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JennGM
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Fox News has been showing some "exclusive" video of the Pope, including him laughing so hard at a clown. That's from the video I mentioned in the prayers forum. Dh came home from retreat with this great video of the Pope John Paul II and University Students: 25 Years of Meetings. He is so vibrant and loving and real...just seeing him made me burst into tears of joy. It's just beautiful. It has a lot of footage when he was young, and interacting with the young people. If you see footage with a digital date in the upper left hand corner, that's from the video!
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to  & ds1  '03 & ds2  '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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DJohnson
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It is so nice to come here and read everyone's lovely memories of our Dear Holy Father!
I was a girl in Italy when the first Pope died, then the next two weeks later and then the Election of Pope John Paul. I have a memory that I will never forget as long as I live.
I had traveled to Rome alone - on a bus - for Christmas Midnight Mass (my parents would not take me and for the LIFE of me I cannot understand how they let me go alone - but they did! I was only 12). On the long, 2 hour bus ride, an Italian family noticed me - a very young, blonde american girl all alone - and sort of "adopted" me. Somehow, I ended up being with them when we got off the bus and sang carols in St. Peter's square waiting to get into the Cathedral for Mass. I didn't speak Italian very well and they knew no english, but we were able to communicate very well.
When we got inside, we happened to get a place close to the center aisle where the Pope would make his procession to the Altar. As Pope John Paul was coming down the aisle, the Italian mom grabbed me and shoved me forward. John Paul stopped in front of me and blessed me and then moved on. At the time I didn't really think much of it (crazy, but true). I wish I could remember his face at the moment - but I only remember my heart beating like crazy - and a bit taken aback by the woman shoving me forward.
However, I cherish that memory - especially now. When we returned to America, I fell away from the Church for many years and many reasons. I've only been back in the Church for almost 7 years. He is the ONLY Pope I've known and although I am so happy for him to be going Home, I will miss him so very, very much!
God Bless,
Donna
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julia s.
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I agree it is nice reading everyone's memories of the Pope. I lost my father last year and that has been one of the hardest things in my life and now losing the Pope is a bit like losing all my earthly fathers.
I fell away from the church for awhile, but oddly enough was always very attached to the Pope the whole time. He was my spiritual tether to the church and returning to her was all the more sweeter because I also got to know the Pope even better too. I feel sorry for people who don't know the faith through John Paul's eyes and words and actions. They are the ones who have missed so much. I pray for them now as much as I pray for the Pope to have a safe journey home.
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julia
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momwise
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It is wonderful to have a place like this to go to watch and wait and remember. I have thought many times over the years that after the Jubilee Year our dear Papa would be leaving us, but I still don't believe it.
It is a great honor to be in Denver, to not only have the memories of his presence here, but we'll always have the physical signs he left, such as the picture of him praying in the mountains and the gifts he gave to the Cathedral.
The secular press has written this morning about the awesome experience of his presence here; these are not people who often have fond memories of religious events!
His standing as a sign for Truth saved my life, brought me to know the true Christ through His Church, brought me to know love through obedience. I can't imagine life without him yet I know we really won't be without him. In fact he'll be more with us than ever. He'll be with us at every Mass, arm in arm with his dear friend Teresa and his mother, our mother.
Do any of you feel as though the obstacles between Heaven and earth have been lifted throughout the suffering of this past week? It feels as though we are all together, praying as one Church. I hope our seperated and fallen away brothers and sisters are able to sense this reality. I know there were many, many conversions here after JPII visited us.
As for Elizabeth's question (what to do), I believe we will spend the next couple of weeks discussing papal history and looking at the miraculous way Jesus has guided His Church through the popes. This time of Easter is a wonderful time to start with Peter of course and also take a look at some of the really bad popes and how God has never let the Church be destroyed, true to His word. We might start a scrapbook and go back and add in all the World Youth day stuff we saved first.
This is getting long. Thanks for reading.
Alleluia......He is Risen!!
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Gwen...wife for 30 years, mom of 7, grandma of 3.....
"If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life." JPII
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Leonie
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Since I became Catholic, Pope John Paul II has been the only Pope I have known.
Funnily enough, I have been reading Wiegel's biography of the Pope, since Christmas and sharing parts with my sons. I think I will continue with this and also collect all the newspaper, etc tributes as a keepsake.
We have also been talking about the election of popes - we saw the films The Shoes of the Fisherman and The Agony and the Ecstasy over the last two months so papal elections and the papal office has been in our mind.
Leonie in Sydney
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Elizabeth
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I dug this up from the Catholic Exchange archives. It's funny, in the press, timing is everything and it had been suggested weeks ago to start working on my contribution for memorial issues...but everytime I started, I figured that when the time came, it would be his death that inspried me and I'd start from there. Now, I'm under deadline and can't see the keyboard for the tears. If you think of it, please pray that I can write something that scratches the surface of what this Hly Father has meant to a woman who came of age and began a family under his loving guidance. In the meantime, here's a re-run:
I was 12 when John Paul II was elected Pope. I remember the day — it was handled in my family much as other days of historical significance. My mother put us in front of the television and said, "Remember this. This is history."
In my mind, the file of events worthy of watching TV was rather slim. I remembered the POWs coming home at the end of the war in Vietnam, the landing on the moon, Nixon’s resignation speech and the election of John Paul I. Honestly, this particular event felt a bit like a re-run.
For my father, however, it was a big deal. What my Italian mother never imagined was that this Pope would be Polish. My father, whose own last name rivaled Wojtyla as an unpronounceable string of consonants, was beside himself. From that day on, I have always thought that the Pope really resembled my late grandfather and I have felt proud to be an interesting blend of Italian and Polish Catholicism.
Through my teen years and in college, I drifted from Catholicism. I went to a public university and was active in inter-denominational Christian fellowships. My understanding of Catholicism was stuck somewhere around the fifth grade. I entered adulthood without any real sense of what it was to be an adult in the Church.
Like so many people of my generation, it was with marriage and children that I began to look at what it meant to be Catholic. Young, idealistic, madly in love and giddy with the joy of a newborn child, I wanted to raise the perfect family and I wanted to right all the wrongs in the universe so that my children would grow up in a beautiful world. I wanted to believe in the power of a good family to nurture souls within its bosom and to change the world outside itself. I knew I needed a mentor on my mission. I found one and he looked eerily like a grandfather I’d scarcely known.
He wrote me letters — letters on the family, on women, on the sacredness of life, on hope. He even wrote letters to my children. I found them all, neatly bound by the Daughters of Saint Paul. The Holy Father quickly became my favorite author. And I read what he wrote voraciously, wondering all the while at the wisdom and the charity of his message. John Paul II believes that "The history of mankind, the history of salvation passes by way of the family ... The family is placed at the center of the great struggle between good and evil, between life and death, between Love and all that is opposed to Love "(Familiaris Consortio). I believe that too, and I look to him, more than anyone else here on earth, to tell me how to live.
John Paul II extricated for us, from Scripture, a theology of the body that deepens and strengthens our understanding of marriage. He has been steadfast in the tide of culture to protect the sacredness of marriage, of human sexuality, and of the roles to which men and women are called. He exhorts couples again and again to be fully open to each other and therefore to grow in love and to be fully open to God. From this rock-solid foundation, he guides them in the rearing of holy and sound children. He affirms the role of the Church as teacher and mother for families. At once, he charges families with the grave responsibility that is ours because "the future of humanity passes by way of the family," and he offers the warm, wise fatherly guidance that we need to meet that responsibility.
So often, when I am speaking with Catholic parents who admit to knowing little about the faith or who refuse to "follow all those rules," I wonder whether they have read any of John Paul II’s encyclicals. I don’t think we can understand the Church in the third millennium without reading them. More than that, I think to disregard them is to deprive ourselves of a priceless treasure. It is as if our father had taken the time to write beautiful, moving readable letters where all the wisdom of the ages had been poured out lovingly, eloquently for us to read and to ponder and we had left them, unopened, on the counter for years.
For me, the Holy Father has been a personal father, Polish resemblance aside. In our home, we speak about him, pray for him, learn from him. We tell stories of his childhood and his youth, much the way we tell stories about the children’s grandfathers. A particular blessing was the publication of George Weigel’s Witness to Hope. With that book, we were given the treasury of the life story of the man who is our family hero.
I was newly pregnant with a baby to be born at Christmastime the first time I read Witness to Hope with my eldest child. There was never any question that the baby’s middle name would be Karol, after the Polish priest who became Pope. Like Michael and Stephen, whose middle names are that of their grandfathers, Nicholas was given the name of the wise, gentle, Holy Father of us all.
We are blessed, we are privileged, to pray for him daily, to look to him continually for guidance and for safe harbor. Even as he ages before our eyes, he teaches us. With dignity and with grace, he moves ever closer to his Lord. We watch him and we know: he knows Truth; he knows Faith; he knows Love. And he has told us all our lives how we can know as well. He has spoken — your father and mine — are you listening?
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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TracyQ
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Beautiful, Elizabeth! Just beautiful! 
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Blessings and Peace,
Tracy Q.
wife of Marty for 20 years, mom of 3 wonderful children (1 homeschool graduate, 1 12th grader, and a 9th grader),
homeschooling in 15th year in Buffalo, NY
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tovlo4801
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Elizabeth,
I agree. It is just beautiful!!! I cried at the image of a grandfather who has written us personal letters to share the wisdom of the ages with his children. It gives me additional peace to remember the depth of wisdom he has left here on earth to guide us as we make our way through our own journey. Thank you for sharing this insight with those of us who are grieving the loss of our grandpa.
God Bless,
Richelle
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KristinaP
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Excellent!!
I really believe that we've been truly blessed and given a special task in this time of the world to raise our children in light of Pope John Paul's teachings.
It really, really is a challenging task to discuss with people these wonderful, beautiful teachings when they haven't read or won't read what our Holy Father has poured his heart and soul into.
P.S. as a side note, our first two sons also have their grandfather's names as their middle names and our third son is John Carlo - Carlo, the Italian version of Karol (Charles). I really wanted Karol but chickened out and now I regret it and wish I had stuck to my guns. Oh well.
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ladybugs
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Elizabeth wrote:
TracyQ wrote:
I feel like I'm losing my father. My earthly father was never really in my life as a father, and this pope felt like my earthly father.
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This is exactly, precisely how I feel. Exactly. |
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Ladies,
I'm right there with you. I think because my dad abandoned my family in '81 (haven't seen him since '82 - when I was 14) and because I went to Medjugorje in '89 and began my conversion during his pontificate, I feel like I've lost my father....
I'm sure we're not alone.
John Paul II, whom we loved so much in life, pray for us now in your death, until we can see you face to face one day.
God Bless, Ladies. We're off to Mass for the Feast of Divine Mercy. I'll pray for you all there.
Love,
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Love and God Bless,
Maria P
My etsy store - all proceeds go to help my fencing daughters!
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stefoodie
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oh we are listening elizabeth. thank you so much for sharing. i was 12 when the pope was elected and remember the excitement of making giant banners saying "Totus Tuus" when he visited Manila in 1981(?). such wonderful memories of this pope; my hubby has a long-treasured postcard sent by a friend from Italy with the pope "clowning around" (he was peeking through both hands shaped into an "O" like spectacles, i don't really know what to call that so i just described it), and my kids remember waving to him in '03, he was at his window for the afternoon blessing.... he was the only pope i really "knew" and wish i could have paid attention to his messages earlier in life; i'm just so thankful now that we have his writings to help guide us as we raise our children. and happy that he is now with our heavenly father.
thanks again for sharing.
God bless,
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stef
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Elizabeth
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Here it is stef. John Paul II had a sense of humor
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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Kathy in MS
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Elizabeth wrote:
He wrote me letters — letters on the family, on women, on the sacredness of life, on hope. He even wrote letters to my children. I found them all, neatly bound by the Daughters of Saint Paul. The Holy Father quickly became my favorite author.
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Hi, Elizabeth,
Loved your article and would like to order this. Would you mind posting the ISBN number or the exact title? I checked at Amazon but what was listed seemed like portions instead of a collection. Maybe I misunderstood.
Thanks,
Kathy in MS
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TracyQ
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Beloved Pope article
I LOVE this article on Catholic Exchange about "Our Beloved Pope's Final Journey". It really captures EXACTLY what my heart is feeling right now.
I thought it might bless you too!
I decided that I'm going to make a section in my Faith book just for this time, printing out articles just like this, and the front page of the newspaper, etc.
I want to take some times this week to write about how I feel about our Beloved Papa, and what I feel right now about this happening. I want to print out some of his precious words to put in it as well, and some of his biography.
I am going to *notebook* Our Beloved Holy Papa, so I can look back on it, and treasure him always.
Just thought I'd mention in case it may help someone else.
__________________
Blessings and Peace,
Tracy Q.
wife of Marty for 20 years, mom of 3 wonderful children (1 homeschool graduate, 1 12th grader, and a 9th grader),
homeschooling in 15th year in Buffalo, NY
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Natalia
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I just came back from retreat. During the retreat we heard that the Pope died.
Like all of you I also have my memories of the Pope. I think that that is his greatness, the faithful have personal memories of him.
I remember that on his first pastoral trip he stopped in Santo Domingo on his way to Puebla, Mexico. It was a symbolic gesture of stopping where Columbus had first stopped when he discovered the New World. I remember my awe at seeing a Pope that was so accesible. I remember the emotion when he knelt down and kissed Dominican soil. It was the first time of a gesture that was going to become a tradition.
I remember when he came back to Santo Domingo in 1986, I believe, and I got to see him in his Pope mobile. I was part of a crew of young people that where encharged of escorting hundreds of priests through the crowds to distribute communion during an outdoor mass. I remember the crowds chanting Juan Pablo! Juan Pablo!
I have had Witness to Hope on my shelf for a while I think this is a good time to start reading it. A friend has the video of the same name and I think I'll borrow it and watch it with the kids.
We don't have cable and it is in moments like this when history is happening that I miss not having it.
I am mourning with you all but also rejoicing on his life and his legacy.
Blessings,
Natalia
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Michaela
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TracyQ wrote:
I am going to *notebook* Our Beloved Holy Papa, so I can look back on it, and treasure him always.
Just thought I'd mention in case it may help someone else. |
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I'm trying to do this, too.
A question for anyone who saves newspaper clippings.
Our Sunday newspaper had the first 15 pages about Pope John Paul II. Not little clipping, but full pages of information and pictures.
Anyone have a recommendation on the best way to save it? Laminate every page?
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Michaela
Momma to Nicholas 16, Nathan 13, Olivia 13, Teresa 6, & Anthony 3
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Victoria in AZ
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Michaela in LV wrote:
| Anyone have a recommendation on the best way to save it? Laminate every page? |
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Do not laminate to preserve newspaper. There are special sprays you can use (check with an art store or a craft store). I took a photo of each child holding up the front page coverage of the Pope's death. You could also photograph each page or reduce while photocopying on archive-quality paper.
Any photo-scrapbooking store would have ideas also.
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Your sister in Christ,
Victoria in AZ
dh Mike 24 yrs; ds Kyle 18; dd Katie 12; and one funny pug
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ladybugs
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Hi Ladies,
Our lovely, Karen E. has this article on Catholic Exchange today about our "Holy Daddy."
http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=6&art_id= 28059
Love and God Bless,
__________________
Love and God Bless,
Maria P
My etsy store - all proceeds go to help my fencing daughters!
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TracyQ
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What a beautiful article, Karen!!!
I copied and pasted it into my WORD so that I can print it and put it in my John Paul II section of my Faith Notebook (I'm going to have one).
Truly the perfect article, exactly how I feel!
Thanks for sharing this!
__________________
Blessings and Peace,
Tracy Q.
wife of Marty for 20 years, mom of 3 wonderful children (1 homeschool graduate, 1 12th grader, and a 9th grader),
homeschooling in 15th year in Buffalo, NY
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Karen E.
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Thanks, Maria and Tracy. I know so many of us feel the same way ... such beauty in knowing that Papa is interceding for us now.
Tracy, I want to "notebook" JPII, too. I want my children to know as much about him as they can, and to remember and treasure his legacy.
__________________
God bless,
Karen E.
mom to three on earth, and several souls in God's care
Visit my blog, with its shockingly clever title, "Karen Edmisten."
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4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: What do we do?
