Saint Pius of Pietrelcina

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Ecclesiastes 3:1-11; Psalm 143(144):1-4; Luke 9:18-22

Ecclesiastes today, provides a reasonably well known poem 'there is a time for everything' - it is often used at funerals to remind us that God's plan includes our death and our resurrection.

Poetically, if 'G; is good and 'B' is bad then the structure is:

  • v2: GBBG
  • v3: BGGB
  • v4:GBBG
  • v5: BGGB
  • v6: GBGB
  • v7: BGBG
  • v8: GBBG

which is pleasingly balanced. Remember Ecclesiastes' way - He asks questions to make us think of the answers for ourselves. Why has God made a world in which Good and Bad both occur? Why not just make all Good? Well - we need to remember that God gave us a choice, so that we could choose Him, and the Bad things happen when we fail to choose God. Also, God is in control - we do need to allow God to be in charge.

We need to remember this too, when studying Christ's life (Luke 9: 22)  ‘The Son of Man’ he said ‘is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to death, and to be raised up on the third day.’ All the Bad - is turned over to Good by that last phrase - we will be raised up.

St Pio of Pietrelcina (1887-1968)
He was born in the small village of Pietrelcina in southern Italy, and joined the Capuchin friars at the age of 16. He became a priest seven years later, and spent fifty years at the monastery of San Giovanni Rotondo, where he was very much sought after as a spiritual advisor, confessor, and intercessor. Many miracles were popularly ascribed to him during his lifetime. He died a few days after the fiftieth anniversary of his receiving the stigmata, and over 100,000 people attended his funeral.

 

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