Posted on 04/07/2005 8:55:52 AM PDT by BigSkyFreeper
The following is an English translation of the official Vatican Italian translation of the text of Pope John Paul II's last will and testament, which was originally written in Polish with successive additions. Dates have been written according to European convention, which makes "6.3.1979" represent March 6, 1979.
The document begins with a Latin phrase that reads, "I am completely in Your hands," and follows with a citation from the New Testament.
The testament of 6.3.1979
Totus Tuus ego sum
In the Name of the Holiest Trinity. Amen.
"Keep watch, because you do not know which day when the Lord will come" - These words remind me of the final call, which will come the moment that the Lord will choose. I desire to follow Him and desire that all that is part of my earthly life shall prepare me for this moment. I do not know when it will come, but, like all else, this moment too I place into the hands of the Mother of My Master: Totus Tuus. In the same maternal hands I place All those with whom my life and vocation are bound. Into these Hands I leave above all the Church, and also my Nation and all humanity. I thank everyone. To everyone I ask forgiveness. I also ask prayers, so that the Mercy of God will loom greater than my weakness and unworthiness.
During spiritual exercises I reflected upon the testament of the Holy Father Paul VI. This study has led me to write the present testament.
I do not leave behind me any property which necessitates disposal. Regarding those items of daily use of which I made use, I ask that they be distributed as may appear opportune. My personal notes are to be burned. I ask that Don Stanislaw oversees this and thank him for the collaboration and help so prolonged over the years and so comprehensive. All other thanks, instead, I leave in my heart before God Himself, because it is difficult to express them.
Regarding the funeral, I repeat the same disposition given by the Holy Father Paul VI: Burial in the bare earth, not in a tomb, 13.3.92.
Apud Dominum misericordia et copiosa apud Eum redemptio
John Paul pp.II
Rome 6.3.1979
Following my death I ask for Holy Masses and prayers
5.3.1990
---
I express the deepest faith that, despite all my weakness, the Lord will accord me every necessary grace to face, according to His will, whatever task, trial and suffering that will be demanded of His servant, during the course of my life. I also have faith that never will it be permitted that, through my behavior: by words, actions or omissions, I betray my obligations in this holy seat of Peter.
---
24.II-1.III.1980
Also during these spiritual exercises I have reflected upon the truth of the Priesthood of Christ in the perspective of that Crossing which is for each one of us the moment of death. In taking leave of this world - to be born into the other, the future world, eloquent sign is for us the Resurrection of Christ.
I therefore read the copy of my testament of the last year, it also made during spiritual exercises - I compared it with the testament of my great Predecessor and Father Paul VI, with that sublime witness to the death of a Christian and of a pope - and I renewed in myself consciousness of the questions, to which refers the copy of 6.III.1979, prepared by me (in a rather provisional way).
Today I desire to add to it only this, that each one of us must keep in mind the prospect of death. And must be ready to present himself before the Lord and Judge - and contemporaneously Redeemer and Father. Then I too can take this into consideration continuously, entrusting that decisive moment to the Mother of Christ and of the Church - to the Mother of my hope.
The times in which we live are indescribably difficult and troubled. Difficult and tense has become the life of the Church as well, characteristic trial of these times - as much for the Faithful, as much as for the Pastors. In some Countries (as, e.g. in that one about which I was reading during the spiritual exercises), the Church finds itself in a period of persecution that is not inferior to those of the first centuries; on the contrary, the degree of cruelty and hatred is greater still. Sanguis martyrum - semen christianorum (Eds: Latin for "Blood of the martyrs - seeds of Christians"). And beyond this - so many people disappear innocently, even in this Country, in which we live...
I desire once more to entrust myself totally to the mercy of the Lord. He himself will decide when and how I must finish my earthly life and pastoral ministry. In life and in death Totus Tuus through the Immaculate. Accepting this death already, I hope that Christ will give me grace for my final passage, which is Easter. I hope too that it shall be made useful also for this important cause in which I am trying to serve: the salvation of men, the safeguarding of the human family and of all the nations and the peoples (among these I refer in particular to my earthly Country), useful for the persons who in a special way have entrusted to me for the questions of the Church, for the glory of God himself.
I do not desire to add anything to that which I wrote a year ago - only express this readiness and at the same time this faith, to which the present spiritual exercises prepared me.
An intermediary doesn't replace the entity at the other end of the mediation. If it did, it would cease to be an intermediary.
(THE PASSION OF THERESA MARIA SCHINDLER ON HOLY FRIDAY 2005)
You know, I'm sorry about Terri, too, but I don't go around blasting other people for their alleged idolatry and then comparing her to Jesus in my tagline. Maybe you ought to consider prying that plank out of your tagline, er, eye.
I am not reviling anyone. I'm just trying to show what the Holy Scripture say about biblical doctrine. Many can be lead astray into the occult by praying to the dead... which is FORBIDDEN in the scriptures.
In Judaism, most of our prayers are in simply in praise for what G-d has already given us. The Amidah starts by thanking G-d for and praising G-d, eventually gets around to asking for things we already thank G-d for everyday, and then thanks G-d again, in advance.
I guess the Catholics and us Jews have something else in common: we don't need to ask G-d for things. We thank G-d for what we have already been given.
I think it's a good time to go back and review the mysterious death of JPII's predecessor: JPI. Google it up. It will tell you everything you want to know about waht the Papacy and the Vatican are really about.
I'd venture the guess it has something to do with humility.
A virtue so rare in the post Christan western world as to be be rendered virtually unrecognizable.
Sorry to have offened you.
I know it's not the complete text, the complete text is 15 pages in English, and 5 in Italian. I'm sure you can find the complete Will and Testament on the Vatican website in various readable forms.
It may not be as prevalent in eastern religions, I don't know. I'm less familiar with them. But we certainly see it in the Christian and Islamic faiths.
Each faction maintains they are the true believers and feel wholly justified in despising others who don't share their beliefs. After all, it's the other guys who are doing it wrong and are going to hell. It's one of our biggest challenges in Iraq with the Sunnis and Shia, for example.
It's one of the problems I have with "organized" religion in general. The denominations become political and power structures with the bureaucracy at the top having a powerful motivation to keep the members in line and filling their financial coffers.
And there's just a huge disconnect between the message that doctrinal differences do matter and heaven and hell lies in the balance, and the message of tolerance towards people who have a different set of doctrinal beliefs.
I think that's why, except on the most intellectual, i.e., "boring", Catholic threads we're likely to see these disputes break out. There's rarely a Mormon thread posted here, but the outcome is usually the same.
A lot more tolerance is needed, but that's not what is being taught by the religious leaders of these institutions. Doing so might cause the faithful to switch to a more convenient brand of the religion.
Oh Yeah! That's why so many millions of people are giving him their respects and prayers; why so many have chosen to follow his example in loving God.
Do you realize how really small-minded and silly the things you are saying make you look??????
He was just warming up is all.
He had no material items to leave. When you enter the priesthood you take nothing.
Considering that the testament was reported by the Vatican to be around 16 pages, a lot of words were left out of this version.
No harm, no foul, all is cool.
She was not chosen to bear the sins of the world because she was chosen instead to bear He that WOULD bear the sins of the world - God Himself. The Gospel can't be compartmentalized. The New Testament holds a mirror to the Old Testament ("I have come not to abolish the Old Law, but to fulfill it"). The Ark of the Covenant during the times of Exodus, and the Temple following the entry into the Promised Land, were VERY meticulously designed, with exact measurements, encrustment of lavish jewels, etc. This wasn't by accident. The authors of the Old Testament weren't trying to fill space by boring us to death with all these seemingly innane details. What God was doing through these authors, was preparing an understanding of the Word-made-flesh. If the presence of God carried in the Ark of the Covenant mandated pristine care and design-to-perfection, how much more pristine and perfect did require the receptacle of His own Son - His own Self - Christ?
Mary HAD to be set aside. God didn't say, "Make a box big enough to hold these here rock tablets." It had to be so many cubits by so many cubits etc. etc. etc. I mean, these are some of the most mind-numbingly 'boring' chapters of Scripture -- on the surface. But they weren't there by accident. In the same way, God didn't say, "I'll take that little girl saying her prayers down there. Go ahead, Gabriel, and break the good news to her before she goes to sleep." No. Mary was set aside from the moment God said to the serpent, "I will put enmity between you and the woman." Her offspring would "bruise" his head.
Offspring? The woman would have offspring that would bruise the head of the serpent? The offspring, of course, is Jesus, making the "woman" Mary. Then Jesus gives the world to Mary as her children. Why? Because she needs billions of children throughout history to make her feel good? No. Because we are also, thus, her "offspring", which brings even greater to significance that the woman's "offspring" would "bruise" the head of the serpent. We are ALSO called into battle against Satan. Jesus put enmity between not only Mary and Satan in the Garden of Eden, but from the cross, He put enmity between all of His children - Mary's adoptive offspring - and Satan, as well. Those are our marching orders as Christians, and Mary is not some "extra" on the set of Salvation.
"I always find it absurd when people suggest that Catholics don't read the Bible when the Catholic Church was the entity responsible for assembling the Bible in the first place and for translating the Greek to the Latin The King James version came centuries later. Who do you think made the decision as to which books were divinely inspired?"
likewise.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.