Prayer to Saint Padre Pio

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, our beloved Padre Pio, you who carried the wounds of Christ in your own flesh for fifty years, you who heard millions of confessions, you who could see into souls and read hearts, you who interceded for so many that the world is still asking you for help, intercede for me tonight. You were born in southern Italy in eighteen eighty-seven. You were a Capuchin friar. You bore the stigmata, the visible wounds of Christ, from nineteen eighteen until your death in nineteen sixty-eight. You suffered constantly, slept little, prayed always. And from your suffering came an outpouring of grace for thousands of pilgrims who came to you at the monastery of San Giovanni Rotondo. You said, Pray, hope, and don't worry. Three commands. Each one harder than it sounds. Pray. Not just say words. Not just go through routines. Actually communicate with God. Bring Him your day. Bring Him your worries. Bring Him your love. Pray. Hope. Hope hard. Even when the situation looks dark. Even when prayer seems unanswered. Even when faith is weak. Hope. The opposite of hope is not doubt. The opposite of hope is despair, and despair is the only sin God cannot forgive, because despair refuses to ask for forgiveness. Don't worry. The hardest of all. Worry is woven into me. The future scenarios. The what-ifs. The replays of the past. You said, Don't worry. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you, as Saint Peter wrote. Padre Pio, teach me these three things. Pray. Hope. Don't worry. Padre Pio, you had the gift of bilocation. You could be in two places at once. People reported seeing you in their hospital rooms when you were known to be in your monastery. You appeared in dreams. You appeared at deathbeds. You appeared to soldiers in foxholes during the war. I do not need a vision tonight. I just need to know you are praying for me. Across the bridge of heaven, across the centuries, you can intercede now as truly as you did in life. Pray for me, Padre Pio. Pray for the people I have brought to you in my prayers. The names I have spoken. The intentions I have asked you to carry. Take them with you to the Lord. You who saw the face of Christ on every soul that came to your confessional, intercede for the souls I love. Pray for my conversion. Padre Pio, you spent eighteen hours a day hearing confessions. You knew the human heart in all its weakness. You also knew the mercy of God in all its abundance. Bring me deeper into the mercy. Burn away in me what is not of Christ. Pray for the dying tonight. You always asked your spiritual children to pray for the dying. The most consequential moment of any life. Be with the dying as you were so often in life. Padre Pio, your favorite phrase was, Jesus, my Master and my All. Let it be mine too. Jesus, my Master and my All. I close with the prayer attributed to Padre Pio. Stay with me, Lord, for it is necessary to have You present so that I do not forget You. Stay with me, Lord, because I am weak and I need Your strength, that I may not fall so often. Stay with me, Lord, for You are my life, and without You, I am without fervor. Stay with me, Lord, for You are my light, and without You, I am in darkness. Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, pray for us. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.