Padre Pio began his day around
2.00 a.m. in anticipation of his Mass which he offered each morning at 5.00
a.m. Huge crowds came to attend his Mass and many waited overnight and into the
early morning in order to gain entry to the little ‘Chiesa Antica’ the original
church in the friary of Our Lady of Graces in San Giovanni Rotondo. When the
newer church was built in the early 1960’s, Padre Pio was reported to have said
that it won’t be big enough – he knew the numbers of pilgrims would grow.
The centre of the day for Padre
Pio was Holy Mass. Here he was intimately united with Jesus at the last supper and
on the cross. The Mass is primarily a sacrifice where Jesus offers himself up
to the God the Father on our behalf, the only fitting offering to God.
During the Mass, when the prayer of
consecration is said by the priest, the bread ceases to be bread and the wine ceases
to be wine. The bread and wine change and become the body and blood of Jesus
Christ. At the Last Supper, Jesus took the bread and said the blessing and gave
it to his disciples and said, “This is my body.” At the end of the meal, in the
same way, he took a cup filled with wine and he said, “This is my blood, the
blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for
many, for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me.” So, whenever we go
to Mass, we have Jesus truly and really present in our midst, alive in his Holy
Word and in his Holy Body and Blood.
Padre Pio personified the
suffering of Jesus by carrying the stigmata, the bleeding wounds of Christ
crucified on his hands, feet, and side. He truly entered into the life of the
suffering Jesus and therefore understood the sufferings of all the people that
asked him for prayers. The most powerful and profound way Padre Pio prayed for
people was by bringing them, living and dead, on to the altar at Mass and therefore
remembering them in Mass. We can do nothing more powerful in offering up a prayer
for someone then remembering them at Holy Mass. St Monica said, “All I ask is
that wherever you may be, you will remember me at Holy Communion, and at the
foot of the Altar.” Padre Pio also once
said of Mass; “It would be easier for the world to survive without the sun than
to do without the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.”
Go to Mass and if you haven’t
gone for a while, begin again. We need the sacramental energy and sanctifying
grace of Holy Communion. We need to be nourished. Like you need to charge your
phone regularly, or top up your credit, or charge your electric car, you need
to plug in to the Lord and the best way for strength in this world, and to be
sanctified in the next world is by going to Mass.
