Text of Pope's Last Will and Testament

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.

"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.

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.

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.

Wasn't it you who once posted "scratch a maryphobe and find a heretic"?

Actually it was "find a deficient Christology." But yes. They tie themselves into knots because they lack a historical perspective for the title Theotokos.

I'm also still waiting for the scriptural passage saying Mary was sinless.

Jesus was God taking human form. If Mary was perfect, then God really wasn't taking on the typical human (sinful) form. God's perfection allowed him to take sinful human form and yet still be sinless. Mary was sinful just as all humans are sinful.

No disrespect to the late pope but his position is not in scripture either, unless you think that "upon this rock I build my church" is somehow prescriptive. Would a Catholic care to explain this also?

Why are we arguing these things amoung each other as Christians...

I'm not arguing about this. I am simply pointing out the Scriptural references regarding the matter at hand. I was asked where in the Scripture does it say that Mary is the mother of God so I pointed out Scripture that shows that Jesus and God are ONE, therefore making Mary the Mother of God. It is just a discussion and there is no harm in educating others, even those who are brothers and sisters in Christ.

It's times like these that I wish my dearly departed grandmother was still around! She was a theologan and a linguist and wrote almost 80 services for the Russian Orthodox Church. She was as close to an expert on Scripture as I have ever seen. I remember that she would invite the Jehovah's Witnesses inside when they came knocking and discuss Scripture with them. They would leave thanking her for her knowledge - saying that they hadn't realized or understood the things she explained to them prior to hearing it from her - and many converted even! : )

You may be my saviour but you are not my God

Do try to follow the metaphor.

You are playing word games here to avoid the obvious answer. Mary said MY GOD AND MY SAVIOUR - clearly implying her recognition that she needed a saviour in the spiritual sense

I wasn't talking about a literal hole, I was using it as a metaphor for sin. Your failure to answer the question is telling.

If I fall into a hole (sin) and a Saviour (God) pulls me out, then God is my God and my Saviour.

If I am walking along and a Saviour (God) prevents me from falling into a hole (sin), then He is my God and my Saviour.

What part is difficult to understand? Had God not intervened, Mary would have fallen into sin like everyone else. God is no less a Saviour for keeping Mary sinless rather than washing away her sins.

The point is Mary has no power of her own. She needed God to save her.

"MineralMan was holding up the standard of being a Bible scholar, which would mean, frankly, that almost none of us would be able to discuss scripture, because most of us will probably never make it to the level of a scholar.
"

Please be courteous enough to include my name if you refer to me in a post.

That is not what I was saying. My point was that this whole discussion turns on a very close interpretation of scripture. Both sides make cogent arguments regarding these issues.

That is why I referred to the need to be a biblical scholar in order to discuss such issues in a meaningful way. Entire books have been written by such scholars, and on both sides of the issue.

It is one thing to say one believes something doctrinal, but quite another to discuss it in any serious way.

Since there is much disagreement regarding the issues being discussed here, it seems to me that it is difficult for the layman to make firm statements about them.

I wouldn't do so, certainly, and prefer to let each person believe whatever he/she wishes regarding Mary, the priesthood, and other such arcane matters.

My point is that it is wrong to condemn another person for their doctrinal positions, however arrived at. One is in danger of error in that case.

Someone being nailed to a tree, and someone else eating a wafer, strike me as plainly two distinctly separate events.

You are not familiar with the narrative from the Last Supper? You don't see how Jesus clearly relates the one event to the other, going so far as to indicate that the species (bread and wine) are His Body and Blood offered for sin?

Notice he did not say I and my mother are one. If you are claiming Mary is the mother of God then that by definition places her in a position above GOD himself.

Of course he did not say that he and his mother are one - because they are not! She is his mother. By Jesus and God being ONE - Mary is His Mother. And this does NOT put her in a position above God. It simply makes her His Mother.

Is the mother of the president above the president simply because she is his mother? Does that fact give her more power and more honor? No. Just as Mary being the Mother of God does not make her "above God". As I said, it simply makes her His Mother, and for THAT fact, we praise and venerate her.

I'm also still waiting for the scriptural passage saying Mary was sinless.

Asked and answered. Several times. Mary could not be anything except sinless if she was "full of grace."

Jesus was God taking human form. If Mary was perfect, then God really wasn't taking on the typical human (sinful) form.

The fallen human condition (original sin) is that of a depravation of God within us. We are born with a "God-shaped hole" in our souls. Now Jesus, being God, could in no way Incarnate as a human deprived of God. He is God!

God's perfection allowed him to take sinful human form and yet still be sinless.

You are correct that it was Jesus's Divinity that made it impossible for him to sin. And you are correct that He was not immune from the temptations of the flesh. But He could not have taken a human form with Original Sin, as I explained above.

I place into the hands of the Mother of My Master:

This is so sad.. not to the one that is the judge of his soul but to another.. The one who's representative he is supposed to be said this

Luk 23:46 And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.

I must have hit the wrong post to button, was just frustrated and my apologies to SD.
The bottom line is so simple, Mary is the Mother of God, she was saved by Him at conception, He could not lie in a sinful womb.
She is a Holy Saint, He is God, we honor her and I will take her to be on my side any day of the week. She does not get in the way of Jesus at all, she guides you to Jesus. I love Jesus more as a Catholic than I did as a Protestant, even thought I loved Him a lot then.
The Church is so complete, I could not live long enough to take into my life and brain all of her teachings.
The Holy Trinity is ONE, it is not split up and separated. Jesus is God, he was and is and always will be God and without sin. He is the Alpha and Omega.
What pains me most is we as brothers ad sisters in Christ are so divided, this must please Satan very much and breaks the heart of JESUS.

For behold, from henceforth, all generations shall call me blessed...

Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call His Name Emmanuel...

...and the virgin's name was Mary...

Blessed Virgin Mary.

It is good to honor what God honors. Try some Protestant charity.

In memory as a symbolic rememberance - not as an actual repeating sacrifice.

You're thinking in human, three dimensional terms. If that's the case, Satan was defeated at the cross and should no longer be tempting us. Further, we should no longer be dying, but living eternally, since Jesus conquered death on Cavalry, correct?

I submit that the Mass having been celebrated from the time of Jesus is proof that He was asking for a repeated memorial. The sacrifice, as such, happened once in our finite timeline, but in the infinite, God is witnessing His Son crucified this very day...and rising, too.

This is a mystery so beyond our miniscule brains, the notion that Jesus was intending a repeating memorial sacrifice on the altar is more than plausible. Time is our constraint, not God's. We are continually offering the body and blood of Christ in atonement for our sins.

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