Remembering A Legacy

Earlier this spring, Our Sunday Visitor posted an article about the legacy of Saint John Paul II.  While the author admits that she only covers a fraction of his legacy, she does a wonderful job of capturing the impact the late Holy Father made on the Church and the world.

This is something we set out to do in our permanent exhibit, A Gift of Love: The Life of Saint John Paul II, and today we decided to lay out how we preserve the pieces of our beloved John Paul’s legacy that the author mentions.

Theology of the Body

John Paul II’s anthropology gave the Church a new language with which to address the fallout of the sexual revolution and help Christians recover a sacramental understanding of the world.

World Youth Days

With each successive World Youth Day, Pope John Paul II helped the Church see that it didn’t need to change in order to inspire young people; rather, it needed to challenge young people to change — to be bolder, more faithful and more heroic.

Papal Intentions For May

Pope Francis during his visit to the Philippines earlier this year (CNS photo / Paul Haring)

This month, Pope Francis asks us to pray that, “rejecting the culture of indifference, we may care for our neighbors who suffer, especially the sick and the poor.” He also asks us to pray for an “openness to mission,” and that “Mary’s intercession may help Christians in secularized cultures be open to proclaiming Jesus.”

The sick and the poor are often forgotten in our society, and fears keep us from preaching Christ to those around us. Please join us in praying with the Holy Father, that we may encounter all with love and a New Evangelization.

Saint John Paul II, Pray for Us!

The Mission Of The Redeemer

As displayed in our exhibit, Saint John Paul II was always on mission throughout his pontificate. 

As we await the Lord’s second coming this Advent, many people throughout the world are still waiting to be introduced to Him. Saint John Paul II addressed this very issue in his encyclical Redemptoris Missio, which celebrated its 24^th anniversary this past weekend. To preach the Gospel is the vocation of every man, and through this letter, the late Holy Father guided the faithful on how to live like him, as a people on mission.

“No believer in Christ, no institution of the Church can avoid this supreme duty: to proclaim Christ to all peoples,” wrote John Paul II, for it is Christ who reveals God to us and reveals man to himself. The Church must always be on mission, because:

…true liberation consists in opening oneself to the love of Christ. In him, and only in him, are we set free from all alienation and doubt, from slavery to the power of sin and death. Christ is truly “our peace” (Eph 2:14); “the love of Christ impels us” (2 Cor 5:14), giving meaning and joy to our life.

…Newness of life in him is the "Good News" for men and women of every age: all are called to it and destined for it. Indeed, all people are searching for it, albeit at times in a confused way, and have a right to know the value of this gift and to approach it freely.

All people are made to be a part of the Kingdom of God, and as Christians we are called to respond to the missionary grace that the Father bestows upon each and every one of us. Relying upon the Holy Spirit, “the principal agent of mission,” we are each called to evangelize in our own unique ways, witnessing to the Gospel with our lives and preaching it to those who have never heard it and to those who need to hear it again.

A Kingdom Without Spectacles

In his homily yesterday, Pope Francis invited the faithful to pray for the grace to build the Kingdom of God quietly.  The Kingdom does not grow through spectacles, he said, but it instead blossoms through the silent witness of those living prayerful lives:

The Kingdom of God is humble, like the seed: humble but it becomes great by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is up to us to let it grow in us, without boasting about it: let the Spirit come, change our soul and carry us forward in silence, in peace, in tranquility, in closeness to God, to others, in worship of God, without spectacle.

Saint John Paul II was the first to call for a New Evangelization, and he encouraged the faithful to bear witness to the beauty of faith in Jesus Christ, particularly in historically Christian cultures where many have taken their eyes off of Him. As Pope Francis said yesterday, this New Evangelization does not require spectacles. It requires that we silently and humbly live prayerful lives.

St. John Paul II, pray for us, that we may allow the Holy Spirit to quietly build the Kingdom of God in us.   

Pope Francis Continues The Mission

According to Pope Francis, Saint John Paul II was the “Pope of the Family.” In 2000 the late Holy Father married eight couples during the Jubilee for Families, and tomorrow Pope Francis will do the same in St. Peter’s Basilica. He will celebrate the Sacrament of Marriage for 20 couples on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

St. John Paul II was also the first to call for a New Evangelization. Pope Francis continues to call us forward in this mission. Kevin Cotter published a great post about how the Holy Father hopes we evangelize.

Let us join St. John Paul II in praying for all couples entering into marriage and for the blossoming of the New Evangelization.

St. John Paul II, Pray for Us!

In Defense Of The Cross

In an article published by Columbia Magazine this past spring, Krzysztof Mazur wrote about the town of Nowa Huta, or “The New Steel Mill,” built by the communists in Poland after World War II. This was a town for workers, intended to make communism more attractive. Polish religiosity and culture were left out.

Catholic residents of Nowa Huta desperately wanted to build a church, but the authorities wouldn’t allow it. Town leaders eventually permitted believers to build a cross in the city square. This cross became the place of worship for the people there. Christians gathered at the cross for prayers, and Mass was said there on occasion. 

In 1960, four years after the cross was built, the authorities in Nowa Huta decided that it was time to take it down and build a school in its place. On April 27, workers and guards arrived in the city square to tear down the cross. As Mazur recounts, the people put up a fight:

A group of women saw what was happening and equipped themselves with shopping carts, brooms, bricks and bottles. A short time later, when a shift at the steel mill was let out, more than a thousand men started making their way toward the cross carrying shovels, pickaxes and other tools. In a spontaneous act of civil disobedience, 5,000 workers and citizens suddenly gathered in the square.

The protests came to a violent end, but the cross was allowed to remain in its place. Saint John Paul II, who was serving as an auxiliary bishop at the time, provided much religious support for people struggling in Nowa Huta. One way was by organizing midnight Masses under the cross each Christmas eve. 

Papal Intentions For August

This month, Pope Francis asks us to pray that “refugees, forced by violence to abandon their homes, may find a generous welcome and the protection of their rights.” He also asks that we pray for Christians in Oceania, that they “may joyfully announce the faith to all the people of that region.”

Let us pray with the Holy Father this month, for refugees throughout the world and for evangelization in Oceania.

The Sound Of The New Evangelization

In a 1999 address, Saint John Paul II repeated his call for a new evangelization, “new in ardor, methods and expression.”

Sister Cristina Scuccia, who recently won The Voice Italy, is one example of someone living out John Paul II’s challenge to evangelize. The 25-year-old nun won many hearts in secular society, sharing her love for the Lord with those who tuned into the popular TV competition.

Let us pray to be like Sister Cristina, asking God for the grace to use our gifts in order to spread the Gospel throughout the world.

Saint John Paul II, Pray for Us!

Papal Intentions For July

With the World Cup going on this month, Pope Francis asks us to pray that, "sports may always be occasions of human fraternity and growth."

He also asks us to pray "that the Holy Spirit may support the work of the laity who proclaim the Gospel in the poorest countries."

Through the intercession of St. John Paul II, who was both an athlete and a missionary, let us pray with the Holy Father this month, for a stronger and wider communion in the Church.

The Pillars of God's Church

"Blessed is the Lord who delivers his friends..." In their apostolic mission, Sts Peter and Paul were obliged to face difficulties of every kind. But, far from deterring their missionary activity, these difficulties reinforced their zeal for the Church's welfare and for the salvation of mankind. They were able to overcome every trial because their trust was not based on human resources but on the grace of the Lord, who...delivers his friends from every evil and saves them for his kingdom.

It is this same trust in God which must also sustain us. Yes, the "Lord delivers his friends." This awareness must instill courage in us as we face the difficulties encountered in proclaiming the Gospel in daily life. May our holy patrons, Peter and Paul, sustain us and obtain for us that missionary zeal which made them witnesses of Christ to the ends of the then-known world.

Pray for us, holy Apostles Peter and Paul, "pillars" of God's Church!

                -Saint John Paul II, Solemnity of Sts Peter and Paul, 1999

Evangelizing Through Education

Cardinal Raymond Burke, prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, recently noted the importance of Catholic education to the mission for a new evangelization. In a speech given at the International Pro-Life Conference, Burke said:

A new evangelization consists in teaching the faith through preaching, catechesis and all forms of Catholic education, in celebrating the faith in the Sacraments and in prayer and devotion which are their extension, and in living the faith by the practice of the virtues – all as if for the first time, that is, with the engagement and energy of the first disciples and of the first missionaries to our native place.

Burke cited St. John Paul II, who made the tireless call to evangelize in an increasingly secular society.

St. John Paul II, pray for us, that we may participate in the new evangelization in any way that God is calling us to. 

Papal Intentions for June

This month, Pope Francis asks us to pray for the unemployed, that they “may receive support and find the work they need to live in dignity.”

He also asks to pray that, “Europe may rediscover its Christian roots through the witness of believers.”

Let us join the Holy Father this month, in praying for the unemployed and for the blossoming of the New Evangelization in Europe.

Mary, Star of the New Evangelization, Pray for Us!

Mary, Mother of Hope

During this month of Mary, Pope Francis asks us to pray that she, the Star of Evangelization, “may guide the Church in proclaiming Christ to all nations.”

Saint John Paul II carried a deep devotion to the Blessed Mother with him throughout his life, his ministry, and his pontificate. His papal motto, totus tuus, was symbolic of his entrusting all to the Mother of God, who he believed to be the surest way to Christ.

In his Mulieris Dignitatem, Saint John Paul II allowed his love for Mary to inspire his reflection on the dignity and vocation of women. If we measure the dignity and vocation of every human being by each one’s capacity to live in union with God, then the Mother of Jesus is “the most complete expression of this dignity and vocation.” He writes:

Mary attains a union with God that exceeds all the expectations of the human spirit. It even exceeds the expectations of all Israel, in particular the daughters of this Chosen People, who, on the basis of the promise, could hope that one of their number would one day become the mother of the Messiah. Who among them, however, could have imagined that the promised Messiah would be “the Son of the Most High?” On the basis of the Old Testament's monotheistic faith such a thing was difficult to imagine. Only by the power of the Holy Spirit, who “overshadowed” her, was Mary able to accept what is “impossible with men, but not with God” (cf. Mk 10: 27).

Mary’s union with God, something that was beyond all thought and expectations, should give us hope in the most difficult task of evangelization. What seems like a losing battle in our culture today becomes already a victory if we think of what was possible for her and what was made possible through her.

So with Pope Francis, let us turn to the Mother of Hope this month, asking for her powerful intercession in the quest of proclaiming the Gospel to all nations. 

God’s Children Do Not Hide

Let us not forget that the momentum of our commitment as Christians in the world is not a philanthropic idea, not a vague humanism, but a gift from God, that is, the gift of being sons and daughters that we have received in Baptism. This gift is, at the same time, a task. God's children do not hide; rather they bring their joy as children of God to the world.

…bringing people the message of God's love and salvation in Jesus Christ, [a message] for all people, is the duty of every baptized person. This duty includes not only speaking with words, but with our whole way of acting and doing.

-Pope Francis, Speech to Austrian Bishops for “Ad Limina” Visit

The Digital Highway

In his message for World Communications Day released last week, Pope Francis challenged the faithful to “boldly become citizens of the digital world.”

The technological world of communications is making our world smaller, Pope Francis writes. Amidst the many divisions that exist in the human family, media can help us to feel closer and to embrace solidarity with one another. The internet enhances the “culture of encounter,” and so, according to the Holy Father, it is a gift from God.

Modern methods of communication do not come without their problems. Speed leaves little time for reflection, he writes. People can also be more selective of what media they subscribe to, and their desire for connectivity can isolate them from their neighbors.

This does not mean that all forms of media should be rejected, Pope Francis writes. If we approach the digital world with virtue, with a commitment to times for silence and times for listening, then we can grow in our communicating and use media tools for the good.

Proclaim The Gospel To Every Creature

Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them:
“Go into the whole world
and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved;
whoever does not believe will be condemned.
These signs will accompany those who believe:
in my name they will drive out demons,
they will speak new languages.
They will pick up serpents with their hands,
and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them.
They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

-Mark 16:15-18

Joy And The New Evangelization

The Church has taken another great stride towards responding to Blessed John Paul II’s call for a new evangelization. At the close of the Year of Faith, Pope Francis released his Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii gaudium, inspired by the fruits of last year’s Synod on the New Evangelization.

According to the Holy Father, joy should be at the center of the New Evangelization. “The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus” (1). Although there are many things holding us back from a genuine encounter with the Lord, the Gospel “constantly invites us to rejoice” (5). It invites us again and again to encounter Christ, and to share the fruits of that encounter with others.

In our work, in our parishes, and in our communities, Pope Francis challenges us to get involved in people’s daily lives. Join the Shepherd and take on the “smell of the sheep,” he writes (24). We the Church must constantly be open to all people in all walks of life, ready to rejoice with them, ready to pray with them, and ready to suffer with them. Pope Francis writes that it is better to be “a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security” (49).

In order to be “God’s leaven in the midst of humanity,” we must constantly and prayerfully be open to the grace that makes evangelization possible (114). This way we can become “missionary disciples,” in our interactions with others, in our preaching to others, and in our spiritual growth with others. This way we can truly make the kingdom of God present in the world.