The movement of the human soul, and human society in general, from its fallen chaotic state towards divine order is at the heart of the Blog of Padre Pio Press. Writings, ponderings, and reflections on this movement of the soul are authored by Fr. Cliff Ermatinger and by the occasional Guest Contributor. The articles and recordings are relegated to the following areas:
During the Month of June, Which is Devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
Padre Pio Press Invites Its Readership to Join In Saying:
in the morning The Litany of Humility
The Litany of the Sacred Heart at night 
In Reparation for All the Ways He is Blasphemined,
Consolation for All The Times He is Ignored,
and Veneration for All that He Continues to Give to Us.
During the Month of June, Which is
Devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
Padre Pio Press Invites Its Readership to Join In Saying:
in the morning
The Litany of Humility
:
and at night,
The Litany of the Sacred Heart
In Reparation for
All the Ways He is Blasphemed,
Consolation for All the Times
He is Ignored,
and Veneration for All that
He Continues to Give to Us.
St. Augustine, How Does Temptation Relate to Prayer?
Question 034.
Christ says, Watch and pray, that you do not fall into temptation. What is the relation between prayer and temptation?
What is to enter into temptation but to fail in faith? Temptation advances as faith lets up. And temptation yields as faith advances… He who fights prays, and would not he who is in danger pray?
from St. Augustine Answers 101 Questions on Prayer by Fr. Ermatinger.
Just as entering into faith is to be a participant in the action of faith, entering into temptation is to be a participant in the temptation. It is important at this juncture to delineate between the hearing through […]
Third Sunday After Easter — Homily by Fr. Ermatinger
Audio In Full Post
Second Class – The Parting. “Thus part we rich in sorrow, parting poor”, Abraham Solomon, 1855
Transcription of Homily
Translation of the Epistle for the Third Sunday after Easter:
Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, to refrain yourselves from carnal desires which war against the soul, Having your conversation good among the Gentiles: that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by the good works which they shall behold in you, glorify God in the day of visitation.
Be ye subject therefore to every human creature for God’s sake: whether it be to the king as excelling, Or to governors as sent by him for the punishment […]
St. Augustine, Is Faith More Than the Source of Prayer?
Question 033.
So faith is merely the source of prayer?
For St. Augustine, faith is more than prayer’s source. It is certainly more than trusting that his prayers are heard… God alone knows the things of God in their fullness… But he does communicate something of himself to man, and that is precisely the content of Augustine’s faith…Although we are deprived of the vision of God, giving our mortal state, we do attain it to a certain extent by faith.
from St. Augustine Answers 101 Questions on Prayer by Fr. Ermatinger.
Thanks to Luther, it has become common parlance to speak of faith as a species of […]
St. Augustine, How Does Faith Relate to Prayer?
Question 032.
What is the relation between faith and prayer?
If faith lacks, prayer dies. For who prays for that which he does not believe?… So that we might pray, let us believe. And that this faith by which we pray not fail, let us pray. Faith pours out prayer and the pouring out of prayer, in turn, obtains the strengthening of faith.
from St. Augustine Answers 101 Questions on Prayer by Fr. Ermatinger.
The seed of prayer is the grace of faith that God implants within the soul. It is watered by hope, grows by charity, and the fruit of its flowering is the obtaining of […]