St. Pio of Pietrelcina: Not too shabby, either!

In this Year for Priests, Pope Benedict has held up St. John Vianney as a role model for parish Priests, and rightly so. But today's feast day of St. Pio of Pietrelcina gives us another great example of Priesthood.

In today's Gospel, Jesus gives the "travel restrictions" of the day: "Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic." Who better exemplified this than St. Pio, who saw himself only as "a poor Friar who prays"?

Like Vianney, the crowds found Pio in a tiny, obscure corner of his native country. Like Vianney, Pio spent hours in the confessional (also like Vianney, he was not afraid to throw someone out of the Confessional if they hadn't prepared themself). But unlike St. Jean-Marie, Pio also spent hours at his desk, corresponding with those who, though unable to make the journey to San Giovanni Rotondo, wrote him letters asking for prayers and counsel (one wonders what his influence would have been, had he been born 30 years later and had internet access?).

"Pray, hope, and don't worry." Happy Feast Day!