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.
Easter Sunday — A Message From St. Pope John Paul II
Translation of the Gospel According to Mark
Le Saintes Femmes au Tombeau, William Bouguereau, cir. 1890
At that time, Mary Magdalen, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought sweet spices, that coming they might anoint Jesus. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came to the sepulcher, the sun being now risen. And they said one to another: Who shall roll us back the stone from the door of the sepulcher? And looking back, they saw the stone rolled back. For it was very great. And entering into the sepulcher, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed with a white robe, and […]
Holy Saturday: A Reflection
Credo in Iesum Christum qui descendit ad inferos.
After Adam’s sin, it is said that Adam’s expulsion from the Temple Garden of God was ever descent; every step forward was a step downward from the heights and away from closeness with God, with whom he had walked in the cool of the day. Downward Adam went, more enmeshed with the toils of the world, more estranged from God, his Creator, his Beloved. Adam, young once when he was created from the clay of the fresh earth, became the Old Adam, toiling, laboring, sacrificing, doing penance, yearning after the Oath that God had made to him, yet ever bound and bowed to his sin that would always torment him, always […]
Good Friday in Three Parts: Part III
And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
Crucifixion of Christ, Isenheim Altarpiece (detail), Matthias Grünewald, 1510-15
Depictions of the Crucifiction of Christ typically end in darkness and silence. The heavens grow dark, the distant Father is seemingly silent in the face of the murder of His Only Begotten Son, life fades from the Incarnate Body of the Son, He is taken down, He is laid in a grave not His own. There is weeping, of no small amount, and people return to their homes.
This depiction is a sort of mental balm of the type that seeks to safeguard the human mind when it […]
Good Friday in Three Parts: Part II
Behold, But a Man
Pontius Pilate is altogether human, perhaps too human. He is a man of some knowledge, but not a man of conviction or ideals. Pilate knows that truth and justice are important but, likely due to being assigned to the provincial backwater of Roman Judaea, decidedly not Roman and filled with a plethora of competing political and religious worldviews, took a subjective stance on the issue. What mattered at the end of the day was not truth, but who wielded power. This was truth that could be known; because it was tangible; because it provided security and purpose.
What is truth?, Nikolai Ge, 1890
The tussle of wills between […]
Good Friday in Three Parts: Part I
For Our Sins
There is nothing particularly necessary about the maltreatment that Jesus suffers as part of His Passion. None of the animal sacrificial victims of the Old Law were abused prior to their sacrifice, and their slaughter was as humane as a sacrifice could be. Even the goat of Yom Kippur, upon which the sins of the Nation were placed, was simply let free. The abuse that Christ suffered prior to His death is a result of human choice, of human acrimony, having to be done because Christ chose to subject Himself to whatever man wished to do to Him. It is a reflection and manifestation of the malice that lies in the heart of man, the movement of pride […]