By loving his children, the pilgrims, and all those who approached him, Padre Pio united himself more intimately with God. Those who were rehabilitated by Padre Pio’s union with eternal love could not be amorphous creatures; they had to be dynamic. Padre Pio’s spiritual children could be distinguished from other Catholics by their spirit of altruism, by their disposition to righteousness, by their public and private prayers, by their sacrifices which were known only to God, by their professional honesty, by their serenity and wholesome joy.
— from the book Padre Pio: A Personal Portrait by Fr. Francesco Napolitano
