{"id":316,"date":"2014-02-15T14:07:47","date_gmt":"2014-02-15T14:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saintpiocenter.com\/stpio_wpsite\/?p=316"},"modified":"2014-03-24T06:33:43","modified_gmt":"2014-03-24T06:33:43","slug":"316","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saintpiocenter.com\/stpio_wpsite\/2014\/02\/15\/316\/","title":{"rendered":"Today, my prayer is on full power. (Gilda Tejada)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pio_square_pic12\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cToday, my prayer is on full power. St. Pio remains a powerful force in my life. Countless times his presence is palpable and his intercession remains constant.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/address>\n

I first read about St. Pio in a women\u2019s magazine back in the sixties. Being young and impressionable, I saw him as a handsome, young priest in his early pictures and as a kindly, smiling and gentle elderly one. I later kept his pictures and promised to pray to him. Of course, he wasn\u2019t yet a saint. He was a living, breathing priest who exuded a remarkable holiness, who levitated during his masses and bilocated among his people. I made a mental promise to follow his life and occasionally prayed for his help especially during exams.<\/p>\n

Since then, I had an on-off relationship with St. Pio. On when my life was hitting walls; off when things went right. It was this spotty devotion which was tested on May 23, 1988.<\/p>\n

This is my story.<\/p>\n

I always had difficult pregnancies. Out of seven, I carried three successfully; the rest were lost after a month or two. My sixth pregnancy was most traumatic when I lost my third son on the 8th month in May 1980. Hence,\u00a0 when I was found pregnant eight years later, I vacillated between elation and trepidation. Understandably so, since my miscarriage was still haunting me.<\/p>\n

On May 22, 1988, two weeks before my scheduled caesarean operation, I was scared by what I knew were labor pains. I never had them before. We rushed to the hospital where my doctor kept me overnight. After she administered medication to calm my baby, I felt well enough to send my husband home.<\/p>\n

Alone in my hospital room that night, I prayed to St. Pio. My devotion was on full power. I was crisis time. I drifted off to sleep with his name on my lips: \u201cPadre Pio, Padre Pio, Padre Pio\u2026\u201d over and over.<\/p>\n

The next day, I was discharged. I passed by the nurses\u2019 station to say my thank you. The nurse on duty asked if I called for a priest the night before. I thought I turned for the worse during the night and a priest had been called in. I said I didn\u2019t and that I slept the whole night through. She told me she saw a priest enter my room around midnight and since it was way past visiting hours, she wondered whether I called for one. I countered that it may not have been my room the priest entered. She insisted citing the fact that my room was at the end of the U-shaped corridor and directly opposite her station. Confused, I asked what the priest looked like. She said she only saw his back but was sure he was wearing a brown habit. She added that she did not see him leave.<\/p>\n

Two weeks later, I was the mother of a beautiful baby girl. I named her Pia.<\/p>\n

Today, my prayer is on full power. St. Pio remains a powerful force in my life. Countless times his presence is palpable and his intercession remains constant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cToday, my prayer is on full power. St. Pio remains a powerful force in my life. Countless times his presence is palpable and his intercession remains constant.\u201d I first read about St. Pio in a women\u2019s magazine back in the sixties. Being young and impressionable, I saw him as a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hidden","category-testimonials","column","threecol"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saintpiocenter.com\/stpio_wpsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saintpiocenter.com\/stpio_wpsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saintpiocenter.com\/stpio_wpsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saintpiocenter.com\/stpio_wpsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saintpiocenter.com\/stpio_wpsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/saintpiocenter.com\/stpio_wpsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":437,"href":"https:\/\/saintpiocenter.com\/stpio_wpsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions\/437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saintpiocenter.com\/stpio_wpsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saintpiocenter.com\/stpio_wpsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saintpiocenter.com\/stpio_wpsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}