Novena to the Blessed John Paul II

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

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