The Strength Of The Eucharist

The Eucharist is the secret of my day. It gives strength and meaning to all my activities of service to the Church and to the whole world. . . . Let Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament speak to your hearts. It is he who is the true answer of life that you seek. He stays here with us: he is God with us. Seek him without tiring, welcome him without reserve, love him without interruption: today, tomorrow, forever. 

-St. John Paul II

For more on the late Holy Father’s devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, check out this chapter from Jason Evert’s Saint John Paul the Great: His Five Loves.

St. John Paul II, Pray for Us!

And A Cloud Took Him From Their Sight

In the first book, Theophilus,
I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught
until the day he was taken up,
after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit
to the apostles whom he had chosen.
He presented himself alive to them
by many proofs after he had suffered,
appearing to them during forty days
and speaking about the kingdom of God.
While meeting with the them,
he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem,
but to wait for “the promise of the Father
about which you have heard me speak;
for John baptized with water,
but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

When they had gathered together they asked him,
“Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons
that the Father has established by his own authority.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
throughout Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth.”
When he had said this, as they were looking on,
he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.
While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going,
suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.
They said, “Men of Galilee,
why are you standing there looking at the sky?
This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven
will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”

-Acts 1:1-11

Becoming The John Paul II Shrine

Christian Sanctuaries always and everywhere have been or have sought to be signs of God, of his entering into human history.

-St. John Paul II, Allocution to Rectors of Sanctuaries

Earlier this year, the Saint John Paul II Shrine was designated as a national shrine by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Coming from the Latin scrinium, which describes a chest or case used to store religious objects, a shrine is now generally understood as a sacred space where pilgrims can come to worship God, contemplate His mysteries, or venerate a particular holy figure.

According to our Executive Director Patrick Kelly, the Saint John Paul II National Shrine is

…a place dedicated to the worship of God who became man in Jesus Christ. It is a place of pilgrimage, where the faithful and all people of good will can come to seek the face of Christ in the spirit of, and through the intercession of, Saint John Paul II. Through the shrine’s liturgy and life of prayer, as well as its programs of education and Christian formation, pilgrims will be drawn more deeply into Saint John Paul II’s love for God and for man.

This shrine is a response to Saint John Paul II’s call for a new evangelization. It seeks to be a place of genuine encounter with God that leads to a renewal of individuals, families and society.

As the premier site dedicated to Saint John Paul II in the United States, we are entrusted with the mission of developing and promoting popular devotion to him. Many will come here because of an enduring admiration for Saint John Paul II; others will be introduced to him for the first time. The shrine is here to answer the questions: “Who is Saint John Paul II?” “What does it mean to have a devotion to him?”

Some coming developments to help make this happen will be a new church, scheduled to open in 2015; a reliquary chapel; and a permanent 16,000 square foot exhibit on the life and legacy of Saint John Paul II, to be named A Gift of Love: The Life of Saint John Paul II.

The Most Important Places

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.

-St. John Paul II, 1999

Earlier this year, we reflected on St. John Paul II’s Jubilee Year pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Tomorrow Pope Francis begins his own pilgrimage to the places that "have seen God's interventions." Let us pray for his safety, and that he might successfully witness to the beauty of peace and ecumenism.

St. John Paul II, Pray for Us! 

St. Cristóbal Magallanes And Companions, Pray For Us!

Today the Church celebrates the feast of St. Cristóbal Magallanes and his companions, all martyrs to persecution in Mexico during the early 20^th century. In his homily for their canonization, St. John Paul II said: 

They did not stop courageously exercising their ministry when religious persecution intensified in the beloved land of Mexico, unleashing hatred of the Catholic religion. They all freely and calmly accepted martyrdom as a witness to their faith, explicitly forgiving their persecutors. Faithful to God and to the Catholic faith so deeply rooted in the ecclesial communities which they served by also promoting their material well-being, today they are an example to the whole Church and to Mexican society in particular.

After the harsh trials that the Church endured in Mexico during those turbulent years, today Mexican Christians, encouraged by the witness of these witnesses to the faith, can live in peace and harmony, contributing the wealth of Gospel values to society. The Church grows and advances, since she is the crucible in which many priestly and religious vocations are born, where families are formed according to God's plan, and where young people, a substantial part of the Mexican population, can grow up with the hope of a better future. May the shining example of Cristóbal Magallanes and his companion martyrs help you to make a renewed commitment of fidelity to God, which can continue to transform Mexican society so that justice, fraternity and harmony will prevail among all.

St. Cristóbal Magallanes and companions, please pray for us on this day of your feast, that we might also have the courage to die to ourselves in order to live the Gospel. 

Happy Birthday St. John Paul II!

What really matters in life

is that we are loved by Christ

and that we love Him in return.

In comparison to the love of Jesus,

everything else is secondary.

And, without the love of Jesus,

everything is useless.

-St. John Paul II

We here at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine are grateful to the late Holy Father who showed us the love of Jesus. On this day of his birth, we also thank God for the gift of John Paul II’s saintly life.

St. John Paul II, Pray for Us! 

The Way, The Truth, And The Life

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. 
You have faith in God; have faith also in me. 
In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.
If there were not,
would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come back again and take you to myself,
so that where I am you also may be.
Where I am going you know the way.” 
Thomas said to him, 
“Master, we do not know where you are going;
how can we know the way?” 
Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. 
No one comes to the Father except through me.”

-John 14: 1-6