John Paul II's comments on the Virgin (general audience, May 12, 2004 (VIS))
At the end of today's general audience John Paul II greeted his fellow Poles and said he was especially happy "for the presence of a large group of children making their First Communion in the church of St. Stanislaw in Rome. I entrust to God all children who at this time of year are receiving Christ in their hearts for the first time. I hope they may nourish the spirit of faith of their parents and their dear ones. May they learn to love Jesus with all their lives and, with Our Lady's help may they persevere in the faith."
In closing remarks to young people, the sick and the newlyweds, he noted that tomorrow is the liturgical memory of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Fatima and said "I exhort you all to incessantly turn to Our Lady with faith, entrusting to her your every need."
John Paul II On Our Lady Of Lourdes and the Immaculate Conception
In a Message on 150th Anniversary of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception
VATICAN CITY, FEB 11, 2004 (VIS) - Pope John Paul focussed the catechesis of today's general audience on the liturgical memory of Our Lady of Lourdes and on the celebration of the 12th World Day of the Sick. He noted that the shrine at Lourdes "continues to attract crowds of pilgrims from every part of the world, including many people who are sick" and, over the years, "an intense relationship has developed which binds it to the world of illness and those who work in health care services."
[The pope] added that the principal celebration of the World Day of the Sick is taking place this year in Lourdes because "in 2004 we will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception which took place on December 8, 1854. Four years later in Lourdes, in 1858 the Virgin Mary, appearing to Bernadette Soubirous in the grotto of Massabielle, called herself 'the Immaculate Conception'."
John Paul II Fondly Recalls Louis de Montfort's Marian Doctrine
In a Message on 160th Anniversary of "True Devotion"
VATICAN CITY, JAN. 13, 2004 (Zenit.org). - The 160th anniversary of the publication of "True Devotion to Mary" has given John Paul II the chance to recall the doctrine of its author, St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort.
It is to the saint that the Pope owes his episcopal motto, "Totus Tuus", an expression of his total belonging to Jesus through Mary.
In his youth, Karol Wojtyla received "a great help" from the work.
"I found the answer to my perplexities due to the fear that the devotion to Mary, if excessive, might end by compromising the supremacy of the worship owed to Christ," the Pope said in his message to the religious of the Montfort family, which the Vatican press office published today.
"Under the wise guidance of St. Louis-Marie, I understood that, if one lives the mystery of Mary in Christ, such a risk does not exist," the Pope said in his letter dated Dec. 8, solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.
St. Louis-Marie wrote "True Devotion to Mary" at the start of 1700, but the manuscript was practically ignored until it was rediscovered in 1842 and published a year later.
Re-read in the light of the Second Vatican Council, the Montfort doctrine retains "its substantial validity," the Holy Father said.
"As is known, in my episcopal coat of arms [...] the motto 'Totus Tuus' is inspired by the doctrine of St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort. These two words express total belonging to Jesus through Mary," John Paul II explained.
"'Totus tuus ego sum, et omnia mea tua sunt,' St. Louis-Marie wrote; and he translates 'I am all yours, and everything of mine belongs to you, my beloved Jesus, through Mary, your holy Mother,'" the Pope said.
According to the saint's thought, Mary "accompanies us in our pilgrimage of faith, hope and charity toward an ever more intense union with Christ, only Savior and Mediator of salvation," the Holy Father said.
For St. Louis-Marie, true Marian devotion is Christ-centered and becomes a privileged means "to find Jesus Christ perfectly, to love him tenderly, and to serve him faithfully."
In this connection, Mary becomes the faithful echo of God, the Pope said "Every time that you honor Mary, Mary praises and honors God with you."
The Holy Father continued "St. Louis-Marie contemplates all the mysteries beginning with the Incarnation, which takes place at the moment of the Annunciation," in such a way that in the treatise "Mary appears as 'the true earthly paradise of the New Adam,' the 'virgin and immaculate earth' from which he has been formed."
"She is also the New Eve," John Paul II added, "associated to the New Adam in the obedience that repairs the original disobedience of man and woman. Through this obedience, the Son of God enters into the world. The cross itself is already mysteriously present in the instant of the Incarnation."
St. Louis-Marie wrote "All our perfection consists in being conformed, united and consecrated to Jesus Christ. ... Now, from Mary being the creature most conformed to Jesus Christ, one learns that, among all the devotions, the one that most consecrates and conforms a soul to Our Lord is devotion to Mary, his holy Mother, and that the more a soul is consecrated to Mary, the more consecrated it will be to Jesus Christ."
The cross, the Pope said, is the culminating moment of Mary's faith "Through this faith, Mary is perfectly united to Christ in his despoliation. ... This is, perhaps, the most profound kenosis of faith in the history of humanity."
For more information, see http//www.montfort.org.
Pope Says Our Lady of Mount Carmel Is Source of Hope
He Recalls a Church Feast Full of Memories of His Youth
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, JULY 16, 2003 (Zenit.org).- On a day the Church was celebrating the liturgical memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, John Paul II presented Mary as a reason for hope and consolation.
After greeting the Carmelites who were among the 2,000 faithful gathered for today's general audience at the papal summer residence here, the Pope highlighted the meaning of the day, which for him brought back memories.
"Today is the liturgical memory of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel," he said in Polish at the end of the audience. "This memory is especially dear to all those who are devoted to Our Lady of Mount Carmel."
"Even I, from my youngest days, have worn around my neck the scapular of Our Lady and I take refuge with trust under the mantle of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus," the Pope said.
He added: "I hope the scapular will be for everyone, especially the faithful who wear it, a help and defense in times of danger, a seal of peace and a sign of Mary's care."
The Carmel scapular wasn't the extent of Karol Wojtyla's connection with its spirituality. He gave serious thought to entering the Carmel, after reading the works of St. John of the Cross. The Spanish saint's mystical writings so moved the future Pope that he based his doctoral thesis in theology on them.
Simon Stock, general superior of the Carmelite Order, received the scapular in 1251, during an apparition of the Virgin, when she promised special assistance in life and in death to all those who wear it with devotion.
Commenting on the Holy Father's words, theologian and Mariologist Father Stefano De Fiores explained on Vatican Radio: "When we think of the Virgin of Carmel today, we think first of all of the contemplation so necessary for the world of today which is too absorbed in activity and subjected to stress and anxiety."
"At the same time, in Mary we also see beauty," said Father De Fiores, a Montfort Missionary. "This way of beauty today is particularly adapted to attract the hearts of men. According to Fyodor M. Dostoyevsky, beauty will save the world. However, not any beauty but redeemed beauty, as Pavel Evdokimov emphasizes."
With her beauty, Mary indicates to us "what we should be and, unfortunately, are not," the theologian added.
Pope John Paul II Reveals Mary's Place In His Life
Excerpt from Zenit press release of October 14th, 2000 (http://www.zenit.org)ROME, OCT. 13, 2000 (ZENIT.org).-
It was during the dark years of the Nazi occupation of Poland that a young Karol Wojtyla discovered the role of Mary, the Mother Of Jesus Christ, in his life.
John Paul II spoke about his youth today during an address to participants of the 8th International Mariological Colloquium, taking place in Rome.
The meeting was the occasion of an official petition to the Pope to have him declare Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort (1673-1716) a doctor of the Church.
Grignon de Montfort is one of the classical writers of Christian spirituality, from whom the Holy Father borrowed the motto "Totus Tuus" ("All Yours").
During the Nazi occupation, when he worked in Krakow's Solvay factory, the future Pope "read and reread many times and with great spiritual profit" an ascetic work of Grignon de Montfort.
It led the young seminarian to understand that Mary's presence in the spiritual life of a Christian does not compete with the person of Christ, but stems from him and is at his service.
The Holy Father recalled: "Then I understood that I could not exclude the Lord's Mother from my life without neglecting the will of God-Trinity, who willed to begin and fulfill the great mysteries of the history of salvation with the responsible and faithful collaboration of the humble handmaid of Nazareth."
Thus, John Paul II emphasized how Grignon de Montfort invites the faithful to live a spirituality that encourages giving oneself consciously to Christ and, through him, to the Holy Spirit and the Father.
The Pope explained that he chose as the motto of his episcopate and pontificate the words "All Yours," as an act of entrustment to Mary.
"In repeating every day 'Totus tuus,' and living in harmony with her," he said, "one can attain to the experience of the Father in limitless confidence and love, to docility to the Holy Spirit, and to the transformation of self according to the image of Christ."
I live in a large parish, and our church has five Masses on Sunday, plus the Vigil Mass on Saturday evening. I help out as an available usher when needed - not assigned to any specific mass, but I am glad to be of service if they are shorthanded at whatever Mass I attend. It works out that I help out a couple of times a month. One Sunday as I made the regular "lost and found" check of the pews after Mass I found a prayer card lying in the pew in front of Mary's altar. I found it interesting that I had completed an update to this web site the night before, and thinking to myself that this page - the Papal prayer page - had only one item on it (the Zenit 13 October 2000 item). Then this Papal prayer is handed to me, in God's church, in front of Mary's altar, the very next day. I hand copied the prayer onto the blank back side of a flyer that was folded into the parish bulletin for that week, and left the card in the pew for the next person God wanted to see it.
Pope John Paul II's Prayer for Peace To Mary, The Light of Hope
Immaculate Heart of Mary,help us to conquer the menace of evil,
which so easily takes root in the hearts of the people of today,
and whose immeasurable effects
already weigh down upon our modern world
and seem to block the paths toward the future.
From famine and war, deliver us.
From nuclear war, from incalculable self-destruction, from every
kind of war, deliver us.
From sins against human life from its very beginning, deliver us.
From hatred and from the demeaning of the dignity of the
children of God, deliver us.
From every kind of injustice in the life of society, both national
and international, deliver us.
From readiness to trample on the commandments of God, deliver us.
From attempts to stifle in human hearts the very truth of God,
deliver us.
From the loss of awareness of good and evil, deliver us.
From sins against the Holy Spirit, deliver us.
Accept, 0 Mother of Christ, this cry laden with the sufferings of all individual human beings,
laden with the sufferings of whole societies.
Help us with the power of the Holy Spirit conquer all sin: individual
sin and the "sin of the world," sin in all its manifestations.
Let there be revealed once more in the history of the world the
infinite saving power of the redemption: the power of merciful love.
May it put a stop to evil.
May it transform consciences.
May your Immaculate Heart reveal for all the fight of hope.
Amen.
Pro-Life Prayer of John Paul II
'Oh Mary, we entrust to you the cause of life.
Look down upon the vast numbers of babies not
allowed to be born. Grant all who believe in
your Son to proclaim the Gospel of Life.
Obtain for them the grace to accept that Gospel
as a gift ever new, to bear witness to it
resolutely, to the praise and glory of God,
the Creator and Lover of Life. Amen.'
Some Papal Consecrations To The Immaculate Heart Of Mary
includes Pope Pius XII in 1952, Pope John Paul II in 1982 and 1984.
On 16 October 2002, Pope John Paul II observed the 24th anniversary of his papal election by proposing five new mysteries to the Rosary and also proclaimed the year from October 2002 to October 2003 as the Year of the Rosary in The Apolostic Letter ROSARIUM VIRGINIS MARIAE (The Rosary of the Virgin Mary).
Please pray for our Pope, John Paul II...
Born: Karol Jozel Wojtyla, May 18, 1920
Ordained as Priest: November 1, 1946
Ordained as Bishop: September 28, 1958
Created as Cardinal: June 26, 1967
Elected as Pope: October 16, 1978
Installation as Pope: October 22, 1978
As of March 14, 2004, John Paul II's pontificate became the third longest in the two millennium-old history of the Catholic Church. On that day he overtook Pope Leo XIII who reigned for 25 years and 5 months. The date is calculated as of the installation date, the official start of his papacy (leap years are included in the calculations).
Only two Roman Pontiffs reigned longer than Pope John Paul: Pius IX (31 years, 7 months, 21 days) and St. Peter (dates unknown).