The Healing Journey

September 23, 2025

Perhaps Padre Pio’s most famous quote, which you will find on posters, coasters, and prints, is “Pray, hope, and don’t worry.” And our first reaction is often, “Easy for you to say, Saint Pio. You were a saint, you’re in Heaven, you had an intimate relationship with Jesus while the rest of us down here suffering and trudging along, grieving, struggling and … worrying.”

Worry is such a fundamental fact of life. We need to worry, right? When someone we love dies, we have absolutely no idea what tomorrow will bring, but we can be certain of one thing: It will be different from today. And we probably can be certain of one other thing: If tomorrow is different from today, tomorrow is a reason for us to be afraid that something bad will happen.

At least that’s how our minds usually work, except for extraordinary people like Padre Pio, who were blessed with enormous graces.

But even Jesus said worry is useless, in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothes?” And “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Everyone who has ever grieved knows that tomorrow has troubles of its own.

One other thing. It’s worth remembering that Padre Pio’s full quote was “Pray, hope and don’t worry. Worry is useless. God is merciful and will hear your prayer.”

Today is the feast day of St. Pio.
© J Pisani

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