This book takes you on a journey through Pio’s eyes starting from his childhood, and ending at his death. It was an incredible read. I thought I knew a fair bit about Padre Pio already, but I still managed to find some fact-gems I didn’t know before in this lovely story. I especially loved hearing about the miracles surrounding Pio during the war, how he’d appear to the pilots to prevent bombings, leading to many’s conversions. It was nothing short of remarkable!
Philip Campbell did an excellent job with this book. The writing style was simple and easy to follow, but still full of beautiful, emotion-evoking descriptions. Here are a few that really struck me:
“Pio gazed out past the crowds, past the rows of stone houses with their white, crumbling plaster facades, out upon the windswept fields below Gargano’s brooding slopes—and beyond them, to the distant purple hills and eternal blue sky, where beyond it waited the vault of heaven.”
A description of the crucifix in Pio’s cell: “The face of Christ was not stoic or asleep like in so many depictions; rather, the mouth was agape in pain, eyes half opened, existing in the liminal realm between life and death. The body of Christ hung low, seeming to sag beneath the weight of the world’s sins.”
And many more…
I highly recommend this book. I'd probably give it a 4.5/5 stars.
I highly recommend this book and plan to do a little book review on my youtube page as well, which you can subscribe to here if you want to be notified when I do at Motherhood&Writing
Disclaimers: There are some scenes regarding possession and being physically assaulted by the devil that a sensitive reader might find scary, although I did not find these scenes detailed to the point they were unnecessarily scary. I felt they got the point across without being too scary.
You can purchase the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Wounds-Love-Story-Saint-Padre/dp/1505123194/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=wounds+of+love+the+story+of+saint+padre+pio&qid=1683155018&sprefix=wounds+of+love+pad%2Caps%2C176&sr=8-1
Comments