The Pilgrim's Way: The Life Of Saint John Paul II

Today is the feast of Saint John Paul II! If you are in the Washington, D.C. area, please consider joining us for our celebrations this evening. Whether you are able to join us or not, we invite you spend a few moments of this joyous day reflecting upon the pilgrimage we’ve been hosting here on Open Wide the Doors.

We’ve walked through each of the nine galleries of our permanent exhibit, A Gift of Love: The Life of Saint John Paul II, so that you can get a taste of the spiritual and informational journey that awaits you here at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine. At the conclusion of the exhibit, a timeline wall of poignant large scale images leads visitors through significant moments in the life and papacy of St. John Paul II, beginning with his birth in 1920 and ending with his death in 2005.

Pilgrims look back on the late Holy Father’s growth in holiness and sanctity throughout his life. They remember the dark world that he grew up in, and how he shone as a light in the world amidst many challenges and much suffering.

The Pilgrim's Way: The Communion Of Saints

As we prepare for the feast of Saint John Paul II, we invite you to continue on this pilgrimage through our permanent exhibit, A Gift of Love: The Life of Saint John Paul II. We hope you will walk through each of the nine galleries with us, so that you can get a taste of the spiritual and informational journey that awaits you here at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine.

This week we will explore the ninth gallery: The Communion of Saints. After learning about the canonization of John Paul II, pilgrims in this gallery find themselves drawn to the lives of many other saints.

As the late Holy Father often reminded us, every person is called to holiness, or to loving union with God. The saints of the Church live out this “universal call to holiness” in many unique ways. St. John Paul II saw evidence of this in every land, in every age group, and in every culture.

The Pilgrim's Way: A Great Gift

As we prepare for the feast of Saint John Paul II, we invite you to continue on this pilgrimage through our permanent exhibit, A Gift of Love: The Life of Saint John Paul II. We hope you will walk through each of the nine galleries with us, so that you can get a taste of the spiritual and informational journey that awaits you here at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine.

This week we will explore the eighth gallery: A Great Gift. This gallery covers the end of St. John Paul II’s life, and it invites pilgrims to reflect on two themes in his teachings: the gift of the Eucharist and the renewal of the priesthood.

The Eucharist is the greatest of gifts, for through it the Incarnation is made present to all mankind. It is the gift of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Connected with this, is the gift of the priesthood. Priests give up everything for the Gospel, and so the priesthood is a form of union with Christ's sacrificial gift of Himself to the Church and to the world.

The Pilgrim's Way: Mysteries Of Light

As we prepare for the feast of Saint John Paul II, we invite you to continue on this pilgrimage through our permanent exhibit, A Gift of Love: The Life of Saint John Paul II. We hope you will walk through each of the nine galleries with us, so that you can get a taste of the spiritual and informational journey that awaits you here at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine.

This week we will explore the seventh gallery: The Mysteries of Light. This gallery gives pilgrims the opportunity to take a step back from the accomplishments of St. John Paul II, in order understand the spiritual life that inspired everything he did.

The late Holy Father’s spirituality was especially nourished by a devotion to Mary, who showed him and shows all of us the way to her Son. She reveals so much about Jesus through the mysteries of the Rosary, and so St. John Paul II introduced the "Mysteries of Light" in 2002. 

The Pilgrim's Way: The Dignity Of The Human Person

As we prepare for the feast of Saint John Paul II, we invite you to continue on this pilgrimage through our permanent exhibit, A Gift of Love: The Life of Saint John Paul II. We hope you will walk through each of the nine galleries with us, so that you can get a taste of the spiritual and informational journey that awaits you here at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine.

This week we will explore the sixth gallery: The Dignity of the Human Person. Every human person is created in the image and likeness of God, and from Him we each receive irreducible worth and dignity. In an increasingly utilitarian world, St. John Paul II tirelessly defended this truth about the person.

The late Holy Father preached a Gospel of Life, calling the Church to defend those like the unborn, the sick, the elderly, and victims of war and genocide. He reminded us to defend and serve every human person as we would Christ, who reveals to us what is truest about man.

Totus Tuus: Mary, Mother of Mercy

As we prepare for the feast of Saint John Paul II, we invite you to continue on this pilgrimage through our permanent exhibit, A Gift of Love: The Life of Saint John Paul II. We hope you will walk through each of the nine galleries with us, so that you can get a taste of the spiritual and informational journey that awaits you here at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine.

This week we will explore the fifth gallery, Totus Tuus: Mary, Mother of Mercy. St. John Paul II had a strong devotion to Mary throughout his life, and he believed that devotion to her, the first disciple, leads us to Christ. His pontificate was dedicated to her in many ways—his motto being “Totus Tuus,” or “I am completely yours” and with an “M” beside the cross on his coat of arms.

During a weekly audience on May 13, 1981, when thousands of people were gathered in Saint Peter’s Square to hear St. John Paul II speak, a man shot the late Holy Father, intending to kill him. The shot did not have the deadly effect desired, though, and John Paul II attributed this to the Blessed Mother’s protection. On the day of the assassination attempt, he put his life into Mary’s hands.

The Pilgrim's Way: Man, The Way Of The Church

As we prepare for the feast of Saint John Paul II, we invite you to continue on this pilgrimage through our permanent exhibit, A Gift of Love: The Life of Saint John Paul II. We hope you will walk through each of the nine galleries with us, so that you can get a taste of the spiritual and informational journey that awaits you here at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine.

This week we will explore the fourth gallery: Man, the Way of the Church. John Paul II showed the world the Gospel message of faith in Jesus Christ and the sanctity of all human life. Visitors to the Shrine will see that, just as the Church walks with each person on his or her pilgrimage to God, this great saint travelled to the ends of the earth in order to be with his people. 

Visitors are invited to walk the footsteps of this pilgrim Pope, learning more about his early apostolic visits to Mexico, Canada, Africa, and the US. St. John Paul II visited 129 countries on 104 apostolic pilgrimages throughout his papacy, and our “World Travels Interactive” wall display traces these journeys and encounters with people throughout the world. Visitors can learn about each pilgrimage by reading memorable quotes from homilies and addresses, and they can also see artifacts from many of the Holy Father's journeys, including various papal vestments that he wore.

Pilgrims to the Shrine can learn more about St. John Paul II’s “Theology of Love,” which was developed during Wednesday audiences early on in his pontificate. Through these teachings, he invited men and women to live the vocation to love through a complete and sincere gift of self. He particularly focused on married love, and the importance of this self-giving love in building up the family. 

The Pilgrim's Way: Election To The Papacy

As we prepare for the feast of Saint John Paul II, we invite you to continue on this pilgrimage through our permanent exhibit, A Gift of Love: The Life of Saint John Paul II. We hope you will walk through each of the nine galleries with us, so that you can get a taste of the spiritual and informational journey that awaits you here at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine.

This week we will explore the third gallery, in which pilgrims learn more about John Paul II's election to the papacy.

In this part of the exhibit, visitors are called to ponder St. John Paul II’s words at the beginning of his pontificate. On October 22, 1978, the day we celebrate as his feast, the great saint spoke these words as a part of his inauguration homily:

Brothers and sisters, do not be afraid to welcome Christ and accept his power. Help the Pope and all those who wish to serve Christ and with Christ's power to serve the human person and the whole of mankind. Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ. To his saving power open the boundaries of States, economic and political systems, the vast fields of culture, civilization and development. Do not be afraid. Christ knows “what is in man.” He alone knows it.

As the first non-Italian Pope in more that 450 years, St. John Paul II fearlessly led the Church into the third millennium, literally opening wide the Holy Door of Saint Peter’s Basilica for the occasion.

The Pilgrim's Way: Light In Darkness

As we prepare for the feast of Saint John Paul II, we invite you to continue on this pilgrimage through our permanent exhibit, A Gift of Love: The Life of Saint John Paul II. We hope you will walk through each of the nine galleries with us, so that you can get a taste of the spiritual and informational journey that awaits you here at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine.

This week we will explore the second gallery: Light in Darkness. In this part of the exhibit, pilgrims learn more about John Paul II's birth, his childhood, and his vocation to the priesthood.

Born Karol Wojtyła on May 18, 1920, the great saint was born in Wadowice, Poland to a strong Catholic family. From an early age, Karol was well-formed in the faith, and this faith became a light for him during the darker times in his life.

It didn’t take long for this light to be confronted by great darkness. Karol was born close to the end of WWI, and he reached adulthood in Nazi-occupied Poland. Following the defeat of the Nazi’s, he lived in a Poland ruled by the totalitarian and atheistic Soviet Union. Karol also confronted dark times on a personal level. His mother passed away when he was very young, and he lost all of his family by age 20.

The Pilgrim's Way: Beginning

Here at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine, we are devoted to building and preserving a place of encounter with Christ. We invite visitors to participate in liturgical prayer, in the veneration of Saint John Paul II’s relics, and ultimately in the universal call to holiness. According to Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, this Shrine is “a gift of the Knights of Columbus to the Church as a dedicated place of conversion, communion, and solidarity that advances the new evangelization now and in the future.”  

One way we do this is through our permanent exhibit, A Gift of Love: The Life of Saint John Paul II. Through this exhibit, we invite pilgrims to immerse themselves in the life, papacy, and teachings of John Paul II. We have already seen pilgrims walk away with hearts changed by this display of the late Holy Father’s saintly life, and each day it inspires in us a call to live as Christ’s disciples, just as John Paul II did.

As we prepare for the feast of St. John Paul II, we invite you to join us here on Open Wide the Doors as we explore this exhibit in depth. We hope you will walk through each of the nine galleries with us, so that you can get a taste of the spiritual and informational journey that awaits you here.