Stella Lilley, was a very dear and spiritual friend. I had met Stella in Waterloo many years before and she had made a comment which had intrigued me. I talked to her about the lovely experiences I was having in the Lord, and she said something to the effect, “Is it you or is it Padre Pio?” Strange I felt Jesus had used Padre Pio to bring me close to himself. At this meeting there was a very brilliant scientist who had gone through extremely difficult times and had managed, with the prayers and guidance of Padre Pio, to survive a horrible accident and immense pain. He talked about seeing Padre Pio in his sitting room even after Padre Pio had died in 1968.
The whole experience was uplifting and my affection for this holy man PP grew.
Now Stella had arranged for Ursula and I plus the four boys to go on a pilgrimage to San Giovanni and to pay the fees over a period of a year. As you can well imagine, a teacher with three of his sons studying at Ampleforth, was in no position to be extravagant. Fr. Alexander McCabe, one of the Benedictine monks from the Abbey and a member of our Padre Pio prayer group, decided to join the pilgrimage and off we set from Dover on our journey. We were all in one very comfortable coach, stopping in Hösbach in Germany for a night and travelling on to Orvieto, Lanciano and Monte San’Angelo, before finally reaching San Giovanni Rotondo in Foggia, Italy. Prayer went on endlessly with the rosary and talks from the priest who was there with us. Many bottles of water later, we settled down into our hotel at the Parco Della Rosa in San Giovanni. The four boys were in one large room at one end of a corridor whilst Ursula and I shared a room next door to an elderly couple. A feeling of peace, joy and expectancy was noticeable. We heard holy Mass, visited Padre Pio’s tomb and participated in the Stations of the Cross.
We often stopped during these trips and had picnics and took many photographs. I can still taste the wonderful peaches and snacks we enjoyed on our way to Assisi to see the monastery and visit the church dedicated to St. Clare. The hotels we stayed in were all extremely comfortable and we tasted some well-prepared food and good wine.
The boys enjoyed their time, serving drinks to everyone on the bus, running around the piazza and other places we stopped. They were well looked after by everyone especially Anna, our tour guide, who helped Stella at the center in Whitstable. We visited Lanciano where the host is encased in a monstrance and now appears to have been transformed into flesh which, having been tested, is found to be from heart muscle. Extraordinary to say the least.
The most memorable trip was to Monte San’Angelo where St. Francis stood outside as he felt the presence of God was too great for him to be able to take.
On our way, back we drove for two hours westwards to visit Pietrelcina, the birthplace of Padre Pio. We stopped there for only two hours.
Trips were made to the tree where Padre Pio received his stigmata. The changes made to that area since, involve the building of a church and a lovely meditation building in which statues of Our Lady, Padre Pio and the tree, which is eight feet tall, are kept. Many visitors go there regularly as indeed we do. Some join the Rosary walk which PP and his mother often used to get to the farm where they grew vegetables and had a few sheep or goats on Piana Romana where PP often slept. It seems he conversed with angels at the age of five and was amazed no one else seemed to do so.
We visited the house where Padre Pio was born and the tiny church of Sant Anna where he was baptized - then onto the convent which Mary Pyle, the American, had financed. In the Monastery we saw the blood-stained vestments of Padre Pio and we met Brother Lawrence for the first time.