And today we can have a look at the story of three sisters.
Their names were Dorothy, Helena, and Carmelita.
And let's see how Padre Pio was able to very subtly play a vital role in influencing the
direction their lives were to take, and ultimately that they could reach their destiny.
So please do stay tuned to find out about this.
Hello, friends, and welcome to this channel, following Padre Pio, on which through a series
of very short stories we investigate the life of our great Saint Padre Pio, who was a Capuchin
friar.
He was a mystic, a tremendous miracle worker.
Do stay tuned to find out more about Padre Pio and also to see what his intercession
could do for you or someone you love.
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In this story today, we can see that there were three sisters.
They were siblings and they were visiting Italy from the United States.
And one of them read an article.
Dorothy read an article on Padre Pio, and so now they all became interested in Padre
Pio and they decided they have to make the journey to San Giovanni Rotondo.
And there, once they arrived at the monastery, they found they could not just walk up to
Padre Pio and greet him and start a conversation, because there were so many other people wanting
to do exactly the same, and they had to get permission now to go and stand in a crowd
on a particular corridor and Padre Pio would walk past.
And sure enough, when Padre Pio walked past, in the midst of this large crowd he singled
them out and he stopped in front of them and he started talking to them, to these three
ladies.
And he spoke just for a couple of minutes.
He was very happy to learn they're from America.
They're visiting.
And then at the end, he made a humorous remark and everyone laughed a little bit.
And so Padre Pio had welcomed them into their midst.
And the sisters, they spent the next 10 days waiting in the confessional queue in the church.
Through a series of coupons, they would wait in the queue, and they were able now to discover
more about Padre Pio and his tremendous charism, his sanctity.
Helena went to confession with Padre Pio and then she confessed to have missed mass one
Sunday, but Padre Pio stopped her.
This was very surprising, because he said, "No, you've already confessed this previously
at another confession.
You don't need to confess it again."
And then she remembered, yes, she had.
When she was in Rome, she had confessed the sin.
So how did Padre Pio know?
He had read this somehow in her soul.
It had been revealed to Padre Pio.
Well, the sisters, as we said, were impressed, and so from now on, they wanted to know more
about Padre Pio.
And every year Dorothy and Helena, they would now make an annual visit during their summer
vacation to San Giovanni Rotondo.
This was quite easy for them because they were teachers, so they had this extended long
summer break.
And they made sure they were there in San Giovanni rotunda during the break.
Inevitably, they would then run into Mary Powell.
We've come across her previously.
She was an American heiress, and she gave up absolutely everything, her fortune, her
inheritance, her fame, because she just wanted to be near to the one she said was a living
saint.
And in addition, they would help with the mountains of letters of correspondence that
arrived for Padre Pio.
And there was a huge benefit from this, because while they were sitting down, Mary Powell
would share with them all sorts of little stories, interesting things she'd learned
about Padre Pio, things that were beyond coincidence.
And through this, they learned a lot about Padre Pio.
They also noticed there were doctors who had arrived there, and they would ask Padre Pio
to bless their hands because they were to perform a very difficult surgery that morning.
And so isn't that how it works in a Catholic society?
Both faith and reason come together and work for the ultimate good.
And so it continued, and at one point Dorothy perceived that there's just so many graces
around San Giovanni Rotondo.
So she just wanted now to stay there to be near Padre Pio.
She asked Padre Pio to advise her on this, but Padre Pio said, "No, it's not a good idea,
because you have so many good works to do back there in the United States.
You must return and do these good works."
And then later on another occasion, she was obviously still inspired by this whole idea.
And Helena asked if there was anything that she could do to help Padre Pio, something
in his postulate.
Could she help?
"Yes," was the answer.
"Try to do something for the home, for the relief of suffering.
Even if you have to make small sacrifices, just try to help in some way."
That was for Padre Pio's hospital.
So was he now indicating some special calling they had?
And then finally, Helena came to this idea.
She was a widow.
Her husband had recently passed away.
She had no children.
She was also financially secure.
So she decided she wanted now to sell her house and the proceeds could go towards Padre
Pio's hospital.
And she put this idea to Padre Pio, but Padre Pio was very cautious now.
And he checked and he double checked and he triple checked to make sure that there were
no family or relatives who would be deprived of their inheritance.
And when he established there were none, then he said, he went even one step further and
he now predicted for her the exact price that she would sell her house at.
And so it turned out.
Now her sister, Dorothy, also wanted to do something very special in some way to help
Padre Pio with his apostolate, but she couldn't give a financial gift to Padre Pio because
she only had sufficient for herself for her future.
So what could she do?
Well, she had this very special gift, a real talent as an English teacher, shared a special
way with words and with writing.
And she'd also taken many creative writing courses.
And so this thought occurred to her, sprang up in her mind, that perhaps she could write
for Padre Pio and perhaps she could even write Padre Pio's biography of his life.
She was confident that she did have the ability to write.
And so Dorothy put this idea to Padre Pio.
Could she do this?
And further, she wanted to give half of the royalties to the hospital of all of her writings.
But she was also worried, a little bit apprehensive that there are going to be some difficulties.
She didn't know anything about the publishing side or distribution.
But Padre Pio encouraged her with one word.
He said to her, "spera," which means, "Have hope."
Six years later, she now completed and her book was published.
The book was called The Prophet of the People, and it proved to be a great asset, a great
spiritual asset in the lives of many, many people.
So this led to other developments.
Dorothy was now invited to give speaking tours on Padre Pio.
University campuses all the way through to prisons she would give talks.
And so she spread this message of hope about Padre Pio, and people were genuinely interested.
They were actively interested in what she had to say.
So one thing led to another.
Then after Padre Pio's death, Dorothy's influence continued, and she became one of the prime
promoters for the cause of Padre Pio's canonization.
Because of everything she had now found herself in this prime position, she could even influence
bishops to lend their support to his cause.
And so the whole thing proceeded very smoothly until the successful conclusion in the canonization
of Padre Pio.
And so here we've seen how Padre Pio from some very humble coincidences, he was able
to guide these ladies that they could reach their ultimate destinies.
Next time on our channel, this being the month of May, we must look at a story on Our Lady,
the connection between Padre Pio and Our Lady.
So please do join us for that story.
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