Suffering is an inevitable part of life, but it doesn’t have to be meaningless. Like so many things in life that we have little or no control over, how we respond to suffering makes all the difference.
One of the greatest saints of the 20th century, Padre Pio, suffered every single day. Poor health began to plague him as a young man and for the rest of his life he was not without physical pain. At 31, he received the visible Stigmata—a miraculous manifestation of Jesus’ wounds on his own body—and it stayed with him for the next fifty years. The pain was agonizing, and the wound on his heart actively bled every day.
In the midst of his suffering—and perhaps in a mysterious way because of it—Padre Pio worked healing miracles for many people who encountered him. The following prayer from Padre Pio is one of the most powerful healing prayers in the world. Whatever suffering you are facing right now, we invite you to say these words now and offer it up to God as a prayer:
Heavenly Father, I thank you for loving me.
I thank you for sending your Son,
Our Lord Jesus Christ, to the world to save and to set me free.
I trust in your power and grace that sustain and restore me.
Loving Father,
touch me now with your healing hands,
for I believe that your will is for me to be well in mind, body, soul and spirit.
Cover me with the most precious blood of your Son,
our Lord, Jesus Christ from the top of my head to the soles of my feet.
Cast anything that should not be in me.
Root out any unhealthy and abnormal cells.
Open any blocked arteries or veins and rebuild and replenish any damaged areas.
Remove all inflammation and cleanse any infection
by the power of Jesus’ precious blood.
Let the fire of your healing love pass through my entire body
to heal and make new any diseased areas
so that my body will function the way you created it to function.
Touch also my mind and my emotion,
even the deepest recesses of my heart.
Saturate my entire being with your presence,
love, joy, and peace, and draw me ever closer to you every moment of my life.
And Father, fill me with your Holy Spirit
and empower me to do your works
so that my life will bring glory and honor to your holy name.
I ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
