Holy Mass and the priesthood of Holy Father Pio of Pietrelcina

pch24.pl 3 weeks ago

Francesco Forgione (1887–1968), better known as Father Pio, is 1 of the most popular and recognizable saints of the Catholic Church. This Capuchin mystic was endowed with many supernatural gifts. These included prophecy, miracle work, bilocation, soul reading, conversion, speaking in unknown languages, and abstinence from sleep and food. In addition, erstwhile Pio was thirty-one years old, the bloody signs of the Lord's Passion appeared on his body, which persisted for more than half a century.

However, the book does not focus on these exceptional phenomena, due to the fact that they were not the essence of the life of the friar of Pietrelcina. It was a Eucharistic and priestly experience (unquestionably the top of miracles!) and it is about it that the publication treats. Although fundamentally addressed to the clergy, it can supply a basis for reflection on the dignity and greatness of the authoritative priesthood for the general faithful.

The author, p. Maria Gabriela Pia, belongs to the Franciscan assembly of the Immaculate. 1 of his 2 founders, Father Stefano Manelli, matured under Father Pio, was his altar boy, and in time became his spiritual son. This alone can service as a advice of this text.

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It is not easy to talk decently of the priesthood of the Holy Father Pio, and there is no pretense to do so in a way that is exhausting in these brief meditations. There are no words to express the magnificence of the mystery in which the Holy 1 of Pietrelcina was so fervently involved, making it full fruitful... But possibly you can summarize it in a fewer words. Father Pio lived full by the grace of the sacrament of ordination, which is simply a participation in the priesthood of Christ, as the Church teaches: “The priesthood, in each of its manifestations, and thus in both bishops and chancers, is simply a participation in the priesthood of Christ, who according to the Letter to the Hebrews is the only “High Priest” of the fresh and eternal Covenant who “sacrifices himself erstwhile and for all” a sacrifice of infinite value, unchanging and timeless in the center of the economics of salvation. The Presbyters carry “the image of Christ, the Most advanced and the Eternal Priest” (LG, 28). Thus, they participate in Christ’s pastoral authority: and this is simply a peculiar feature of their ministry, based on the sacrament of holiness given to them. As we read in the decree Presbyterorum Ordinis, “the priesthood of the Presbyters, assuming the sacraments of Christian initiation, is given by this peculiar sacrament, by which the Presbyters, by virtue of the anointing of the Holy Spirit, are marked with a peculiar character which resembles them to Christ the Priest, so that they may act in the name and individual of Christ, the Head” (PO, 2; CCC, nr. 1563).”

Every priest, marked by the “charact” of the sacrament of holiness, is thus united with Christ and acts in the name of and the individual of Christ. Indeed, if he can consecrated bread and wine, if he can forgive sins, it is only due to the fact that he acts "in the name of Christ and in the individual of the person, Head."

"Character – the Pope continues – is besides a sign and a carrier in the soul of the Presbyter of peculiar graces for the performance of services, connected with the sanctification grace which the Order entails as a sacrament, both at the time of its giving and at the time of its completion and improvement in the ministry. It so includes and incorporates the Presbyter into the economics of sanctification, which service itself entails both to those who exercise it and to those who usage it in various sacraments and in another activities carried out by their shepherds."

In the performance of their ministry, the priest is accompanied by "special favors" which "reveal him and affect him" in the economics of individual sanctification, but besides aim to save and sanctify souls. These graces are divided “in various sacraments and another activities performed by pastoralists”.

In this light the sublime priestly experience of Holy Father Pio can be read as the natural consequence of his full compliance au special favors related to his priestly ordination, with an additional value of peculiar charisms which allowed him to usage these graces to an even greater extent.

Because of this full correspondence and his same - sacrificing attitude, Jesus could make Father Pio his instrument to guide souls to salvation: “The experience of the Cross in the life of the Venerable Brother coincides with his priestly ministry. Indeed, from the minute of his priestly ordination, he manifested his desire to be “a sacrifice” with Christ for the salvation of souls. In a image commemorating the first Holy Mass celebrated in Latin, he wrote the sentence, which in time proved to be his ultimate pursuit, his mission: «Jesus, my sigh and my life, present with trembling I rise you in the mystery of love. With you I am the way to the world, the truth, the life. And to you, Holy Priest, Perfect Sacrifice».

The mission of Saint Peterelcina was prophetically summed up in these words if we thought that little than a period after the priestly ordination Padre Pio received stigmata, which then became invisible, and 3 months later he asked his spiritual father to sacrifice himself for sinners and cleanse souls, confirming that he had already made this sacrifice and simply wanted to confirm the rightness of that decision. So the sacrifice of the saint coincided with his priestly ordination: that day Father Pio became “priest and sacrifice, sacrifice and priest—like Jesus”.

John Paul II, speaking in San Giovanni Rotondo on the occasion of his apostolic visit, said: “The most crucial aspect of holy service, which is seen in the life of Father Pio, is the sacrifice which the priest makes of himself, in Christ and with Christ, as a sacrifice of expiation and reparation for the sins of men; the sacrifice which must attain its highest expression in the celebration of the sacrament of the Eucharist. Who does not remember the zeal with which Father Pio experienced Christ's torment during the Holy Mass? Hence the respect he had for the Holy Mass – which he called “a large mystery” – as the decisive minute of salvation and sanctification of man through participation in the sufferings of the Crucified One.”

W Thoughts written by Holy Father Pio in remembrance of the 25th anniversary of his priesthood, the same subject of the image of the saints returns, highlighted by the fervent, very beautiful expressions: “O Jesus, my life, my everything, in the joy of renewed drunkenness, make me an altar for your Cross, a golden cup for your blood, a pure Host for your sacrifice, love, prayer for me, for the surviving and dead dear to my heart.”

It is apparent that Holy Father Pio of Pietrelcina experienced his priesthood in perfect symbiosis with Christ, the sacrifice of love, the "pure, holy and immaculate Host", whose sacrifice of the Cross is renewed all day on the altar. This union with Crucified Christ besides manifested outwardly, in the form of stigmates, which were renewed in his body alive and bleeding, continually, for 50 years. Those who met the Holy Father Pio had an irresistible impression of being with a individual completely transformed into Jesus. Indeed, what was written about the Holy 1 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his priesthood is true: “No 1 has provided a better proof than he does that “every actual priest is alter Christus“’.

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The passage comes from the book entitled Holy Mass and the priesthood of Holy Father Pio of Pietrelcina. Instructions for meditation by s. Maria Gabriella Pia Iannelli, FI.