In today's little story, we are going to see how Padre Pio answers a sealed letter.
An envelope had not been opened and Padre Pio gave the answer to it.
Not everyone, it turns out, was happy with all the attention that Padre Pio had been
receiving.
Perhaps to some people, this attention could be perceived as a threat.
So do join us for the story.
Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this channel on Padre Pio.
And here we have a series of short stories on the life of our great saint.
He was a Capuchin friar, mystic, tremendous miracle worker.
So do stay tuned to find out more about Padre Pio and also to see what his intercession
could do for you.
We encourage everyone to be part of this Padre Pio Apostolate and it would be tremendous
if you'd help us by liking the video and by sharing the video with anyone who may benefit
from it.
And a reminder that every Friday we have a mass in which we bring your intentions to
Padre Pio in this mass.
If you want your intentions included, all you have to do is enroll your intentions and
there's little video on the end screen showing you exactly how to do that.
Now, there was a parish priest who'd grown quite envious of Padre Pio over time, and
because he would see so many people going to Padre Pio, bypassing himself, I guess.
And so this envy led to resentments building up over time.
And so in this priest's mind, he now started scheming against Padre Pio.
And finally he decided he's going to lay a trap for Padre Pio to catch Padre Pio out.
And he thought about it, this idea of the trap developed.
We re not told in the story exactly what the trap was, but it involved something to do
with writing a letter to Padre Pio.
Perhaps was it a trick question he was putting to Padre Pio?
Or maybe he was trying to demonstrate that Padre Pio was showing pride, a lack of humility.
Anything like this would be an ideal trap for him.
As we say, the trap was woven into this letter that he had written.
And then he took the letter and he placed it into an envelope.
He closed and he sealed the envelope.
And he took the sealed envelope and he gave it to someone, one of his parishioners, who
was going to Padre Pio's Monastery in San Giovanni Rotondo.
And as he handed the letter over to the parishioner, he gave this specific instruction.
He said, "Give this letter to Padre Pio.
Place it in his hands personally.
And then wait there for his reply."
So it wasn't going to go via a third party.
Well, this man, this parishioner, agreed to do this, and thereafter, together with the
parish group, they all left to Padre Pio's monastery in San Giovanni Rotondo.
Now, when they arrived, Padre Pio went up and he welcomed them all, and then he focused
in directly on the man who had the letter.
How could he have known the person had the letter, but he did.
Padre Pio said to him, "Take out the letter that is in your pocket and write down this
reply on the envelope."
Now Padre Pio knew something about this.
The man did exactly as Padre Pio instructed him to do, and he wrote in his big, easily
identifiable writing word for word as Padre Pio dictated on the outside of the letter.
The friar dictated his answer, and yet he had not even opened the letter.
If he had not opened the letter, he had not read the letter, so he certainly hadn't read
the letter, and yet he was giving the answer to the question inside.
Now, you could imagine, if I did that, not opening a letter, not knowing the contents
at all, what sort of answer I would be giving.
It would be complete nonsense.
Gobbledygook, as they say.
Well, let's see how it turns out.
Now, later, this man had returned to his home parish and he went directly to the priest
who had given him the letter and he told him the whole story of what had happened, and
he gave the letter, the envelope to the priest.
It was still unopened, but with the answer written on the outside.
The priest took the envelope and then he read Padre Pio's reply.
It was written on the outside, as we say, because the envelope is still sealed at this
stage.
And this priest was astonished to see that it was an exact answer for what he had asked
of Padre Pio.
How is that possible?
Not even opening, certainly not reading what was written in the envelope, and Padre Pio
had got it right.
There are other saints like that as well.
Saint John Bosco seemed to have these gifts of incredible knowledge about things.
Now, it became very clear to this priest that it was not going to be an easy thing or a
wise thing to even try and trap Padre Pio in the future.
Likewise, if we look at our Lord's life, it was filled with people trying to lay traps
for him.
And yet our Lord always instinctively seemed to know the way to navigate all of these traps
around the traps so that not even one hair on his head was harmed, even though there
was so much ill intent directed towards him.
Until finally when his time had come, then they were able to trap him when our Lord himself
chose to lay down his life for his sheep.
Only then.
Next time on the channel we are going to have a story called In Eight Days You'll Die.
This was a prophecy that Padre Pio told to a policeman.
Was it going to happen or wasn't it going to happen?
Please do join us for that talk.
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