– God, our armor and our shield -
From Padre Pio writtings:
Dear God! How happy is the interior kingdom, my dear Father, when holy love reigns there! How blessed qre the faculties of the soul when they obey so wise a king! Under obedience to hi and his realm he doesn’t permit serious sins to dwell, or any slightest affection for venial sins. It is true that he often allows sin to arrive at his frontiers, so that in the combat the virtues may be practised and strengthened. It is equally true that he permits the mastespies (venial sins and imperfections) to circulate freely in his kingdom, but this is merely to show us that without him we should be a prey for our enemies. (Letters I, p.1022/23)
From Padre Pio writtings:
Let us humble ourselves deeply, my dear Father, and confess that if God were not our breast-plate and our shield, we should at once be pierced by every kind of sin. This is why we must invariably keep ourselves in God by persevering in our spiritual exercises, so let this be our constant concern. (Letters I, p. 1023)
From Padre Pio writtings:
Console yourself …and be quite sure that God is not found where there is no desire for His love … And if the longing to love God seems to you not to be satisfied, or let us even say that it really is not satisfied; if it seems to you that you always desire without ever arriving at the possession of perfect love, all this means that your soul must never say it has enough, it means that we cannot and must not stop on the path to divine love and holy perfection. St. Augustine says very aptly: Our heart is not at rest till it rests in the object of its love (St. Augustine, Confessions, Bk, I,1). (Letters II,p. 423/24)
From Padre Pio writtings:
We must be watchful not to let the enemy find the way to enter our soul and contaminate the temple of the Holy Spirit. Oh, for pity’s sake, don’t let us overlook this great truth for a single instant. Let us always bear in mind that at our baptism we became temples of the living God and that every time we turn our minds to worldly things, to the devil and the flesh which we renounced at baptism, we are profaning this sacred temple of God. May you flee from every shadow of imperfection which can give these three archenemies an entry into your heart. Fight all the time against their assaults, keeping faith alive continually in yuor heart, watered by deep and generous love. (Letters II,p. 435)
English Version – Edited by Melchiorre of Pobladura and Alessandro of Ripabottoni
Edited by Father Gerardo Di Flumeri O.F.M. Cap.
Second Edition 1984 – Third Edition 2002
Self-confidence is a feelіng anԁ perception thаt
depends on your emotional stаte and ѕatisfactiοn with your own ѕelf.
The immаture grοwth plates, bones and cartilages are more suѕceρtіble for injurieѕ than the mature bones of the adults.
Thеy are deceіѵing themselvеs if they think аll they need to do іs to exercise till
theу feеl “the pump”.