Testimony to Divine Mercy

During our Divine Mercy Sunday Mass of Thanksgiving for the Canonization of St. John Paul II, the shrine’s Chaplain Fr. Gregory Gresko gave a beautiful homily that touched on the life and legacy of the late Holy Father. He said:

Wherever he went, Saint John Paul II testified to the truth and power of building the civilization of God’s Love – a society filled with Charity in Truth, founded upon the communion between God and man, and man alongside his neighbor in Christ. John Paul II testified to the real possibility of man’s living in this love, to the degree that man allows himself to be embraced by God’s Divine Mercy and, having been transfigured by this all-merciful Love that pours endlessly from the Heart of Jesus, carries that Divine Mercy into his every relationship – within his family home, throughout his working relationships, in every encounter with his fellow man.

This great testimony of our beloved John Paul II is something that we continue to remember and reflect upon here at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine as we proceed with work on our permanent exhibit celebrating the Holy Father’s life and legacy, slated to open this summer.

For the full text of Fr. Gresko’s homily, see our site.

Saint John Paul II, Pray for Us! 

Chaplain Celebrates Mass at John Paul II’s Tomb

On December 6, 2013, Blessed John Paul II Shrine Chaplain Father Gregory Gresko concelebrated Mass at the tomb of Blessed John Paul II in Saint Peter’s Basilica. He reflected upon his experience here:

To be at the tomb of Blessed John Paul II is to be reminded of the beauty of dwelling in the house of the Lord, gazing on the loveliness of the Lord and contemplating His temple, as the Psalmist says in Ps 27. To celebrate the Eucharist on the altar containing the holy remains of the man whom the Church soon will recognize as Saint John Paul II is in itself a confirmation in faith as the Church has just concluded the 2012-13 Year of Faith -- confirmation of the greatness of the Communion of Saints to which each one of us as Christian faithful is called, but also of the spiritual presence of the saints among us, most strongly whenever we celebrate the Holy Eucharist. The tomb of Blessed John Paul II is a reminder of God’s call to holiness that is written on the hearts of all people who call themselves Christian, who are consecrated into the Lord in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. It is a firm reminder that every one of us is called by God to become a saint in whatever state of life we find ourselves – to embrace a life of genuine holiness by following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ in the daily path of this earthly journey, until we realize the promise of everlasting life in the beatific vision of God’s heavenly Kingdom. As the Gospel of the two blind men reminds us (Mt 9.27-31), Jesus is ready to enlighten our darkness in this Advent season through the gift of His healing touch, if we only would have faith and hope-filled trust in Him. May this Advent be a time when we ask the Holy Spirit to open our hearts with the gift of a stronger faith, so that inspired by ever stronger hope, we might believe more fervently with open hearts to God’s perfect Love incarnate in the Infant Jesus this Christmas.

For more about his experience and for photos from the Mass, check out the Blessed John Paul II Shrine website.

Blessed John Paul II To Be Canonized Divine Mercy Sunday

Well the news is out! Yesterday Pope Francis announced that the canonization of both Blessed John XXIII and Blessed John Paul II is to take place on April 27, 2014, the day the Church celebrates the Second Sunday of Easter, or Divine Mercy Sunday. 

This is a special day for Blessed John Paul II, for he instituted Divine Mercy Sunday in 2000, he died on the vigil of the feast in 2005, and he was beatified on Divine Mercy Sunday by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in 2011.

Of course, we here at the Shrine couldn’t be more excited. Yesterday was full of visitors, celebrations, and prayers. In his homily for Mass celebrating the canonization announcement, our Chaplain Fr. Gregory Gresko introduced the congregation to the first-class relic of the soon to be canonized Blessed John Paul II, hosted on the altar for veneration: 

In the relic we have before us today, we encounter evidence from Blessed John Paul II’s own life of the extent to which he would go in order to show God’s Love. This first-class relic -- containing a piece of the white papal cassock he was wearing that became soaked with his blood when his would-be assassin attempted to take his life by shooting him in Saint Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981 – is a sign of John Paul II’s gift of himself to the Church, to you and to me, his personal testimony that shows us what it means to be a witness to God’s Love…

Fr. Gresko’s full homily is worth the read! For more on happenings at the Shrine yesterday, check out this report from the Catholic News Service. It includes some sneak peaks of our re-modeled Be Not Afraid exhibit.

Blessed John Paul II, Pray for Us!

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.

Blessed John Paul II’s Greatest Legacy

Perhaps the greatest legacy that Blessed Pope John Paul II has left to the world is his own personal witness as to what it means to live a life of genuine faith, ever striving to fulfill in his own life the call to holiness that flows fundamentally from Christian baptism.

-Fr. Gregory Gresko, Chaplain of the Blessed John Paul II Shrine

For more on the legacy of Blessed John Paul II, see Fr. Gresko’s interview with Catholic News Agency.

How to be a leader in the Church

Fr. Gregory Gresko, Chaplain of the Blessed John Paul II Shrine, gave a fantastic homily for the opening Mass of the Knights of Columbus State Deputies meeting last week. He said:

Both now and during the upcoming Year of Faith, it is vital that Christian leaders strengthen the brethren in the truths of our Faith, through prayerful sacrifice of time and effort in service to God and neighbor, while embracing a joyful, hope-filled spirit of faithful love…If we respond with fully open hearts to the Lord’s calling us to be holy, we will become authentic Christian leaders who, grounded first in ever deepening communion with God, will become new members of the great Communion of Saints by the end of the race that is life, having brought the presence of God to each person we encounter in spirit and in Truth.

The whole homily is worth the read, especially for lay men and fathers looking to become better leaders in the Church.

What's new at the Shrine?

As you can see on the website, there have been some new developments at the Blessed John Paul II Shrine.

The most exciting update is that Fr. Gregory Gresko has recently been appointed as the Shrine’s Chaplain. Fr. Gresko comes to the Shrine with over twenty years of experience as a minister to students and young adults as a priest, lay missionary, and musician. He also holds his Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Lateran University’s John Paul II Institute and is currently working on his doctoral thesis. As Chaplain, Fr. Gresko will be responsible for the spiritual care of the Shrine’s staff and pilgrims. With his positive energy and inspiring homilies, Fr. Gresko has done a fabulous job so far!

The staff at the Blessed John Paul II Shrine is currently preparing a landmark exhibition on the life and legacy of John Paul II, but in order to tie pilgrims and tourists over, we’ve opened an interim exhibit: Be Not Afraid. This new exhibit chronicles the life of Karol Wojtyła in his own words, and the collection consists of hundreds of items, including many personal effects, works of art and photographs.

Stop by between the hours of 10 am and 5 pm Tuesday through Friday and check out the new exhibit. All are invited to Mass as well, which is held Tuesday through Friday at 11:30 am in the Shrine’s chapel.