Padre Pio and the Importance of Prayer

     We often think of Saints as people of extraordinary faith who did incredible things in their lives such as miracles. But every Saint, just like us, was a normal human being. They did not wake up one day with a great faith that allowed them to perform miracles; they grew in their faith because they prayed and worked on their relationship with God every single day, hour, minute and second of their lives. 

     I chose to research about Padre Pio’s life because I have been focusing on praying more every day, and I knew Padre Pio spent most of his day praying to God. So I figured that learning about Padre Pio’s life would help me grow in prayer and ultimately in my faith. I have always wondered how Padre Pio achieved his holiness and thought that there had something different about him that made him such a holy person. I knew that he prayed and meditated for hours every day, but I always thought he had a secret to grow in his faith that normal people like us need but don’t have. After reading several biographies about Padre Pio, I found that he did not have a secret formula for becoming a Saint. He lived a life of prayer and offered his suffering to God and souls in purgatory. That was his secret. Something that everyone can do: praying and offering our sufferings to God. It is a simple but yet extremely hard thing to do. Padre Pio prayed day and night, and he always loved to pray the rosary. From a very young age, he was extremely faithful and prayed. At the age of fifteen, he joined the novitiate of the Capuchin Order of the Friars Minor in Morcone, Italy. He would be later ordained at the age of twenty-three. As I have already mentioned before, Padre Pio spent hours praying every single day, and God gave him the grace to have the marks of the stigmata. He received many incredible graces throughout his life was always willing to put God’s will before his. To discover what God wanted him to do, he prayed. And after years of reflecting, he discovered that his mission was to offer himself to the Lord as a victim for poor sinners and for the souls in Purgatory. As you can see, prayer is extremely important for us to grow in our faith and closer to God, but also to discover our mission. Just as Padre Pio prayed for years before coming to the realization of his mission, we must do the same to discover ours. The more we pray, the closer we get to God. This is something Padre Pio understood and did throughout his entire life. Everyone can pray. It does not require you to be extremely Holy or have a faith out of this world to just take a few minutes of your day to pray. 

     After reading about Padre Pio’s life, I realized how important it is to pray, and I will try to pray the rosary more often. I invite everyone to do the same. Prayer is a very powerful tool that can help us grow in our faith and in our relationship with God. Just take a few minutes every day to pray. You do this right after you wake up or before going to bed. Your prayer does not have to be long, but as long you keep praying, your faith and relationship with God will grow.