Triple Novena Part 2: To Padre Pio!

Padre Pio - or St. Padre Pio as we now call him - was one funny guy. He was happy because he was in love with Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, and as we can all say of ourselves too (praise God!), they were even more in love with him!

Here he is laughing, and he's laughing because we are not asking him to give us miracles today, but merely using him as a messenger to wake up his little brother, Servant of God Marcel Van. I think Pio's plan is to tickle Marcel, but he might just give him a friendly poke with one (now ungloved) finger. Can't you picture it?

They both will then start talking to Our Blessed Mother because Marcel is asleep on her lap. He isn't shown here in the photo of Our Lady of Grace (the favorite Marian image of Pio's in San Giovanni Rotundo), but that's because Marcel wasn't in Heaven when the picture was taken for Pio's Capuchin friary. Now, though, you can't bet your bottom dollar Marcel knows the comfiest place to take a nap, and that's always on Mary's lap.

Why don't we turn to Our dear Mama Mary with them? We can use the same novena prayer we've already been using and launch into our part-two-of-three which will lead us directly (in 9 days) to September 23, Padre Pio's feast day . . . and just to make sure Pio doesn't feel too ignored (he sure has enough miracles to his credit, but we like to go with the underdog), let's add (just today, or each day if you feel like it) the prayer asking Padre Pio to be our spiritual father. This way if it seems kind of boring to just keep asking Marcel to heal Miss Marcel's cancer, we can spice it up by asking Pio to be our dad. He's a great father, and while I don't have time now to go into details, I've enjoyed both reading and telling about his kindness and compassion before, so here are a couple of links to learn more. The first essay is by me, and the second by our dear friend and children's book author (and substack-don-dolindo writer) Maura McKeegan:

THE REAL FACE OF PADRE PIO

PADRE PIO, PURGATORY, AND PLENARY INDULGENCES

And now for our novena prayers:

​Blessed Mother of those whose names you can read in my heart, watch over them with every care. Make their way easy and their labors fruitful. Dry their tears if they weep; sanctify their joys; raise their courage if they weaken; restore their hope if they lose heart, their health if they be ill, truth if they err, and repentance if they fall. And through the intercession of your littlest son, Servant of God Marcel Van, may Suzie be miraculously healed from her cancer, and may all our other needed or desired miracles be granted. Amen!

*  *  *

O Saint Padre Pio, holy bearer of the Wounds of Christ, accept us this day as your spiritual sons and daughters and keep us always on the Little Way by your intercession. And do thou, O our Spiritual Father, stay there at the Gates of Heaven until all of your spiritual children have entered through, even and including us. Through Christ our Lord, Amen.

​(And just for good measure :)

Dear Padre Pio, I recall your promise to the Lord, “Lord, I will stand at the gates of heaven until I see all my spiritual children have entered.” Encouraged by your gracious promise, I ask you to accept me as a spiritual child and to intercede for my prayer requests, including getting Marcel Van to intercede to heal Suzie's cancer completely and miraculously. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever, world without end, Amen.

Draw me, we will run!

P.S. I haven't been miraculously healed yet, but I sure have been sustained and refreshed by all your prayers! Thank you!!!

I am asking Our Lord to divert some of the many graces and roses pouring down from Heaven back to all your own special intentions, but rest assured (on Mary's lap) that I also have asked Him to keep me pain free. I am so grateful for His and your kindness!!

I will have a PET scan on September 19, and it will be fun to see what they find. St. Therese says in her wonderful Letter 197, "Let us stay away from all that sparkles." Apparently that is what we want to do in the PET (again, no actual pets will be harmed in the making of the film) scan, namely, stay away from all that lights up . . . but we'll see!

I think Marcel might very much want to make it worse before he makes it better, so that he'll have a bigger miracle to advance his cause, so that he can be more officially recognized as the Apostle of Children and the Second Little Flower (in other words, so he can help lots more people when they come to know him and start asking too) . . . or perhaps our little brother is just waiting for the right moment and when we see the scan results we'll just be all clear and good to go!

​I'll keep you posted, and meanwhile, Our Lady of Sorrows is hiding behind the Sunday today, so be sure to cheer her up with a Hail Mary and a cupcake! She is happy to know that Jesus' Resurrection and our little Easter have taken precedence over her sadness. What mom wants to make her kids sad? Praise God for her maternity, and Happy Sunday!