of your body.” 

Giovanni was a natural-born leader and a gifted public speaker, but because he was such a great preacher, he was prone to arrogance. When Pio told Giovanni he was full of pride, Giovanni laughed, but he asked how Pio stayed humble. 

First Pio illuminated the true value of humility, “Humility is truth” and then he explained how he kept pride at bay: “I don’t know how the Lord made me, but I feel I should have to try much harder to make an act of pride than an act of humility. Because humility is truth and the truth is that I am nothing and all that is good in me is of God.”

This line of Pio’s spoken to a fellow friar ought tell us that who we are all that is good in us comes from God. 

But Pio went on to say that his being surrounded by thirsty souls was the process by which he remained humble. “When I see so many people coming to me with requests, I don’t think about what I am able to give but what I am unable to give, so that many souls remain parched with thirst because I have not been able to give them the gift of God.” 

To imitate Pio and his humility, we may think of what we cannot give others, while being grateful not to ourselves but to God for the good we are able to give, because all the goodness which we may share comes from Him. 

Pio admonished Fr. Giovanni because he was too tough on other friars, and Pio instructed him, “Even in reprimanding you could combine reproof with politeness and mildness.” And Pio recommended to Giovanni that he grace his sermons with more love. 

Feel free to leave a comment on your reaction to my conversation with Dr. Tom Curran.