Sharing Your Lenten Hope

Saint John Paul II reaches out to an ailing man as Blessed Teresa of Calcutta looks on during the pontiff's 1986 visit  to Calcutta.
(CNS photo / Artuo Mari)

Lent is a time of hope. It may not seem like it, but hope has actually been a part of those moments of denial you’ve experienced so far. Remember when you said “no” to that meatball sub last Friday? Or when you spent that extra five minutes with a friend in need? Or perhaps when you prayed a Rosary before going to sleep, even though you were dead tired? In all of those moments, you joined the Lord in the desert, denying yourself of something convenient and comfortable. You instead relied on God for your comfort, allowing Him to draw closer to you and fill you with hope.

In his 1998 Message for Lent, Saint John Paul II challenged the faithful to share this Lenten hope with others. Not only do we come to hope more profoundly in the Lord during this sparser time, but we also become more capable of sharing this hope with those in need. John Paul II wrote: “For a Christian the desert journey represents a personal experience of inadequacy before God, thereby becoming more sensitive to the presence of the poor.”

Jesus Himself became poor so that we might become rich (cf. 2 Cor 8:9). We too can live in solidarity with the poor this Lent, and so come to understand their plight. We can come to understand both their material and spiritual needs. We can see Christ in them! And through serving these poor, St. John Paul II writes, “the light of hope will again be ignited for many people. When with Christ the Church serves the person in need, she opens hearts to a new hope going beyond evil and suffering, beyond sin and death.”

New Hours Of Operation And Liturgical Schedule

Did you see our new schedule? The Saint John Paul II National Shrine is opening its doors more often throughout the week and is inviting pilgrims to an increasing number of liturgical and devotional events. The most notable change includes the expanded weekend operations, which allows us to serve the large number of weekend pilgrimages organized by parishes, councils, and dioceses.

Check out the new schedule on our site, and please pray about making a pilgrimage in the near future!

Saint John Paul II, Pray for Us!

A Pleasing Sacrifice To God

This morning we remember Blessed Elías del Socorro Nieves, who was martyred on this day in 1928 and beatified by Saint John Paul II in 1997. Padre Nieves defied an order from the Mexican government to leave his town of ministry. After spending 14 months living in a cave and ministering by night, he was arrested and shot. 

Before Padre Nieves died, his murderer said, “Let’s see if dying is anything like saying Mass.” To this, the martyr answered, “You are speaking the truth. To die for our religion is a pleasing sacrifice to God.”

In his homily for the beatification of this holy man, St. John Paul II said:

The life and martyrdom of Fr. Nieves, who did not want to abandon his faithful despite the risks he was taking, are in themselves an invitation to renew faith in God who can do everything. He faced death with fortitude, blessing his executioners and witnessing to his faith in Christ. The Church in Mexico today has a new and a powerful intercessor who will help her to renew her Christian life; his Augustinian brothers have one more example to imitate in their constant search for God in fraternity and in service to the People of God; for the whole Church he is an eloquent example of the fruits of holiness which the power of God’s grace produced in him.

Blessed Elías del Socorro Nieves, you were a man filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and these gifts prepared you for martyrdom. Please pray for us today, that we might be like you in imitating God’s perfect sacrifice.

Give Without Pay

In his 2002 Message for Lent, Saint John Paul II challenged the Church with the Lord’s words: “‘You received without paying, give without pay’” (Mt 10:8). “The heavenly Father’s saving plan was completed in the free and total gift to us of the only begotten Son,” the late Holy Father wrote. Man did not deserve such a gift, but out of love, God freely chose to give His own life in order to draw us “back into communion with himself.”

This free and total gift was the perfect sacrifice, and it stands forever as the model of sacrificial love. The Lenten season is a fitting time to recall “the mystery of the Lord’s Death and Resurrection,” as Saint John Paul II wrote, and it is a time when all Christians should “marvel in their heart of hearts at the greatness of such a gift.” 

In recognizing the price of his own redemption, man cannot help but feel profound gratitude for God’s sacrifice. We express this gratitude through prayer, celebration of the Sacraments, and as the late Holy Father reminded the Church, a free and total gift of ourselves:

Since we have received this life freely, we must in turn offer it freely to our brothers and sisters. This is what Jesus asked of the disciples when he sent them out as his witnesses in the world: “You received without paying, give without pay.” And the first gift to be given is the gift of a holy life, bearing witness to the freely given love of God. May the Lenten journey be for all believers an unceasing summons to enter more deeply into this special vocation of ours. As believers, we must be open to a life marked by “gratuitousness,” by the giving of ourselves unreservedly to God and neighbor.

As we accept the gift of grace, given to us through the sacrificial love of God Himself, we cannot help but give it back to Him through lives of holiness and gratuitousness. We cannot help but fall more deeply into our unique vocations and, like Jesus, give our very selves to others without asking anything in return.

Majority of Americans Admire St. John Paul II

Saint John Paul II at the Aqueduct Racetrack in New York, 1995.

We are obviously big fans of Saint John Paul II here at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine. But we aren’t the only Americans who admire the sainted pontiff.

A month before his beatification, the Knights of Columbus conducted a poll to see what Americans really thought of the late Holy Father. Some of the key findings were:

78% of Americans – along with 95 percent of Catholics and 98 percent of practicing Catholics – admire Pope John Paul II at least somewhat, with strong majorities of each demographic admiring him a great deal or a good amount (55 percent, 82 percent and 89 percent, respectively).

About six in 10 Americans (59 percent) believe that Pope John Paul II was one of the best or the best Pope in Church history. Among Catholics this view grows to more than 8 in 10 (82 percent of Catholics and 87 percent of practicing Catholics).

A large number of Americans (40 percent) – along with 65 percent of Catholics and 71 percent of practicing Catholics – remember watching one of John Paul II’s televised Masses or events.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans remember his trips to the United States, and almost half (46 percent) watched his funeral in 2005 – a number that includes more than two-thirds of Catholics (68 percent) and almost three-quarters of practicing Catholics (73 percent).

More than four in 10 Americans report that Pope John Paul II made at least some difference in their life spiritually. Among Catholics nearly three-quarters felt he had some spiritual impact on their lives (73 percent), as did nearly 9 in 10 practicing Catholics (87 percent).

In sum, Saint John Paul II is overwhelmingly admired by Americans. We hope that this fondness for the sainted pontiff will draw these people to the Saint John Paul II National Shrine, so that they can venerate this great man, learn more about his life, and be inspired to pursue lives of holiness. 

Saint John Paul II, Pray for Us!

Papal Intentions for March

This month, Pope Francis asks us to join him in praying for “those involved in scientific research," that they "may serve the well-being of the whole human person.”

The Holy Father also asks us to pray that, “the unique contribution of women to the life of the Church may be recognized always.”

Let us join the Pope, then, in praying for virtue among scientists and for the general recognition of all that women do for the Church.

Saint John Paul II, Pray for Us!

Drawing From The Source Of Love

In his 1994 Message for Lent, Saint John Paul II challenged the Church to make the Lenten season one of conversion and growth:

The Lenten Season is the acceptable time which the Lord gives us that we might take up anew our journey of conversion, grow in faith, hope and love, enter more fully into the Covenant willed by God and experience a season of grace and reconciliation.

His challenge is one that asks us to turn back to that relationship we were made for—to return “to the God from whom we have turned away.” The sainted pointiff invites all Chrstians to change their lives in this way, and so better orient themselves for receiving God’s grace and giving themselves as “leaven which gives rise in the heart of the human family…”

There can be no conversion—no turning back—without cultivating a life of prayer in one’s life and in the life of one’s family. Without prayer, one’s gifts can be misguided, lifeless, and hallow. As John Paul II wrote:

In their individual and community prayer [families] receive the Holy Spirit who comes to make all things new in them and through them, opening the hearts of the faithful to concern for all. Drawing from the source of love, all are enabled to transmit this love by their life and their actions.

The Holy Spirit gives purpose to our fasting, and He brings life to our almsgiving. He inspires us to grow in our relationship with God, and He strengthens us to lift up those who are suffering.

We can not make our Lent mean something. It is God who must do that! So let us turn to Him in prayer, and allow Him to guide our Lenten journeys.

For more on Lenten prayer in the family, see the Saint John Paul II National Shrine website.