Blessed John Paul II, We Love You!
As the world witnessed at his death, Pope John Paul II was greatly loved by millions of people, most strikingly by his "dear young people". Ever since JPII began World Youth Days back in 1986, young people have been coming together in their millions (literally) to be with their Papa at World Youth Day.
A favourite chant at these WYDs was 'JP2, We Love You.' So on this podcast, young (or once young!) people share their stories – what it was about JPII that they love so much, how his life has encouraged them, and which of his words particularly inspire them. For more on beloved Blessed John Paul II, click here.
With many thanks to Mike Mangione for the gift of his music.
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Plus, you can download individual mp3 recordings by right clicking where you see this diamond ♦
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Blessed John Paul II, Matthew loves you! ♦
19) Matthew, who's 30 & from the USA, is a member of St Patrick's Community in Ireland. He describes how Blessed John Paul II had a deep impact on his life:
"I know without a doubt now, with hindsight, that John Paul II was there praying for me. Obviously he's a great intercessor for us in heaven and, without me even knowing, he was leading me across the world to find my home in Ireland where I now work with an evangelisation team. He always had a very special place in his heart for all people from all countries: he didn't see the divisions between them, he saw the beauty of each one."
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Blessed John Paul II, Erin love you! ♦
18) Erin, who's 1 of the Totus2us team & from the USA, never really knew JPII in his lifetime. It was on pilgrimage to Rome at Easter 2007, when she visited his tomb, that she was first struck by him.
"Man's eternity passes through love." - Karol Wojtyla, from his play The Jeweller's Shop
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John Paul II, Caecila loves you! ♦
17) Caecilia, who's 22 & from Germany:
"I love John Paul II very much because he trusted in us young people. You could feel it when you had a meeting with him at World Youth Day .. He loved us so much and he called us to the mission. He said we had big work in the world to tell the people from the Church and from Jesus, 'Jesus is the joy', and give the hearts the joy."
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John Paul II, Brother Camillus loves you! ♦
16) Brother Camillus of the Order of St Camillus, who's 86 and from Ireland:
"John Paul was such a wonderful person and he had so much suffering in his early life ..He was left all alone in this world aged 20, but he always dedicated and placed himself under the care of Our Blessed Lady, and he renewed his dedication to Mary Immaculate, his Mother.. I am really privileged to have met him and I shall always be keen to pray to him in the few years that I have left. We must thank God for John Paul, the Great John Paul II."
(Brother Lawrence has a youthfulness of spirit like that of JPII ... so the chance of including his JPII response here threw any thought of an age limit for this podcast out the window .. nor, as it was off-the-cuff, is there a JPII quote)
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John Paul II, Lawrence loves you! ♦
15) Lawrence, who's 33 and from the UK, speaks about the great qualities of John Paul II and how the message he was giving was so wonderfully clear and beautiful that it made it very much easier to follow the teachings of Our Lord.
"The future starts today, not tomorrow." - John Paul II
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John Paul II, Eric loves you! ♦
14) Eric, who's 23 and from Pennsylvania in the USA, has always thought John Paul II was really cool, without hesitation choosing him for a school paper as the person he'd most like to have dinner with! Eric has recently seen the film Karol which does a fantastic job detailing Karol Wojtyla's early life and all the struggles he lived through. Eric is able to visit JPII's tomb in St Peter's, as he is currently at the Emmanuel School of Evangelization in Rome.
"Happiness means to be rooted in love." - John Paul II
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John Paul II, Father Peter loves you! ♦
13) Father Peter, a Marianhill Missionary priest from Zimbabwe, was an altar boy at Mass during Pope John Paul II's trip to Zimbabwe in 1988. Fr Peter speaks here of JPII's leadership: as a spiritual father, as a man of prayer who was deep in contemplation.
"If you want peace, work for justice." - John Paul II
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John Paul II, Jan loves you! ♦
12) Jan, who's 31 and from Italy, talks of how John Paul II's words and love have inspired and helped him, and of how reading St Louis de Montfort's 'Devotion to Mary' made him think of Karol Woytyla reading the same book while he was an 'underground' seminarian. Jan, a film maker, has chosen a quote from JP2's Letter to Artists:
"Beauty is a key to the mystery and a call to transcendence. It is an invitation to savour life and to dream of the future. That is why the beauty of created things can never fully satisfy. It stirs that hidden nostalgia for God which a lover of beauty like Saint Augustine could express in incomparable terms: “Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new: late have I loved you!”.
Artists of the world, may your many different paths all lead to that infinite Ocean of beauty where wonder becomes awe, exhilaration, unspeakable joy.
May you be guided and inspired by the mystery of the Risen Christ, whom the Church in these days contemplates with joy. May the Blessed Virgin Mary be with you always: she is the “tota pulchra” portrayed by countless artists, whom Dante contemplates among the splendours of Paradise as “beauty that was joy in the eyes of all the other saints”.
“From chaos there rises the world of the spirit”. These words of Adam Mickiewicz, written at a time of great hardship for his Polish homeland, prompt my hope for you: may your art help to affirm that true beauty which, as a glimmer of the Spirit of God, will transfigure matter, opening the human soul to the sense of the eternal.
With my heartfelt good wishes!" - Pope John Paul II in his Letter to Artists (in Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese & Spanish).
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John Paul II, Steve loves you! ♦
11) Steve, who's 39 and from America, is the Founder & CEO of Youth in Europe, organising pilgrimages to World Youth Days. He went to World Youth Day Denver in 1993 and his life was dramatically changed by God through the witness of JPII:
"He never lied to us and he never let us down."
"Dear young people, with a spirit of generous self-giving, recognise that you are directly involved in the new evangelization which demands the involvement of all of us. Proclaim Christ who died for all so that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sakes died and was raised up." - Pope John Paul II at WYD Denver 1993
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John Paul II, Robert loves you! ♦
10) Robert, who's 27 and from the UK, writes the blog Love Undefiled and, along with 2 friends, has started up The Sexual Education Foundation, a new educational initiative which draws deeply from the Catholic Church's teachings on love and sexuality. His introduction to JPII was when, aged 17, he read the Pope's encyclical Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason). He describes here how this led him to the Catholic Church and picks out some of the moments in JP2's life that have particularly inspired and encouraged him.
"Truth and freedom either go hand in hand or perish in misery." - Pope John Paul II from his encyclical letter Fides et Ratio
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John Paul II, James loves you! ♦
9) James, who's 27 and from New Zealand, lists JPII's legacy of the World Youth Day, his devotion to Our Lady, how in his old age he showed how those who are suffering are important, and how he was never afraid to preach the Gospel.
"Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors to Christ." - Pope John Paul II, from his 1st address on becoming Pope, 16th October 1978
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John Paul II, Sister Hyacinthe loves you! ♦
8) Sr Hyacinthe, 1 of the Totus2us team, is from France & is a Dominican Sister. One of the things she loves most about JPII was his fearlessness, giving the subject of her Masters Degree in History as an example - his role in building a church in Nova Hota. Another reason is because of his teaching, philosophical and theological, particularly about the human person.
"The human person is a good towards which the only proper attitude is love." - Karol Wojtyla from his book Love and Responsibility
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John Paul II, Nathan loves you! ♦
7) Nathan, who's 27 and from Brazil, talks about his memories of JP2 at World Youth Day Toronto.
"You are young, and the Pope is old .. But the Pope still fully identifies with your hopes and aspirations. Although I have lived through much darkness, under harsh totalitarian regimes, I have seen enough evidence to be unshakably convinced that no difficulty, no fear is so great that it can completely suffocate the hope that springs eternal in the hearts of the young. You are our hope, the young are our hope.
Do not let that hope die! Stake your lives on it! We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father's love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his Son." - Pope John Paul II at WYD Toronto 2002
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John Paul II, Elaine loves you! ♦
6) Elaine, from Australia, was first introduced to John Paul II when a friend recommended she read his Letter to Women, which deeply impressed her. Then another friend recommended she read his Theology of the Body. She remembers thinking 'Wow. I can't believe it. I've found the meaning to life. This is just incredible.' She just knew it was the truth and wished she'd known about it growing up. One of the many great lessons she learnt from reading lots about John Paul II was his compassion and dignity for all human life.
"True compassion leads to sharing another's pain. It does not kill the person whose suffering we cannot bear." - John Paul II
(You can read JPII's Letter to Women, written in 1995, in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese & Spanish.)
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John Paul II, Marina loves you! ♦
5) Marina is 35 and from Croatia, and JP2 has been a true part of her family ever since her grandmother met him early on in his Papacy. She also recalls his visit to Croatia in 1994.
"Do not abandon yourself to despair. We are Easter people and Alleluia is our song." - Pope John Paul II
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John Paul II, Ruth loves you! ♦
4) Ruth, 1 of the Totus2us team, recalls her time with JP2: on his visit to England in 1982, WYDs '93 and '97 in Denver and Paris, and the Eucharistic Congress in Rome in the Jubilee Year.
"Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it. This is why Christ the Redeemer "fully reveals man to himself."
If we may use the expression, this is the human dimension of the mystery of the redemption. In this dimension man finds again the greatness, dignity and value that belong to his humanity. In the mystery of the redemption man becomes newly "expressed" and, in a way, is newly created. He is newly created! "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
The man who wishes to understand himself thoroughly - and not just in accordance with immediate, partial, often superficial, and even illusory standards and measures of his being - he must with his unrest, uncertainty and even his weakness and sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ." - Pope John Paul II in his 1st encyclical Redemptor Hominis, Redeemer of Man
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John Paul II, Kathy loves you! ♦
3) Kathy, who's 17 and from the Philippines, didn't get to know JP2 in his life but, thanks to WYD 2008 got to learn of his teachings on the theology of the body, which has transformed the way she sees things.
"True holiness does not mean a flight from the world; rather, it lies in the effort to incarnate the Gospel in everyday life, in the family, at school and at work, and in social and political involvement." - JPII
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John Paul II, Mili loves you! ♦
2) Mili, from Peru and now living in Australia, describes JP2's amazing apostolic visit to Peru in 1985. Her chosen quote is JPII's response to the young people who'd come to be with him in St Peter's Square in Easter Week 2005:
"I sought you out and now you come to me. Thank you." - JPII
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John Paul II, Cassie loves you! ♦
1) Cassie, who's 17 and from the USA, has known and loved JP2 all her life, thanks to her mother's trip to WYD Denver in 1993.
"Peace is not a utopia nor an inaccessible ideal nor an unrealisable dream. War is not an inevitable calamity. Peace is possible." - John Paul II
"From the beginning of my Pontificate, my thoughts, prayers and actions were motivated by one desire: to witness that
Christ, the Good Shepherd, is present and active in his Church.
He is constantly searching for every stray sheep, to lead it back to the sheepfold, to bind up its wounds; he tends the sheep that are weak and sickly and protects those that are strong.
This is why, from the very first day, I have never ceased to urge people:
"Do not be afraid to welcome Christ and accept his power!"
Today I forcefully repeat:
"Open, indeed, open wide the doors to Christ!" Let him guide you! Trust in his love!
Pope John Paul II - Homily at Thanksgiving Mass, 25th anniversary of election to the Pontificate - 16th October 2003