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"In books we seek God, in prayer we find Him. Prayer is the key which opens God's heart."

In Rome on June 16, 2002, the late Holy Father, John Paul II, canonised Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, one of the great saints of these times. He was very gifted by God as an instrument of healing. But, in addition, he could "read" souls; was known to levitate and bore the stigmata.

He was born in 1887, at Pietrelcina, Benevento, Italy and was given the name Francesco.

In 1903, at the age of sixteen, he entered the novitiate of the Capuchin Friars at Morcone, where he took the Franciscan habit and the name Brother Pio. He was ordained a priest in 1910 at Benevento, but for health reasons it was not till 1916 that he was sent to the friary of San Giovanni Rotondo, where he remained there until his death, in 1968.

His canonisation miracle involved the cure of Matteo Pio Colella, age 7, the son of a doctor who worked at the hospital in San Giovanni Rotondo, founded by Padre Pio. On the night of 20th June 2000, Matteo was admitted to the hospital with meningitis. By morning doctors had lost hope for him as the boy's vital signs had ceased. That night, during prayer attended by Matteo's mother and Capuchin friars of Padre Pio's monastery, the child's condition improved suddenly and he emerged from his coma. Later Matteo said that he had seen an elderly man with a white beard and a long, brown habit, who said to him: "Don't worry, you will soon be cured." The miracle was approved in December 2001.

Padre Pio was devoted to prayer. He passed the day and a large part of the night in conversation with God.

"Ahead! Courage! In the spiritual life he who does not advance goes backward. It happens as with a boat which always must go ahead. If it stands still the wind will blow it back."    — St. Padre Pio

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 fervour.

Stay with me, Lord, for You are my light and without You I am in darkness.

Stay with me, Lord, to show me Your will.

Stay with me, Lord, so that I hear Your voice and follow You.

Stay with me, Lord, for I desire to love You very much and alway be in Your company.

Stay with me, Lord, if You wish me to be faithful to You.

Stay with me, Lord, as poor as my soul is I want it to be a place of consolation for You, a nest of Love.

Stay with me, Jesus, for it is getting late and the day is coming to a close, and life passes, death, judgment and eternity approach. It is necessary to renew my strength, so that I will not stop along the way, and for that I need You. It is getting late and death approaches, I fear the darkness, the temptations, the dryness, the cross, the sorrows. O how I need You, my Jesus, in this night of exile!

Stay with me tonight, Jesus, in life with all its dangers, I need You.

Let me recognise You as Your disciples did at the breaking of the bread, so that the Eucharistic Communion be the Light which disperses the darkness, the force which sustains me, the unique joy of my heart.

Stay with me, Lord, because at the hour of my death, I want to remain united to You, if not by Communion, at least by grace and love.

Stay with me, Lord, for it is You alone I look for, Your Love, Your Grace, Your Will, Your Heart, Your Spirit, because I love You and ask no other reward but to love You more and more.

With a firm love, I will love You with all my heart while on earth, and continue to love You perfectly during all eternity. Amen.