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.
LOL-LOL-LOL.
Perfect!
What parts of it?
Oh, you mean the stuff about helping the poor? Yeah, that's a horrible thing to teach. We all know that the poor are poor because they aren't the "elect".
We view this quite differently. I find it rather Holy and quite beautiful.
I always notice that those who are against the verneration of Mary do not seem to understand the absolute difference between worship and veneration.
I am Orthodox. We praise and venerate the Holy Mother of God (Theotokis) above ALL women but we do not put her above the Holy Trinity that is God himself. Due to Mary's role as the chosen vessel in which the Christ miraculously came unto this world, she is afforded the respect, admiration and veneration she deserves. She accepted this with humility and Grace and is deserving of the praise given to her.
To say that reading the Pope's passages which refer to the Mother of God give you "satanic borne chills" is quite extreme and IMHO rather insulting to not only the Holy Virgin who bore the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, upon this earth but to Christ Himself...
My prayers are with you, FRiend...
In the same way the wedding guests at Cana entrusted the supply of wine to her - the greatest intercessor before her Son.
We're all wedding guests at the marriage of our souls to Christ. Mary pleads on your behalf before her Son whether you're aware of it or not.
Jesus is the door to God, no other way.
No one said she's the door for you to enter heaven through, but she was certainly the gate through which Christ entered the world. The ark of the covenant which bore the presence of God in the Old Testament was constructed in painful precision. It had to be perfect to carry the presence of God. Explain how Mary could carry the Savior with any less perfection that a wooden crate carrying the Ten Commandments? It's theologically impossible, and to say otherwise implies that Christ was not the Word made Flesh that commanded equal if not greater care than the 10 Commandments, but just some other god that could be carted around in some dilapidated container...
Not meaning to get us to far afield here but...
***We don't worship her (only God can be worshipped)***
Then what do people who are "worshiping" false gods do? False worship, the true worship of God and Marian veneration all look exactly the same from the outside - the manin thing that differs is the object of worship.
***she is the mother of the Church and thus the mother of us all***
She isn't the mother of the church, she's a member of it. The Heavenly Jerusalem, the true Church is the mother of us all...
"But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all." - Gal 4:26
***No she was human, but by God's special grace--sinless.***
Romans 3:23
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
"The Pope put his trust in the wrong person."
Catholics DO NOT worship Mary. Catholics DO NOT worship saints. We se them as intermediaries. It irkes me so much when people who know nothing about Roman Catholicism other than their preconceived notions about it and what they hear in the MSM about recent scandals start going off about how we worship Mary as another 'god'. She is not and we do not.
"Don't feed the trolls folks, they dirty up these threads with dissension and strife. If that doesn't explain their purpose, nothing will."
Threads about the Pope or anything Catholic bring out some of the most despicable behavior I have seen on FR. It is usually the same suspects over and over. No amount of admonishing them does any good. It is all about being more 'Christian' than the Catholics (of which I am one). Remember, you can't be more 'Christian' than them, because they say they are.
Rant off.
That's him? Wild. Why did they do that? Reminds me of Lenin's body on display.
"Maybe if you read the Bible instead of listening to a mere man you'd know what God finds repulsive."
And God has no problem with your lack of humility, your haste to judge people you don't know, and your caustic tone?
I'm a Jews and I'd take take any info about Christianity from the Pope over the self proclaimed pastors at FR.
That would be Jew, not Jews. I normally don't talk about my multiple personalities in public. LOL.
Not a word revealed, about the "secret" Cardinal; not even confirmation of his existence.
Why burn all of his personal notes?
ANYone who puts their faith in Jesus' atoning death and His ressurection from the dead will NOT be disappointed. Those who accept it are found pleasing to the Father because Jesus is and always will be pleasing to the Father, and those who trust him are IN CHRIST. There will be no one in hell saying "I asked Jesus to save me, and I ended up here." There will be lots of people in heaven who had struggles here on earth, who had some doctrinal beliefs that were askew, but the blood of Jesus makes all who call upon him acceptable to the Father. That is why the Gospel is so RADICAL. The religious folks of the 1st century thought you had to be born from a certain ancestor or live up to a set of rules.
Blessed John XXIII was moved above ground when John Paul II Beatified him. It's one step closer to sainthood.
On Jan. 16, 2001, Cardinal Sodano, Secretary of State of the Holy See; Cardinal Noe, Archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica; and Leonardo Sandri, opened the tomb of Blessed Pope John XXIII, who was beatified on Sept. 3, 2000. (Blessed Pope John XXIIII died on June 3, 1962.)
The identification of the mortal remains is part of the normal canonization process. The mortal remains of Blessed Pope John XXIII were to be transferred from their present tomb in the crypt beneath St. Peter’s to a new tomb upstairs in the basilica itself at the altar honoring St. Jerome. Pope John Paul II ordered the transferal to affirm the holiness of the late pontiff and to enable the faithful to more easily venerate him.
http://www.catholicherald.com/saunders/01ws/ws010517.htm
As a Christian...
What kind of Christian are you exactly?
"Christian" is a word easily thrown around....applied to people that have no clue who Christ is. Can you please clarify for me where you stand? I'll search the thread for other responses from you.
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