| |  |
| 10.15.07 |
| TEN WERE CLEANSED, WERE THEY NOT? WHERE ARE THE OTHER NINE? |
Jesus comes to offer us a salvation which, although primarily a liberation from sin, also involves the totality of our being with its deepest needs and aspirations. Christ frees us from this burden and threat and opens the way to the complete fulfillment of our destiny.
|
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 10.06.07 |
| IF YOU HAD FAITH THE SIZE OF A MUSTARD SEED� |
| The kingdom is God's effective but mysterious action in the universe and in the tangle of human events. He overcomes the resistance of evil with patience, not with arrogance and outcry. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 08.06.07 |
| For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. |
| It is true that the Word was made flesh in 'the fullness of time' (Gal 4:4); but it is also true that, in virtue of the mystery of his identity as the eternal Son of the Father, he is the origin and end of the universe. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 08.04.07 |
| THIS NIGHT YOUR LIFE WILL BE DEMANDED OF YOU. |
The thought of hell... must not create anxiety or despair, but is a necessary and healthy reminder of freedom within the proclamation that the risen Jesus has conquered Satan, giving us the Spirit of God who makes us cry �Abba, Father!�
|
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 07.02.07 |
| I am sending you like lambs among wolves |
| We believe that, without the direction and assistance of Christ, true, permanent and worldwide Peace is not possible. We also consider that the Peace of Christ does not weaken people, does not make them timid and victims of others' arrogance, but rather renders them capable of struggling for justice and of settling very many questions with the generosity, indeed the genius, of love. |
| Pope Paul VI |
|
| 06.23.07 |
| What, then, will this child be? |
| No one is nameless in God�s sight! All have equal value in his eyes: all are different, yet all are equal, and all are called to be sons and daughters in the Son... This is true for everyone, with the exception of none. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 06.04.07 |
| They all ate and were satisfied |
| Christ wanted his saving presence in the world and in history to be linked with the sacrament of the Eucharist. He wanted to make himself the bread which is broken so that everyone can be nourished by his very life through participation in the sacrament of his Body and Blood. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 05.28.07 |
| When he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. |
| Since the way of peace passes in the last analysis through love and seeks to create the civilization of love, the Church fixes her eyes on him who is the love of the Father and the Son and in spite of increasing dangers she does not cease to trust, she does not cease to invoke and to serve the peace of man on earth. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 05.14.07 |
| That they may be one, as we are one. |
| We know that the Redeemer spent most of his life in the obscurity of Nazareth, �obedient� (Lk 2:51) as the �Son of Man� to Mary his Mother, and to Joseph the carpenter. Is this filial "obedience" of Christ not already the first expression of that obedience to the Father "unto death" (Phil 2:8), whereby he redeemed the world? |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 05.06.07 |
| Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. |
| Christ's example, no less than his words, is normative for Christians. We know that, at the Last Judgment, we shall all be judged, without distinction, on our practical love of our brothers and sisters. |
| John Paul II |
|
| 04.18.07 |
| Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you. |
| This is Christ's promise, our consoling certainty: the Petrine ministry is not founded on human abilities and strengths, but on the prayer of Christ who implores the Father that Simon's faith 'may not fail.' (Lk 22: 32). |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 04.10.07 |
| As the Father has sent me, so I send you. |
| Is not loving God and loving one's neighbor and even one's �enemies�, after Jesus' example, the program of life of every baptized person and of the whole Church? |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 04.06.07 |
| Why do you seek the living one among the dead? |
| The Easter liturgy repeats to us, the men and women of the third millennium: Christ is risen, Christ is alive among us! His name now is 'the Living One', death has no more power over him. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 03.26.07 |
| Not my will but yours be done |
| The light of Easter reveals the great teaching contained in the Passion: life is affirmed through the sincere gift of self to the point of suffering death for others, for the Other. |
| John Paul II |
|
| 03.12.07 |
| This man welcomes sinners and eats with them |
| God welcomes every prodigal child who returns to him� The acceptance of God's forgiveness leads to the commitment to forgive our brothers and sisters and to be reconciled with them. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 02.12.07 |
| Love Your Enemies |
| Christians must make peace even when they feel that they are victims of those who have struck and hurt them unjustly. This was how the Lord himself acted. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 01.15.07 |
| The Spirit of the Lord is upon me |
| When the Father intervenes with his Spirit, chaos is transformed into cosmos, the world comes alive and history is set in motion. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 01.08.07 |
| Do whatever he tells you |
| The presence of the Son of God at the wedding feast is an indication that marriage should be an effective sign of his presence. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 01.01.07 |
| Did you not know that I must be in my Father�s house? |
| During those three dramatic days when the Son withdraws from them to stay in the temple, Mary and Joseph experience an anticipation of the triduum of his Passion, Death and Resurrection. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 12.18.06 |
| Blessed are you among women |
| The 'yes' of Mary and Joseph involves their entire person: spirit, soul and body. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 12.04.06 |
| Prepare the way of the Lord |
| The 'fullness of grace,' which is Mary's starting point, for all others is the goal |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 11.27.06 |
| Raise your heads because your redemption is at hand |
| If humanity loses the meaning of God, it will close itself to the future and inevitably lose the perspective of its pilgrim journey in time. Why birth, why death? Why sacrifice, why suffering? |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 11.20.06 |
| Are you the King of the Jews? |
| The created world is not the result of mere chance. It springs from God's love; it is sustained by God's love, and all the events of human history are subject to God's loving providence. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 11.03.06 |
| You shall love your neighbor as yourself |
| This is the great newness of Christianity: one cannot love God if one does not love one's brethren, creating a deep and lasting communion of love with them. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 10.25.06 |
| Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me! |
| Mary, the humble girl of Nazareth, in giving birth to the Son of God, introduced him into David's genealogy and into the entire human family. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 10.02.06 |
| The two shall become one flesh. |
| Genesis 2:24 sets forth the principle of the unity and indissolubility of marriage as the very content of the Word of God, expressed in the most ancient revelation. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 09.10.06 |
| Who do you say that I am? |
| Even the centurion, who does not belong to the chosen people, recognizes Jesus as the Son of God, the Saviour not only of a people or a nation, but of every man and woman who accepts him and acknowledges him in the moment of his extreme humiliation. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 09.05.06 |
| He has done all things well. |
| Christ opens man to a knowledge of both God and himself. He who is truth opens man to the truth, touching him from within and thus healing �from within� every human faculty. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 07.31.06 |
| This is my beloved Son. |
Nazareth teaches us to overcome the apparent tension between the active and contemplative life; it invites us to grow in love of the divine truth that radiates from Christ's humanity and to exercise courageously the demanding service of safeguarding Christ who is present in every human person.
|
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 07.23.06 |
| This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world. |
| Jesus is not only a great figure of the past, a teacher of life and morals. He is the risen Lord, the God who is close to every person, to whom we can speak and with whom we can experience the joy of friendship, hope in time of trouble and the certainty of a better future. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 07.03.06 |
| Is he not the carpenter? |
| From Jesus� own teaching we can clearly see that man who works is much more important than the product of his work. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 06.26.06 |
| Go in peace, your faith has saved you. |
| The encounter with Jesus is like a rebirth: it brings forth the new creature who is capable of true adoration, which consists in worshiping the Father "in spirit and truth" (Jn 4: 23-24). |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 06.20.06 |
| Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith? |
| [A] continuous effort of conversion is needed to straighten humanity's course, so that it may freely choose to follow "God's art", that is, his plan of peace and love, of truth and justice. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 06.05.06 |
| I am with you always. |
| The first Christians, coming both from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, differed from the pagans not only in their faith and their liturgy but also in the witness of their moral conduct, which was inspired by the New Law. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 05.29.06 |
| As the Father has sent me, so I send you. |
| Embrace Christ in everyone who shares with you the dignity of human nature. Reach out to him and discover him in the poor and lonely, the sick and troubled, the disabled, the aged, the unwanted... |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 05.15.06 |
| Love one another as I love you. |
| The human person is called to love God with total commitment and to relate to his brothers and sisters with a loving attitude inspired by God's own love. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 05.08.06 |
| I am the Vine, you are the branches. |
| The reality of the Church as Communion is � the central content of the �mystery�, or rather, the divine plan for the salvation of humanity. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 05.01.06 |
| I know my own and my own know me. |
| Christ�s pastoral mission is a universal mission, which is not limited to the sons and daughters of Israel, but, by virtue of his sacrifice on the Cross, embraces all men and all peoples. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 04.20.06 |
| Peace be with you! |
If Christ did not rise from the dead, not only would our faith be in vain (cf. 1 Cor 15:14), but our hope would also be vain, for we would all still be held hostage by evil and death.
|
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 04.17.06 |
| He is Risen! |
'O death, where is your sting?' (1 Cor 15:55), exclaims the Apostle Paul,
touched on the road to Damascus by the light of the Risen Christ. His cry echoes down the centuries as the proclamation of life for the whole of human civilization.
|
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 03.06.06 |
| This is my beloved Son. Listen to him. |
| On this Second Sunday of Lent, we hear the announcement of the Resurrection as we set out on the way to Jerusalem, where we will relive the mystery of the Lord�s Passion and Death. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 02.26.06 |
| Repent, and believe in the gospel. |
| It is the Spirit who impels each of us to �return into ourselves� and to see the need to go back to the Father�s house. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 02.12.06 |
| Child, your sins are forgiven. |
| In the sacrament of Penance the faithful begin that interior process which leads to that higher peace which consists in compliance with God�s will. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 02.05.06 |
| Be made clean. |
| Jesus knocked down the barrier separating the untouchables from the human community, and by this miraculous cure he opened a path of hope that religion and science have to follow. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 01.31.06 |
| He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. |
| Although illness is linked to the sinful condition of humanity, suffering is not divine retribution. On the contrary, it is intended for a good purpose: �so that the works of God might be displayed�. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 01.22.06 |
| He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him. |
| Enlivened by the Spirit, what Jesus says expresses his mystery with �authority� as the Word made flesh. They are words that extend divine forgiveness to sinners, offer healing and salvation to the sick and even bring the dead back to life. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 01.08.06 |
| Behold, the Lamb of God. |
| The Church believes that the key, the centre, and the purpose of the whole of man�s history is to be found in its Lord and Master. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 12.11.05 |
| You shall name him, Jesus. |
| This name, Jesus, in the supreme sacrifice of Golgotha, shone forth as a life-giving name in which God offers the grace of reconciliation and peace to all mankind. |
| John Paul II |
|
| 12.05.05 |
| The Lord is at Hand! |
| The night of Bethlehem and John the Baptist's witness at the baptism in the Jordan converge in the same truth: we must shake off our inertia and prepare the way of the Lord who comes. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 11.07.05 |
| Well done, my good and faithful servant. |
| Not all are called to be artists in the specific sense of the term. Yet all men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 10.30.05 |
| Stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour. |
| The call of Jesus is clear. He says: 'Stay awake, the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.' In this way he urges all his followers to work for the goal that the Father has set: the Kingdom of justice, truth and peace. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 10.24.05 |
| You have but one Father in heaven. |
| Through his Son�s death the Father communicated new life to us so that we might call upon him in the Holy Spirit with the same term that Jesus used: Abba. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 10.16.05 |
| You shall love your neighbor as yourself. |
| Only those who are involved with their neighbor and his needs concretely show their love for Jesus. Being closed and indifferent to the �other� means being closed to the Holy Spirit, forgetting Christ and denying the Father�s universal love. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 10.09.05 |
| Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God. |
| There need be no fear that religious freedom would be injurious to the life of civil society or that religious freedom, once granted to the Catholic Church, would intrude upon the realm of political freedom: the Church is able carefully to distinguish, as she must, what belongs to Caesar from what belongs to God. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 09.25.05 |
| The stone rejected has become the cornerstone. |
| The Lord Jesus Christ is called stone, not inanimate stone nor cut by human hands, but the cornerstone, because he who believes in him will not remain disappointed. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 08.22.05 |
| Deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow Me. |
| When the cross is embraced it becomes a sign of love and of total self-giving. To carry it behind Christ means to be united with him in offering the greatest proof of love � the choice is between a full life and an empty existence, between truth and falsehood. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 08.15.05 |
| Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. |
| The Lord wanted the Church to be a universal sacrament of salvation� It is God's will that the forgiveness of sins and the return to divine friendship should be mediated by the Church's action. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 08.08.05 |
| My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord. |
| The Queen of the world reveals to individuals and to nations the power of the love of God whose plan upsets that of the proud, pulls down the mighty from their thrones and exalts the humble, fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich empty away. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 08.01.05 |
| Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid. |
| Christ freed Peter from the fear which seized him on the stormy lake. Christ enables us too to overcome the difficult moments in life... |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 07.25.05 |
| Give them some food yourselves. |
| The Eucharist is not merely an expression of communion in the Church's life; it is also a project of solidarity for all of humanity. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 06.27.05 |
| For my yoke is easy, and my burden light. |
| Difficulties and sorrows, if accepted out of love, are transformed into a privileged way of holiness, which opens onto the horizons of a greater good, known only to the Lord. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 05.16.05 |
| God so loved the world that he gave his only Son |
| Through Baptism we are inserted into Trinitarian communion. Every Christian is baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; he is immersed in the life of God. What a great gift and a great mystery! |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 04.18.05 |
| I am the way and the truth and the life. |
| The development of science and technology� does not free humanity from the obligation to ask the ultimate religious questions. Rather, it spurs us on to face the most painful and decisive of struggles, those of the heart and the moral conscience. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 04.04.05 |
| Stay with us! |
| The Eucharist is a mode of being, which passes from Jesus into each Christian, through whose testimony it is meant to spread throughout society and culture. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 03.28.05 |
| Peace be with you. |
| It is not easy to love with a deep love, which lies in the authentic gift of self. This love can only be learned by penetrating the mystery of God's love. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 03.07.05 |
| I am the resurrection and the life |
| Yes, faced with the signs of a creeping �culture of death�, Jesus' great revelation must still be heard today:�I am the resurrection and the life.� |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 02.28.05 |
| Do you believe in the Son of Man? |
| May no one close his soul to Christ! He gives to the one who accepts him the light of faith, the light that can transform the heart, and, consequently, mentalities, social, political, and economic situations dominated by sin. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 02.07.05 |
| You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test |
| Christ alone can free man from what enslaves him to evil and selfishness: from the frantic search for material possessions, from the thirst for power and control over others and over things, from the illusion of easy success, from the frenzy of consumerism and hedonism which ultimately destroy the human being. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 01.31.05 |
| Your light must shine before others. |
| Faith is not just a collection of theoretical assertions to be accepted and approved by the mind, but an experience to be had, a truth to be lived, the salt and light of all reality. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 01.17.05 |
| Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. |
| God traveled the tortuous roads of sinners through his Son, Jesus Christ� The door of hope is therefore always open to every sinner. Man is not left alone to attempt, in a thousand often frustrated ways, an impossible ascent to heaven. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 01.10.05 |
| Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. |
| Christ suffers voluntarily and suffers innocently. With His suffering He gives the answer to the question about suffering and the meaning of suffering not only by His teaching, that is, by the Good News, but most of all by His own suffering. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 12.06.04 |
| Go and tell John what you hear and see |
| The Church vigorously proclaims that Christ is the true liberator of man, the one who leads all humanity back to the paternal and merciful embrace of God. |
| Pope John Paul |
|
| 11.15.04 |
| Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise. |
| Jesus' kingship can appear "paradoxical". Indeed, the power he exercises does not fit into earthly logic. On the contrary, his is the power of love and service that requires the gratuitous gift of self and the consistent witness to the truth. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 11.08.04 |
| By your perseverance you will secure your lives. |
| The definitive coming of God is Christ, the Gospel of salvation, in which humanity's eschatological waiting is fulfilled. The world and mankind who dwell in it are no longer condemned to death. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 11.01.04 |
| He is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive. |
| By the Incarnation the Word of God has taken on human flesh, enabling it to share, through his Death and Resurrection, in his own glory as the Father�s Only-begotten Son. Through the gifts of the Spirit, the Father instills in all man�s being and, in a certain way, in the universe itself, a yearning for this destiny. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 10.18.04 |
| The one who humbles himself will be exalted. |
| It is quite human for the sinner to acknowledge his weakness and to ask mercy for his failings; what is unacceptable is the attitude of one who makes his own weakness the criterion of the truth about the good�� |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 10.04.04 |
| Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? |
| Jesus comes to offer us a salvation which, although primarily a liberation from sin, also involves the totality of our being with its deepest needs and aspirations. Christ frees us from this burden and threat and opens the way to the complete fulfilment of our destiny. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 09.27.04 |
| If you had faith the size of a mustard seed� |
| The kingdom is God's effective but mysterious action in the universe and in the tangle of human events. He overcomes the resistance of evil with patience, not with arrogance and outcry. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 09.13.04 |
| You cannot serve both God and mammon. |
| It is necessary to create lifestyles in which the quest for truth, beauty, goodness and communion with others for the sake of common growth are the factors which determine consumer choices, savings and investments. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 09.06.04 |
| Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep. |
| In pardoning sins, Jesus shows the face of God the merciful Father. By opposing certain religious tendencies marked by hypocritical severity towards sinners, he shows on various occasions how great and profound is the Father's mercy towards all his children. |
| Pope John Paul |
|
| 08.02.04 |
| For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. |
| It is true that the Word was made flesh in "the fullness of time" (Gal 4:4); but it is also true that, in virtue of the mystery of his identity as the eternal Son of the Father, he is the origin and end of the universe. |
| Pope John Paul |
|
| 07.26.04 |
| This night your life will be demanded of you. |
| The thought of hell... must not create anxiety or despair, but is a necessary and healthy reminder of freedom within the proclamation that the risen Jesus has conquered Satan, giving us the Spirit of God who makes us cry �Abba, Father!� |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 04.05.04 |
| Why do you seek the Living One among the dead? |
| However dark the horizon of humanity may seem� If a contrary wind slows the march of peoples, if the sea of history is tossed by storms, let no one yield to dismay and lack of trust! Christ is risen; Christ is alive in our midst� |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 03.03.04 |
| This is my chosen Son; Listen to him |
| The Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ; still, what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today. |
| Pope Paul VI, 'Nostra Aetate' |
|
| 02.25.04 |
| You shall worship the Lord, your God |
| By calling God �Our Father� we will better realize that we are his children and feel that we are brothers and sisters of one another. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 10.29.03 |
| I shall raise him on the last day |
| For how could a man have learned that he is himself an infirm being, and mortal by nature, but that God is immortal and powerful, unless he had learned by experience what is in both? |
| St. Irenaeus of Lyons |
|
| 10.26.03 |
| Jesus, Son of David, Have Pity on Me |
| Jesus revealed that love is present in the world in which we live - an effective love, a love that addresses itself to man and embraces everything that makes up his humanity. |
| Pope John Paul II |
|
| 10.15.03 |
| Can You Drink the Cup that I Drink? |
| In human eyes, Jesus is in absolute immobility. His life seems a failure. But, in the eyes of God, on the Cross, Jesus has carried out the most important action of His life. He has saved the whole of mankind. |
| Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan |
|
| 09.17.03 |
| God's Risk...Our Freedom |
| God built us on a razor's edge, so full of godly fire that we are capable of both martyrdom and murder. |
| Ronald Rolheiser |
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