San Pio of Pietrelcina: "Love is the first ingredient in the relief of suffering"

Texts for use in celebrating the Mass in honor of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina

Our Holy Father Benedict teaches, "No suffering, no love".

What the world considers foolishness, the followers of Christ call wisdom. Saint Pio lived the wisdom of suffering and lived the message of Christ's love.

"The life of a Christian is nothing but a perpetual struggle against self; there is no flowering of the soul to the beauty of its perfection except at the price of pain."

-- San Pio

"Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart."

-- Ps 90

"Let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice." Although man can forget God or reject him, He never ceases to call every man to seek him, so as to find life and happiness. But this search for God demands of man every effort of intellect, a sound will, "an upright heart", as well as the witness of others who teach him to seek God.

You are great, O Lord, and greatly to be praised: great is your power and your wisdom is without measure. And man, so small a part of your creation, wants to praise you: this man, though clothed with mortality and bearing the evidence of sin and the proof that you withstand the proud. Despite everything, man, though but a small a part of your creation, wants to praise you. You yourself encourage him to delight in your praise, for you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.

-- CCC 30

From Zenit, the Secret Story of Padre Pio's Stigmata.