Day 1 – Love
- Have the courage to live for love... A
person’s greatness lies not in his possessions but in who he is, not in what he
owns but in what he shares with others.
(...) Today the message about the purity of
heart is very timely. The culture of death wishes to destroy the purity of
heart. One of the strategies of this action is to deliberately create doubt
about the value of the human attitude that we call the virtue of chastity. This
is something particularly dangerous when the attack is aimed at the sensitive
consciences of children and young people. A culture that in this way wounds or
even kills the correct relationship between individuals, is a culture of death,
for man cannot live without true love. (...) Proclaim to the world “the Good
News” of the purity of heart, and by the example of your lives pass on the
message of the culture of love. I know how sensitive you are to truth and
beauty. Today the culture of death sets before you, among other things, a
so-called “free love.” In this kind of disfigurement of love we reach the
profanation of one of the most cherished and sacred values, because promiscuity
is neither love nor freedom. (...) Do not be afraid to live in a way contrary
to fashionable opinions and ways of life in conflict with God’s law. The
courage of faith is costly, but you cannot gamble and lose love! Do not allow
anyone to enslave you! Do not allow yourselves to be seduced by the illusions
of good fortune for which you will have to pay a very high price, a price of
often incurable wounds or even of a life destroyed!
John Paul II, Homily, Sandomierz. 06. 12. 1999
Let us pray: God our Father, in order to
return to you, we must find your mercy your patient and kind love which in you
knows no limit. Infinite is your readiness to forgive our sins because as
ineffable is the sacrifice of your Son. With confidence we ask that you crown
with the glory of the saints the tireless witness and apostle of your mercy,
Blessed John Paul II, and let us enjoy his intercession in heaven, and grant us
this favor ... through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Our Father ... Hail Mary ... Glory be ...
Litany ...
Day 2 – Truth
No one can dictate to anyone else his own
”Truth.” Truth overcomes only with its own power. Imposing one’s own views
leads to making worse inter-personal relationships, giving rise to quarrels and
tensions. Thus, one of the conditions to maintain peace in the world is to
respect the freedom of conscience of others even if they think quite
differently from the way we do.
Truth is the light of the human intellect. If
an individual tries from his very youth to come to know reality in its many
dimensions, he does so in order to possess the truth, in order to live the
truth. Such is the structure of the human spirit. Hunger for the truth is its
fundamental drive and expression. Christ says: you will know the truth and the
truth will make you free. Of all the words recorded in the Gospels these,
without a doubt, belong to the most important. For he spoke simultaneously
about the whole person. He spoke about what is used to build from within, in
the dimensions of the human spirit, proper to a person’s dignity and greatness.
This dignity does not depend only on a person’s education—even a university
one—and an illiterate person c an also have it. At the same time, however, an
education, systematic knowledge about reality, should serve this dignity of a
human person. ^Therefore, it should serve the Truth. (...) Christ’s words—you
will know the Truth and the Truth will make you free—become a veritable plan.
Young people—if we can say it this way—have an innate sense for the truth. And
the truth should serve freedom: Young people also have a spontaneous desire for
freedom. And what does it mean to be free? This means: to know how to use your
freedom in Truth—to be truly free. To be truly free—does not mean, absolutely
does not mean—to do whatever I want, to do whatever I please. Freedom contains
in itself a criterion of Truth, the discipline of Truth. Without this it is not
authentic. It is a lie about freedom. To be truly free—means—to use your
freedom for that which is truly good (…)to be a person of upright conscience,
to be responsible, to be a person for others.
Apostolic letter of Pope John Paul II to the
youth of the world
On the occasion of the International Year of Youth 1985
On the occasion of the International Year of Youth 1985
Let us pray: God our Father, before the Church
of the Third Millennium there opens a vast ocean of creeds of our contemporary
world. Believing in You, placing my hope in Christ, I wish to imitate Him and
experience the miracle of an abundant catch. Come to the aid of all Christians
of our generation to go out into the deep of Truth, good, and beauty. Make our
Blessed Pope John Paul II a holy patron of the new evangelization, and through
his intercession grant us this favor ... Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Our Father ... Hail Mary ... Glory be ...
Litany ...
Day 3—The Person
On this earth be the bearers of Christian
faith and hope, every day living in love. Be faithful witnesses of the
resurrected Christ, never give ground to obstacles that accumulate on the paths
of your life. I am counting on you. On your youthful enthusiasm and dedication
to Christ.
A person cannot live without love. A person
remains an entity that cannot understand himself, his life makes no sense, if
love does not manifest itself to him, if he will not encounter love, if he
can’t touch it and in some way make it his own, if he does not find some living
participation in it. That is precisely why Christ the Redeemer, (...)manifests
a totality of the person to the person himself. This is the human dimension of
the mystery of redemption. “God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son so that everyone who believes in Him will not be lost but will
have eternal life.” (Jn 3, 16) And through the Son-Word, who became man (...)
God entered into human history –one of billions, and at the same time just One!
We focus our attention toward Him, repeating
the confession opf St. Peter: “To whom shall we go? You have the words of
eternal life.” because only in Him , the Son of God , do we have our salvation.
Through (...) all the roads of activity by which the Church expresses itself,
we must continuously go to Him, who is the Head, to Him, “through whom all came
into being, and thanks to whom we also exist. The Church does not cease to
listen to His words, it rereads them anew, reads every detail of His life. The
Church lives His mystery, draws from it without any respite, and constantly
seeks ways to make this mystery of our Master and Lord a part of their
lives—humanity, nations, ever-new generations, everyone. Man discovers in
Christ his own greatness, dignity , , , and the value of his humanity. Man
remains in the mystery of the redemption newly asserted, newly declared.
Created anew! A person who wants to understand himself anew (...) to come
closer to Christ, must as if enter into Him with himself, to assimilate the
entire reality of the Incarnation and Redemption, in order to find oneself. If
this deep process is realized in a person, he then not only brings forth fruit
to praise God, but also looks upon himself with great awe. A person must carry
in the eyes of the Creator a special value because he deserved such a powerful
Redeemer since God “gave his only-begotten so that man would not be lost, but
would have eternal life” (see J 3,16).
John Paul II, Encyclical Redemptor Hominis,
1979
Let us pray: God our Father, You are love and
you were first to love us. Your Son became a man for our salvation, and
revealing to his brothers and sisters the truth about love, permitted them to
understand themselves and discover the sense of their own existence. We ask you
that the Blessed John Paul II, a tireless defender of human dignity, a good shepherd,
seeking lost souls in the confusion of life and plunged into hopelessness, was
presented as the model of holiness. By his intercession grant us this favor ...
Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Our Father ... , Hail Mary ... , Glory be ...
Litany ...
Day 4 – The Family
A family that draws its strength from God
becomes the strength of man and of an entire nation.
Among the many paths in a person’s life, the
family is the first path and in many ways the most important one, remaining in
every instance a special path, the only path, and an unrepeatable path—just as
every person is unrepeatable. A person comes into this world and becomes a
member of a family, grows and develops, learns about values. The Church
embraces the family in its maternal care because it knows well that it is
precisely the family that gives a person the foundation for complete humanity.
The family has its origin in the kind of love
that the Creator embraces the created world that was already expressed “in the
beginning,” in the Book of Genesis (1,1), And it found its supreme confirmation
in the words of Christ in the Gospel: “God so loved the world that He gave His
only--begotten Son” (J 3, 16). The only-begotten Son, of one substance with the
Father, God from God and Light from Light, entered into human history through
the family: “For by his Incarnation He united himself with every person.
He labored with human hands, (...) He loved
with a human heart, born of the Virgin Mary, He truly became one of us, He was
like us in everything but sin.” Therefore, if Christ “reveals Himself in the
fullness of a person to the person himself, He does this first in the family
and through the family in which He chose to be born and grow up. We know that
the Redeemer chose to spend a big part of His life in the secrecy of Nazareth,
being “obedient” cf. Lk 2, 51) as “the Son of Man” to His Mother Mary and the
carpenter Joseph. Is not this filial “obedience” a first measure of His
obedience to His Father “even unto death” (Flp 2, 8) through which He redeemed
the world?
John Paul II, Letter to Families Gratissimam
Sane. 1994
Let us pray: God our Father, your eternal plan
of salvation reached its fullness when your Beloved Son came into the world
through the Holy Family, sanctifying by His birth every human family. We
entrust to you our families and all the families around the world. May prayer
be a part of their lives, pure love, respect for life, and a healthy concern
for youth. We ask you humbly that the Blessed Pope John Paul II, the tireless
defender of the rights of a family, be to crown Him with the glory of the
Saints. Through His intercession may we be strengthened by the grace ...
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Our Father ... Hail Mary ... Glory be ...
Litany ...
Day 5 - Youth
You must make demands from yourself, even if
others make no demands from you. Only making demands from yourself—contrary to
the universal consent that says, “Take the easy way,”-- can you realize other
papal challenges – to choose “to be more” rather than “to have more.” Today’s “
to be more” of a young person is the courage to remain full of initiative—you
cannot resign from this, the future of everyone depends on this—faithful to a
dynamic witness to faith and hope.
My young friends ... Be blessed! Be blessed
together with Mary, who believed that the words spoken to her by the Lord will
come to pass. Be blessed. May the sign of the woman clothed with the sun go
with you, may she go with everyone along all the paths of life. May she lead
you to the fulfillment in God of your adoption as children in t. Verily,
verily. The Lord will do great things for you! The Lord will do great things
for us!
You, my dear young friends, girls and boys,
you are to be faithful witnesses brave in those “great things” in your circles,
with your peers, in all circumstances of life. Mary, the Virgin from Nazareth,
who heeded every inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is with you. She who through
her grand response to God’s plan, through her “be it done unto me” disclosed to
the world the long awaited perspective on salvation. Looking at the humble
handmaid of the Lord, taken today into the glory of heaven, I say to you with
St. Paul: “Live by the spirit” (Ga 5, 16.) Allow the “Spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, of knowledge, of piety and
fear of the Lord (cf. Is 11,2) penetrate your heart and your life, and
transform the face of the earth. Renewed by the power that comes from Him,
become the builders of a new world: a different world, based on truth, on
justice, on solidarity, on love.
My dear young friends! Receive the Holy Spirit
and be strong!
John Paul II, Homily for the Conclusion VI/DM,
Czestochowa, August 15, 1991
Let us pray: God our Father, from our youth
You have invited us to follow You. In Your Son, youth has a Master, who teaches
how to form a new person in us—patiently and persistently—to discover one’s
vocation, to build effectively a culture of love. We pray to You for our youth,
that it may not enslave itself to blind desires and deceptive love. May the Blessed
John Paul II, who sought the young and reciprocally loved them, be a model and
patron for them in the body of saints, and for us I ask for this favor ...
Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Our Father ... Hail Mary ... Glory be ...
Litany ...
Day 6 – Sin
The greatest suffering of mankind and of every
single individual is sin. There is no greater pain that you can inflict upon a
soul is to plunge it into the state of mortal sin.
Sin does not come to a conclusion when it
reaches the limits of a person’s conscience, when it is enclosed by them. It is
etched deeply into one’s very essence as it relates to God. This relationship
is, however, redemptive—that is, it means that “I” a person do not remain alone
with my guilt. God, who is in a way an eye witness to my sin—eye witness, even
though not a visible one—He is with me not only to judge me. It’s true—He
judges me with the very internal judgment of my conscience, if it has not been
silenced and depraved. However, this very judgment is already redemptive. Calling
evil by its name, already by this in some way I have severed the bond with it,
distanced myself from it, even though at the same time I know that this evil,
this sin does not cease to be my sin. However, even though my sin is directed
against God—God does not come forward against me. In the moment of an internal
tension of a human conscience, God does not render a judgment, does not
condemn, God waits for me to turn to Him—as a loving justice, as to a
Father—just as in the parable of the prodigal son, that I may reveal my sin to
Him, and express my trust in Him. In this way, we pass from an examination of
conscience to that that constitutes the essence of a conversion and
reconciliation with God.
John Paul II, Angelus, Rome February 23, 1986
Let us pray: God our Father, sin is a prod
that causes pain and kills sanctifying grace. Suffering in Your concept of
salvation is the way leading to You. Your Son, through His free will passion
and death on the cross, took upon Himself all the evil of sin, and giving
suffering a whole new meaning, He introduced it into the order of love. In the
name of this Love, that was able to assume suffering without any guilt, we ask
You to canonize as a saint the Blessed John Paul II, who while serving the
people of God, was marked with the stigmata of martyrdom; through His
intercession grant this special grace ... Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Our Father ... Hail Mary ... Glory be ...
Litany ...
Day 7 – Mercy
Today, when egoism, indifference, and
insensitivity of hearts are spreading in a frightening way, how intensely we
need a renewal of sensitivity to a person, to his poverty and sufferings. The
world cries for mercy.
Nothing is more necessary for man than the
mercy of God—this gentle love, sympathetic, raising man above his weaknesses
toward the eternal heights of God’s holiness.
Man – every man – is that prodigal son:
burdened with the temptation to leave the Father, in order to live
independently; giving in to temptation; betrayed by this emptiness that
fascinated him like a mirage; alone, slandered, taken advantage of, when he
tries to build a world just for himself; in the depths of his misery, tortured
by his desire to return to his union with his Father. Like the Father in the
parable, God looks out for the return of His son; when he returns, he embraces
him and sets a table to honor the renewed meeting that the Father and the
brothers celebrate the reunion.
John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation, Reconciliatio
et Penitent, December 2, 1984
“Jesus, I trust in You”. This prayer, prized
by many devotees of the Mercy of God, aptly expresses the posture that we also
wish to assume as we want to entrust ourselves into your embrace, Lord, our
only Savior. How intensely You want to be loved, and whoever kindles in himself
the feelings of Your Heart, learns to be a builder of the new culture of love.
A simple act of trust is enough to penetrate the drape of gloom and sadness,
doubt and despair. The rays of Your divine mercy restore in a special way the
hope of those who feel oppressed by the heavy weight of sin. (...)
Mary, Mother of Mercy, grant that our hope
that we place in your Son, our Redeemer, may always remain alive. You, St.
Faustyna, also help us when with you we wish to repeat, as we gaze boldly into
the face of the divine Redeemer, the words, “Jesus, I trust in You. Today and
forever. Amen.
Our Father ... Hail Mary ... Glory be ...
Litany ...
Day 8 – Mary
Amid this mystery, amid this trust in faith,
stands Mary. “Behold the handmaid of the Lord.. May it be done to me according
to your word.”
Our Lady of Czestochowa, Mother of Trust, I
come to you once again to bid farewell and to ask for your blessing for my
trip. Mother of the Church, once again I offer myself into the “Maternal
slavery of love” according to the words of my vocation: Totus Tuus! I entrust
to you the whole Church—everywhere, even to the farthest ends of the earth! I
entrust to you all of mankind and all of the people – my brothers. All the peoples
and nations. I entrust to You Europe and all the continents. I entrust to You
Rome and Poland, united by your Servant through a new bond of love.
Mother, accept!
Mother, do not abandon!
Mother, lead!
Mother of the Church and Queen of Poland,
forgive that we will all thank You more than by speech, by the silence of our
hearts. Through this silence we will sing our farewell preface.
John Paul II, First Apostolic Pilgrimage to
Poland, Czestochowa, June 6, 1979
Let us pray: God our Father, Mary, Mother of
Your Son, hear our prayer-petition: “Our Advocate, turn then your merciful eyes
upon us, and may the blessed fruit of Thy womb, Jesus, and after this our exile
show unto us the Blessed fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. O merciful, o compassionate,
o sweet Virgin Mary!” May we offer thanks for the Blessed Pope John Paul II,
totally dedicated to Mary, faithfully and to the end fulfilling the mission
given to him by the Risen One—accept the fruits of his life and service, in
heaven give him the crown of the holy pastors, and to us grant this favor ...
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Our Father ... Hail Mary ... Glory be ...
Litany ...
Day 9 – The Eucharist
The Eucharist is the greatest gift and miracle
because the mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ—the redemption of
mankind—is made present in it.
The Church lives thanks to the Eucharist. This
truth expresses not only the daily experience of faith but contains in itself
the essence of the mystery of the Church. In many different ways the Church
joyfully experiences the promise that is endlessly realized: “And behold I am
with you always, until the end of the world.” (Mt 28, 20). Thanks to the most
holy Eucharist, in which occurs the transubstantiation of bread and wine into
the Body and blood of Our Lord, the Church rejoices in this presence in a very
special way.
The Church received the Eucharist from Christ,
its Lord, as the greatest gift because it is a gift from His very Self, from
His own Person in His holy humanity, as well as a gift of His redemptive act.
It is not limited to the past since “He who is Christ, what He did and what He
suffered for all of humanity, participates in the eternity of God, transcends
all times and is constantly present in them... .”
Once again I want to remind you of this truth
, dear brothers and sisters, adoring this mystery with you : a great mystery,
the mystery of mercy. What greater good could Jesus do for us? Truly, love that
moves itself “to the very end” (cf. J 13, 1) – love that reveals itself to us
in the Eucharist, love that knows no limits.
John Paul II, Encyclical Ecclesia de
Eucharistia April 17, 2003
Let us pray: God our Father, your Son loved us
to the end and remained with us in the Eucharist. May the AMEN that we utter in
the presence of the Body and Blood of our Lord dispose us to a humble service
to our brothers starving for love. May You be praised in the bright example of
this love as demonstrated by your Blessed Pope John Paul II. Because communion
with the Church of the redeemed in heaven is expressed and strengthened in the
Eucharist, deign to show him to us in the company of the saints, and through
his intercession grant us this favor ... Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Our Father ... Hail Mary ... Glory be ...
Litany to the Venerable Blessed John Paul II
Kyrie eleison
Christe eleison
Kyrie eleison
Christ hear us, Christ graciously hear us
God the Father of heaven, have mercy on us
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy
on us
God the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us
Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us
Blessed, John Paul II, pray for us
Perfect disciple of Christ
Generously gifted with the gifts of the Holy
Spirit
Great apostle of Divine Mercy
Faithful Son of Mary
Totally dedicated to the Mother of God
Persevering preacher of the Gospel
Pilgrim Pope
Pope of the Millennium
Model of industry
Model of priests
Drawing strength from the Eucharist
Untiring man of prayer
Lover of the rosary
Strength of those doubting their faith
Desiring to unite all those who believe in
Christ
Converter of sinners
Defender of the dignity of every person
Defender of life from conception to natural
death
Praying for the gift of parenthood for the
infertile
Friend of children
Leader of youth
Intercessor of families
Comforter of the suffering
Manly bearing his pain
Sower of divine joy
Great intercessor for peace
Pride of the Polish nation
Brilliance of the Holy Church
That we may be faithful imitators of Christ
That we may be strong with the power of the
Holy Spirit
That we may have trust in the Mother of God
That we may grow in our faith, hope, and
charity
That we may live in peace in our families
That we may know how to forgive
That we may know how to bear suffering
That e may not succumb to the culture of death
That we may not be afraid and courageously
fight off various temptations
That he would intercede for us the grace of a
happy death
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the
world, spare us, O Lord
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the
world, graciously hear us, O Lord
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the
world, have mercy on us
Pray for us, Venerable Blessed John Paul II
That we may become worthy of the promises of
Christ
Pray for us:
Prayer for asking graces through the
intercession of the Blessed the Pope John Paul II
O Blessed Trinity, We thank You for having
graced the Church with Pope John Paul II and for allowing the tenderness of
your Fatherly care, the glory of the cross of Christ, and the splendor of the
Holy Spirit, to shine through him. Trusting fully in Your infinite mercy and in
the maternal intercession of Mary, he has given us a living image of Jesus the
Good Shepherd and has shown us that holiness is the necessary measure of
ordinary Christian life and is the way of achieving eternal communion with you.
Grant us, by his intercession, and according to Your will, the graces we
implore, hoping that he will soon be numbered among your saints. Amen.
Canonization
April 27, 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment