Catholic Truth Online

According to some estimates, approximately 20 million people have attended the Mass celebrated by Padre Pio.

Concerning the value of the Mass, Padre Pio said: 

​On July 25, 1915, Padre Pio wrote a letter to Annita Rodote on how to properly attend the Holy Mass:

"The Divine Master calls the church the house of prayer. In order to avoid irreverence and imperfections I exhort you in the Lord to:

• Enter the church in silence and with great respect.

• Take the holy water and make the sign of the cross carefully and slowly.

• Before God in the Blessed Sacrament genuflect devoutly.

• At your pace, kneel down and render to Jesus the tribute of you presence.

• Confide to him all your needs, and those of others.

• Speak to him with filial abandonment.

• Be very composed when standing up, kneeling down, and sitting.

• Carry out every religious act with the greatest devotion.

• Be modest in your glance.

• Don't turn you head here and there to see who enters and leaves.

• Don't laugh.

• Don't speak to anybody, except when requested for charity or other strict necessity.

• Say the words distinctly, observe the pauses, and never hurry.

• Behave in such a way that all the presents are edified by you.

• Don't leave without asking Jesus for his blessing, and forgiveness for your shortcomings.

• Leave the church recollected and calm."​

• "My Mass  is a sacred accomplishment of the Passion of Jesus."

• "In knowing the Passion of Jesus, you will also know my Passion."

• "The Mass is the complete union between Jesus and me."

• "All of Paradise is close to the altar when I say Mass."

• "The angels attend my Mass In legions." 

• "The angels around the altar adore and love."

• "The Holy Virgin assists me."

• "During the Consecration a new, awesome and wonderful annihilation and creation happens."

• "I suffer all what Jesus suffered, from the Garden to the Cross."

• "I inadequately suffer to the extent a human creature can possibly suffer."

• "I suffer the agony of death like Jesus in the Garden Gethsemane."

• "The sufferings are so acute that they can neither be described nor imagined."

• "I suffer the bitterness of gall very often during the Mass."

• "I suffer the most from the Consecration to the Communion."

• "My suffering is insignificant compared to the  suffering Jesus experienced."

• "I don’t want my Calvary to be alleviated; rather to make it harder. We must suffer."

• "The offertory is the moment when the soul becomes detached from all that is profane."

• "I suffer the crowning of thorns during the Holy Mass and also before and after  it."

• "Without the crown of thorns the immolation would not be complete. The thorns are around the whole head."

• "The crown of thorns is never taken away. The head and the heart are the wound that hurt the most."

• "I suffer the scourging from the beginning to the end of the Mass, but more intensely after the Consecration."

• "I also speak the "seven words" that Jesus stated on the Cross."

• "During the Way of the Cross I am Jesus Himself. Jesus himself helps me like Simon of Cyrene and Veronica"

• "At the Calvary, there where screams, blasphemies, loud clamor, and threats . . . that was really an uproar."

• "I find my rest on the Cross."

• "In His last gaze the dying Jesus looked towards His Holy Mother."

• "I put last gaze on my brothers in exile." 

• "In the Communion I ask the Lord to let me be another Jesus, all Jesus, always Jesus."

• "My Communion is a fusion. Like two candles that fuse together and cannot be distinguished one from the other."

• "I die mystically, at the Holy Communion. The Communion is the culminating point of my suffering."

• "In the communion Jesus put his delight in his creature."

• "The Eucharist gives and idea of the union we will have in heaven."

• "How could I live failing even for a single morning to receive Jesus in the Communion?"

• "Help me carry the cross. I that carry it for  all."

• "O lord, don't strike my poor brothers, strike me."

• "I want to expiate the sins of all, like Jesus did on the cross."

• "I take all iniquities on myself,  as it is part of the Divine Sacrifice."

• "I see all my children who come to the altar, as if in a mirror. I tell Mary: Here are the children of your Son."

• "If we only knew how God regards it, we would risk our lives to be present at a single Mass."

• "The Mass gives to God an infinite glory."

• "Mass is redemption of your soul and reconciliation with God."

• "Listen to the Mass the way the virgin Mary stood at the Calvary"

• "The holy Mass regenerates the world."

• "The fruits that we receive at Mass cannot be enumerated. We will know it only in Paradise."

• "I want to save my soul at any cost."

• "I live for Jesus Christ, I live for his glory, I live to serve him, I live to love him."

• "If it depended on me I would never leave the altar."

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