Prayers to St. Pio

The Nine-Day Novena

Introductory Prayer to Recite Each Day

(to be recited at the beginning of each daily prayer)

Come to me as Father and friend, Jesus, and do not leave me alone. Lord, abide with me!

I am just a pilgrim wandering in a world enveloped by darkness; bestow on me your light and your grace. Lord, abide with me!

In this precious moment, embrace me; let this union between us last forever. Lord, abide with me!

Accompany me along life’s journey; I need your presence. Without you I become faint and fall. Lord, abide with me!

Evening is coming and I am racing like a river towards the deep sea of death. Lord, abide with me!

Be my strength in sorrow and in happiness, while I live and until I die within your embrace. Lord, abide with me!

First Day

O glorious and holy Padre Pio, we are at your feet, turn your gaze to us. We are devoted to you; we admire your life and follow your teachings, and have experienced the power of your intercession. While you lived in this world, multitudes of people arrived every day in San Giovanni Rotondo to recognize and behold your credence, to receive pardon through your word, to hear your teachings and to invoke your intercession. With this same love and conscious of the glorious power of your prayers before God, we are prostrate at your feet.

Pray for us. We entrust ourselves to you, certain that you will obtain for us from God the graces of which we are in need. We ask this in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen.

Intentions:

1. That the Lord grants to the world and to the Church responsible, faithful leadership. Let us pray.
2. That every family be healthy in body and spirit. Let us pray.

Second Day

O glorious Padre Pio, from infancy you offered yourself to God as an instrument of reparation. With your impoverished family you began to grow in age, wisdom and goodness. Your father, dreaming of a better tomorrow, left for Argentina and you, who said, “My father went far away from his wife and children in order to provide all of us with something to eat,” recognized the courage of this gesture. Your mother undertook the task of providing for the family by working in the fields so that nothing would be lacking. We have your testimony that you left us to serve as a lesson: “From early childhood we worked with commitment… We worked for our daily bread… Our affection devolved on our parents… With them we struggled in the great battle of life…”

May the Lord grant to us sons and daughters: dedication to good works, devoutness, and a close relationship with our families. This we ask through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Intentions:

1. So that we be a family, for the children, school and church. Let us pray.
2. So that the children grow to love and respect their parents. Let us pray.
3. So that the family loves and honors God, for the family that prays together remains united. Let us pray.

Third Day

O holy Padre Pio, you flourished in a profoundly religious family. One day your father called you close to himself and asked a momentous question: “My son, would it not appeal to you a become a friar or a priest?”

From reading interviews of children on the subject of their future, we see that they do not even consider the possibility of a consecrated life. When asked what they want to be when grown up, they want to become members of the armed forces, doctors, fashion designers or teachers, and life as a Religious in not in their plans. Why? Still the greatest honor for a family is to have a son that God has chosen to be a Religious or a priest. We ask you to safeguard the Church so that numerous vocations are born and that there will be many holy Religious. We ask this in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen.

Intentions:

1. So that all the services that we lend are expressions of faith in the Gospel. Let us pray.
2. So that we know to remain near our poor and needy brothers. Let us pray.
3. So that our lives are an expression of Evangelical service in words and deed. Let us pray.

Fourth Day

O holy Padre Pio, in the friary you began a new life, the results of which you already knew, as you yourself said: “I was only 16 years old but I knew what I must become to take on the life of a Religious… I had to dedicate myself in order to know even better the call of my voluntary commitment and to become competent in philosophy and theology. It was a communal life that demanded a strong spiritual enrichment…” No one mislead you. You mother, when you left for the friary, said: “Knowingly you have come along to the door of your new house… Now, with your Brothers, return to the work as always. Remember me in your prayers and never forget that, above all, you are a son of God and St. Francis. How much is asked, but you do not merit grief for your own loved ones, if that does not give you joy to have found the true way of life…” Thus began your life as a Religious.

Instill in the Church a generous spirit capable of leaving all to follow Christ. We ask in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen.

Intentions:

1. So that all priests are felt to be witnesses of the faith as a resource to the people. Let us pray.
2. So that all priests remain in communion with the Pope and the Bishops. Let us pray.
3. So that we profit those present every moment, with the testimony of our fraternal life. Let us pray.

Fifth Day

O holy Padre Pio, your life was simple and far from easy. You were tried by suffering and temptations and the pain rendered your heart like a pruned grapevine. Never did you desire that your suffering become visible exteriorly and you preferred to suffer in silence. To be seen wounded was not important because you knew that it was God who wounded you; you have learned well that to accept suffering does not mean neither to be sorry, neither to love suffering but rather to accept that it therefore humbles one, as the earth accepts rain from the heavens that penetrates to its depths. In this way you coped, Padre Pio, and were able to hide your suffering with the rose of serene acceptance.

Teach us to have an authentic Christian attitude toward suffering so that its purifying and evangelistic action can be completed in us. We ask this in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen.

Intentions:

1. So that we understand suffering in a Christian context. Let us pray.
2. So that we accept in the spirit of faith our illnesses and those of our brothers. Let us pray.
3. So that  we know to value our suffering as an instrument of purification and evangelization. Let us pray.

Sixth Day

O holy Padre Pio, from childhood you offered yourself as a victim for others. God accepted your aspiration, and at San Giovanni Rotondo, you became “another Christ” suffering. Of your interior struggles you said: “Who will be able to discover the interior martyrdom that I suffer? A single memory of those inner battles makes my blood run cold in my veins. I heard the voice that called me to obey you, O God, but your enemies tyrannize me, wrench my bones and contort my entrails…” One day, on your body, appeared a stigmata. You desired to be a victim for all, for those that you knew and for those that you didn’t know for the just and the unjust. For the time of your discharge from military service you had become aware of much evil in the world, and you offered yourself for the Church and you asked God that He discharge on you His punishments for these evils as necessary propitiation: you wanted to bear the punishment for the sins of others.

Grant to us from God the ability to accept sufferings and to make them an offering of love. We ask this in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen.

Intentions:

1. So that our sufferings become the portal to a union with Christ. Let us pray.
2. So that God will help us comprehend the efficacious power of accepting our crosses. Let us pray.
3. So that God will teach us how to accept and offer our sufferings to Him. Let us pray.

Seventh Day

O holy Padre Pio, man of faith and prayer, the multitudes of yesterday and today have come and continue to come to you: Why? They see a man of God, a man of great faith, a man become prayer, a man of suffering, one crucified without a cross… and they remain mute, contemplating your passing hours and hours on end in the choir loft, before the crucified Lord and at the feet of Our Lady of Grace. Who are you to those who come to you, you were asked one day, and you replied: “Among you I am a human being, on the Altar a victim, and in the Confessional a judge.” Your Mass was something magnificent! The people crowded close around the Alter, saw you transfigured by love and suffering, and believed! The intensity of the ardor, with all proclaiming that you lived the Passion of Christ and that you were immolated with Him, was marvelous. Pope Paul VI recognized you with these words: “Look at the renown and the world wide following he has brought together around himself! Why? Because he celebrated Mass with humility, heard confessions from morning to evening, and was a man of God.”

Most dear Padre Pio, intercede for us before God, that we may live our faith as you lived yours, that Mass may become the source and the summit of our ardor and that our life passes into a constant, living communion with Him. We ask this in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen.

Intentions:

1. So that the Holy Mass and the Eucharist be the source and the summit of our faith. Let us pray.
2. So that, following your example, we live in constant communion with God. Let us pray.
3. So that we accept unsparingly the adversities that are placed before us as a test of our faith. Let us pray.

Eighth Day

O holy Padre Pio, for Christians suffering is a necessary test of faith. God chose you to be a victim and you became a sacrificial lamb as an offering for love. You offered yourself to God so that others may have life everlasting. Concern for the well being of others is a hallmark of Christian life. You bear your love to bring among men the presence of God, and thus profess your devotion to Him: “We must love others because they are visible images of God and to love them as God loves them… If God has willingly overwhelmed us with gifts, we cannot lock them up in a trunk without forsaking the good fruits that they must produce.” Your love of God and humanity moved you to suffer with those who are suffering. It was impossible to eliminate suffering but you saw that you could bring relief and felt obligated to do something. Thus the great work to alleviate suffering was brought into being – The Home  for the Relief of Suffering – your hospital!

We want to learn from you this sensibility. Never must we pass indifferently by our suffering brothers. We ask this in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen.

Intentions:

1. So that the elderly and the sick receive from us the affection that they deserve. Let us pray.
2. So that we manifest our love of God with works of charity towards our fellow men. Let us pray.
3. So that we know how to awaken hope in the sick and that our hearts are always full of good will towards those who are suffering. Let us pray.

Ninth Day

O holy Padre Pio, crucified without the cross, your existence, marked by the preternatural, was humanly inexplicable. Your whole life was on of total dedication to God and your fellow man and, like Christ, always doing good. The crowds rushed to you, to your Mass, to your Confessional, for your blessing, to your devotional practices… and returned home comforted and content. Today you continue to be our defender before the throne of God and, every year, millions of people visit your tomb seeing grace or giving thanks for miracles obtained through your intercession.

Dear Padre Pio, with great trust we turn to you to beg your intercession and to seek refuge. Pray for us; obtain from God the graces we need. We ask this in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen.

Intentions:

1. So that we be good witnesses of the faith for the world. Let us pray.
2. So that we pass on to future generations our way of life loving God and the Church. Let us pray.
3. So that, in this proud age so preoccupied in possessing more and more, we serve as witnesses to a higher value, as was Saint Pio of Pietrelcina. Let us pray.