"Pray, Hope And Don't Worry"

"Pray, hope and don't worry," the constant advice of St. Pio of Pietrecina (Padre Pio), whose Memorial we celebrate today. A holy man, believed to be a saint even while he was living, a bearer of the wounds of Christ (stigmata), a confessor who could read hearts and heard confessions for 12 hours a day at times (a la Cure of Ars), a sufferer even at the hands of an unbelieving hierarchy (for a time), but a man whose faith was so strong that he bore the burden of fame and pain with great patience, faith and trust and urged his penitents to do the same.
Good advice for us who, in today's Gospel are urged to be good soil so that the seed of God's Word planted in us will bear fruit a hundred fold. We might consider ourselves "rocky soil" or a thorn-bound plot, so given are we to spurts of fervor and tepidity (dryness....flatness of spirit and effort), or choking on the myriad distractions that fill our days.  How can God's seed take root in OUR lives, so cluttered and distracted as they are? Padre Pio tells us that worry is useless, God is merciful, hears our prayer "reads our heart" and knows our dissatisfaction with ourselves, as well as our DESIRE to do better.  Our worry does no good and is an insult to God. Ours is to do our best one day at a time, to keep trying, and let God move us at HIS pace. If we have the DESIRE, he will do the rest. No need to fret.
Bro. Rene