Day 5: Redemptive suffering

The fifth day turns to the suffering Padre Pio bore and the Catholic theology of suffering united to Christ.

Padre Pio's words

"Suffering is necessary. The angels envy us this one thing, that we are able to suffer for love of God; for they cannot."

On September 20, 1918, while praying after Mass, Padre Pio received the stigmata: the five wounds of Christ permanently visible on his body. He bore them for fifty years. He suffered too from interior trials, sustained physical illness, and the suspicion of his ecclesiastical superiors. Throughout he offered the suffering for those who asked his prayers.

Reflection

The novena does not promise that the petitioner's suffering will be removed. It asks instead that whatever suffering is now in the petitioner's life may be united to the Cross of Christ, as Padre Pio's suffering was, and become redemptive for the petitioner and others.

Prayer

Saint Padre Pio, you who bore the wounds of Christ for fifty years, teach me to offer my own sufferings in union with the Cross. Where I am in pain, give me the grace to make of it a prayer.

O Lord Jesus, crucified and risen, sanctify what I bear. Amen.

Conclude with one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be.