Catechesis With Saint John Paul Ii

Pope St John Paul II: "It can be concluded that the Assumption favours Mary’s full communion not only with Christ, but with each one of us: she is beside us, because her glorious state allows her to follow us on our daily earthly journey. As we read again in St Germanus: "You dwell spiritually with us and the greatness of your vigilance over us makes your communion of life with us stand out" (Hom. 1, PG 98, 344). Therefore far from creating distance between us and her, Mary’s glorious state brings about a continuous and caring closeness. She knows everything that happens in our existence and she sustains us with maternal love in the trials of life. Assumed into celestial glory, Mary is totally dedicated to the work of salvation so as to communicate to every living person the happiness that has been granted to her. She is a Queen who gives all that she possesses, participating above all in the life and love of Christ." (General Audience, 23 July 1997) Visit Totus2us.org for much more - dedicated to Our Lady, M

St John Paul II, 9 Oct 1985: "The Church professes her faith in the one God, who is at the same time the Most Holy and ineffable Trinity of Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And the Church lives of this truth, contained in the most ancient symbols of faith, and recalled in our times by Paul VI, on the occasion of the 1900th anniversary of the martyrdom of the holy apostles Peter and Paul (1968), in the symbol presented by him and universally known as the "Credo of the People of God". Only "the One, who has wished to make Himself known to us and who 'dwelling in light inaccessible' (1 Tim 6, 16) is in Himself above every name, above all things and above every created intelligence ... can give us right and full knowledge of Himself, revealing Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in whose eternal life we are called by his grace to participate, here below in the obscurity of faith and, beyond death, in perpetual light...". 2. God, who for us is incomprehensible, has wished to reveal Himself, not only as  t

St John Paul II, 17 Sept 1997: "Thus the title "Mother of the Church" reflects the deep conviction of the Christian faithful, who see in Mary not only the mother of the person of Christ, but also of the faithful. She who is recognized as mother of salvation, life and grace, mother of the saved and mother of the living, is with good reason proclaimed Mother of the Church. Pope Paul VI would have liked the Second Vatican Council itself to have proclaimed "Mary Mother of the Church, that is, Mother of all the People of God, both of the faithful and the Pastors". He did so himself in his speech at the closing of the Council’s third session (21 Nov 1964), also requesting that "from now on, with this cherished title the Virgin be even more honoured and invoked by all Christian people" (AAS 1964, 37). In this way, my venerable Predecesser explicitly enunciated the doctrine already contained in chapter VIII of Lumen Gentium, wishing that the title of Mary, Mother of the Church, would acquire an increasingly important

St John Paul II, 24 March 2004: "There is an urgent need for men to open their hearts to a courageous effort of reciprocal understanding. The expectation of justice and peace in every part of the world is becoming ever greater. How can we respond to this thirst for hope and love if not by having recourse to Christ, through Mary? To the Holy Virgin I repeat again today the supplication I made to her then: "Mother of Christ, let there be revealed once again in the history of the world the infinite salvific power of the Redemption: the power of merciful Love! May it stop evil! May it transform consciences! In your Immaculate Heart may the light of Hope be revealed for everyone!"" (General Audience, 24 March 2004) Visit Totus2us.org for much more - dedicated to Our Lady, Mother Mary, it was inspired by our Holy Fathers St John Paul II and Papa Benedict XVI.

St John Paul II, 22 August 1979: "The pontificate of John Paul I, although lasting less than five weeks, has nevertheless left a particular imprint on the Roman seat and the Universal Church. Even if this imprint is still not fully outlined: it is clearly perceived. To decipher it to the end requires a fuller perspective. Only with the passing of the years do the designs of Providence become more comprehensible to minds accustomed to judging only according to categories of human history. However a moment of this brief pontificate seems particularly eloquent for all those who have looked at the figure of John Paul I, and have followed his brief activity attentively. It took place in a period in which - after the closure of the Synod of Bishops, dedicated to catechesis (October 1977) - the Church began to assimilate the fruits of this great collegial work and, above all, awaited the publication of the relevant document, which the participants at the Synod had asked of Paul VI. Unfortunately death did not permit

St John Paul II, 13 June 1979: "The Eucharist brings us closer to God in an amazing way. And it is the Sacrament of his closeness in respect of man. God in the Eucharist is precisely this God who wanted to enter into the history of man. He wanted to accept humanity itself. He wanted to become man. The Sacrament of the Body and Blood reminds us continually of his divine humanity. We sing "Ave, verum corpus, natum ex Maria Virgine". And by living with the Eucharist, we find again all the simplicity and depth of the mystery of Incarnation. It is the Sacrament of God's descent to man, of his approach to all that is human. It is the Sacrament of divine "condescension" (cf St John Chrysostom). The divine entry into human reality reached its culmination through the passion and death. Through his passion and death on the Cross, the Son of God Incarnate became, in a particularly radical way, the Son of Man, he shared right to the end that which is the condition of every man. The Eucharist, Sacrament of the Body and Bl

St John Paul II, 2 May 1979: "Mary is always the fullest accomplishment of the salvific mystery — from the Immaculate Conception to the Assumption — and she is continually a very efficacious pre-announcement of this mystery. She reveals salvation, she brings grace closer even to those who seem the most indifferent and the most distant. In the world, which together with progress manifests its "corruption" and its "aging", she is unceasingly "the beginning of the better world" (origo mundi melioris), as Paul VI put it. "To contemporary man," — wrote the late Pontiff — “the blessed Virgin Mary... offers a serene vision and a reassuring word: the victory of hope over anguish, of communion over solitude, of peace over agitation, of joy and beauty over boredom and nausea.., of life over death"" (General Audience, 2 May 1979) Visit Totus2us.org for much more - dedicated to Our Lady, Mother Mary, it was inspired by our Holy Fathers St John Paul II and Papa Benedict XVI.

St John Paul II, 29 November 1978: "Advent — as a liturgical time of the ecclesial year — takes us back to the beginnings of Revelation. And precisely at the beginnings we encounter immediately the fundamental link between these two realities: God and man. Taking in hand the first book of Sacred Scripture, that is, Genesis, we begin by reading the words: "Beresit bara!: In the beginning He created ... " There then follows the name of God, which in this biblical text sounds "Elohim". In the beginning He created, and the one who created is God. These three words constitute as it were the threshold of Revelation. At the beginning of the book of Genesis God is not only defined with the name "Elohim"; other parts of this book also use the name "Yahweh". The verb "created" speaks even more clearly of him. This verb in fact reveals God, who God is. It expresses his substance not so much in itself as par rapport with the world, that is, with all of the creatures subject to the laws of time and space. The circumstanti

St John Paul II, 15 November 1978: "The virtue of fortitude always requires a certain overcoming of human weakness and above all of fear. Man in fact, by nature, spontaneously fears danger, displeasure, suffering. Hence courageous men and women need to be sought not only on battlefields, but also in hospital wards or on a bed of pain. Such men and women could often be encountered in concentration camps and in places of deportation. They were authentic heroes. Fear sometimes strips civil courage from people who are living in a climate of threat, oppression or persecution. So those who are capable of crossing the so-called barrier of fear, in order to bear witness to the truth and to justice, have particular value. To reach such fortitude, man must in a certain way "go beyond" his own limits and "overcome" himself, running "the risk" of an unknown situation, the risk of being disliked, the risk of exposing himself to unpleasant consequences, insults, degradations, material losses, perhaps imprisonment or persec

St John Paul II, 8 November 1978: "Let us give our attention, today, to men. Christ left us the commandment of love of neighbour. This commandment also contains everything that concerns justice. There can not be love without justice. Love "surpasses" justice, but at the same time it finds its verification in justice. Even a father and a mother, loving their own child, must be just with him. If justice falters, love also is in danger. To be just means to give to each one that which is due to him. This concerns temporal goods, of a material nature. The best example here can be remuneration for work or the so-called right to the fruits of one's own work or of one's own land. However to man is due furthermore his good name, respect, consideration, the reputation that he merits. The more we know a man, the more his personality, his character, his intellect and his heart are revealed to us. And the more we realize — and we must realize! — with which criterion to "measure him" and what it means to be just towards hi

St John Paul II, 25 October 1978: "Prudence is the key for the realisation of the fundamental task that each of us has received from God. This task is the perfection of man himself. God has given to each of us his humanity. We need to respond to this task by programming it consequently. But the Christian has the right and the duty to look at the virtue of prudence also from another perspective. It is like the image and likeness of the Providence of God himself in the dimensions of concrete man. Because man — we know from the book of Genesis — has been created in the image and likeness of God. And God realises his plan in the history of creation and above all in the history of humanity. The purpose of this design is — as St Thomas teaches — the ultimate good of the universe. In the history of humanity, this same design becomes simply the design of salvation, the design that embraces us all. At the centre of its realization is Jesus Christ, in whom was expressed the eternal love and solicitude of God the Father

St John Paul II, 8 August 1979: "The Pope, whom Christ called to Himself on the solemnity of the Transfiguration, continuously worked tirelessly for the transformation of man, of society, of systems, work which was to bear the fruits so much desired by men, by nations, by the whole of humanity: the fruits of justice and peace. By looking with assiduous attention, and sometimes perhaps with disquiet, and above all with continual Christian hope, at the multiform development of events in the contemporary world, he always worked in favour of that civilization that he called "civilization of love", in the spirit of Christ's greatest commandment. The Church places herself at the service of this "civilization of love" through her mission, linked to the announcement and realisation of the Gospel. Particularly dear to Paul VI was evangelization in the contemporary world to which — at the request of the bishops gathered at the Synod in 1974 — he dedicated a magnificent exhortation, Evangelii Nuntiandi, which is like a

St John Paul II, 1 August 1979: "The Pope of Vatican II! The Pope of this profound transformation which was nothing other than a revelation of the face of the Church, awaited by the man and by the world of today! Here too there is an analogy with the mystery of the Lord's Transfiguration. Indeed this same Christ whom the Apostles saw on Mount Tabor was none other than the one they had known each day, the one whose words they had heard and whose actions they had seen. On Mount Tabor he revealed himself to them as the same Lord, but "transfigured. In this Transfiguration was manifested and realized an image of their Master which in all preceding circumstances had been unknown to them, had been veiled before them. John XXIII and, after him, Paul VI received from the Holy Spirit the charism of transformation, thanks to which the figure of the Church, such as everyone knew it, was manifested at once the same and diverse. This "diversity" does not mean detachment from its own essence, but rather, more profound pene

St John Paul II, 14 March 1979: "When Christ, responding to the disciples' request "Teach us to pray" pronounces the words of his prayer, he teaches not only the words, but teaches that in our colloquy with the Father there must be total sincerity and full openness. Prayer must embrace everything that is part of our life. It cannot be something supplementary or marginal. Everything must find in it its own voice. Even everything that aggravates us; that we are ashamed of; that by its nature separates us from God. Precisely this above all. It is prayer that always, first and essentially, demolishes the barrier between us and God, which sin and evil can have put up." (General Audience, 14 March 1979) Visit Totus2us.com for much more - dedicated to Our Lady, Mother Mary, it is inspired by our Holy Fathers St John Paul II, Papa Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

St John Paul II, 9 July 1997: "Looking at the mystery of the Virgin's Assumption it is possible to understand the plan of divine Providence relative to humanity: after Christ, the Verb Incarnate, Mary is the human creature who realises first the eschatological ideal, anticipating the fullness of happiness, promised to the elect through the resurrection of bodies. In the Assumption of the Virgin we can also see the divine will to promote woman. By analogy to that which happened at the origin of the human race and of the history of salvation, in God’s project the eschatological ideal was to be revealed not in an individual, but in a couple. Thus in heavenly glory, beside Christ risen, there is a woman raised up, Mary: the new Adam and the new Eve, the first-fruits of the general resurrection of the bodies of all humanity." (General Audience, 9 July 1997) Music: Sweet Maria by Connor Flanagan. Visit Totus2us.com for much more - dedicated to Our Lady, Mother Mary, it is inspired by our Holy Fathers St John Paul

St John Paul II, 2 July 1997: "The aforementioned Bull Munificentissimus Deus, by making reference to the participation of the woman of the Proto-gospel in the struggle against the serpent and by recognizing in Mary the New Eve, presents the Assumption as the consequence of Mary’s union with Christ’s redeeming work. In this regard it affirms: "Consequently, just as the glorious Resurrection of Christ was an essential part and the ultimate trophy of this victory, thus it was necessary that the combat undergone by the Holy Virgin, united to her Son, should end with the glorification of her virginal body" (AAS 42 [1950], 768). The Assumption is therefore the culmination of the struggle which engaged the generous love of Mary in the redemption of humanity and is the fruit of her unique participation in the victory of the Cross." (General Audience, 2 July 1997) Music: Sweet Maria by Connor Flanagan. Visit Totus2us.com for much more - dedicated to Our Lady, Mother Mary, it is inspired by our Holy Fathers St John P

St John Paul II, 25 November 1981: "Pope John XXIII was a great gift of God to the Church. Not only because – and this would have been enough to make his memory imperishable - he linked his name to the greatest and most transforming event of our century: the convening of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, intuited by him, as he had to confess, as through a mysterious and irresistible inspiration of the Holy Spirit; not only because it celebrated the Roman Synod, and wanted to start the revision of the Code of Canon Law. He was a great gift of God because he made the Church feel alive to the man of today. He was, like the Baptist, a Precursor. He indicated the ways of renewal in the great wake of Tradition, as I fully developed in my speeches in Sotto il Monte and Bergamo. He wanted "to be the voice" (Jn 1, 23) so as to prepare for Christ a new advent in the Church and in the world. In his Easter message of 1962 he had wished to say: "It is still Peter, in his most recent, humble successor who, surrounded

St John Paul II, 28 October 1981: "At the end of October I desire, together with you brothers and sisters, to take a look at the simplicity and, at the same time, the depth of this prayer, to which the most holy Mother in a particular way invites us, spurs us and encourages us. Reciting the Rosary, we penetrate the mysteries of the life of Jesus, which are contemporaneously the mysteries of his Mother. This is felt very clearly in the joyful mysteries, beginning with the annunciation, through the visitation and the birth in the night in Bethlehem, and then through the presentation of the Lord, ending with the finding in the Temple, when Jesus was twelve years old. Although it may seem that the sorrowful mysteries do not directly show us the Mother of Jesus - with the exception of the last two: the way of the cross and the crucifixion - how can we nevertheless think that the Mother was spiritually absent, when her Son suffered in such a terrible way in Gethsemane, at the scourging and the crowning with thorns?

St John Paul II, 21 October 1981: "Christ has taught us to forgive. Forgiveness is also indispensable for God for Him to put questions in the human conscience, to which He awaits a response in all interior truth. At this time, when so many innocent men perish at the hands of other men, a special need appears to impose itself to approach each one of those who kill, to approach with forgiveness in the heart together with the same question that God, Creator and Lord of human life, put to the first man who had made an attempt upon the life of his brother and had taken - had taken that which belongs only to the Creator and Lord of life. Christ taught us to forgive. He taught Peter to forgive "as many as seventy times seven" (Mt 18, 22). God himself forgives when man answers the question put to his conscience and his heart with the whole inner truth of conversion.Leaving to God Himself the judgment and the sentence in their definitive dimension, we do not cease to ask: "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtor

St John Paul II, 14 October 1981: "All this should be kept in mind by those who come to Rome, to the "apostolic memories", those who return in the footsteps of St Peter and St Paul. I too am a pilgrim here. I am a foreigner, who through the will of the Church had to remain here and assume succession in the Roman See following after so many great Popes, Bishops of Rome. And I too feel deeply my human weakness - and thus with trust I repeat the words of the apostle: "virtus in infirmitate perficitur", "power is manifested in weakness" (2 Cor 12, 9 ). And thus with great gratitude to the Holy Spirit I think of this weakness, that He has allowed me to experience on the day of 13th May, believing and humbly trusting that it was able to serve for the strengthening of the Church and also for that of my human person. This is the dimension of the divine test, that is not easy for man to unveil. It is not easy to talk about it with human words. However there is need to talk about it. This great grace needs to be confes