I suggested that they pray to Padre Pio, but this was met with bafflement. Pio seemed a bit foreign to them. And while they are a prayerful man and wife, they are that rare breed who do not pray often for themselves because they feel God has been so good that they can't ask for anything for themselves. They have a very happy marriage and others say, sometimes enviously, "They have everything".
Time moved on, and again I was asked to pray which I did. They had more medical tests done, and according to the best doctors both man and woman have optimum fertility; no reason was ever found for why they could not conceive. They were not willing to do IVF, or something contra to the Church's teachings. More time passed, they got older and they were beginning to accept that their cross in this life was that they would be childless.
But just last month, I had the idea to give them a blessed medal of Padre Pio and a Rosary. Father Claude blessed the medal and Rosary. When they held the medal, it was like a light was turned on in their souls and suddenly Pio became real for them, and the handsome profile of his face was etched in their memory, and for the first time they prayed to him. I prayed in union with them, and I just got the news that for the first time ever the wife is pregnant. There seems to be a remarkable "coincidence" that their prayer and the pregnancy happened at the same time. There's even talk that they may call the baby after Pio.
It is all the more stunning because I estimate that they had tried for a baby for as much as 9 years.
The catalyst was truly the medal of Pio, the fact that they could pinch it and hold it tightly and affix it to a keyring without it sustaining a scratch meant that it instilled in them a sense of durability and they prayed like they had never done before.
I think medals of our most powerful Saints are more efficacious than ever, because in this time when we our minds are saturated with images, there is something about the solid metal of a medal that gives confidence.
The title of this post tells you that you may pray to Pio for a baby. Perhaps you have no need to pray for a baby of your own, but you may invite others who are experiencing the pain of infertility to pray to Pio. You may even consider giving them a medal of Pio. I believe we are on the cusp of seeing the rise of the medal, when medals know a new popularity. Be sure to get these round pieces of hardware blessed...
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The medals in the pic below are from the St Paul Evangelization Institute. You may purchase a pack of 50 for $16.99
