Plaque commemorating St. Pope John Paul II’s visit to Estes Park’s Our Lady of the Mountains parish in Estes Park, CO. My sister got married here!
Today we’re not doing a normal quick takes. Since it’s the feast of St. John Paul II, I thought I’d write a little bit about him.
He was the pope for the majority of my life—when he died, I was twenty-three (and I would have my lung transplant a few months later). My dad, especially, has a lot of love for him, so I grew up with the pope’s books around the house, including Crossing the Threshold of Hope* (which I still love to re-read), and his encyclicals.
In fact, his apostolic letter Salvifici Doloris (On the meaning of human suffering) plays a big part in my book. My love of the pope led to the fact that I knew I could use some of his beautiful words to help make my points that suffering is not, always, an evil. Suffering can lead us closer to God (if you read that and go Oh, Emily, stop it, then go read the book. Seriously.)
He was such a father. When he died, I felt like my own father had died. Partially because his papacy was so long—much like Queen Elizabeth II’s reign—it was hard to imagine a world without him. Even when he couldn’t travel as much, or was physically debilitated by Parkinson’s disease, he was there.
BE NOT AFRAID! To me that is the great message of his papacy. We need to hear that so much today—do not be afraid.
If you’d like to read more about him, I highly recommend George Weigel’s two part biography: Witness to Hope* and The End and the Beginning* .
And of course, you can read the things that he wrote, with his ferocious intellect—he wrote so many things, plays, poetry, meditations, and his letters and encyclicals. There’s so much goodness to be found there.
The best way to honor his feast day, though, would probably be to pray the rosary. He loved it so much and wanted us to love it too!
And he’d also like us to remember that life with Christ is an adventure!
Go live like it is.
