Saint John Paul, the Great

On Sunday, April 27, the worldwide Church will be celebrating the canonization of two much beloved, holy men: Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II. Not to take anything away from our dear John XXIII, I have to admit I'm super excited especially by the elevation of John Paul II. Having been elected Pope in October 1978 while I was a freshman in college, he is the Holy Father of my journey through young adulthood. A journey spent questioning, doubting, rebelling, (i.e. searching) and finally accepting, understanding and growing in my faith and love for the Church and for God.

I cannot adequately express my love for Saint John Paul II.  He changed my life. Through him I've learned so much.

 Here are just a few of my favorite John Paul II quotes:

"The theme of beauty is decisive for a discourse on art. It was already present when I stressed God's delighted gaze upon creation. In perceiving that all he had created was good, God saw that it was beautiful as well.(4) The link between good and beautiful stirs fruitful reflection. In a certain sense, beauty is the visible form of the good, just as the good is the metaphysical condition of beauty. This was well understood by the Greeks who, by fusing the two concepts, coined a term which embraces both: kalokagathía, or beauty-goodness. On this point Plato writes: “The power of the Good has taken refuge in the nature of the Beautiful”.(5)

It is in living and acting that man establishes his relationship with being, with the truth and with the good. The artist has a special relationship to beauty. In a very true sense it can be said that beauty is the vocation bestowed on him by the Creator in the gift of “artistic talent”. And, certainly, this too is a talent which ought to be made to bear fruit, in keeping with the sense of the Gospel parable of the talents (cf. Mt 25:14-30).

Here we touch on an essential point. Those who perceive in themselves this kind of divine spark which is the artistic vocation—as poet, writer, sculptor, architect, musician, actor and so on—feel at the same time the obligation not to waste this talent but to develop it, in order to put it at the service of their neighbour and of humanity as a whole." Letter to Artists, 1999

“We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures, we are the sum of the Father's love for us and our real capacity to become the image of His Son Jesus.” WYD 2002, Toronto

“It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your heart your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.

It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.” WYD 2000, Rome

"Prayer is a search for God, but it is also a revelation of God. Through prayer God reveals Himself as Creator and Father, as Redeemer and Savior, as the Spirit who "scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God" (1 Cor 2:10), and above all "the secrets of human hearts" (cf. Ps 43[44]:22). Through prayer God reveals Himself above all as Mercy - that is, Love that goes out to those who are suffering, Love that sustains, uplifts, and invites us to trust. The victory of good in the world is united organically with this truth. A person who prays possesses such a truth and in a certain sense makes God, who is merciful Love, present in the world." - Crossing the Threshold of Hope

I started browsing through my heavily highlighted copies of  Mulieris Dignitatem and Evangelium Vitae to find quotes to share here. There are just too many excellent choices so, I've decided to suggest you read these works for yourself or reread them if you haven't in awhile. Also, my daughter, Megan, is currently borrowing two monumental works that have had a profound influence on my view of love, relationships, sex and marriage: Of Love and Responsibility and The Theology of the Body. These works took what was distorted in my mind, shedding light on what was 'broken' if you will, and then restored my understanding of true femininity; of what it means to be a woman, wife and mother. 

Pope John Paul II taught me how to hope, to forgive and to embrace mercy.

He taught me that I'm beautiful.

Saint John Paul, the Great, pray for us.

Prayer to St. John Paul II

O, St. John Paul, from the window of heaven, grant us your blessing! 

 Bless the church that you loved and served and guided, courageously leading it along the paths of the world in order to bring Jesus to everyone and everyone to Jesus. 

Bless the young, who were your great passion. Help them dream again, help them look up high again to find the light that illuminates the paths of life here on earth.

May you bless families, bless each family! You warned of Satan’s assault against this precious and indispensable divine spark that God lit on earth. St. John Paul, with your prayer, may you protect the family and every life that blossoms from the family.

Pray for the whole world, which is still marked by tensions, wars and injustice. 

You tackled war by invoking dialogue and planting the seeds of love: pray for us so that we may be tireless sowers of peace.

O, St. John Paul, from heaven’s window, where we see you next to Mary, 

send God’s blessing down upon us all. Amen.