Padre Pio

St. Pio was a gift to the Church in most difficult times and, like all gifts that the Lord gives to his Church, was meant for the benefit of all; by showing us how he experienced the God of holiness, who commanded: “You are to be holy for me as I am Holy, Yahweh, your God, and I have set you apart from the nations to be mine” (Lv 20; 26), Pio proved to be such.
His greatest experience of this mystery of being set apart for holiness, in order to lead all who were called to holiness, came through the Sacraments of the Catholic Church, they being the natural means instituted by God. These were the primary channels through which God executed most effectively his plan of sanctification for the humble friar and it was through these that he received what he needed to obey the voice which told him: you must sanctify yourself to sanctify others.
Through the testimony given to the world through a most radical living of God’s graces, witnessing to how sanctification is brought about, this friar reminds us once again and encourages us to remain faithful to the Sacraments and to the Church: “the Church to which we are all called in Jesus Christ and in which we acquire sanctity through the grace of God” , or in the words of the Saint himself – “…the Church, his Bride; this dear sweet dove which alone can lay the eggs, and give birth to the little doves of the Spouse.”

(cf. Fr John Mockler, Padre Pio’s esperience and testimony of God’s sanctity)