The annual Padre Pio Healing Mass was celebrated at Ballineaspaig Parish, Cork

At Mass at Ballineaspaig Parish to mark the anniversary of the Ordination of St. Pio.At Mass at Ballineaspaig Parish to mark the anniversary of the Ordination of St. Pio.

A congregation of 800 to 1,000 people came to the Church of the Holy Spirit, Dennehy's Cross, Cork on Sunday last for the annual St Pio Healing Mass.  

Bishop Fintan was the Chief Celebrant of the concelebrated Mass which was celebrated to mark the anniversary of Padre Pio's ordination as a Capuchin priest. 

In his homily, he said that St Pio was no stranger to suffering and hardship.  

“In his life we also have a key as to how as followers of Christ we can transform this suffering.

During his canonization homily, St. John Paul II points to the heart of St. Pio’s witness to the universal Church—the transformation of difficulties, sorrows  and suffering into opportunities for holiness.”

This makes sense, Bishop Fintan said, because Padre Pio’s stigmata illustrate this point in a literal way. 

“He actually bore Jesus’ wounds on his body.”

Bishop Fintan said that though we live in a world and a culture which puts great emphasis on pleasure and seeks to minimise pain, yet part of life and the human condition is pain and suffering.  

“Most of us tend to turn away from the cross while St. Pio embraced it, bearing its fruits on his own body. 

In the context of the witness of his entire life, Padre Pio’s stigmata preaches something powerful about suffering. It is not solitary and isolating. It isn’t meaningless and futile. We can bear the wounds of Christ on our bodies, be crucified with him, buried with him, and raised with him.”

One of the highlights of the liturgy at Ballineaspaig Parish for many was the Sacrament of the Sick and many of the congregation availed of the Sacrament.  

Bishop FIntan imparted a special Eucharistic blessing at the end of the Mass, and hundreds queued to venerate first class relics of St Pio, including a mitten and heart bandage, after the Mass.

[Photos by Joby Nambadan)

Bishop Fintan Gavin was the principal celebrant at Mass at Ballineaspaig Parish to mark the anniversary of the Ordination of St. Pio.Bishop Fintan Gavin was the principal celebrant at Mass at Ballineaspaig Parish to mark the anniversary of the Ordination of St. Pio.

 

Prayer readers at Mass at Ballineaspaig Parish to mark the anniversary of the Ordination of St. Pio.Prayer readers at Mass at Ballineaspaig Parish to mark the anniversary of the Ordination of St. Pio.

The Sacrament of the Sick was available at the Mass to mark the anniversary of the Ordination of St. Pio.The Sacrament of the Sick was available at the Mass to mark the anniversary of the Ordination of St. Pio.