One cold, spring morning I went to Adoration of the most Blessed Sacrament for one hour on the way to work
I entered the church and after kneeling and praying for a while, I went over to the statue of our Blessed Mother Mary and light a candle.
I was feeling quite at peace when I began to hear the sound of someone crying, it was a quite sobbing, which sounded like it was being suppressed, but couldn’t help but overflow into a heart-breaking, deep, sorrowful sound, which was difficult to listen to without sharing in the pain.
I could not help myself; I turned my head and quickly glanced to see where it was coming from.
I saw a young lady, on her knees, her hands clasped in prayer, staring at the Blessed Sacrament and weeping quietly but inconsolably.
The expression on her face was one of intense suffering, the tears rolled down her face; she looked like she was in a world of pain.
I wanted to say something, but I felt I shouldn’t; I wouldn’t have known what to say, and besides, she was praying to God and I sensed I should not interrupt her.
Then I remembered my most prized possession, my relic of St. Padre Pio which I kept in my back pocket. I asked myself if I should give it to her. This was the one thing I did not want to part with. You see, he is my favourite saint, so much so that I attended his canonisation in Rome in 2002.
I kept thinking about whether I should hand it to her or not. I felt quite reluctant to part with it. Then I glanced at the time and noticed it was time to leave to go to work, but I could still hear her weeping in deep sorrow and I felt I could not leave without doing or saying something, but still, I did not want to part with my relic.
I stood up to leave the church, but I had to walk straight past her to reach the exit. She remained kneeling on the church floor, in front of the pews.
As I walked towards her, she sat back on her heels and cast her head down, crying in a torturous state. She did not notice me. I reached into my back pocket and took out my St. Padre Pio relic and took one last look at it. My relic was a small prayer card with St. Padre Pio’s photo and on the back was a tiny piece of cloth taken from his habit.
As I neared her, her eyes remained downcast, so I quietly placed it in on the floor in front of her, without her noticing, and I quietly left the church.
To be honest, I had mixed feelings about giving it away. I wanted to console her, as St. Padre Pio has consoled me through difficult times, but at the same time, I felt a little sad about having lost this treasure of mine.
I decided to do something about my loss. I decided to ask St. Padre Pio to send me another relic, as I felt almost deprived without it.
After work, when I got back home, I told my wife what I had done. She seemed rather surprised that I had given away my only relic of my favourite saint. Over the following days, I accepted it was gone and forgot about my relic.
The following week I was in for a beautiful surprise!
I got home from work to see my wife was holding something in her hand. She walked over to me and said “Guess what I found?”. I asked inquisitively “What is it ?”. She said “It’s something of yours.” I looked into the palm of her hand and could see a small metal medal. As I did not have my glasses on, I could not see it properly, so I asked her again, “What is it?” She replied “It’s your Padre Pio medal”. I quickly grabbed my glasses and looked at the medal and saw the image of St. Padre Pio’s face. Then I flipped the medal over and got another surprise, I saw a piece of St. Padre Pio’s habit was embedded on the back, it was another relic!
I asked my wife where it came from, she replied “I found it when I was cleaning the cupboard under the sink.”
When I looked at the medal I had a vague recollection of having seen it before, but many, many years ago. In fact, it was so long ago, I forgot I had even owned this relic. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say I had not seen this medal for at least 10 years, maybe even longer. What a great gift this was to me. You see, I was always worried I would lose my relic which was on the prayer card, but now I have his relic on a medal which I have now attached to my rosary beads.
Now my relic will remain with me always and I will never lose it.
CATHOLIC ARROWS 