aeternus

“Pray, hope and don’t worry. Worry is useless. God is merciful and will hear your payer. Prayer is the best weapon we have; it is the key to God’s heart. You must speak to Jesus not only with your lips but with your hear; in fact on certain occasions you should speak to Him only with your heart.”

– Padre Pio

Since we missed St. Pio’s (Padre Pio) feast day (September 23) because it fell on a Sunday, I thought we could still think about him today. It was St. Pio who said, “Prayer is the oxygen of the soul” and so we should remember that when we are feeling a little out of breath due to stress or anxiousness! Indeed, it would be a great virtue to try and take a “few breaths of oxygen” today for those souls who need your help breathing too!

As Padre Pio was so good in reminding us to pray for the souls in purgatory perhaps we can pray for those souls today (well, we really should everyday). The Padre Pio Prayer Group at St. John Cantius Church in Chicago has a beautiful listing of the prayers they recite for the poor souls. Today I have a very special intention to pray for which involves a terrible tragedy and a now orphaned 7 year old boy. I hope that you too may keep his parents and him in prayer as you pray this prayer…

Monday
Father I implore you by the precious blood your divine Son shed in his cruel scourging, deliver the souls in purgatory. Have mercy especially on that soul nearest the entrance into your glory.
Our Father…

Hail Mary…

Glory be…
Eternal rest grant onto them O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.

Amen.

Image above: Philippe Agius - Depiction of Padre Pio Receiving the Stigmata

Stay with me, Lord, for it is necessary to have You present so that I do not forget You. You know how easily I abandon You.

Stay with me, Lord, because I am weak and I need Your strength, that I may not fall so often.

Stay with me, Lord, for You are my life and without You I am without fervor.

Stay with me, Lord, for You are my light and without You I am in darkness.

Stay with me, Lord, to show me Your will.

Stay with me, Lord, so that I hear Your voice and follow You.

Stay with me, Lord, for I desire to love You very much and alway be in Your company.

Stay with me, Lord, if You wish me to be faithful to You.

Stay with me, Lord, as poor as my soul is I want it to be a place of consolation for You, a nest of Love.

Stay with me, Jesus, for it is getting late and the day is coming to a close and life passes, death, judgment and eternity approaches. It is necessary to renew my strenth, so that I will not stop along the way and for that, I need You. It is getting late and death approaches, I fear the darkness, the temptations, the dryness, the cross, the sorrows. O how I need You, my Jesus, in this night of exile!

Stay with me tonight, Jesus, in life with all its dangers, I need You.

Let me recognize You as Your disciples did at the breaking of the bread, so that the Eucharistic Communion be the Light which disperses the darkness, the force which sustains me, the unique joy of my heart.

Stay with me, Lord, because at the hour of my death, I want to remain united to You, if not by Communion, at least by grace and love.

Stay with me, Lord, for it is You alone I look for, Your Love, Your Grace, Your Will, Your Heart, Your Spirit, because I love You and ask no other reward but to love You more and more.

With a firm love, I will love You with all my heart while on earth and continue to love You perfectly during all eternity.

Amen.