May 6, 1977

EX FRUCTIBUS COGNOSCETIS EOS

Write, son:

I am Padre Pio. I knew that you would hear me again; I myself said so; also I said that you would see me, and so it is, but not now. Some time must pass before this promise is fulfilled.

You desire to ask me about your doubts, your fears, your uncertainty; you are afraid you are not in the truth; you are afraid of deceiving yourself and of deceiving others. You continue doubting, in spite of the signs that you have received, in spite of the clear Gospel indication that the plant is judged by its fruits. Was it not enough for you, the testimonies that you received, about the good that the messages did for so many souls? Have the sufferings, the tribulations, the hostility from the darksome forces of evil, that you now see even physically, been of no use for you? What do you still desire, son, in order to abandon yourself without hesitation, doubts and fears, to his merciful Heart?

Be very careful, son, not to yield to the subtle snares of the enemy, who wants to extinguish in you the light enkindled by the Holy Ghost, for he wants to drag you down into the darkness, and many other souls, where they will be lost. Astute and malicious are the enemies of your soul; it is necessary to combat them with the sure weapons of patience, humility, obedience and poverty. When tribulations and suffering become more intense, be very watchful about discouragement, which is an infernal weapon to atrophy all your interior activity. Center your sufferings within the genuine vision of life, understood as a trial.

Life is a trial, directed toward eternity

This conception of life as a trial, has been, and is now, terribly blotted out and suppressed among the people of God, by a flourishing paganism, that has erased from the Christian soul the concept of life, understood and lived as a trial, directed toward eternity. Thus Satan has succeeded in emptying spirits and hearts of the necessary courage, in order to fight the true battle, for the greatest cause.

The immense majority of Christians of this century, and a large number of priests and bishops, have forgotten the weapons, and have opened the gates of their spirit and of their heart to the enemy, who causes terrible havoc in souls, in families and in the Church.

Son, in the regenerated Church, the concept of life understood and considered as a trial, a journey to the great goal of eternity, will be greatly emphasized. The powers of evil always seek to materialize the life of man upon earth, distracting him and isolating him from God, the highest and only Good, the Alpha and Omega of everything and of everyone, and they try to turn him aside to the perishable and ephemeral things of the earth. In the reborn Church, souls will be obliged to be formed and educated in the purity of the Gospel, free from the false and poisonous interpretation of proud and ambitious men, who love themselves more than the truth.

The community, my son, that is being formed and those that will arise in the last times, have the basic finality of being bonfires, in which faith, hope and love will burn with great intensity, in order to undo any attempt at heretical contagion, to substitute the old structures that no longer have their primitive spirit, the spirit for which they were ordained and founded.

Religious orders, congregations, communities of consecrated souls, will fall like worm-eaten fruit, no longer of value for the Church, but rather harmful.

He is the one who destroys and builds, who lifts up and casts down

To be regenerated means to arise to a new life: renovation, son; if the collapse is now taking place, the renovation is also taking place. The blind do not notice anything, or they pretend that they do not notice. But who will detain the work of God, that like a divine fire will burn all the immoral, anti-rational and anti-Christian products of the prophets of Satan, the corrupted and the corruptors?

This accursed breed has infected all of humanity and the Church itself.

My son and brother, Fr. Octavio, do not be frightened nor worried. It is he who destroys and builds; it is he who lifts up and casts down; it is the Spirit of God, who will not permit his Church to be submerged; he will pass by, purifying it, healing it, vivifying it, and he will save it from all the forces and powers that would like to have it destroyed and crushed forever.

Son, the community that you should form should always be penetrated with light and with the fire of the Holy Ghost. Purity of doctrine, austerity of customs, love for God and for the neighbor, will be the characteristics that should animate it at all times.

Hypocritical formalism will be cast down!

Nothing in it will be permitted that is in contrast or opposition to the evangelical precepts. God will be the Alpha and the Omega. Therefore: to him be honor and glory, to him always the place that corresponds to him, the first, both in the heart of each one and in the heart of the community.

Padre Pio