“It would be easier for the world to survive without the sun than to do so without the Holy Mass.” — Padre Pio
The Capuchin friar Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, known as Padre Pio, would often awake early in the morning and begin anxiously awaiting when he could celebrate Mass. He celebrated his Mass slowly and reverently, with evident devotion. He often wept. When asked why he cried during Mass, the saint replied: “I don’t want to shed small tears. I want to shed a flood of tears. Don’t you see the great mystery of the Mass?” Padre Pio’s abiding belief in the power of the Mass set him on fire with love for God. He said: “At times during the Mass I am consumed by the fire of Divine Love. My face seems to burn.” Padre Pio celebrated Mass daily, sometimes taking as long as three hours, until his last Mass on September 22, 1968 (the day before his death).
LET US PRAY
Lord Jesus, help me to love the mystery of the Mass. May every doubt and distraction I suffer give way to greater faith and love. While I live on earth here below, may the light of the Eucharist dispel every darkness in my life. Amen.
PRAYER TO THE EUCHARIST
O God, who in this wonderful Sacrament have left us a memorial of your Passion, grant us, we pray, so to revere the sacred mysteries of your Body and Blood that we may always experience in ourselves the fruits of your redemption. Who live and reign with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
-Collect for the Feast of Corpus Christi, composed by St. Thomas Aquinas