The wound in my heart spurts out blood regularly, especially from Thursday night to Saturday. My father, I am moving around in pain from the torture and for the subsequent confusion that I feel in the depth of my soul. I am afraid of dying from loss of blood if the Lord does not hear the groans of my poor heart and does not rescue me out of this predicament. Will Jesus, who is so good, grant me this grace?”
That's a quote from Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, more familiarly known as Padre Pio, whose feast day is September 23. He was a holy priest, and a revered confessor and spiritual director. In this case, he was writing to his own spiritual director, Father Benedetto of San Marco in Lamis, on October 22, 1918. It's one of the letters of spiritual direction — he is on both the giving and the receiving end — translated in a devotional book, Padre Pio's Spiritual Direction for Every Day by two professors. One of the authors is, like Padre Pio, a Capuchin priest; the other is a woman, points to the complementarity between men and women as well as that among people of all vocations in the Church, a collaboration necessary for its good health.
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