No approval is needed for a prayer that comes from the heart and faith in our loving God says that if you ask with humility and love, you shall receive. Is that not enough?
Perhaps "pointing to the 20" is to indicate the coin refers to the covid-19 outbreak since 2020 is the year it captured the world's attention. Lord have Mercy!
A joyful and grace filled Independance Day to all in the US of A . Padre Pio had such a huge love for the USA where his father went to work to get money for Padre Pio to be educated to be a priest.
Padre Pio talked to an American GI during WW II years. That man came back and bought a plot of land in the Archdiocese of Washington and wanted to build a Catholic Church in the suburb of Hillcrest Heights, MD. Padre Pio sent a Miraculous Medal. The new church was named Holy Family. I will try to find the exact info and post it.
From the History of Holy Family Catholic Church, Hillcrest Heights, MD. Connection to St. Padre Pio St Padre Pio, a Franciscan priest and miracle-worker, was born in Italy in 1887. He entered the Capuchin Order at the age of 15, and at the age of 30, received the stigmata, just as St Francis had, the wounds of Christ miraculously present in his very flesh, on his hands, feet and side. These wounds could be seen underneath bloody bandages as he celebrated public Mass at the Capuchin convent at St Giovanni Rotondo, in southern Italy. Padre Pio soon became known as someone who could read souls in the confessional, who could heal the sick and combat demons -- almost like a figure out of the pages of Scripture! So what is his connection with Holy Family? In the summer of I944, William Carrigan, a young Irish-American from Maryland, serving with the Red Cross in Italy, survived the Battle of Anzio -- where the Allies had landed in Italy and defeated the Fascist Italian forces. Carrigan believed that God had spared and saved him. He heard of a wonder-worker priest in southern Italy, a certain Padre Pio, and resolved to go visit him and ask him what he should do for God. Carrigan found his way there and met with St. Pio. After Carrigan told him the thoughts in his heart, Padre Pio asked him if there was something he could give to the Church. Carrigan mentioned that he owned some beautiful property in rural Maryland, just outside of Washington, on a hilltop overlooking the city. He had thought before of how wonderful it would be if this property could be a place where people could come together to adore Christ in the Blessed Sacrament -- like that Biblical image of the shining city on a hill. Padre Pio told Carrigan that this was indeed what he should do. He then gave him a Miraculous Medal of Mary, and told him to bury it on the property, and to ask the Blessed Mother for her prayers that God would bring this dream about -- and he told Carrigan that he would pray for this intention too. After the war ended, Carrigan returned home and buried the miraculous medal he had received from Padre Pio on the hilltop property. And he prayed. Carrigan then contacted the Archdiocese of Washington and spoke of his desire to have the property become a place for a new church. In 1948, Archbishop O'Boyle visited the hilltop to survey the area. There Carrigan told the Archbishop of his dream. Archbishop O'Boyle was moved by his request, accepted the gift, and soon after designated the property for the building of a new parish church. In 1952, the Archbishop directed Fr. Joseph Gedra, our first pastor, to establish the parish of Holy Family on the property, just as a new neighborhood called Hillcrest Heights was being built in the surrounding area. On November 14th, 1952, the parish was canonically established and Masses began to be regularly celebrated in a local Quonset nearby on the 23rd Parkway. Finally, on November 27th, 1957, the first church, rectory, school, and convent were finished and Holy Family officially opened its doors and celebrated its first Mass on the hilltop property -- in no small part, thanks to the generosity of William Carrigan and the prayers of St Pio, our patrons!
