St. John Paul II Patron of Europe Archive

Litany to St. John Paul II

The Litany has imprimatur of Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Archbishop of Cracow from 12 April 2011. Kyrie eleison, Christ eleison, Kyrie eleisonChrist, hear us Christ, graciously hear us.Father of Heaven, God – have mercy on us.Son, Redeemer of the world, God – have mercy on us.God, the Holy Spirit – have mercy on us.Holy Trinity, One God – have mercy on us.Holy Mary – pray for us. St. John Paul II – pray for usImmersed in the Father rich in mercyUnited with Christ, the Redeemer of manFilled with the Holy Spirit, Lord and Giver of lifeCompletely devoted to MaryFriend of the saints and blessedSuccessor of Peter and the servant of servants of GodGuardian of the Church, teaching the truths of faithFather of the Council and Executor of its indicationsSupporting the unity of Christians and the whole human familyZealous Lover of the EucharistTireless Pilgrim of the earthMissionary of all nationsWitness of faith, hope, and loveParticipant persistent in sufferings of ChristApostle of reconciliation and peacePromoter of the civilization of lovePropagator of new evangelizationMaster, calling us to sail into the deepTeacher showing us holiness as a measure of lifePope of Divine MercyHigh Priest gathering the Church for sacrificingShepherd leading the flock to HeavenBrother and Master of priestsFather of consecrated personsPatron of Christian familiesStrengthening spousesDefender of the unbornProtector of children orphans and abandonedFriend and Teacher of the youthGood Samaritan for the sufferingSupport for the elderly and lonelyPropagator of the truth about the dignity of manMan of prayer immersed in GodLover of the liturgy sacrificing at the altars of the worldThe personification of hard workLove in the cross of ChristImplementing your vocation properlyPatient in sufferingExample of life and death for the LordReprimanding sinnersShowing the way to the misguidedForgiving wrong-doersRespecting opponents and persecutorsSpokesman and Defender of the persecutedSupporting the unemployedConcerned about the homelessVisiting prisonersSupporting the weakTeaching everybody solidarity Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world – Spare us, Lord.Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world – Hear us, Lord.Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world – Have mercy on us. Pray for us, St. John Paul, so that we would proclaim to the world with life and words Christ the Redeemer of man. Let us pray:Merciful God, accept our thanksgivingFor the gift of St. John Paul’s II apostolic life and missionAnd through his intercession, please, help us grow in love for youAnd proclaim boldly the love of Christ to all people.Through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

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Pope John Paul II: We entrust, o Mary, and consecrate the whole world to Your Immaculate Heart!

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On Thursday, 13 May 1982, after the concelebrated Mass in Fatima, Pope John Paul II made the following act of consecration of the modern world to Our Lady of Fatima. 1. “We have recourse to your protection, holy Mother of God.” As I utter the words of this antiphon with which the Church of Christ has prayed for centuries, I find myself today in this place chosen by you, O Mother, and by you particularly loved. I am here, united with all the Pastors of the Church in that particular bond whereby we constitute a body and a college, just as Christ desired the Apostles to be in union with Peter. In the bond of this union, I utter the words of the present Act, in which I wish to include, once more, the hopes and anxieties of the Church in the modern world. Forty years ago and again ten years later, your servant Pope Pius XII, having before his eyes the painful experience of the human family, entrusted and consecrated to your Immaculate Heart the whole world, especially the peoples for which you had particular love and solicitude. This world of individuals and nations I too have before my eyes today, as I renew the entrusting and consecration carried out by my Predecessor in the See of Peter: the world of the second millennium that is drawing to a close, the modern world, our world today! The Church, mindful of the Lord’s words: “Go… and make disciples of all nations… and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:19-20), renewed, at the Second Vatican Council, her awareness of her mission in this world. And therefore, O Mother of individuals and peoples, you who “know all their sufferings and their hopes”, you who have a mother’s awareness of all the struggles between good and evil, between light and darkness, which afflict the modern world, accept the cry which we, as though moved by the Holy Spirit, address directly to your Heart. Embrace, with the love of the Mother and Handmaid, this human world of ours, which we entrust and consecrate to you, for we are full of disquiet for the earthly and eternal destiny of individuals and peoples. In a special way we entrust and consecrate to you those individuals and nations which particularly need to be entrusted and consecrated. We have recourse to your protection, holy Mother of God: reject not the prayers we send up to you in our necessities. Reject them not! Accept our humble trust and our act of entrusting! 2. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16). It was precisely by reason of this love that the Son of God consecrated himself for all mankind: “And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth” (Jn 17:19). By reason of that consecration the disciples of all ages are called to spend themselves for the salvation of the world, and to supplement Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the Church (cf. 2 Cor 12:15; Col 1:24). Before you, Mother of Christ, before your Immaculate Heart, I today, together with the whole Church, unite myself with our Redeemer in this his consecration for the world and for people, which only in his divine Heart has the power to obtain pardon and to secure reparation. The power of this consecration lasts for all time and embraces all individuals, peoples and nations. It overcomes every evil that the spirit of darkness is able to awaken, and has in fact awakened in our times, in the heart of man and in his history. The Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, unites herself, through the service of Peter’s successor, to this consecration by our Redeemer. Oh, how deeply we feel the need for consecration on the part of humanity and of the world—our modern world—in union with Christ himself! The redeeming work of Christ, in fact, must be shared in by the world by means of the Church. Oh, how pained we are by all the things in the Church and in each one of us that are opposed to holiness and consecration! How pained we are that the invitation to repentance, to conversion, to prayer, has not met with the acceptance that it should have received! How pained we are that many share so coldly in Christ’s work of Redemption! That “what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” is so insufficiently completed in our flesh. And so, blessed be all those souls that obey the call of eternal Love! Blessed be all those who, day after day, with undiminished generosity accept your invitation, O Mother, to do what your Jesus tells them (cf. Jn 2:5) and give the Church and the world a serene testimony of lives inspired by the Gospel. Above all blessed be you, the Handmaid of the Lord, who in the fullest way obey the divine call! Hail to you, who are wholly united to the redeeming consecration of your Son! Mother of the Church! Enlighten the People of God along the paths of faith, of hope and love! Help us to live with the whole truth of the consecration of Christ for the entire human family of the modern world. 3. In entrusting to you, O Mother, the world, all individuals and peoples, we also entrust to you the consecration itself, for the world’s sake, placing it in your motherly Heart. Oh, Immaculate Heart! 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 towards 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 the life of man from

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St. John Paul II Patron of Europe

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Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz appealed on October 20, 2017, during the solemn opening of the Congress “Europe of Christ” in Czestochowa, to proclaim John Paul II as the patron saint of Europe. Source (Polnisch): Link We present the translation of the full text of the speech: John Paul II is considered a heavenly patron of various human projects and states. He is a pope of human rights, guardian of family happiness, spiritual advisor of the youth, leader and master of the academic environment, giver of ideas and supernatural animator of the New Evangelization, so much needed especially in secular Europe. On the paths of the present, the affairs of Europe, in which he was educated and in which he developed his pastoral activity until death, were very close to his heart. He experienced its dramas and spiritual dilemmas, but also cared that all people of good will build unity on the continent, from the Atlantic to the Urals. We believe that today “from the house of the Heavenly Father” he continues to help the European community with his inspired wisdom to make difficult decisions, to encourage daily fidelity to God and man, to intercede with God in all our needs, and to entrust us to His mercy. We know that during the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI declared St. Benedict of Nursia as the Patron Saint of Europe. John Paul II was also convinced of the fact that Europe needs support from above and therefore proclaimed their five patron saints of Europe: Saints Cyril and Methodius, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Bridget of Sweden and St. Sister Therese Benedict of the Cross (Edith Stein). Today, when the Old Continent is experiencing a great crisis of values and is facing new, hitherto unknown challenges, it becomes necessary to widen this circle. The Holy Father always stood up for the unchanging and universal values that are the bulwark of European civilization. He had recognized its undeniable contribution to the unification of the Old Continent, and in his teaching he aptly diagnosed threats facing its inhabitants today, showing at the same time that the only source of hope, salvation and effective healing is the mercy of God, as well as the return to the example of the Gospel, which had formed the basis of European culture. Therefore, it is a legitimate desire of many Christians to entrust Europe, its spiritual heritage and the destiny of its sons and daughters, to God, the Lord of history, to the intercession of John Paul II. John Paul II – His Vision of Europe John Paul II had his vision of Europe. For him, the first foundation of the unity of Europe lies in the pedagogy of forgiveness. Two world wars, which took place mainly on this continent, caused great suffering. There are still many unhealed wounds in Europe today and the present is creating new injustices. The pedagogy of forgiveness is so important because the person who forgives and asks for forgiveness understands that a greater truth than himself exists. And by accepting forgiveness, he can grow beyond himself. There is no Europe without forgiveness and reconciliation, thus without solving the problems of the past. The thesis of some European politicians that we should leave the problems of the past alone and concentrate on the present and the future is wrong. On the one hand, reconciliation is linked to the fulfillment of certain conditions: confession of guilt, regret that evil has been done, and the desire to right the wrong. On the other hand, John Paul II writes in his encyclical “Dives in Misericordia” that those who forgive, following the example of the merciful father, should show mercy to the prodigal son, so that the one who receives mercy does not feel humiliated, but recovered and appreciated (cf . DiM, 6). According to John Paul II, Europe cannot only refer to the past, but must also reflect on its present and future. After years of conflicts and wars, Europeans must find a way to a new unity, far from any form of unification, which values and integrates precisely the richness in its diversity. The prerequisite for shaping an optimistic present and future of the European continent is, in addition to the pedagogy of forgiveness, the discovery and affirmation of one’s own identity. Memory is the force that creates the identity of human existence, both on a personal and collective level. That is why in the life of societies and nations the correct, that is true, historical policy is so important. Identity is determined not only by memories of one’s past, but also by permanent and timeless points of reference. On the national level, these are proven religious and moral values, but also symbolic values such as the slogan “God, honor, homeland,” signs and symbols – the national flag, national coat of arms, or state and religious ceremonies and festivals. An example of how to transfer historical reference points into the future was given by John Paul II himself when he exclaimed on Westerplatte: “Each of you, young friends, will find in his life a Westerplatte – a task he must undertake and fulfill. Something good for which you must not give up the struggle. A task, an obligation from which one must not deviate, “desert”. Last but not least, an order of truths and values that one must “preserve” and “defend”, as this Westerplatte, in oneself and in one’s environment.” In personal, social and national life, John Paul II has in a particular way valorized certain primacies. These are: the primacy of the person over the object, the primacy of the spirit over matter, the primacy of “being more” over “possessing more,” the primacy of work over capital, the primacy of ethics over technology, the primacy of mercy over justice, and the primacy of dialogue over struggle. St. John Paul II, through the above-mentioned primacies, orders the world of values and tasks in everyday life, because without certain principles, human life would lead to dangerous

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