The Servant of God Joseph De Piro left the notes of two discernment exercises he carried out. The first one to decide his vocation to the priesthood and the second one to determine whether to go to the Academy and join the Church diplomacy or go to St Joseph’s Orphanage.
De Piro’s notes show how well he knew himself and that he accepted his needs, limitations, defects, imperfections, deficiencies and sins. In these exercises De Piro clearly demonstrated the particular aspect of the Word of God that can be considered as his first particular word, or rule of life.
In the first discernment exercise, Joseph said that for him Jesus was the one who has suffered so much for my sins. He put down the same words in his second discernment exercise. Here he also declared that he wanted to imitate Jesus more closely. The earliest spiritual document we have by the Servant of God, is a pencil drawing depicting the face of the suffering Jesus. Considering this drawing and keeping in mind his two discernment exercises, it is clear that he based his spirituality on the suffering Jesus. The deep experience of Jesus’ love for him made Joseph abandon everything he had and dedicate himself completely to him as a priest.
God our Father,
through Your Servant Joseph De Piro you endowed the Church with a new missionary charism inspired by the missionary activities of the Apostle Paul.
Through the intercession of Mary Assumed into Heaven and Your Servant Joseph De Piro, we ask you to continue to inspire more men and women to follow in the footsteps of Joseph De Piro and commit themselves to become consecrated religious and lay missionaries in your Church today.
This we pray through Christ our Lord.
Amen.