Padre Pio and his past lives ?

[A peaceful mind.]

I am doing some research on Padre Pio and just want to know if any of you have ever stumbled over any text about his previous lives. There are so many books out there so I just thought of giving it a chance here.

Yours

A peaceful Mind

[Amilius777]

You will not find an answer to that unfortunately because the current Catholic Church dogma dislikes reincarnation.

I haven't read anything on the matter but I would assume Padre Pio had some difficult past lives which would make sense to all the encounters he had with "diabolical encounters".

If you look at the lives of other Saints they don't always have it as rough. Jesus was only pestered by the demonic when he meditated in the wilderness for several weeks. And those voices were mainly coming from his own thought-process and contemplation; his own shadow self.

Padre Pio in my humble opinion was a "religious soul" or a "Master of faith". These kinds of souls incarnate primarily to teach others by example faith and trust in a Higher Power. But Padre Pio didn't come to that lifetime just by accident, it was from a long journey of incarnations and spiritual evolution towards his own divinity.

A lot of people feel he may have been a fraud because his character and attitude is very questionable. I will agree that as a human person, a man he seemed quite unhinged and mentally unstable. But majority of masters of religion have a lot of personal issues just like all of us. It is his own personality and karma from past lives.


I actually believe his encounters with "the devil" or any saints encounter with the "devil" is usually a projection of their own shadow-self. When God sees that it is time for a soul to attain a higher level kinda like a higher degree in education on earth, their shadow self and negative-energies can be more seen and prevalent. The closer we come to the Light the more of the objective shadow (Satan) we see around us in this world. Negative thoughtforms and maybe actual spirit-entities did visit him at times that were malicious or unwholesome.

Whatever his past incarnations were they must have been a mix like all of us. Some were selfish and fun and carnal, some were suffering and pain and, others were difficult or easy.

The current life we live is the sum of all our past lives and personality from the journey.(the good, the bad, and the ugly)

I also feel that saints like Pio. Francis of Assisi (especially Him), Theresa of Avila, and the big ones had past life connections to Jesus; either in his life as the Christ or in his own past lives. His vibration and power seems to surround them and they know him in a very intuitive sense. Some might have been his disciples (remember he had more than just 12) and some may have been those who even disliked him or hated him or had him killed! (and it was their karma later to come as those who would preach about him and vindicate him!)

You don't need to look at a person's past lives to know who they are because their current life is the Sum of all that they were and are to that point.

[Molearner]

Originally Posted by Amilius777

You will not find an answer to that unfortunately because the current Catholic Church dogma dislikes reincarnation.

You don't need to look at a person's past lives to know who they are because their current life is the Sum of all that they were and are to that point.

Amilius777,

I have no problem with the Church being antagonistic to the idea or reincarnation. The Church desires to affirm the ideal.......which is resurrection and that should correctly be the ideal. It must be noted that resurrection is also the ideal of those that believe in reincarnation. The Church, therefore, ascribes great importance to our present lives just as it should. It is the present life that should be the doorway to resurrection without people believing that there is recourse in some future life. Those that believe in recourse can easily be led to devalue their present lives and to put their focus on things extraneous to resurrection(i.e. worldly pleasures, materialism, etc.)

The logical mind, however, can justifiably believe in the reality of reincarnation. I can list many reasons, as I am sure that you can, to support the reality of reincarnation as fact. The point should be that we recognize the fact that reincarnation is a reality whose entire reason and purpose exists to enable resurrection. Resurrection and the new life is what frees us from the cycle of suffering and repetition. The correct Catholic stance, IMO, for those who believe in reincarnation is to maintain that belief......but to do so privately rather than to vocally contradict the Church.

All of that said, I must point out that belief in reincarnation makes us aware(or should make us aware) that we all share a common ancestry. We share that common ancestry if we can have any belief that there was a first man. Perhaps we cannot accept this if we believe that there was a simultaneous creation of many men all at the same time(in other words, there was no FIRST man.......but rather many). Even that could be pondered to allow for the eventual intermarriage that would connect all of us with each other.

[sky]

Reincarnation was at one time part of Christian teachings until Justinian decided it was to be removed, I wonder why ?

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by sky123

Reincarnation was at one time part of Christian teachings until Justinian
decided it was to be removed, I wonder why ?

Exactly, yet you can find so many many references to reincarnation in
the Bible still...I wrote a paper on the Bible and Reincarnation in 1969!
As to why the Church Fathers thought to take references out..
you would just have to put on your thinking cap for that.

[sky]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

Exactly, yet you can find so many many references to reincarnation in
the Bible still...I wrote a paper on the Bible and Reincarnation in 1969!
As to why the Church Fathers thought to take references out..
you would just have to put on your thinking cap for that.

To control the masses is the only reason that makes sense to me, if we know we have more chances to learn and behave lol, then we wouldn't do what they demanded of us. They wanted total authority over our souls, but who knows the true reason, we can only guess.

[Molearner]

Originally Posted by sky123

To control the masses is the only reason that makes sense to me, if we know we have more chances to learn and behave lol, then we wouldn't do what they demanded of us. They wanted total authority over our souls, but who knows the true reason, we can only guess.

sky123,

I provided a reason in my posting. It can be construed as a desire to give a sense of urgency to our journey towards resurrection(known in another religion as nirvana). It is for our own good and is done with good intentions having little to do with a wish for total authority. If we continually believe that we have another chance in our next life it tends to hamper our journey to its ultimate and hopeful conclusion.

Personally I view the fact of reincarnation as evidence of the forgiveness of God. We are given additional chances to continue our journeys.

[sky]

Originally Posted by Molearner

sky123,

I provided a reason in my posting. It can be construed as a desire to give a sense of urgency to our journey towards resurrection(known in another religion as nirvana). It is for our own good and is done with good intentions having little to do with a wish for total authority. If we continually believe that we have another chance in our next life it tends to hamper our journey to its ultimate and hopeful conclusion.

Personally I view the fact of reincarnation as evidence of the forgiveness of God. We are given additional chances to continue our journeys.

Nirvana is very different to reincarnation, Nirvana can be achieved while still alive.

Reincarnation and resurrection are also different as reincarnation can happen many times but resurrection happens just once.

Nirvana comes from Buddhist beliefs and they neither believe in reincarnation or resurrection.

I can only assume that reincarnation was removed from Christian teachings for reasons regarding control of the masses, but we will never know the whole truth.

[Molearner]

Originally Posted by sky123

Nirvana is very different to reincarnation, Nirvana can be achieved while still alive.

Reincarnation and resurrection are also different as reincarnation can happen many times but resurrection happens just once.

Nirvana comes from Buddhist beliefs and they neither believe in reincarnation or resurrection.

I can only assume that reincarnation was removed from Christian teachings for reasons regarding control of the masses, but we will never know the whole truth.

sky123,

It was a mistake on my part to mention nirvana. It is originally a Buddhist term that has subsequently also been borrowed by Hinduism. Mankind's highest spiritual goals have to do with the raising of consciousness and depending on the orientation of the seeker are given different names.......e.g. illumination, enlightenment, self-realization, nirvana, the Kingdom of Heaven(within) to name a few. Any of these goals can be achieved in a lifetime.

The question is: Which lifetime? For those who believe in reincarnation the hope is that a future lifetime will provide this opportunity if it is not achieved in the present one. So, yes, reincarnation can happen many times but we do not have to believe that this is an endless repetition. In other words, there is an end goal. In my mind this is the resurrection......I know others might disagree.

Once again I must say that one should not expect the Church to embrace reincarnation despite the reality of it. If the Church actually taught reincarnation it could be construed as a message roughly translated as "Better luck next time". I must say that the Church by accepting this seed of doubt concerning the reality of reincarnation has provided an incentive to many to begin their spiritual journey with expectations for this life. So for those of us who believe in reincarnation we bear a heavier burden. That burden is that the temptation it gives us is put off our spiritual quests knowing that we can pursue that in our next life.

The ultimate goal of Christianity is to transform the world...i.e. New Heaven and New Earth(Rev. chapter 21). This differs from other religions whose goal can be seen as escape from the world.

[innerlight]

Originally Posted by sky123

Reincarnation was at one time part of Christian teachings until Justinian decided it was to be removed, I wonder why ?

Because if you keep reincarnation, then you don't need Jesus.. Without Jesus you have no Christian movement, or christian church.