John Paul II quote thread

[catholicflower]

my signature:

[Colleen]

"You are young, and the Pope is old, 82 or 83 years of life is not the same as 22 or 23. 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 [i]the hope that springs eternal in the hearts of the young[/i]. You are our hope, the young are our hope.

Do not let that hope die! Stake your lives on it! [i]We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures[/i]; we are the sum of the Father's love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his Son."

17th World Youth Day, Toronto, Downsview Park, Sunday July 28, 2002

[RemnantRules]

"You are children of the Light! (John 12:36) You belong to Christ, and he has called you by name. Your FIRST responsibility is to get to know as much as you can about him, in your parishes, in religous instruction in your high schools and colleges, and in your youth groups and Newman Centers. But you will get to know him truly and personally only through PRAYER. What is needed is that you talk to him and listen to him. Today we are living in an age of instant communications. But do you realize what a unique form of communication prayer is? Prayer enables us to meet God at the most profound level of our being. It connects us directly to God...Believe in God: Father, son and Holy Spirit, in a constant exchange of love. Through the prayer you will learn to become the light of the world, because in prayer you become one with the source of our true light, Jesus himself."
- Pope John Paul II the Great in St. Louis 1999.

[Apotheoun]

The following quotation is taken from Pope John Paul II's Apostolic Letter [u]Novo Millennio Ineunte[/u] (no. 23):

[quote]"Your face, O Lord, I seek" (Ps 27:8).  The ancient longing of the Psalmist could receive no fulfilment greater and more surprising than the contemplation of the face of Christ.  God has truly blessed us in Him and has made "His face to shine upon us" (Ps 67:1).  At the same time, God and man that He is, He reveals to us also the true face of man, "fully revealing man to man himself."  Jesus is "the new man" (cf. Eph 4:24; Col 3:10) who calls redeemed humanity to share in His divine life.  The mystery of the Incarnation lays the foundations for an anthropology which, reaching beyond its own limitations and contradictions, moves towards God Himself, indeed towards the goal of [i]divinization[/i].  This occurs through the grafting of the redeemed on to Christ and their admission into the intimacy of the Trinitarian life.  The Fathers have laid great stress on this soteriological dimension of the mystery of the Incarnation:  it is only because the Son of God truly became man that man, in Him and through Him, can truly become a son of God.[/quote]

[BigRedJ07]

"When you wonder about the mystery of yourself, look to Christ, who gives you the meaning of life. When you wonder what it means to be a mature person, look to Christ, who is the fulfillness of humanity. And when you wonder about your role in the future of the world look to Christ."

I really like that one!

[FranciscanRocker25]

"if you are what you are called to be, you will set the world ablaze!!"

"prayer is the first expression of our inner truth, the first condition of true spiritual truth. prayer gives a meaning to the whole of life, at every moment, and in every circumstance."

"pray and learn to pray! deepen your knowledge of the Word of the Living God by reading and meditating on the Scriptures."

"in prayer you become one with the source of our true light, Jesus Himself."

"freedom is not the ability to do anything we want, whenever we want. rather, freedom is the ability to live responsibly the truth of our relationship with God and one another."

[Norseman82]

"You go sleep!" (said to a crowd when he wanted to go to bed)

"You are not from Warsaw" (to Bryant Gumbel)


Hey, he had a humorous side to him too!

[DemonSlayer]

Some of his final recorded words:

"It is love which converts hearts and gives peace. To all humanity which today seems so lost and dominated by the power of evil, selfishness and fear, our resurrected Lord gives us His love which forgives, reconciles and reopens the soul to hope."

"I am happy, you be happy, too. Let's pray together with joy, I entrust everything to the Virgin Mary with joy."

"I have looked for you. Now you have come to me. And I thank you."

"Amen"

[traichuoi]

[quote name='Isaiah41:13' date='Apr 3 2005, 08:18 PM'] "It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; he is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; he is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is he who provokes you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is he who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is he who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle. It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be grounded down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal."
-Pope John Paul II- World Youth Day, Rome 2000


"I have looked for you. Now you have come to me. And I thank you." [/quote]
that is my most favorite quote of his.

i also love:

"For the disciple of Christ, the duty to evangelize is an obligation of love."

"Do not be satisfied with mediocrity. The kingdom of heaven is for those who are determined to enter it." Santiago, Spain

[Ash Wednesday]

Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.

(I especially love the "we are the Easter people"... for some reason I think of a bunch of Catholics/Christians doing the bunny hop) :bunny:

Stupidity is also a gift of God, but one mustn't misuse it.

(I think that will be my future signature)

[Guest Eremite]

“Do not be afraid to go out on the streets and into public places, like the first Apostles who preached Christ and the Good News of salvation in the squares of cities, towns and villages. This is no time to be ashamed of the Gospel. It is the time to preach it from the rooftops. Do not be afraid to break out of comfortable and routine modes of living, in order to take up the challenge of making Christ known in the modern 'metropolis.' It is you who must 'go out into the by-roads' and invite everyone you meet to the banquet which God has prepared for his people. The Gospel must not be kept hidden because of fear or indifference. It was never meant to be hidden away in private. It has to be put on a stand so that people may see its light and give praise to our heavenly Father.” (Pope John Paul II, World Youth Day '93)

[Piccoli Fiori JMJ]

Don't know if this one has been shared already:

"Radical changes in world politics leave America with a heightened responsibility to be, for the world, an example of a genuinely free, democratic and humane society."

[I Choose to Be Holy]

"Women occupy a place, in thought and action, which is unique and decisive. It depends on them to promote a new feminism' which rejects the temptation of imitating models of 'male domination', in order to acknowledge and affirm the true genius of women in every aspect of the life of society, and overcome all discrimination, violence and exploitation".

"The Church fully reveals her varied spiritual richness when she overcomes all discrimination and welcomes as a true blessing the gifts lavished by God upon both men and women, considering them in their equal dignity." (Both quotes are from Vita Consecrata)

This one might have been said already...

"Young people listening to me, answer the Lord with strong and generous hearts! He is counting on you. Never forget: Christ needs you to carry out his plan of salvation! Christ needs your youth and your generous enthusiasm to make his proclamation of joy resound in the new millennium. Answer his call by placing your lives at his service in your brothers and sisters! Trust Christ, because he trusts you." (WYD 02)

"A new generation of builders is needed. Moved not by fear or violence but by the urgency of genuine love, they must learn to build, brick by brick, the city of God within the city of man.... you must be those "builders"! You are the men and women of tomorrow. The future is in your hearts and in your hands. God is entrusting to you the task, at once difficult and uplifting, of working with him in the building of the civilization of love."