|
SUMMARY:
- JOHN PAUL II'S
SPIRITUAL TESTAMENT
___________________________________________________________
JOHN PAUL II'S
SPIRITUAL TESTAMENT
VATICAN CITY, APR 7,
2005 (VIS) - Following is the text of the
spiritual testament of John Paul II, which was
released today in an Italian translation of
the original Polish. The translation from
Italian into English has been done by VIS:
The testament
of 6.3.1979
(and
successive additions)
"Totus
Tuus ego sum"
In the Name of
the Most Holy Trinity. Amen.
"Watch
therefore, for you do not know on what day
your Lord is coming" (cf. Mt 24, 42) -
these words remind me of the last call, which
will happen at the moment the Lord wishes. I
desire to follow Him, and I desire that
everything making up part of my earthly life
should prepare me for this moment. I do not
know when the moment will come, but like
everything else, I place it too in the hands
of the Mother of my Master: Totus Tuus. In the
same maternal Hands I leave everything and
everyone with whom my life and vocation have
linked me. In these Hands I leave, above all,
the Church, as well as my Nation and all
humanity. I thank everyone. Of everyone I ask
forgiveness. I also ask for prayer, that the
Mercy of God may appear greater than my
weakness and unworthiness.
During the
spiritual exercises I re-read the testament of
the Holy Father Paul VI. That reading prompted
me to write this testament.
I leave no
property behind me of which it is necessary to
dispose. As for the everyday objects that were
of use to me, I ask they be distributed as
seems appropriate. My personal notes are to be
burned. I ask that this be attended to by Fr.
Stanislaw, whom I thank for his collaboration
and help, so prolonged over the years and so
understanding. As for all other thanks, I
leave them in my heart before God Himself,
because it is difficult to express them.
As for the
funeral, I repeat the same dispositions as
were given by the Holy Father Paul VI. (Here
is a note in the margin: burial in the bare
earth, not in a sarcophagus, 13.3.92).
"apud
Dominum misericordia
et copiosa apud Eum redemptio"
John Paul pp.
II
Rome,
6.III.1979
After my death I ask for Masses and
prayers.
5.III.1990
Undated sheet of
paper
I express my
profound trust that, despite all my
weakness, the Lord will grant me all the grace
necessary to face according to His will any
task, trial or suffering that He will ask of
His servant, in the course of his life. I also
trust that He will never allow me - through
some attitude of mine: words, deeds or
omissions - to betray my obligations in this
holy Petrine See.
24.II -
1.III.1980
Also during
these spiritual exercises, I have reflected on
the truth of the Priesthood of Christ in the
perspective of that Transit that for each of
us is the moment of our own death. For us the
Resurrection of Christ is an eloquent (added
above: decisive) sign of departing from this
world - to be born in the next, in the future
world.
I have read,
then, the copy of my testament from last year,
also written during the spiritual exercises -
I compared it with the testament of my great
predecessor and Father, Paul VI, with that
sublime witness to death of a Christian and a
Pope - and I have renewed within me an
awareness of the questions to which the copy
of 6.III.1979 refers, prepared by me (in a
somewhat provisional way).
Today I wish
to add only this: that each of us must bear in
mind the prospect of death. And must be ready
to present himself before the Lord and Judge -
Who is at the same time Redeemer and Father. I
too continually take this into consideration,
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 unutterably difficult and
disturbed. The path of the Church has also
become difficult and tense, a characteristic
trial of these times - both for the Faithful
and for Pastors. In some Countries (as, for
example, in those about which I read during
the spiritual exercises), the Church is
undergoing a period of such persecution as to
be in no way lesser than that of early
centuries, indeed it surpasses them in its
degree of cruelty and hatred. "Sanguis
martyrum - semen christianorum.". And
apart from this - many people die innocently
even in this Country in which we are living.
Once again, I
wish to entrust myself totally to the Lord's
grace. He Himself will decide when and how I
must end my earthly life and pastoral ministry.
In life and in death, Totus Tuus in Mary
Immaculate. Accepting that death, even now, I
hope that Christ will give me the grace for
the final passage, in other words (my) Easter.
I also hope that He makes (that death) useful
for this more important cause that I seek to
serve: the salvation of men and women, the
safeguarding of the human family and, in that,
of all nations and all peoples (among them, I
particularly address my earthly Homeland), and
useful for the people with whom He
particularly entrusted me, for the question of
the Church, for the glory of God Himself.
I do not wish
to add anything to what I wrote a year ago -
only to express this readiness and, at the
same time, this trust, to which the current
spiritual exercises have again disposed me.
John Paul II
Totus Tuus ego
sum
5.III.1982
In the course
of this year's spiritual exercises I have read
(a number of times) the text of the testament
of 6.III.1979. Although I still consider it
provisional (not definitive), I leave it in
the form in which it exists. I change nothing
(for now), and neither do I add anything, as
concerns the dispositions contained therein.
The attempt
upon my life on 13.V.1981 in some way
confirmed the accuracy of the words written
during the period of the spiritual exercises
of 1980 (24.II - 1.III).
All the more
deeply I now feel that I am totally in the
Hands of God - and I remain continually at the
disposal of my Lord, entrusting myself to Him
in His Immaculate Mother (Totus Tuus)
John Paul
pp.II
5.III.82
In connection
with the last sentence in my testament of
6.III.1979 ("concerning the site / that
is, the site of the funeral / let the College
of Cardinals and Compatriots decide") - I
will make it clear that I have in mind: the
metropolitan of Krakow or the General Council
of the Episcopate of Poland - In the meantime
I ask the College of Cardinals to satisfy, as
far as possible, any demands of the above-mentioned.
1.III.1985
(during the spiritual exercises)
Again - as regards the expression
"College of Cardinals and
Compatriots": the "College of
Cardinals" has no obligation to consult
"Compatriots" on this subject,
however it can do so, if for some reason it
feels it is right to do so.
JPII
Spiritual exercise of
the Jubilee Year 2000 (12-18.III)
(for my testament)
1. When, on
October 16, 1978 the conclave of cardinals
chose John Paul II, the primate of Poland,
Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski told me: "The
duty of the new Pope will be to introduce the
Church into the Third Millennium." I
don't know if I am repeating this sentence
exactly, but at least this was the sense of
what I heard at the time. This was said by the
Man who entered history as the primate of the
Millennium. A great primate. I was a witness
to his mission, to his total entrustment. To
his battles. To his victory. "Victory,
when it comes, will be a victory through
Mary" - The primate of the Millennium
used to repeat these words of his predecessor,
Cardinal August Hlond.
In this way I
was prepared in some manner for the duty that
presented itself to me on October 16, 1978. As
I write these words, the Jubilee Year 2000 is
already a reality. The night of December 24,
1999 the symbolic Door of the Great Jubilee in
the Basilica of St. Peter's was opened, then
that of St. John Lateran, then St. Mary Major
- on New Year's, and on January 19 the Door of
the Basilica of St. Paul's Outside-the-Walls.
This last event, given its ecumenical
character, has remained impressed in my memory
in a special way.
2. As the
Jubilee Year progressed, day by day the 20th
century closes behind us and the 21st century
opens. According to the plans of Divine
Providence I was allowed to live in the
difficult century that is retreating into the
past, and now, in the year in which my life
reaches 80 years ('octogesima adveniens'), it
is time to ask oneself if it is not the time
to repeat with the biblical Simeone 'nunc
dimittis'.
On May 13,
1981, the day of the attack on the Pope during
the general audience in St. Peter's Square,
Divine Providence saved me in a miraculous way
from death. The One Who is the Only Lord of
life and death Himself prolonged my life, in a
certain way He gave it to me again. From that
moment it belonged to Him even more. I hope He
will help me to recognize up to what point I
must continue this service to which I was
called on October 16, 1978. I ask him to call
me back when He Himself wishes. 'In life and
in death we belong to the Lord ... we are the
Lord's. (cf. Rm 14,8). I also hope that, as
long as I am called to fulfil the Petrine
service in the Church, the Mercy of God will
give me the necessary strength for this
service.
3. As I do
every year during spiritual exercises I read
my testament from 6-III-1979. I continue to
maintain the dispositions contained in this
text. What then, and even during successive
spiritual exercises, has been added
constitutes a reflection of the difficult and
tense general situation which marked the
Eighties. From autumn of the year 1989 this
situation changed. The last decade of the
century was free of the previous tensions;
that does not mean that it did not bring with
it new problems and difficulties. In a special
way may Divine Providence be praised for this,
that the period of the so-called 'cold war'
ended without violent nuclear conflict, the
danger of which weighed on the world in the
preceding period.
4. Being on
the threshold of the third millennium "in
medio Ecclesiae" I wish once again to
express gratitude to the Holy Spirit for the
great gift of Vatican Council II, to which,
together with the entire Church - and above
all the entire episcopacy - I feel indebted. I
am convinced that for a long time to come the
new generations will draw upon the riches that
this Council of the 20th century gave us. As a
bishop who participated in this conciliar
event from the first to the last day, I wish
to entrust this great patrimony to all those
who are and who will be called in the future
to realize it. For my part I thank the eternal
Pastor Who allowed me to serve this very great
cause during the course of all the years of my
pontificate.
"In medio
Ecclesiae".... from the first years of my
service as a bishop - precisely thanks to the
Council - I was able to experience the
fraternal communion of the Episcopacy. As a
priest of the archdiocese of Krakow I
experienced the fraternal communion among
priests - and the Council opened a new
dimension to this experience.
5. How many
people should I list! Probably the Lord God
has called to Himself the majority of them -
as to those who are still on this side, may
the words of this testament recall them,
everyone and everywhere, wherever they are.
During the
more than 20 years that I am fulfilling the
Petrine service "in medio Ecclesiae"
I have experienced the benevolence and even
more the fecund collaboration of so many
cardinals, archbishops and bishops, so many
priests, so many consecrated persons -
brothers and sisters - and, lastly, so very,
very many lay persons, within the Curia, in
the vicariate of the diocese of Rome, as well
as outside these milieux.
How can I not
embrace with grateful memory all the bishops
of the world whom I have met in "ad
limina Apostolorum" visits! How can I not
recall so many non-Catholic Christian
brothers! And the rabbi of Rome and so many
representatives of non -Christian religions!
And how many representatives of the world of
culture, science, politics, and of the means
of social communication!
6. As the end
of my life approaches I return with my memory
to the beginning, to my parents, to my
brother, to the sister (I never knew because
she died before my birth), to the parish in
Wadowice, where I was baptized, to that city I
love, to my peers, friends from elementary
school, high school and the university, up to
the time of the occupation when I was a
worker, and then in the parish of Niegowic,
then St. Florian's in Krakow, to the pastoral
ministry of academics, to the milieu of....to
all milieux....to Krakow and to Rome....to the
people who were entrusted to me in a special
way by the Lord.
To all I want
to say just one thing: "May God reward
you."
"In manus
tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum."
A.D.
17.III.2000
|
