Shrine Hosts Interfaith Service For Peace

Earlier this month, the Archdiocese of Washington sponsored an Interfaith Service for Peace at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine. 

This isn’t the first time an inter-religious service for peace has been held in our building. The John Paul II Cultural Center hosted Pope Benedict XVI and nearly 200 representatives of Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism in 2008 for a meeting to promote interfaith dialogue.

St. John Paul II was especially committed to fostering peace throughout the world, so the Shrine was a perfect spot for the service. For photos and more, see our website. 

Our Lady, Queen of Peace, Pray for Us! 

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! 

The New Evangelization Series

Do you want to learn more about the New Evangelization?

The Blessed John Paul II Shrine is now promoting a new set of booklets, the New Evangelization Series, published through the Knights of Columbus Catholic Information Service. Each book promises to take readers deeper into the Catholic faith.

The New Evangelization Series responds to Blessed John Paul II’s and Pope Benedict XVI’s call for the faithful to dive into the “beauty and contemporary relevance of the faith.” Topics include the Catholic understanding of God, the human person, the Church, the Christian’s task in the world, and eternal life in the light of love revealed in Jesus Christ. According to the Catholic Information Service, “the series helps readers discover the joy that comes from sharing in God’s life.”

See the Catholic Information Service page for more information.

The Popes And World Youth Day

Blessed John Paul II rallied young Catholics, Pope Benedict XVI instructed them and Pope Francis is preparing to send them out on mission.

Read more about what each of these men gave to World Youth Day, and what each of them received in return. 

Only a few weeks to go until WYD Rio! Blessed John Paul II, Pray for Us.

A Leper With The Lepers

Jozef De Veuster received the name of Damien in the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. When he was 23 years old, in 1863, he left Flanders, the land of his birth, to proclaim the Gospel on the other side of the world in the Hawaiian Islands. His missionary activity, which gave him such joy, reached its peak in charity. Not without fear and repugnance, he chose to go to the Island of Molokai to serve the lepers who lived there, abandoned by all. Thus he was exposed to the disease from which they suffered. He felt at home with them. The servant of the Word consequently became a suffering servant, a leper with the lepers, for the last four years of his life. In order to follow Christ, Fr. Damien not only left his homeland but also risked his health: therefore as the word of Jesus proclaimed to us in today's Gospel says he received eternal life…Let us remember before this noble figure that it is charity which makes unity, brings it forth and makes it desirable. Following in St. Paul's footsteps, St. Damien prompts us to choose the good warfare, not the kind that brings division but the kind that gathers people together. He invites us to open our eyes to the forms of leprosy that disfigure the humanity of our brethren and still today call for the charity of our presence as servants, beyond that of our generosity.

-Pope Benedict XVI, October 11 2009

Oh St. Damien Molokai, beatified by our patron Blessed John Paul II, you built the Church above on the abandoned island of Molokai. From your place in heaven, please pray for us sinners on this day of your feast, that we may imitate your example in bringing the Church to those who are far away, especially the poor and the marginalized. 

We Simply Need To Be Real Christians

On April 25 our Chaplain here at the Blessed John Paul II Shrine, Fr. Gregory Gresko, gave a retreat reflection for a gathering of Church leaders involved in the pro-life and pro-family movements. His words capture the heart of what it means to be a Christian in the age of the New Evangelization, so we thought we would share parts of his reflection here on OpenWide the Doors.

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To be the most effective agents of the New Evangelization, Christians are called to become what they are!   As we have heard many times already and rightly from our American bishops, the New Evangelization is not a project, but instead a living of the Christian life genuinely, in authenticity, to be bearers of Jesus Christ in our own particular witness, day in and day out.  We need not become stressed or lose our peace over having to accomplish something big, even of surmounting what seems to be insurmountable darkness.  Rather, we are to submit ourselves humbly, daily before the Lord in prayer and in living the sacramental life of the Church in its fullness, bearing Christ Jesus in our daily witness of the Faith wherever we are called to testify to the Faith at any given moment. 

The New Evangelization is the genuine presentation of Christ’s Light incarnated in you and me -- and in our fellow Christians -- placed as His Light within a world darkened by sin and evil.  The light doesn’t worry about offending the darkness … It simply, humbly enters the room and greets the darkness with its brightness, its peace, its joy, its faith, its hope, and its love.  Christians are to live their earthly pilgrimage through the world of darkness toward heaven, to which they belong already as citizens through a baptismal consecration authentically lived, espousing the same humble attitude of being loving, peaceful, joy-filled Christians who shine the Light of Christ wherever they go.  And in doing so, God Himself demonstrates through our Christian testimony that Jesus Christ already has conquered sin and death through the power of His Cross and Resurrection.  We are to bring the Light of Christ to the world peacefully, without any compromise of His Truth, confident that it is the full, integrated Truth that is the Way to real freedom and not libertinism … to real selfless, self-offering, self-giving love instead of a disordered, self-centered lust or egoism, which tries to impose itself in totalitarian fashion upon the world as being some kind of “new truth” but which, in reality, is an ancient lie from the father of lies.

Loving Revelation

All that is said about God presupposes something said by God.

       -St. Edith Stein (1891-1942)

In our last reflection on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we affirmed the possibility of knowing God through natural reason. Movements in creation and in our souls can lead us to a certainty in the existence of God.  

Reason isn’t the only thing He leaves us with, though. Out of love for His creation, God revealed Himself to man by opening Himself and voluntarily speaking to the world. God freely showed Himself to man so that we may know Him: 

Just as in human love one can know something about the beloved person only if he opens his heart to us, so too we know something about God’s inmost thoughts only because the eternal and mysterious God has opened himself to us out of love (YouCat, 17).

God first made Himself known to Adam and Eve, when “he invited them to intimate communion with himself and clothed them with resplendent grace and justice” (CCC, 54).

God continued to reveal Himself after the Fall, when men were scattered and divided by sin. He first did this in the covenant with Noah and then when He selcted Abraham as patriarch of the chosen people, who were specially called “to prepare for that day when God would gather all his children into the unity of the Church” (60).

Prayer And Family

Earlier this month, the Blessed John Paul II Shrine continued its Year of Faith Lecture Series with a lively presentation on Prayer and Family, given by Msgr. Charles Pope, pastor of Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian Church in Washington, D.C.

In his talk, Msgr. Pope encouraged parents to make more time for silence in their households, to focus on being “substantial witnesses to the faith” for their children, and to simply read more Scripture and Bible stories. Family structure is very important in forming a prayerful climate in the household, he said, and so he also gave listeners practical advice on how to intentionally form “structures of grace” in the home.

Msgr. Pope’s lecture is available for viewing on the Shrine’s website, as well as past lectures on the topics of Images of the Nativity: Rediscovering the Soul of the Family, and Catholic Manhood: The Man of God.

The Blessed John Paul II Shrine is hosting this lecture series to promote the Church’s Year of Faith and to advance both Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI’s call for a New Evangelization. Those of our readers who will be in Washington, D.C. on April 13 should mark their calendars for the next lecture, on The Gift of Fatherhood in Faith.

Thank You, Pope Benedict XVI

The aim for which you have always striven since your very first years as a priest has been to serve the truth, seeking to know it ever more thoroughly and make it ever more widely known.

Blessed John Paul II wrote this of his successor in 2002, when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was celebrating the 50^th Anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. As Pope Benedict XVI, Ratzinger continued striving for this aim, never wavering in his mission to share the truth.  

Thank you, Holy Father, for giving your profound love for the Gospel to the Church. We will be praying for you, as your flock and as your brothers and sisters in Christ. 

The Gospel And The Computer Culture

The internet has become a playground for sinners. There are status updates for the prideful, photo albums for the envious, anonymous comments for the wrathful, search engines for the slothful, online stores for the greedy, worldwide access for the gluttonous, and new domains for the lustful.

The web is full of distractions, so much so, that it seems like Christians should steer clear of it altogether. But because it is very much a part of the world be live in, Blessed John Paul II urged Christians to keep in tune with new forms of technology. In his message for the 24^th World Communications Day, he reflected upon this point made in Gaudium et Spes, one of the four Apostolic Constitutions resulting from the Second Vatican Council:

Far from suggesting that the Church should stand aloof or try to isolate herself from the mainstream…the Council Fathers saw the Church as being in the very midst of human progress, sharing the experiences of the rest of humanity, seeking to understand them and to interpret them in the light of faith. It was for God's faithful people to make creative use of the new discoveries and technologies for the benefit of humanity and the fulfillment of God's plan for the world.

In the face of a “computer culture,” Blessed John Paul II focused on the good that could come out of new ways to communicate and make connections. He wrote:

With the advent of computer telecommunications and what are known as computer participation systems, the Church is offered further means for fulfilling her mission. Methods of facilitating communication and dialogue among her own members can strengthen the bonds of unity between them. Immediate access to information makes it possible for her to deepen her dialogue with the contemporary world.

Feast of the Chair of St. Peter

Today, 22 February, is the liturgical Feast of the Chair of St Peter. It sheds light on the special ministry of strengthening and guiding the Church in the unity of the faith which the Lord entrusted to the Head of the Apostles. It consists in this ministerium petrinum (Petrine ministry), the particular service that the Bishop of Rome is called to render to the entire Christian people. It is an indispensable mission that is not built on human prerogatives but on Christ himself, the cornerstone of the Ecclesial Community.

Let us pray that the Church in the different cultures, languages and traditions will be unanimous in believing and professing the truths of faith and morals passed down by the Apostles.

-Blessed John Paul II, 2004

Pope Benedict XVI reflected upon the history and significance of the Chair of St. Peter in his General Audience address for this feast in 2006.

Let us pray for Pope Benedict during this final week of his pontificate. Let us beg our beloved Blessed John Paul II, who once occupied this seat, to pray for him as well.