Non abbiate paura!

John Paul II, Servant of the Servants of God, has gone to be with his Lord. I could write a great deal about the Pope, and perhaps I shall at a later date (let me apologize in advance); however, the best commentary comes from his own words, carefully chosen to address to the Church. Consider, for example, the title of this entry: they were the Pope's first words spoken to St. Peter's Square upon his election: Be not afraid! He carried out his pontificate in the same way that he began most of his writings: meditating on a quote from Scripture. One could characterize his entire papacy, and especially the agonies of his final days, by those first words: Be not afraid!

The other quote that I would choose to highlight, which I have found both poetic and inspiring in my own vocation, is the opening from his 1998 encyclical Fides et Ratio:

Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves. — Fides et Ratio (14 Sep 1998)

Many, many people would assert that faith and reason are inherently opposed to each other, but this pope, as a philosopher, knew better, and his well-reasoned encyclicals worked to remove that myth. When I was a seminarian, I heard even those who strongly disliked his policies admit the man's brilliance.

I have no doubt that a number of the saints whom he canonized, or whose writings he held forth as a model, were ready to greet him: Faustina Kowalska, Maximillian Kolbe, Edith Stein, Teresa of Calcutta, Gianna Molla, Thérèse of Lisieux, ...

Orate pro nobis.