The name of the story today is, A Sudden Death.
So often if someone dies, we try to comfort them with the words like, he's in a much better
place now.
Assuming, of course, the person went up and not down, that he is saved.
So is he in a much better place?
Let's see by an example, what Padre Pio's view was of this.
Hello friends, and welcome to this channel, Following Padre Pio, and here we have a series
of short stories on the life of our great Saint Padre Pio.
He was a Capuchin friar, mystic, a tremendous miracle worker.
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In the first story, it's called A Sudden Death.
There was this lady called Carmela Marocchino, and her brother was a Padre Vittore da Canosa.
He died suddenly.
And this was in 1958, in January of 1958.
So I've often heard it said that priests die suddenly.
I don't know if it's true or not, but this is the case here.
And Carmelo, now she was obviously upset and wanted to know, why this sudden death, and
she asked this to Padre Pio.
Padre Pio of course was very compassionate about this, especially where death's involved.
And so he replied with this very picturesque expression.
Do you know what Jesus did regarding your brother?
Jesus went into the garden and there, there were many, many beautiful flowers, but one
was more beautiful than all the others, and he leaned over the most beautiful flower and
he picked it.
So Carmela understood this but she's still apprehensive, "but was he saved?", she asked
Padre Pio.
So of course we all know people have this superficial thing, everyone is saved, so Padre
Pio's answer, "yes but, we need to pray".
So why do we pray?
Because he's in purgatory, and is still en route to heaven.
Well, on the 29th of July, this is now six months later, she again went to Padre Pio
wanting to know, is he saved?
Is he in heaven now?
Padre Pio's response, "my daughter, we priests have much more responsibility in front of
God, so let us continue praying".
Responsibility for what?
Obviously, the care of the souls in their flock, for their salvation.
They have to tend to this diligently.
Well, on December now, it's now December, a full 11 months after the death, and she
again went to Padre Pio, is her brother saved?.
She was being pretty persistent and it paid off now with these words, "he is in paradise".
But what is purgatory like?
Let's look at another example from Padre Pio.
Padre Pio told the following story to a fellow priest.
Padre Pio said, "one night I was alone up in the choir", he was praying and down below
in the church, he saw a friar cleaning the altar late at night.
So Padre Pio asked him, "go to bed, since it is so late", and the response was, "I am
a friar like you and I did my novitiate here", in the same monastery as Padre Pio, and when
assigned to take care of the altar, he said, "I've passed in front of the tabernacle many
times without making the proper reverence, without the proper respect and for this sin,
I am in purgatory and then now the Lord has sent me to you and you decide how much longer
I have to suffer in these flames".
So he uses the word flames and he uses the word suffering and how can Padre Pio help?
How can he decide?
Through his prayers.
And so Padre Pio responded, "I told him that he must remain in purgatory until the mass
in the morning".
So how many hours away is that?
Maybe six hours away.
To which the soul responded, "cruel!", and then he just disappeared.
Why this word cruel?
What's cruel about it?
Only six more hours.
But if we look at the flames, he's suffering in these flames in purgatory and even six
hours was a big thing, not an easy thing and hence his reaction of cruel.
Now Padre Pio added afterwards as well, "I still have a wound in my heart, I could have
sent him to heaven immediately, instead he had to stay one more night in the flames of
purgatory".
So these flames must be something very real and hopefully this also helps to shed light
on those words, cruel, why cruel.
In a video coming up soon, we're going to have a look at a story of a man who fell overboard.
He was on a boat, he fell overboard in a storm.
He could not swim.
He was going to drown.
He had nothing but a relic of Padre Pio on him.
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