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Cha Francis gửi lời nhắn: "Ai dịch ra tiếng Việt hai bài sau, sẽ nhận được một món quà kỷ niệm thật ý nghĩa!"
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TEN REASONS TO KEEP POPE JOHN PAUL II’S LEGACY
ALIVE
Thoughts from John Paul The Great Catholic University
on Culture, Art and Entertainment Media
1) His bio would be epic even if he didn’t become Pope
Karol Wojtyla’s mother
died when he was 8 years old. By 20, he was the sole survivor of his
family, alone in the world. Add to that growing up in war-torn Poland;
experiencing the persecution of his people first by the Nazis and their death
camps; then witnessing further oppression by the Communist regime. Karol
was no stranger to suffering. If anyone had a right to give up hope, it
would have been him.
During the Nazi
occupation, Karol formed an underground acting society to keep Polish culture
alive. He heroically saved multiple Jews from capture and death. He
studied to be a priest in a clandestine seminary, continually putting his life
at risk.
When you read all his
writings, realizing what he personally went through, it’s hard not to respect
the man.
By age 26 he became a
priest, and at 58 became Pope John Paul II.
Know what, this meme
says it better than I ever could:
2) The downfall of
communism
John Paul II played an instrumental role in the downfall of communism in Eastern
Europe. As Gorbachev himself said: “The collapse of the Iron Curtain would
have been impossible without John Paul II.”
One of my favorite
movies on JPII is a documentary about his watershed trip to Poland in June of
1979, which helped spark a peaceful revolution in his native country. Do
yourself a favor and watch it: Nine Days That Changed the World.
(Seriously, stop
reading this blog post, and just go order it)
3) Theology of the
Body
In a century confused
by widespread deterioration in sexual morality, JPII took the Church’s timeless
teachings on love, marriage, sex, and family – and presented them in a new
light. He helped us understand why we believe what we believe, and
ultimately showed us that Catholic sexual ethics are in fact truly liberating
4) A brilliant
linguist
So… while in college,
JPII mastered at least 9 languages (and studied more). This came in
handy, as he would later become the most well-travelled Pope in history,
visiting his flock in 129 different countries.
When I was in college,
I barely mastered English.
It’s hard not to
respect brilliant people. And it’s impossible not to respect them when
they use their gifts for Good.
5) Christian
Personalism
Repeatedly throughout
his papacy, JPII preached the dignity of each and every human person, in all
stages of life. He reminded us that persons are made for love, not for
use. And he echoed the words of our Savior when he told us, “Man cannot
fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself.”
Life is about people,
not things. In a culture where self-gratification, fortune, and fame are
the ultimate goods, and in a society where objectification of persons is common
practice, this was – and still remains – a message the world desperately needed
to hear.
What really makes us
love JPII though, is not just the message, but the fact that he embodied this philosophy with the way he lived his entire life.
Remembering the names of his Swiss guards. Humbly serving his flock for
over 20 years. Discarding formalities and embracing those who tried to
kiss his ring. He had a certain way about him where you knew he deeply
cared about you, even if he barely knew you. JPII sincerely
made his life a gift to all of us.
6) A saint in the 21st century
JPII showed us what it
looks like to be a saint in the modern world. And more importantly, he
showed us it could be done.
Who among us wasn’t
inspired by his holiness? Striving for sainthood became something
attractive. Living a life of prayer and virtue was something that, maybe
I too, could reach for.
JPII understood young
people; he understood their desires and their fears. World Youth Day
anyone? JPII drew such enormous crowds because his messages were
challenging, yet filled with hope. Compassionate, yet not watered
down. We knew in our hearts that he spoke the truth, and each message was
a cause for contemplation.
“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 provoked 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 heart 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 ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and
patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and
more fraternal.”
7) Forgiving his
assassin
Not something most of us get the chance to do…
but I imagine if we did, it would be extremely difficult.
JPII led by example –
even when it was tough – and showed us what the Christian walk looks like.
8) The New Evangelization
JPII got us pumped to
be Catholic again. He was an invigorating breath of fresh hope and
promise to the Church, especially to us young people. And he reminded us
of the need to be “evangelizers” to those Catholics in our lives who also need
to re-experience God’s love and truth.
”I sense that the moment has come to commit all of the Church’s
energies to a new evangelization and to the mission. No believer in Christ, no
institution of the Church can avoid this supreme duty: to proclaim Christ to
all peoples”
And as a media school,
it’s hard not to get excited about his view for media in the new
evangelization. JPII recognized technology as a gift from God that has
huge potential to be used either for good or ill. He inspired many of us
to take up media and use it for the betterment of culture.
“For the new evangelization to be effective, it is essential to
have a deep understanding of the culture of our time in which the social
communications media are most influential.”
9) His love for the
arts
JPII had a huge
passion for the arts, and understood how precious cultural traditions
are. While a kid, his dream was to be an actor. He enjoyed
literature, drama, and even movies. One of our favorite quotes at
JPCatholic:
“I send from my heart a special blessing to all those who, with
their different tasks, work in the cinema industry and also to those who
endeavor to use the cinema as an authentic vehicle of culture for the integral
growth of each person and of society as a whole.”
In 1999, he also wrote
a Letter to Christian
Artists, reminding them of
their vocation as co-creators, and urged them to express Truth, Beauty, and
Goodness with their artistic intuition.
10) That smile
(The author, Joe Houde, studied business and media at Franciscan
University of Steubenville, U.S.A.. He currently works in Admissions at
JP Catholic University.)
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The Story Behind the
Peace Prayer
of St.
Francis of Assisi
The Peace Prayer of St.
Francis is a famous prayer which
first appeared around the year 1915 A.D., and which embodies the spirit of St.
Francis of Assisi's simplicity and poverty.
According to Father
Kajetan Esser, OFM, the author of the critical edition of St. Francis's
Writings, the Peace Prayer of St. Francis is most certainly not one of the
writings of St. Francis. This prayer, according to Father Schulz, Das sogennante Franziskusgebet. Forshungen zur
evangelishen Gebetslitteratur (III), in Jahrbuch
fur Liturgik und Hymnologie, 13 (1968), pp. 39-53, first appeared during the First World War.
It was found written on the observe of a holy card of St. Francis, which was
found in a Normal Almanac. The prayer bore no name; but in the English speaking
world, on account of this holy card, it came to be called the Peace Prayer of
St. Francis.
More information about
this prayer can be found in Friar J. Poulenc, OFM, L'inspiration moderne de la priere « Seigneru
faites de moi un instrument de votre paix », Archivum Franciscanum Historicum, vol. 68 (1975) pp. 450-453.
The Peace Prayer of St.
Francis
by an anonymous Norman
c. 1915 A.D. Peace Prayer
Lord make me an instrument of your peace
Where there is hatred,
Let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is error, truth;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, Joy.
O Divine Master grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled
As to console;
To be understood,as to understand;
To be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
