It was with good reason that Padre Pio’s Mass drew huge crowds, according to Fr Francesco Napolitano
Padre Pio’s life on earth was in perpetual union with God; all of his letters give valid evidence of this.
In a letter written to his spiritual director, Fr Benedetto of San Marco in Lamis, on September 8, 1911, he expressed himself in this manner: “My heart beats very fast whenever I am with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. It sometimes seems to me that it will leap out of my chest. Sometimes, at the altar, I feel as if my whole being were on fire; I cannot describe it to you. My face, especially, seems to want to go up in flames.”
In another letter to Fr Agostino of San Marco in Lamis, written on March 12, 1912, he wrote: “I have a great desire in my heart to tell you so many things, all about Jesus; but I don’t know how to express myself, and my eyesight is failing.
“Yesterday, on the feast of St Joseph, only God knows how much happiness I experienced, especially after Mass, so much that I still feel it within me. My head and my heart were burning, but it was a fire that was beneficial to me. My mouth felt all the sweetness of the immaculate flesh of the Son of God. Oh! If only at this moment, while I am still feeling it, I could succeed in burying this consolation in my heart, I would certainly be in paradise!
“How happy I am with Jesus! How gentle is his spirit! But I become confused, and can only cry and repeat: Jesus, my nourishment! What afflicts me most is the fact that so much love from Jesus is repaid with ingratitude.
“He always loves me and always holds me close to Him. He has forgotten my sins, and possibly recalls only his mercy…he enters me every morning, and pours into my poor heart all the effusion of his goodness …this Jesus almost always asks me for love. and my heart, rather than my lips, replies: oh, my Jesus, I want…and then I can’t continue. But finally I exclaim: yes, Jesus, I love you; at this moment I believe that I love you, and feel the need to love you more; but, Jesus, I have no more love in my heart. You know that I gave it all to you; if you want more love, take my heart and fill it with your love, and then order me to love you; I shall not refuse. as a matter of fact, I beg you to do it; I desire it.”
Example
Here is a simple example of how a soul in love with God feels; there is no need to ask why. Padre Pio was the faithful friend of Jesus; his meeting with his divine friend took place every morning at dawn, at the altar; the meeting was visible to everyone who attended his Mass.
For such occasions he thought it necessary to prepare himself for several hours, in order to be worthy. In order to celebrate Holy Mass at dawn, and spend several hours in spiritual preparation before Mass, he would spend the night meditating on the great miracles which, through his priestly powers, would soon be in his wounded hands.
The friars who were close to him can testify to the hours he spent in pious recollection, while they themselves were struggling to stay awake.
The desire to have Christ in his hands was always agonising, and only the sight of the altar would placate him.
He never failed to cry when he celebrated the divine Sacrifice.
The thousands of pilgrims who came to San Giovanni Rotondo during the 50 years of Padre Pio’s priestly life, and had the privilege of participating in one of his Masses in the Sanctuary of Santa Maria delle Grazie, were witnesses to the uniqueness of the celebration.
“A Mass that I shall never forget,” wrote C. Cree. “I attended many of Padre Pio’s Masses,” wrote Maria Winowska, “but no two were alike. Certainly the Padre was rigorously faithful to the rubric, and his manner was marvellously sober; nevertheless, it was clear that he was not alone in the process. Some sort of presence surrounded, seconded, and hindered him.
“One Friday I saw him breathless and oppressed, brusquely shaking his head, struggling in vain to get rid of an obstacle which was preventing him from pronouncing the words of the consecration. it was like a hand-to-hand battle in which he was the victor, but which exhausted him.
“At other times, from the ‘Sanctus’ on, large drops of sweat ran down his forehead wetting his face which was tearfully contracted.”
On Mount Gargano, which was sanctified by his presence, Padre Pio renewed the Sacrifice of Golgotha every morning at five o’clock; there he offered himself as a victim, a sacrifice for poor sinners.
As soon as the doors of the church opened, around four o’clock, there was a terrible commotion to get to the altar where the Padre was to celebrate Mass; everyone wanted to be as close as possible. Then, as soon as Padre Pio could be seen in the doorway of the sacristy, a veil of silence, of divine mystery, immediately fell upon the faithful, creating an air of profound meditation, a heavenly sensation.
As a rule, his Mass lasted about an hour, but no one tired of attending, nor was anyone bored or distracted. it was the best time to amend one’s own faults before God.
The greatness of Padre Pio’s Mass lay in the knowledge that Jesus Christ performed his works through the wounded hands of a man.
After reading what took place on the altar, one might suppose that Padre Pio was selfishly wrapped up in his celestial joy, but in reality he was always close to his spiritual children, making their worries and sorrows his own.
One day, a woman whose husband was ill, came to San Giovanni Rotondo asking that he be cured through the intercession of the celebrated stigmatist. All through the Mass she did nothing but change seats, eager to be first in line to place her petition. Every attempt was in vain, so the poor woman rejected the idea of giving Padre Pio her petition as he passed, in favour of seeing him in the confessional. Holding onto this ray of hope, she entered the sacristy, only to find it very crowded. reluctantly, she wondered if it was time to give up.
All at once Padre Pio appeared in the doorway, and all the women rushed forward to be able to kiss his wounded hand. Making his way through the crowd, the Padre approached the poor, tearful woman, and in a voice that was half joking, half severe, he said to her, “My dear, when will you stop moving about from left to right, constantly buzzing in my ear … do you think I’m deaf? You have already asked me five times. I have understood. Go home and everything will be all right.”
We can therefore hazard to say that although Padre Pio appeared to be ‘heavenly self-centred’, he never failed to notice those who needed his assistance, even when they were at a distance.
*****
Padre Pio had a great influence on priests who came to San Giovanni Rotondo and attended his Mass; many of them recaptured their fervour through the merits of Padre Pio, and are today saintly priests and great apostles.
One such priest wrote to the magazine Epoca on September 20, 1968: “I am a priest who, years ago, went to Padre Pio in the company of a man who was seeking a cure. I was delighted to have the opportunity of studying the mystery of the friar … I shall say immediately that I wasn’t able to prove anything.
‘The sick man whom I accompanied was not cured; I smelled no perfume, nor did I have any visions. Moreover, when I went to confession, Padre Pio did not lift any mysterious veil from my soul. For me, he was nothing more than a good confessor, very much like all the others, I would say … and yet, there was something unusual.
“For many days I attended Padre Pio’s Mass, and for me, it was everything. I listened to the Mass from the upper balcony, at the side of the altar, missing neither a gesture nor an expression.
“I had already celebrated thousands of Masses, but in those moments, I must confess, I felt like a poor specimen of a priest, because Padre Pio truly spoke with God during every moment of the Mass; I should say that like Abraham, he struggled with God. God was present in his Mass, and not just in the eucharist, as in my Mass.
“Thus, in San Giovanni Rotondo I found a priest who truly and intensively loved God, in suffering and in prayer, loved him to the point of agony. a true saint!
“I don’t know whether Padre Pio has ever performed any miracles; I only know that such a man could perform hundreds of them.”
*****
Another priest, Fr Domenico Mondrone, a Jesuit, wrote in the magazine La Civiltà Cattolica: “Anyone who has ever attended Padre Pio’s famous Mass, will never forget it; one had the vivid impression of seeing time and distance,between the altar and calvary, annihilated.
“When the divine Host was raised by those hands, the mystical union between the offering priest and the eternal Priest was rendered more sensitive to the eyes of the faithful. At the sight of this, even the curiosity-seekers were profoundly touched.”
It can be said that the celebration of Padre Pio’s Mass literally upset the course of his, and everyone else’s existence. It had polarised the attention of the world; it had even regulated the bus schedule, and the schedules of the hotels. everyone was practically convinced that Padre Pio’s Mass was such an exceptional event that it could not be repeated.
That is why Nino Salvaneschi, an Italian writer, wrote this marvellous page on Padre Pio’s Mass in his book Breviary of Happiness: “Never has any man of Christ manifested greater simplicity in his imitation of Christ praying in Galilee. His face pale, his eyes half closed, as if he were seeing a sharp ray or light, Padre Pio said his Mass at that simple and almost coarse altar, in an atmosphere that transcended this life; he seemed to belong to a humanity that was superior to ours. Gathered around him were the crowds of San Giovanni Rotondo who sounded like the murmuring sea, agitated by the south-west wind.
“Waves of people push forward to the altar, up to the three steps where, many times, various bishops knelt to serve Mass. and the crowd encircled the altar of the mystical Mass, like an immense rosary of suffering humanity…and this was the Mass that Padre Pio said for the people of Puglie, a region scorched by the sun and battered by the Adriatic wind; it was also the Mass that he said for the crowds that came from distant places, from the cities of Europe, from America…Certainly that man was truly with God when he celebrated Mass.”
At Padre Pio’s Mass, there are those who cry, those who suffer, those who pray rapturously, and those who, by means of an unforeseen divine light, come to know their sins and visibly repent. The early morning vigil causes no fatigue; worldly things are forgotten. Time flies because everyone is united to the celebrant. With Christ crucified, they offer, they love, they adore.
Meanwhile, as Padre Pio retires, everyone’s knees seem to be nailed to the floor.
Early years
In the early years, Padre Pio began his Mass at noon, immediately after hearing the women’s confessions. Later, because of a prohibition for a period of time, he was obliged to celebrate Mass in the private chapel of the friary. And there it seemed even two hours were insufficient for his Mass. In his later years, he always celebrated Mass at five o’clock in the morning.
Three years before Padre Pio’s death, the chronicles of the friary made the following notation: “On September 20, 1965, Padre Pio got up about one o’clock in the morning, made his preparation for Mass, went down into the sacristy about 10 minutes to four…when the time arrives that he can celebrate Holy Mass, he can no longer endure it. The thought of the Mass is a constant disturbance; sometimes when he wakes up during the night, he asks the time, or whether it is time to celebrate Mass.
“Even during an illness, when, for a few days he was unable to go downstairs to celebrate Mass, he wanted to receive Holy Communion as quickly as possible, even before 4am. He became calm only after receiving Communion.”
On March 29, 1911, Padre Pio wrote to Fr Benedetto: “I have such a hunger and thirst to receive Jesus, I could die of anxiety. Because I cannot bear not to be united with him, I am often obliged to receive His flesh when I have a fever.”
This ardent desire, born of faith, which sustained and confirmed him, benefited those for whom he obtained graces, especially his spiritual children, and all the pilgrims who came to see him.
On the altar of Santa Maria delle Grazie, the pilgrims saw the miracle of living faith, since Padre Pio “impelled by freewill and grace, firmly substantiated the revealed truth”.
Extract from Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, published by Columba Press.