Lent Must Mean Something

Saint John Paul II leads the Stations of the Cross at Rome's
Colosseum on Good Friday 2002 (CNS photo/L'Ossevatore Romano)

Lent begins this Wednesday. Are you ready to invite the Lord into your life and make this Lent mean something?

Saint John Paul II challenged the Church to go deeper than simple fasting during this penitential liturgical season. In his first Message for Lent as Pope, he said:

Lent must mean something: it must show the world that the whole People of God, because it is made up of sinners, is preparing in Penance to re-live liturgically Christ’s Passion, Death and Resurrection. This public collective witness derives from the spirit of Penance of each individual, and it also leads us to deepen this inward attitude and to strengthen our motivation for it.

Going without things does not consist only of giving away what we do not need; sometimes it also consists of giving away what we do need, like the widow in the Gospel who knew that what she was giving away was already a gift to her from God. Going without things is to free oneself from the slaveries of a civilization that is always urging people on to greater comfort and consumption, without a thought even for the preservation of our environment, which is the common heritage of humanity.

During this season of prayer, almsgiving and fasting, let us move forward as workers in God’s vineyard, in the spirit of penance and charity.

Saint John Paul II, Pray for Us!

Miracles and More

Floribeth Mora Diaz, accompanied by her husband, Edwin, places the relic of St. John Paul II on a small table after presenting it to Pope 

Francis during the canonization Mass for Sts. John XXIII and John Paul II in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican April 27, 2014 (CNS).

The Knights of Columbus have dedicated a page of their website to the history of their relationship with Saint John Paul II. Full of historical, biographical, and inspirational material, this page is worth taking a look at!

One notable article featured on the page is about the miracle that paved the way for St. John Paul II’s canonization. It says:

The miracle for canonization involved a Costa Rican woman, Floribeth Mora, who was suffering from a potentially fatal aneurysm. Mora said that she received an inexplicable healing after she invoked John Paul II’s intercession. According to Mora, she was watching a broadcast of the 2011 beatification ceremony for John Paul II and contemplating the pope’s image on a magazine when she heard a voice telling her not to be afraid and to get up. She recalled that shortly after, she felt better and renewed in spirit. When doctors later examined her, they could not offer an explanation for her healing. 

For more, read the full-length article here.

St. John Paul II, Pray for Us!

All Are Called To Holiness

Over the past few weeks, we've been exploring the themes of our permanent exhibit here on Open Wide the Doors. We joined Saint John Paul II on a pilgrimage of faith and love, as the narrator says in the video above.

We discovered that, during his younger years, St. John Paul II shone as a light in the darkness of his times. In the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, he pointed the Church away from her fears and back to Jesus. We saw that he gave himself entirely to the Blessed Mother, and that he shared her love for the human person. He followed in the footsteps of Jesus, making of gift of himself—the ultimate gift of love—to the entire world.

St. John Paul II lived a life of profound holiness, and as the late Holy Father said, we are all called to live this way. We are called “to accept and reciprocate the immense gifts which [God] bestowed” upon us.  We are offered the grace to live a saintly life! We just have to accept this grace and let it live through us.

We hope pilgrims walk away from the Saint John Paul II National Shrine inspired to do just that. This is why our final gallery, which is pictured above, calls visitors to reflect on the lives of some of the saints beatified and canonized by the late Holy Father. These holy men and women came from all walks of life, but they each lived out the call to holiness, and they are each praying for us now. We are all made to be saints, and hopefully our exhibit reminds pilgrims of this.

Thank you for joining us as we explored the themes of our permanent exhibit, A Gift of Love: The Life of Saint John Paul II. We hope that you will prayerfully consider a pilgrimage to see these themes come to life yourself.

Saint John Paul II, Pray for Us!

A Moral Witness For The World

As we show in our permanent exhibit, Saint John Paul II served as a moral witness to leaders throughout the world. 

Last week, papal biographer George Weigel lectured on the pontificate of Saint John Paul II and the wisdom his legacy offers statesmen today.

There are several lessons we can learn from the late pontiff’s “moral witness” and his “steady determination to make decisions about situations and personalities without fear and without seeking favor,” Weigel said.

For more, see the report over at the National Catholic Register. Let us ask St. John Paul II to pray for our statesmen, that they might be prudent and fearless leaders in today’s world.