San Giovanni Rotondo... A Very Special Place

When I went on a pilgrimage to holy places in Europe, I wasn't sure what to expect.  I went with an open heart and an open mind.  In the eighteen days, I learned many things.  I kept a notebook chronicling my experiences.. what I could manage to capture on paper.  I also brought a camera...and took so many pictures.  But the thing was... I couldn't take pictures during a mass or prayers.  I couldn't take pictures or make notes during the most poignant moments.  All I could do was absorb the moments, the realisations and the wonders as much as I could and pray that my memory could retain all the details.

One of the most wonderful places that touched me in so many ways was San Giovanni, Rotondo, where Padre Pio spent most of his adult years.  But here I cannot begin to express my experiences there.  It's easy to describe the town... a quaint mix of modern and rustic, of gleaming golden tiles and matt white stone, of dark creaking pews that spoke of millions of hopeful pilgrims, of polished woodwork that told of uncounted hands and fingers touching rubbing.. while their owners held unknown wishes and prayers in their hearts.  Just like any other place of pilgrimage.  

BUT... when I stood in the old church... Santa Maria della Grazie Church (Our Lady of Grace Church), such a feeling came over me.  And I felt like breaking down and crying.  During the mass, I actually did cry.  Why, I cannot say.  Tears just kept sliding down my cheeks.  I just felt so overwhelmed and overcome.  With what, I cannot say.  They say that we are changed by God's grace.  Perhaps that was what happened to me.

All I know is, I understand why people keep coming back to San Giovanni Rotondo, even though Padre Pio died so long ago in September 1968.  In that church, I was in a marvellous place.  A place where I could actually believe that I could reach out and feel God.  A place where if I let myself, I would not want to leave.  

I know why Mary Pyle (Adelia MacAlpin Pyle) came to San Giovanni Rotondo and didn't leave till she died.  If I let myself, I would do the same.

If you want to know what I mean, you need to go there and see for yourself.  Only then will you understand.

The old Santa Maria della Grazie Church is the small one on the left side while the imposing church with the huge facade is the new one which had to be built to cater for the huge numbers of pilgrims.  

This is the old altar where I attended mass celebrated by Rev Fr Charles Chiew.  The pews that can be seen are about all there was there.  The forty eight or so people in my group filled up all the pews.

If I had to choose only two pictures from the entire pilgrimage, one of them would be of the old altar.

Vainglory : An Enemy of Those Consecrated To The Lord

When I was in San Giovanni Rotondo, I visited the bookshop at Padre Pio Pilgrimage Church and bought a few books.  In one of those books (Saint Pio of Pietrelcina : 100 Letters For You), I came across a very thought-provoking missive where Padre Pio gave some advice regarding vainglory.  The most riveting statement he made was this : 

Vainglory ..is an enemy that assails those who have consecrated themselves to the Lord and embraced the spiritual life.... can rightly be called the consuming moth of souls tending to perfection.  

Here is the letter is its entirety.

St. Padre Pio to Father Agostino

"My very dear Father, In your last, to which I am replying after a long delay, you asked me for something to say to those two people. I recommended the matter a number of times to Our Lord and it seems to me that he wants me to speak of vainglory so as to put them on their guard against such a powerful enemy.

This is an enemy that assails those who have consecrated themselves to the Lord and embraced the spiritual life. Hence it can rightly be called the consuming moth of souls tending to perfection. The Saints refer to it as the woodworm of holiness.

In order that we might understand how opposed vainglory is to perfection Our Lord shows how he reproved the Apostles when he found them full of complacency and vainglory because the devils had obeyed their commands: "Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you."

Moreover, to fix firmly in their minds the sad effects of this abominable vice when it creeps into their hearts, he terrifies them by drawing their attention to the example of Lucifer, who was flung headlong from a great height because of the vain complacency he took in the gifts with which God had endowed him: "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven."

This vice is all the more to be feared by reason of the fact that there is no contrary virtue by which it can be fought. In point of face, every vice has a remedy and an opposite virtue: anger is demolished by meekness, envy by charity, pride by humility and so forth. Vainglory alone has no contrary virtue by which it can be combated. It seeps into the holiest acts and even in humility itself, if one is not watchful, it proudly sets up its tent.

St. John Chrysostom in speaking of vainglory says: "Do as much as you will for the purpose of repressing vainglory in yourself; you will in fact only excite it all the more." And why? Let us hear the same holy Doctor again: "Every evil is born from evil; only vainglory proceeds from good and therefore it is not extinguished by good but on the contrary is increased."

The devil, my dear Father, knows very well that a man who is lustful, greedy or avaricious, a sinner, has more reason to be confused and to blush than to glory in his actions, and therefore he takes care not to tempt him on this score, but if he spares such persons from this battle he does not spare good people, especially those who are striving for perfection. All the other vices hold sway only over those who allow themselves to be vanquished and mastered by them, but vainglory raises its head against those very persons who combat and defeat it. It has the courage to assail the very ones who vanquish it, through the victories they win over it. It is an enemy that is never wearied, an enemy that enters into all our actions to wage war on us, and if we are not on our guard we fall a victim to it.

In order to avoid praise by others we prefer secret and hidden fasts to those which are known, we prefer silence to eloquent speaking, we prefer to be despised than to be held in esteem, we prefer contempt to honours. Alas, my God, in this also vainglory wants to poke its nose, as they say, by inducing us to vain complacency.

St. Jerome was quite right when he compared vainglory to one's shadow. In point of face, our shadow follows us everywhere and even marks our steps. If we run, it runs too. If we proceed at a slow pace, the shadow does likewise. If we sit down, our shadow takes the same posture.

Vainglory acts in the same way; it follows virtue everywhere. It would be useless for the body to try to escape from its shadow which accompanies it always and everywhere. The same thing happens to anyone who is striving for virtue, for perfection; the more he flees from vainglory the more he is beset by it. Dear Father, let us all fear this great enemy of ours. Those two souls should fear it still more, for there is something impregnable about this enemy.

They must always be on the alert and not allow this formidable enemy to invade their minds and hearts, because once it gets in it mars every virtue, corrodes all holiness and corrupts everything that is beautiful and good.

They should strive to ask God constantly for the grace to be preserved from this pestilential vice, for "every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of lights." Let them open wide their hearts to trust in God, always bearing in mind that all that is good in them is a pure gift of the heavenly Bridegroom's supreme bounty.

They should impress on their minds, engrave deeply in their hearts and be convinced that none is good except God and that all we have is nothing. They must continue to meditate assiduously on what St. Paul wrote to the faithful of Corinth: "What have you that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift? Not that we are sufficient of ourselves," he writes elsewhere, "to claim anything as coming from us, our sufficiency is from God."

When these two people feel tempted to vainglory, they should repeat with St. Bernard: "I haven't begun for you, nor do I want to finish for you." Hence by these paths I intend to pursue my way. If the enemy attacks them on the score of the holiness of their lives, let them shout in his face: "my holiness is not an affect of my own spirit, but it  is the Spirit of God who sanctifies me. This is a gift from God, it is a talent lent to me by my Spouse so that I can trade with it and when the time comes give him an exact account of the profit I have gained."

They should conceal the good their Beloved is operating in them. The virtues are to be kept as a person keeps a treasure which if not hidden from the sight of envious people, will be seized. The devil is always on the watch; he is the most envious of all and he seeks to seize at once this treasure consisting of the virtues as soon as he recognizes it. This he does by having us attacked by this powerful enemy which is vainglory.

In order to preserve us from this great adversary, Our Lord who is always concerned for our good, warns us on this point in various parts o the Gospel. Does he not tell us that when we want to pray we should go into our room, shut the door so as not to be seen by men and pray to Our Father who is in secret? That when we fast we should wash our faces so that others may not see that we are fasting, as they observe our dismal and disfigured countenance? That when we give alms we should not let our right hand know what our left hand is doing?

They should be careful never to speak to others of the things with which our good Jesus favours them, except in the case of their director and confessor. Let them invariably direct their actions to the pure glory of God as the Apostle wishes: "So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." They should renew this holy intention every now and then. They should examine themselves after each action and if they recognize any imperfection in it, not be upset but repent and humble themselves before the goodness of God, ask pardon of the Lord and implore him to make them more careful in future.

They must avoid all vanity in dress, for the Lord allows souls to fall because of such vanity.

A woman who is frivolous as regards dress can never be clothed in the life of Jesus Christ and she loses all adornment of soul once this idol enters into her heart. Let these women adorn themselves, as St. Paul would have it, modestly and sensibly in seemly apparel, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly attire which are a sign of luxury and ostentation.

Thank them on my behalf for the prayers they send up to the Lord for me and ask them to continue to do so, as I am in very great need of prayers. Assure them that I shall not forget to do the same for them in my own poor prayers.

Every affectionate wish to yourself and to Father Provincial.

Yours, Fra Pio, Capuchin"

Salve Regina

While I was in Lourdes last June, I had the opportunity to listen to prayers in so many different languages; French, Italian, German, Polish, Czech.  The 'Our Father', 'Hail Mary', 'Glory Be' ... recited so lovingly by so many people.  Thousands upon thousands of them...

There was one prayer that keeps 'playing' in my mind... the Salve Regina.

I downloaded a video from Youtube to learn how to sing the prayer so that I could take part in the Lourdes prayers recited during the Marian processions.  Here is the video :

Hail Holy Queen In Latin

SALVE REGINA, Mater misericordiae.
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve.
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Hevae.
Ad te Suspiramus, gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle.
Eia ergo, Advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte.
Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.
O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria.