A true treasure of spiritual insights, this little booklet contains the remarkable meditations on the Agony of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane by Blessed Padre Pio, the stigmatist priest. One of his few writings, the booklet also includes many pictures of Blessed Padre Pio from throughout his ministry. Padre Pio\'s beautiful and descriptive manner of writing provide a wonderful spiritual insight into that last night of Jesus\' human life.
Excerpt:
" \"Jesus has returned to His place of prayer, and another picture, more terrible than the first, presents itself to Him. All our sins with their entire ugliness parade before Him in every detail. He must clothe Himself with this entire unclean mass of human corruption and present Himself before the sanctity of His Father, to expiate everything with individual pains, to render Him all that glory of which they have robbed Him, to cleanse that human cesspool in which man wallows with contemptible indifference."
"And all this does not make Him retreat. As a raging sea this mass inundates Him, enfolds Him, oppresses Him. Behold Him before His Father the God of Justice, facing the full penalty of divine justice. He, the essence of purity, sanctity by nature, in contact with sin, indeed, as if He Himself had become a sinner Who can fathom the disgust that He feels in His innermost spirit? The horror He feels? The nausea, the contempt He senses so vividly? And having taken all upon Himself, nothing excepted, He is crushed by this immense weight, oppressed, thrown down, prostrated. Exhausted, He groans beneath the weight of Divine Justice, before His Father, Who has permitted His Son to offer Himself as a Victim for sin, as one accursed.\""

The "Meditation Prayer on Mary Immaculate" is one of Padre Pio's few published writings, penned before he was forbidden by the Church to publish or to engage in correspondence--this for fear a cult would arise around him. Here we encounter a profound spiritual penetration into the mystery of Mary's unique and sublime role in our salvation. Though brief, it can be read over and over with great benefit since it is -just as the title suggests--both a meditation and a prayer on the meaning of Mary. This booklet also contains a brief sketch of Padre Pio's life and numerous edifying pictures of this saintly stigmatist.

The world was startled in 2007 by revelations that Mother Teresa of Calcutta's spiritual life was full of serious doubts and personal suffering for nearly 50 years. The other great saint of the last half century - Padre Pio - offers similar revelations of his own in this enlightening collection of short excerpts from his letters.
Many books have been written on the life and works of Padre Pio, but "Words of Light "is not a book about what others think or say about him. Here, he speaks for himself. If you are interested in the complexities and challenges of contemporary faith, you will benefit from these short teachings, counsels, and recollections culled from some of Padre Pio's most personal writings.
"In these letters I quickly discovered the same states of soul that were described by the great mystics. Padre Pio's own 'dark night' was in no way inferior to that described by John of the Cross, and equally the 'living flame' of his love for God dazzles the reader and allows them to catch a glimpse of another world."
- Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, from the Introduction