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 Is It At the Very Beginning of the Search for God?
Question 022.
What is the relationship between prayer and conversion?
Part II: Three Conversions Through Trial: Trial I
The first trial is one of wandering and hunger. Once [man] has had enough of this trial and is brought to call out to God, he takes to the way of faith, that path whose journey will bring him to the city of Peace. For it is Christ who leads him, Christ who said, “I am the Way”.
from St. Augustine Answers 101 Questions on Prayer by Fr. Ermatinger.
Man awakens in darkness to his condition of being mired in sin; lost, drowned, empty, lacking […]
St. Augustine, What is It Like For Man Before He Seeks God?
Question 022.
What is the relationship between prayer and conversion?
Part I: Before Conversion
Whoever knows himself to be in the depths [that is lost in sin] cries out with groans and sighs until he is delivered from the depths..until [God’s] own image, that image which is man, is freed by God. Unless he is made anew and aright by God, he will remain in the depths… In order that men might not live even worse off through despair, God promised a safe harbor of forgiveness. Further, that they might not live the worse from hope of pardon, God made man’s date with death uncertain.
Laetare Sunday — Homily by Fr. Ermatinger
Audio
Transcription
Abraham Bids Farewell to Hagar and Ishmael
Octateuch, s. XII. Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, gr. 746, f. 80r
Translation of the Epistle for the Fourth Sunday of Lent:
Brethren: It is written that Abraham had two sons, one from the slave-girl the other from his free-born wife. The son of the slave-girl had been born according to the flesh, but the son of the free woman was the fruit of the promise. All this is an allegory. The two women stand for the two covenants, one of which was from Mt. Sinai (a mountain in Arabia), bringing forth children into slavery; this is Agar, and corresponds to the Jerusalem of […]
