"For
our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the
rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this
darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the
heavenly places."(Ephesians Ch
6: 12)
One of the first contacts that Padre Pio had with the prince of evil occurred in 1906. One night, Padre had returned to the convent of Saint Elia of Pianisi. He couldn't fall asleep that night because of the enormous summer heat. He heard the footsteps of someone coming from a nearby room. Padre Pio thought, "Apparently, Friar Anastasio couldn’t sleep either." He wanted to call out to him so that they could visit and speak for awhile. He went to the window and tried calling to his companion, but he was unable to speak. On the ledge of a nearby window, he saw a monstrous dog. Padre Pio, with terror in his voice, said, “I saw the big dog enter through the window and there was smoke coming from his mouth. I fell on the bed and I heard a voice from the dog that said, "him it is, it is him". While I was still on the bed, the animal jumped to the ledge of the window, then to the roof and disappeared."
One of the first contacts that Padre Pio had with the prince of evil occurred in 1906. One night, Padre had returned to the convent of Saint Elia of Pianisi. He couldn't fall asleep that night because of the enormous summer heat. He heard the footsteps of someone coming from a nearby room. Padre Pio thought, "Apparently, Friar Anastasio couldn’t sleep either." He wanted to call out to him so that they could visit and speak for awhile. He went to the window and tried calling to his companion, but he was unable to speak. On the ledge of a nearby window, he saw a monstrous dog. Padre Pio, with terror in his voice, said, “I saw the big dog enter through the window and there was smoke coming from his mouth. I fell on the bed and I heard a voice from the dog that said, "him it is, it is him". While I was still on the bed, the animal jumped to the ledge of the window, then to the roof and disappeared."
The Devil attacked
Padre Pio with numerous types of temptations. Padre Augustine also
confirmed that the Devil appeared to him under many different
forms. "The Devil appeared as young girls that danced naked, as a
crucifix, as a young friend of the monks, as the Spiritual Father
or as the Provincial Father; as Pope Pius X, a Guardian Angel, as
St. Francis and as Our Lady.” The Devil has also appeared in his
horrible forms with an army of infernal spirits. There were other
times when Padre Pio was approached by the Devil but without any
apparition. He was troubled with deafening noises and covered with
spittle, etc. Padre Pio succeeded in freeing himself from these
attacks of the Devil by invoking the name of Jesus.
The struggle between
Padre Pio and Satan became more difficult when Padre Pio freed the
souls possessed by the Devil. Father Tarcisio of Cervinara said,
"More than once, before leaving the body of a possessed, the Devil
has shouted, "Padre Pio, you give us more trouble than St.
Michael"; also, "Father Pio don't steal the bodies from us and we
won't bother you.
In one of the letters to Padre
Agostino, dated January 18, 1912, he stated, “The Devil does not
want to lose this battle. He takes on many forms. For several days
now, he has appeared with his brothers who are armed with batons
and pieces of iron. One of the difficulties is that they appear
in many disguises. There were several times when they threw me out
of my bed and dragged me out of my bedroom. I am patient,
however, and I know Jesus,Our
Lady, my Guardian
Angel, St.
Joseph and St. Francis are always with me.”
Satan went beyond all the limits of
deception when he went to Father Pio pretending to be a penitent.
This is the Father Pio’s testimony: “One day, while I was hearing
confessions, a man came to the confessional where I was. He was
tall, handsome, dressed with some refinement and he was kind and
polite. He started to confess his sins, which were of every kind:
against God, against man and against the morals. All the sins were
obnoxious! I was disoriented, in fact for all the sins that he
told me, but I responded to him with God’s Word, the example of
the Church, and the morals of the Saints. But the enigmatic
penitent answered me word for word, justifying his sins, always
with extreme ability and politeness. He excused all the sinful
actions, making them sound quite normal and natural, even
comprehensible on the human level.. He continued this way with the
sins that were gruesome against God, Our Lady, the Saints, always
using disrespectful round-about argumentation. He kept this up
even with with the foulest of sins that could be conjured in the
mind of a most sinful man. The answers that he gave me with such
skilled subtlety and malice surprised me. I wondered: who is he?
What world does he come from? And I tried to look at him in order
to read something on his face. At the same time I concentrated on
every word he spoke, trying to discover any clue to his identity..
But suddenly; through a vivid, radiant and internal light I
clearly recognized who he was. With a sound and imperial tone I
told him: “Say long live Jesus, long live Mary!” As
soon as I pronounced these sweet and powerful names, Satan
instantly disappeared in a trickle of fire, leaving behind him an
unbearable stench.” (Don
Pierino is a priest and one of the father Pio’s spiritual sons who
were present at the same time.)
“One day, Padre Pio was in the
confessional, hidden by two curtains. The curtains of the
confessional were not closed all the way and I succeeded in seeing
padre Pio. The men, following the bookings, were prepared on a
side, all in single row. From the place where I was, I read the
Breviary and, sometimes I looked up to see the Padre. From the
little church, through the door, a man came. He was handsome, with
small and black eyes, grizzled hair, with a dark jacket and ruled
trousers. I didn’t want him to distract me and so I kept on
reciting the breviary, but an internal voice told me: “Stop and
look!“ I stopped and looked at padre Pio. That man, while taking
footstep back and forth and without waiting his turn, stopped just
in front of theconfessional, after
the previous penitent went away. He immediately entered among the
curtains, standing, up in front of padre Pio. Then I didn’t see
the dark haired man after that moment. Following some minutes I
saw that man sank on the floor with his legs widened. On the chair
in the confessional, where Padre Pio had been sitting, I didn’t
see padre Pio anymore; but, Jesus. He was blond, young and
handsome and he gazed upon the man that had fell to the floor.
Then again I saw padre Pio coming up from there. He returned to
take a seat to in his place and his appearance melted with Jesus’
appearance. Then I saw only Padre Pio. I immediately heard his
voice: “Hurry up, everyone.” Nobody noticed this happening!
Everybody started with their turn again.
JESUS CHRIST be my Savior deliver me from my Sins!
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