1 Day Until Canonization

Jesus dwells among the men and women “honored with the name of Christian” (cf. Lumen Gentium, n. 15). All are able to meet him in the Scriptures, in prayer and in service of their neighbors….it is becoming every day a more urgent duty to repair the scandal of the division among Christians, strengthening unity through dialogue, prayer in common and witness. It is not a matter of ignoring differences and problems in the detachment of a lukewarm relativism; that would be like covering the wound without healing it, with the risk of interrupting the journey before reaching the goal of full communion.

-Blessed John Paul II, Message to Young People for the 12th World Youth Day

Today we conclude our novena by remembering the souls who have become lukewarm. Let us pray our chaplet, bringing these souls to Jesus and immersing them in the ocean of His mercy. 

2 Days Until Canonization

May you have a great “thirst” to save souls, helping every brother and sister to discover the “not yet” and the eternal “life above” towards which we are all journeying. The eternal future is built here and now, in time with our daily efforts.

-Blessed John Paul II, 2002

Today we continue our novena by remembering the souls who are detained in purgatory. Let us pray our chaplet, bringing these souls to Jesus and immersing them in the ocean of His mercy. 

3 Days Until Canonization

…in giving birth to Jesus, the Blessed Virgin gave the world the supreme Witness of God's merciful love. In this plan of salvation she was not a mere instrument, but indeed a docile cooperator: divine Mercy finds perfect resonance in Mary. In her Immaculate Heart, God's tenderness, his desire to forgive sinners and the throbbing of his fatherly compassion are fittingly reflected.

Mary's motherhood was fulfilled on Calvary where divine Mercy accomplished the supreme act of Redemption in Christ's sacrifice on the Cross. At that tragic and glorious hour, Mary became the Mother of Mercy forever.

-Blessed John Paul II, 1999 

Today we continue our novena by remembering the souls who especially venerate and glorify Christ’s Divine Mercy. Let us pray our chaplet, bringing these souls to Jesus and immersing them in the ocean of His mercy. 

4 Days Until Canonization

How important children are in the eyes of Jesus! We could even say that the Gospel is full of the truth about children. The whole of the Gospel could actually be read as the “Gospel of children.”

-Blessed John Paul II, Letter to Children

Today we continue our novena by remembering the meek and humble souls and the souls of little children. Let us pray our chaplet, bringing these souls to Jesus and immersing them in the ocean of His mercy. 

5 Days Until Canonization

Protect your Church and the Successor of Peter,
to whom you, Good Shepherd, have entrusted
the task of feeding your flock.
Grant that the Church…may flourish
and grow richer in the fruits of holiness.

Teach us to love your Mother, Mary,
as you loved her.
Give us strength to proclaim
your word with courage
in the work of the new evangelization,
so that the world may know new hope.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of America,
pray for us!

-Blessed John Paul II, Ecclesia in America

Today we continue our novena by remembering the souls of those who have separated themselves from the Church. Let us pray our chaplet, bringing these souls to Jesus and immersing them in the ocean of His mercy. 

6 Days Until Canonization

Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it. 

-Blessed John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis

On this Easter Monday, we continue our novena by remembering all of those who do not believe in God and those who do not yet know Jesus. Let us pray our chaplet, bringing these souls to Jesus and immersing them in the ocean of His mercy. 

7 Days Until Canonization

Christ came to bring joy: joy to children, joy to parents, joy to families and to friends, joy to workers and to scholars, joy to the sick and to the elderly, joy to all humanity. In a true sense, joy is the keynote of the Christian message and the recurring motif of the Gospels. Recall the first words of the angel to Mary: “Rejoice, O full of grace, the Lord is with you" (Lk 1: 28). And at the birth of Jesus, the angels announced to the shepherds: "Listen, I bring you news of great joy, joy to be shared by all people” (Lk 2: 10). Years later as Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a colt, “the whole group of disciples joyfully began to praise God at the top of their voices. ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord’!” (Lk 19: 37-38). We are told that some Pharisees in the crowd complained, saying: “Master, stop your disciples.” But Jesus answered:  “I tell you, if they were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Lk 19 :39-40).

Are not those words of Jesus still true today? If we are silent about the joy that comes from knowing Jesus, the very stones of our cities will cry out! For we are an Easter people and “Alleluia” is our song.

-Blessed John Paul II, 1979

On this Easter Sunday, we continue our novena by remembering all devout and faithful souls. Let us pray our chaplet, bringing these souls to Jesus and immersing them in the ocean of His mercy. 

8 Days Until Canonization

We pray to you for our
brothers and sisters who have
answered "yes" to your
call to the priesthood,
to the consecrated life and
to the missions.

May their lives be renewed day by
day, to become a living Gospel.

Merciful and holy Lord,
continue to send new laborers
into the harvest of your Kingdom!

Assist those whom you call
to follow you in our day;
contemplating your face,
may they respond with joy
to the wondrous mission
that you entrust to them
for the good of your People
and of all men and women.

                 -Blessed John Paul II, 2004

Today, we continue our novena by remembering the souls of priests and religious. Let us pray our chaplet, bringing these souls to Jesus and immersing them in the ocean of His mercy. 

9 Days Until Canonization

Good Friday is a day of mystery in the Church. We mourn on this day, yet we know that the sadness in Christ’s suffering leads to great joy. We remember Christ’s trials, yet we do so in anticipation of his glorious Resurrection. We fast and abstain, yet we do so knowing that the feasting will come soon. This is the mystery of Christ’s mercy, which seems to shine most beautifully when humanity is at its worst.

Today we are nine days away from Divine Mercy Sunday, and we embark on a period of time in which Jesus asks us to pray a novena to His Divine Mercy for all souls. This devotion to Jesus’s Divine Mercy is something that Blessed John Paul II promoted during his pontificate, and he officially declared the Second Sunday of Easter to be “Divine Mercy Sunday” throughout the Church. He providentially passed away during the vigil of this feast, and next Sunday we will celebrate the Divine Mercy of the Lord with his canonization.

Because of his devotion to Jesus’s Divine Mercy, we at the Shrine decided that it would be appropriate to prepare for Blessed John Paul II’s canonization by praying the Divine Mercy Novena Jesus shared with St. Faustina Kowalska. For the next 9 days, we will pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet, offering up our prayers for the different souls that Jesus instructed us to remember.

So for Day 1, we begin by reflecting: 

Christ - the very fulfillment of the messianic prophecy - by becoming the incarnation of the love that is manifested with particular force with regard to the suffering, the unfortunate and sinners, makes present and thus more fully reveals the Father, who is God “rich in mercy.”

-Blessed John Paul II, Dives in Misericordia

Today, we begin our novena by remembering all of mankind, especially all sinners. Let us pray our chaplet, bringing these souls to Jesus and immersing them in the ocean of His mercy. 

For The Good Of Man

Our times have great need of an act of witness openly expressing the desire to bring nations and regimes closer together, as an indispensable condition for peace in the world. Our times demand that we should not lock ourselves into the rigid boundaries of systems, but seek all that is necessary for the good of man, who must find everywhere the awareness and certainty of his authentic citizenship. 

-Blessed John Paul II, 1979

Check out this Catholic News Agency article for the story of Blessed John Paul II’s role in the fall of the Soviet Union.

Blessed John Paul II, as we countdown to your canonization, please pray for peace and unity in our world! 

In The Places Where God Pitched His Tent

We are less than two weeks away from the canonization of Blessed John Paul II, and only a few months away from opening the exhibit of his life and legacy at the Blessed John Paul II Shrine. As we prepare here, especially during this Holy Week, we thought it would be appropriate to reflect upon one of the most important moments in the late Holy Father’s papacy: his pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

Blessed John Paul II’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land was a key part of the Jubilee Year celebrations in 2000. It was also part of a bigger desire of his to visit the “‘places’ in which God has chosen to ‘pitch his tent’ among us”:

I have a strong desire to go personally to pray in the most important places which, from the Old to the New Testament, have seen God's interventions, which culminate in the mysteries of the Incarnation and of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ.

This desire was fulfilled in March of that year, when John Paul II made this pilgrimage for the entire Church.

His pilgrimage began symbolically with honoring Abraham in Rome, and it continued on to Mount Sinai where the Holy Father meditated upon those moments in the Old Testament linking the Church with the ancient people of the Covenant. There he spoke of “the Law of life and freedom,” and how, through “revealing himself on the Mountain and giving his Law, God revealed man to man himself.”

The Fatherhood of Blessed John Paul II

On the Knights of Columbus website, Archbishop William E. Lori reflects on the spiritual fatherhood of Blessed John Paul II:

Both by his teaching and his example, John Paul II personified the love a father should express toward his family and the love that a spiritual father, a priest, should express toward the Church and her members.

Throughout his pontificate, John Paul became a father figure to priests and religious, lay men and women, and young people. His loving guidance and protection pointed the Church towards the loving fatherhood of God Himself.

Blessed John Paul II, father figure for the world, pray for us! 

Preaching The Gospel of Life

As we countdown to the canonization of Blessed John Paul II, we here at the Blessed John Paul II Shrine are remembering and celebrating the legacy of this great saint.

Of the many gifts John Paul II left to the Church, his teaching on the dignity and inviolability of every human life is perhaps one of his most important. This teaching is well summarized in the introduction to his Evangelium Vitae:

The Gospel of life is at the heart of Jesus' message. Lovingly received day after day by the Church, it is to be preached with dauntless fidelity as “good news” to the people of every age and culture.

At the dawn of salvation, it is the Birth of a Child which is proclaimed as joyful news: “I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Lk 2:10-11). The source of this “great joy” is the Birth of the Savior; but Christmas also reveals the full meaning of every human birth, and the joy which accompanies the Birth of the Messiah is thus seen to be the foundation and fulfilment of joy at every child born into the world (cf. Jn 16:21).

When he presents the heart of his redemptive mission, Jesus says: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10). In truth, he is referring to that “new” and “eternal” life which consists in communion with the Father, to which every person is freely called in the Son by the power of the Sanctifying Spirit. It is precisely in this “life” that all the aspects and stages of human life achieve their full significance.

Every person is called to self-fulfillment, to realize him or herself through sharing in the divine life. The lofty vocation of man, he writes, is what makes his life so sacred here on earth. Given threats to human life in the present day, John Paul II calls all believers to defend the dignity of every human person. He asks them to stand with him against abortion, war, the death penalty and numerous other violations towards this dignity.

Made For Loving Encounter

 

Ever since the beginning of his papacy, Pope Francis’s witness and teachings have constantly pointed the faithful towards the importance of encounter. We are called to encounter Christ, and we are called to encounter one another.

This vocation to encounter is not new in the Catholic tradition. In fact it builds off of what Blessed John Paul II taught us about the dignity of the human person, made for relationship with God and with one another.

The human person is made for love. In his Familiaris Consortio, John Paul II wrote:

God is love and in Himself He lives a mystery of personal loving communion. Creating the human race in His own image and continually keeping it in being, God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and communion. Love is therefore the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being.

Being made in the image and likeness of God means being made in the image and likeness of the Trinity. The person bears the imprint of the Trinity, which means that he or she bears the vocation to love and be loved by God and others.

Preparing For The Canonizations

This past week, the Vatican released details on its digital platform for the canonizations of Blessed John XXIII and Blessed John Paul II. See this article for more information on how they plan to communicate with the faithful as they prepare for the canonizations. This information includes logistical details about the ceremonies, how people can access news regarding the celebrations, and even spiritual reflections on the legacies and saintliness of these two Popes.

Those of you who haven’t made plans for the canonizations yet are welcome to join us at the Blessed John Paul II Shrine for the celebration. We have a number of events planned, including Mass, Adoration, multiple opportunities for the veneration of our Blood Relic of Blessed John Paul II, musical entertainment, and a canonization viewing party. Check out our Schedule of Events for more details.

Blessed John Paul II, as we prepare for your canonization, pray for us! 

Self-Gift In Toronto

Even during his last years on earth, when he suffered through illness and old age, Blessed John Paul II continued to give himself. Although travelling takes much energy and mobility, the late Holy Father continued to make his rounds throughout the globe, visiting his people and showing them his love.

One trip he didn’t miss was his pilgrimage to Canada for the 17^th World Youth Day. Here, through his witness and through his words, he encouraged young people to embrace their own character of giftedness and to live lives of service to God and to the world.

In his main homily, Blessed John Paul II said:

The world you are inheriting is a world which desperately needs a new sense of brotherhood and human solidarity. It is a world which needs to be touched and healed by the beauty and richness of God's love. It needs witnesses to that love. The world needs salt. It needs you - to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. 

… Salt seasons and improves the flavor of food. Following Jesus, you have to change and improve the "taste" of human history. With your faith, hope and love, with your intelligence, courage and perseverance, you have to humanize the world we live in, in the way that today's Reading from Isaiah indicates: "loose the bonds of injustice ... share your bread with the hungry ... remove the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil.... Then your light shall rise in the darkness" (Is 58, 6-10). 

The late Holy Father sheds light on the gifts that each of these young people possesses, and speaks of the necessity of their sharing these gifts with the world in order to make it more human. It is in sharing our gifts that we can add good taste and good flavor to human history, Blessed John Paul II says. 

Her Free Consent To The Will Of God

Mary of Nazareth is indeed worthy of our veneration and filial love. “In an utterly singular way she co-operated by her obedience, faith, hope and ardent charity in the Saviour’s work” (Lumen Gentium, 61). She changed all of human history by her "Fiat," by her free consent to the will of God. By this act of faith and love, she allowed herself to be transformed by God. Submitting herself totally to God, she agreed to be the Mother of the Redeemer of the world: the eternal Word became flesh, God became man. From the moment of the Annunciation, she dedicated herself to her Son, to his person and to his work, to the mystery of the Redemption which he accomplished. From that day forward and for all time, she assists her Son in his mission of salvation. In every age, Mary is close to the Church, the Body of Christ. And thus, she is rightly called “Mother of the Church."

-Blessed John Paul II, 1986 

Celebrating The Canonizations

Catholic News Agency recently reported that millions are expected to travel to Rome for the canonizations of Blessed John XXIII and Blessed John Paul II on April 27.

Those who cannot make the trip are welcome to join us at the Blessed John Paul II Shrine for the weekend of the canonization. We have a number of events planned, including Mass, Adoration, multiple opportunities for the veneration of our Blood Relic of Blessed John Paul II, musical entertainment, and a canonization viewing party. Check out our Schedule of Events for more details.

Blessed John Paul II, as we prepare for your canonization, pray for us! 

A Time For Conversion And Repentance

According to Blessed John Paul II, Lent is “a time for conversion and repentance.” It is a time of detachment, turning away from our earthly sin and turning towards Christ, who alone can save us.

This turning towards or this conversion can be solidified in the Sacrament of Confession. During Lent, the Church is reminded “of the indispensable necessity of sacramental confession, in order that we may all be able to live the resurrection of Christ not only in the liturgy, but also in our own soul.”

According to Blessed John Paul II, “the sacrament of penance is the primary way of obtaining forgiveness and the remission of serious sin committed after baptism.” In anticipation of the Resurrection, then, let us look towards the mercy of God and embrace the power to “forgive sins” that is conferred by Christ upon our priests through the Holy Spirit. Let us unload our burdens before the God who wants to heal us, let us repent for turning away from Him, and let us allow Him to convert our hearts.

For more on the Sacrament of Confession, see Blessed John Paul II’s beautiful reflection in his Apostolic Exhortation, Reconciliation and Penance. In this document, he ends with a prayer to the Blessed Mother that we now join him in saying:

Into the hands of this mother, whose fiat marked the beginning of that "fullness of time" in which Christ accomplished the reconciliation of humanity with God, to her immaculate heart—to which we have repeatedly entrusted the whole of humanity, disturbed by sin and tormented by so many tensions and conflicts—I now in a special way entrust this intention: that through her intercession humanity may discover and travel the path of penance, the only path that can lead it to full reconciliation.

The Sanctity Of Blessed John Paul II

In a recent interview, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI paid tribute to his predecessor, Blessed John Paul II:

[The idea] that John Paul II was a saint came to me from time to time, in the years of my collaboration with him, ever clearer. Naturally, one must first of all keep in mind his intense relationship with God, his being immersed in communion with the Lord, of which he hardly spoke. From here came his happiness in the midst of the great labors he had to sustain, and the courage with which he fulfilled his task at a truly difficult time.

John Paul II did not ask for applause, nor did he ever look around, concerned about how his decisions were received. He acted from his faith and his convictions and he was ready also to suffer the blows.

The courage of the truth is in my [judgment] the criterion of the first order of sanctity.

Only from his relation with God is it possible to understand his indefatigable pastoral commitment. He gave himself with a radicalism which cannot be explained otherwise.

His commitment was tireless, and not only in the great trips, whose programs were dense with appointments from beginning to end, but also day after day, beginning with the morning Mass until late at night. During his first visit to Germany (1980), for the first time I had a very concrete experience of this enormous commitment. So during his stay in Munich, I decided he should take a longer break at midday. During that interval he called me to his room. I found him reciting the Breviary and I said to him: “Holy Father, you should rest”, and he said: “I can do so in Heaven.”

Only one who is profoundly filled with the urgency of his mission can act like this.

Pope Benedict’s words give us one more reason to be grateful for the upcoming canonization of the late Holy Father.

Blessed John Paul II, Pray for Us!