Juan de Plasencia Novitiate House

Liturgical
Supplemen
t
for Various Memorial of the Saints
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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

September 20 - Memorial of Sts. Andrew Kim Tae-gon,

Paul Chong Hasang and Companions, page 4

September 23 - Memorial of St. Pius of Pietrelcina, page 10

September 28 - Memorial of Sts. Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila and

Companions, page 16

October 5 - Memorial of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, p. 22

October 11 - Memorial of St. John XXIII, OFS, page 26

October 22 - Memorial of St. John Paul II, page 31

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MEMORIAL OF STS. ANDREW KIM TAEGON,
PAUL CHONG HASANG & COMPANIONS
(Common of Several Martyrs)

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September 20

The first native Korean priest, Andrew Kim Taegon was the son
of Christian converts. Following his baptism at the age of 15,
Andrew traveled 1,300 miles to the seminary in Macao, China.
After six years, he managed to return to his country through
Manchuria. That same year he crossed the Yellow Sea to
Shanghai and was ordained a priest. Back home again, he was
assigned to arrange for more missionaries to enter by a water
route that would elude the border patrol. He was arrested,
tortured, and finally beheaded at the Han River near Seoul, the
capital. Andrew's father Ignatius Kim, was martyred during the
persecution of 1839, and was beatified in 1925. Paul Chong
Hasang, a lay apostle and married man, also died in 1839 at age
45.

Christianity came to Korea during the Japanese invasion in 1592

when some Koreans were baptized, probably by Christian
Japanese soldiers. Evangelization was difficult because Korea
refused all contact with the outside world except for taking taxes
to Beijing annually. On one of these occasions, around 1777,
Christian literature obtained from Jesuits in China led educated
Korean Christians to study. A home Church began. When a
Chinese priest managed to enter secretly a dozen years later, he
found 4,000 Catholics, none of whom had ever seen a priest.
Seven years later there were 10,000 Catholics. Religious
freedom came to Korea in 1883.

Besides Andrew and Paul, Pope John Paul II canonized 98

Koreans and three French missionaries who had been martyred
between 1839 and 1867, when he visited Korea in 1984. Among
them were bishops and priests, but for the most part they were
lay persons: 47 women and 45 men.

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SECOND READING
From the final exhortation of Andrew Kim Taegon, priest
and martyr
(Pro Corea Documenta, ed. Mission Catholique Séoul, Séoul/Paris, 1938, vol. 1, 74-75)

Love and perseverance are the crown of faith

My brothers and sisters, my dearest friends, think again

and again on this: God has ruled over all things in heaven
and on earth from the beginning of time; then reflect on
why and for what purpose he chose each one of us to be
created in his own image and likeness. In this world of
perils and hardship if we did not recognize the Lord as
our Creator, there would be no benefit either in being
born or in our continued existence. We have come into the
world by God’s grace; by that same grace we have
received baptism, entrance into the Church, and the honor
of being called Christians. Yet what good will this do us if
we are Christians in name alone and not in fact? We
would have come into the world for nothing, we would
have entered the Church for nothing, and we would have
betrayed even God and his grace. It would be better never
to have been born than to receive the grace of God and
then to sin against him.

Look at the farmer who cultivates his rice fields. In season

he plows, then fertilizes the earth; never counting the cost,
he labors under the sun to nurture the seed he has
planted. When harvest time comes and the rice crop is

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abundant, forgetting his labor and sweat, he rejoices with
an exultant heart. But if the crop is sparse and there is
nothing but straw and husks, the farmer broods over his
toil and sweat and turns his back on that field with a
disgust that is all the greater the harder he has toiled.

The Lord is like a farmer and we are the field of rice that
he fertilizes with his grace and by the mystery of the
incarnation and the redemption irrigates with his blood,
in order that we will grow and reach maturity. When
harvest time comes, the day of judgment, those who have
grown to maturity in the grace of God will find the joy of
adopted children in the kingdom of heaven; those who
have not grown to maturity will become God’s enemies
and, even though they were once his children, they will
be punished according to their deeds for all eternity.

Dearest brothers and sisters: when he was in the world,

the Lord Jesus bore countless sorrows and by his own
passion and death founded his Church; now he gives it
increase through the sufferings of his faithful. No matter
how fiercely the powers of this world oppress and oppose
the Church, they will never bring it down. Ever since his
ascension and from the time of the apostles to the present,
the Lord Jesus has made his Church grow even in the
midst of tribulations.

For the last fifty or sixty years, ever since the coming of
the Church to our own land of Korea, the faithful have
suffered persecution over and over again. Persecution still
rages and as a result many who are friends in the
household of the faith, myself among them, have been

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thrown into prison and like you are experiencing severe
distress. Because we have become the one Body, should
not our hearts be grieved for the members who are
suffering? Because of the human ties that bind us, should
we not feel deeply the pain of our separation?

But, as the Scriptures say, God numbers the very hairs of

our head and in his all-embracing providence he has care
over us all. Persecution, therefore, can only be regarded as
the command of the Lord or as a prize he gives or as a
punishment he permits.

Hold fast, then, to the will of God and with all your heart
fight the good fight under the leadership of Jesus; conquer
again the diabolical power of this world that Christ has
already vanquished.

I beg you not to fail in your love for one another, but to
support one another and to stand fast until the Lord
mercifully delivers us from our trials.

There are twenty of us in this place and by God’s grace

we are so far all well. If any of us is executed, I ask you
not to forget our families. I have many things to say, yet
how can pen and paper capture what I feel? I end this
letter. As we are all near the final ordeal, I urge you to
remain steadfast in faith, so that at last we will all reach
heaven and there rejoice together. I embrace you all in
love.

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RESPONSORY          2 Corinthians 4:11; Psalm 44:3
These are the martyrs who bore witness to Christ.
Praising the Lord, they feared no evil.
– The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians.

They are as unknown, yet well known,

as dying, yet living still,
as having nothing, yet possessing all things.
– The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

O God, who have been pleased to increase

your adopted children in all the world,
and who made the blood of the Martyrs
Saint Andrew Kim Tae-gon and his companions
a most fruitful seed of Christians,
grant that we may be defended by their help
and profit always from their example.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy
Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

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 MEMORIAL OF
ST. PIO OF PIETRELCINA, OFM Cap.
(Common of Pastors)

September 23

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In one of the largest such ceremonies in history, Pope John Paul
II canonized Padre Pio of Pietrelcina on June 16, 2002. It was the
45th canonization ceremony in Pope John Paul’s pontificate.
More than 300,000 people braved blistering heat as they filled St.
Peter’s Square and nearby streets. They heard the Holy Father
praise the new saint for his prayer and charity. “This is the most
concrete synthesis of Padre Pio’s teaching,” said the pope. He
also stressed Padre Pio’s witness to the power of suffering. If
accepted with love, the Holy Father stressed, such suffering can
lead to “a privileged path of sanctity.”

Many people have turned to the Italian Capuchin Franciscan to

intercede with God on their behalf; among them was the future
Pope John Paul II. In 1962, when he was still an archbishop in
Poland, he wrote to Padre Pio and asked him to pray for a Polish
woman with throat cancer. Within two weeks, she had been
cured of her life-threatening disease.

Born Francesco Forgione, Padre Pio grew up in a family of

farmers in southern Italy. Twice his father worked in Jamaica,
New York, to provide the family income.

At the age of 15, Francesco joined the Capuchins and took the
name of Pio. He was ordained in 1910 and was drafted during
World War I. After he was discovered to have tuberculosis, he
was discharged. In 1917, he was assigned to the friary in San
Giovanni Rotondo, 75 miles from the city of Bari on the Adriatic.

On September 20, 1918, as he was making his thanksgiving after

Mass, Padre Pio had a vision of Jesus. When the vision ended,
he had the stigmata in his hands, feet, and side.

Life became more complicated after that. Medical doctors,

Church authorities, and curiosity seekers came to see Padre Pio.
In 1924, and again in 1931, the authenticity of the stigmata was
questioned; Padre Pio was not permitted to celebrate Mass
publicly or to hear confessions. He did not complain of these
decisions, which were soon reversed. However, he wrote no

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letters after 1924. His only other writing, a pamphlet on the agony
of Jesus, was done before 1924.

Padre Pio rarely left the friary after he received the stigmata, but
busloads of people soon began coming to see him. Each morning
after a 5 a.m. Mass in a crowded church, he heard confessions
until noon. He took a mid-morning break to bless the sick and all
who came to see him. Every afternoon he also heard
confessions. In time his confessional ministry would take 10
hours a day; penitents had to take a number so that the situation
could be handled. Many of them have said that Padre Pio knew
details of their lives that they had never mentioned.

Padre Pio saw Jesus in all the sick and suffering. At his urging, a
fine hospital was built on nearby Mount Gargano. The idea arose
in 1940; a committee began to collect money. Ground was
broken in 1946. Building the hospital was a technical wonder
because of the difficulty of getting water there and of hauling up
the building supplies. This “House for the Alleviation of Suffering”
has 350 beds.

A number of people have reported cures they believe were

received through the intercession of Padre Pio. Those who
assisted at his Masses came away edified; several curiosity
seekers were deeply moved. Like Saint Francis, Padre Pio
sometimes had his habit torn or cut by souvenir hunters.

One of Padre Pio’s sufferings was that unscrupulous people

several times circulated prophecies that they claimed originated
from him. He never made prophecies about world events and
never gave an opinion on matters that he felt belonged to Church
authorities to decide. He died on September 23, 1968, and was
beatified in 1999.

SECOND READING
From the Second Vatican Council
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(Presbyterorum Ordinis 3, 12)

The Vocation of Priests to the Life of Perfection

Priests are made in the likeness of Christ the Priest by the

Sacrament of Orders, so that they may, in collaboration
with their bishops, work for the building up and care of
the Church which is the whole Body of Christ, acting as
ministers of him who is the Head. Like all other
Christians they have received in the sacrament of Baptism
the symbol and gift of such a calling and such grace that
even in human weakness they can and must seek for
perfection, according to the exhortation of Christ: "Be you
therefore perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt
5:48). Priests are bound, however, to acquire that
perfection in special fashion. They have been consecrated
by God in a new manner at their ordination and made
living instruments of Christ the Eternal Priest that they
may be able to carry on in time his marvelous work
whereby the entire family of man is again made whole by
power from above. Since, therefore, every priest in his
own fashion acts in place of Christ himself, he is enriched
by a special grace, so that, as he serves the flock
committed to him and the entire People of God, he may
the better grow in the grace of him whose tasks he
performs, because to the weakness of our flesh there is
brought the holiness of him who for us was made a High
Priest "holy, guiltless, undefiled not reckoned among us
sinners" (Heb 7:26).

Christ, whom the Father sanctified, consecrated and sent

into the world, "gave himself for us that he might redeem

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us from all iniquity and cleanse for himself an acceptable
people, pursuing good works" (Titus 2:14), and thus
through suffering entered into his glory. In like fashion,
priests consecrated by the anointing of the Holy Spirit and
sent by Christ must mortify the works of the flesh in
themselves and give themselves entirely to the service of
men. It is in this way that they can go forward in that
holiness with which Christ endows them to perfect man.

Hence, those who exercise the ministry of the spirit and of

justice will be confirmed in the life of the spirit, so long as
they are open to the Spirit of Christ, who gives them life
and direction. By the sacred actions which are theirs daily
as well as by their entire ministry which they share with
the bishop and their fellow priests, they are directed to
perfection in their lives. Holiness does much for priests in
carrying on a fruitful ministry. Although divine grace
could use unworthy ministers to effect the work of
salvation, yet for the most part God chooses, to show
forth his wonders, those who are more open to the power
and direction of the Holy Spirit, and who can by reason of
their close union with Christ and their holiness of life say
with St. Paul: "And yet I am alive; or rather, not I; it is
Christ that lives in me" (Gal 2:20).

RESPONSORY           1 Thessalonians 2:8; Galatians 4:19

I have longed to give you the Gospel,

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and more than that, to give you my very life;
– you have become very dear to me.

My little children, I am like a mother giving birth to you,

until Christ is formed in you.
– You have become very dear to me.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

Almighty ever-living God, who, by a singular grace,

gave the Priest Saint Pio a share in the Cross of your Son
and, by means of his ministry,
renewed the wonders of your mercy,
grant that through his intercession
we may be united constantly to the sufferings of Christ,
and so brought happily to the glory of the resurrection.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy
Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

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 MEMORIAL OF
ST. LORENZO RUIZ DE MANILA &
COMPANIONS
(Common of Several Martyrs)

September 28

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Lorenzo was born in Manila of a Chinese father and a Filipino
mother, both Christians. Thus he learned Chinese and Tagalog
from them, and Spanish from the Dominicans whom he served as
altar boy and sacristan. He became a professional calligrapher,
transcribing documents in beautiful penmanship. He was a full
member of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary under Dominican
auspices. He married and had two sons and a daughter.

Lorenzo's life took an abrupt turn when he was accused of

murder. Nothing further is known except the statement of two
Dominicans that “he was sought by the authorities on account of
a homicide to which he was present or which was attributed to
him.”

At that time, three Dominican priests, Antonio Gonzalez,

Guillermo Courtet, and Miguel de Aozaraza, were about to sail to
Japan in spite of a violent persecution there. With them was a
Japanese priest, Vicente Shiwozuka de la Cruz, and a layman
named Lazaro, a leper. Lorenzo, having taken asylum with them,
was allowed to accompany them. But only when they were at sea
did he learn that they were going to Japan.

They landed at Okinawa. Lorenzo could have gone on to

Formosa, but, he reported, “I decided to stay with the Fathers,
because the Spaniards would hang me there.” In Japan they
were soon found out, arrested, and taken to Nagasaki. The site of
wholesale bloodshed when the atomic bomb was dropped had
known tragedy before. The 50,000 Catholics who once lived
there were dispersed or killed by persecution.

They were subjected to an unspeakable kind of torture: After

huge quantities of water were forced down their throats, they
were made to lie down. Long boards were placed on their
stomachs and guards then stepped on the ends of the boards,
forcing the water to spurt violently from mouth, nose and ears.

The superior, Fr. Gonzalez, died after some days. Both Fr.
Shiwozuka and Lazaro broke under torture, which included the

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insertion of bamboo needles under their fingernails. But both
were brought back to courage by their companions.

In Lorenzo’s moment of crisis, he asked the interpreter, “I would

like to know if, by apostatizing, they will spare my life.” The
interpreter was noncommittal, but in the ensuing hours Lorenzo
felt his faith grow strong. He became bold, even audacious, with
his interrogators.

The five were put to death by being hanged upside down in pits.
Boards fitted with semi-circular holes were fitted around their
waists and stones put on top to increase the pressure. They were
tightly bound, to slow circulation and prevent a speedy death.
They were allowed to hang for three days. By that time Lorenzo
and Lazaro were dead. Still alive, the three priests were then
beheaded.

In 1987, Pope John Paul II canonized these six and 10 others:

Asians and Europeans, men and women, who spread the faith in
the Philippines, Formosa (Taiwan), and Japan. Lorenzo Ruiz is
the first canonized Filipino martyr. 

SECOND READING
From a homily of Pope John Paul II
(Homily in Manila at the Mass of beatification of the Venerable Servant of God
Lawrence Ruiz and companions: AAS 73 [1981], 340-342)

In shedding their blood they offered God the greatest act of worship and love

According to his Gospel promise, Christ is truly

acknowledging, in the presence of his Father in heaven,
those faithful martyrs who acknowledged him before
men.

The hymn of glory to God which has just been sung by

numberless voices is an echo of the Te Deum sung in the

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Church of Santo Domingo on the evening of December 27,
1637, when the news arrived of the martyrdom at
Nagasaki of a group of six Christians. Among them were
the head of the mission, Father Antonio González, a
Spanish Dominican from León, and Lorenzo Ruiz, a
married man with a family, born in Manila "extra
muros," in the suburb of Binondo. These witnesses had
also in their turn sung psalms to the Lord of mercy and
power, both while they were in prison and during their
execution by the gallows and the pit, which lasted three
days.

Faith conquers the world. The preaching of this faith

enlightens like the sun all who wish to attain the
knowledge of truth. Indeed, although there are different
languages in the world, the power of the Christian
tradition is the same.

The Lord Jesus by his blood truly redeemed his servants,

gathered from every race, tongue, people and nation, to
make them a royal priesthood for our God.

The sixteen blessed martyrs, by the exercise of their

priesthood – that of baptism or of Holy Orders –
performed the greatest act of worship and love of God by
the sacrifice of their blood united with Christ’s own
Sacrifice of the Cross. In this way they imitated Christ the
priest and victim in the most perfect way possible for
human creatures. It was at the same time an act of the
greatest possible love for their brethren, for whose sake
we are all called to sacrifice ourselves, following the
example of the Son of God who sacrificed himself for us.

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This is what Lorenzo Ruiz did. Guided by the Holy Spirit
to an unexpected goal after an adventurous journey, he
told the court that he was a Christian, and must die for
God: “Had I many thousands of lives I would offer them
all for him. Never shall I apostatize. You may kill me if
that is what you want. To die for God – such is my will”.

Here we have him summed up; here we have a

description of his faith and the reason for his death. It was
at this moment that this young father of a family
professed and brought to completion the Christian
catechesis that he had received in the Dominican Friars’
school in Binondo: a catechesis that cannot be other than
Christ-centered, by reason both of the mystery it contains
and the fact that it is Christ who teaches through the lips
of his messenger.

The example of Lorenzo Ruiz, the son of a Chinese father

and Tagala mother, reminds us that everyone’s life and
the whole of one’s life must be at Christ’s disposal.
Christianity means daily giving, in response to the gift of
Christ who came into the world so that all might have life
and have it to the full.

RESPONSORY  
These holy men and women poured out their blood for
the Lord;

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they loved Christ in life; they followed him in his death.
- They have won the glorious crown.

They shared the one Spirit;

they held fast to the faith.
- They have won the glorious crown.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

Grant us, we pray, Lord God, the same perseverance

shown by your Martyrs Saint Lawrence Ruiz and his
companions in serving you and their neighbor, since
those persecuted for the sake of righteousness are blessed
in your Kingdom. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your
Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the
Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen

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 MEMORIAL OF
ST. MARIA FAUSTINA KOWALSKA
(Common of Virgins)

October 5

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Saint Faustina’s name is forever linked to the annual feast of the
Divine Mercy, the Divine Mercy chaplet, and the Divine Mercy
prayer recited each day at 3 p.m. by many people.

Born in what is now west-central Poland, Helena Kowalska was

the third of 10 children. She attended school for only three
semesters. She worked as a housekeeper in three cities before
joining the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in
1925. She worked as a cook, gardener and porter in three of their
houses.

In addition to carrying out her work faithfully, generously serving

the needs of the sisters and the local people, Sister Faustina also
had a deep interior life. This included receiving revelations from
the Lord Jesus, messages that she recorded in her diary at the
request of Christ and of her confessors.

At a time when some Catholics had an image of God as such a

strict judge that they might be tempted to despair about the
possibility of being forgiven, Jesus chose to emphasize his mercy
and forgiveness for sins acknowledged and confessed. “I do not
want to punish aching mankind,” he once told Saint Faustina, “but
I desire to heal it, pressing it to my merciful heart.” The two rays
emanating from Christ’s heart, she said, represent the blood and
water poured out after Jesus’ death.

Because Sister Maria Faustina knew that the revelations she had
already received did not constitute holiness itself, she wrote in
her diary: “Neither graces, nor revelations, nor raptures, nor gifts
granted to a soul make it perfect, but rather the intimate union of
the soul with God. These gifts are merely ornaments of the soul,
but constitute neither its essence nor its perfection. My sanctity
and perfection consist in the close union of my will with the will of
God.”

Sister Maria Faustina died of tuberculosis in Krakow, Poland, on

October 5, 1938. Pope John Paul II beatified her in 1993, and
canonized her seven years later.

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SECOND READING
From the diary of St. Faustina

The mission of proclaiming and begging divine mercy for the world

O my God, I am conscious of my mission in the Holy

Church. It is my constant endeavor to plead for mercy for
the world. I unite myself closely with Jesus and stand
before him as an atoning sacrifice on behalf of the world.
God will refuse me nothing when I entreat him with the
voice of his Son. My sacrifice is nothing in itself, but when
I join it to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, it becomes all-
powerful and has the power to appease divine wrath.
God loves us in his Son; the painful Passion of the Son of
God constantly turns aside the wrath of God.

O God, how I desire that souls come to know you and to

see that you have created them because of your
unfathomable love. O my Creator and Lord, I feel that I
am going to remove the veil of heaven so that earth will
not doubt your goodness.

Make of me, Jesus, a pure and agreeable offering before

the face of your Father. Jesus, transform me, miserable
and sinful as I am, into your own self (for you can do all
things), and give me to your eternal Father. I want to
become a sacrificial host before you, but an ordinary
wafer to people. I want the fragrance of my sacrifice to be
known to you alone. O eternal God, an unquenchable fire
of supplication for your mercy burns within me. I know
and understand that this is my task, here and in eternity.
You yourself have told me to speak about this great mercy
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and about your goodness.

RESPONSORY          2 Chronicles 6:21,39

Listen to the petitions of your servant and of your people.

- And when you have heard, pardon.
Forgive your people who have sinned against you.
- And when you have heard, pardon.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

Almighty Father, who in a wondrous manner

revealed the inexhaustible riches of your mercy to Saint
Maria Faustina, grant, we beseech you,
that by looking with trust upon the pierced side of your
Son we may be strengthened to show mercy one to
another and, at length, sing forever of your mercy in
heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy
Spirit,
God, forever and ever.

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 MEMORIAL OF
ST. JOHN XXIII,
Third Order Franciscan
(Common of Pastors)

October 11

Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was born in the village of Sotto il

Monte in the province of Bergamo in Italy in 1881. At the age of
eleven he entered the diocesan seminary. As a young boy of 14,
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while enrolled in the junior seminary of Bergama, he was
received as a Third Order Franciscan. “Oh! The serene and
innocent joy of that coincidence,” he later said. “A Franciscan
tertiary and cleric on his way to the priesthood, drawn in,
therefore by the same cords of simplicity, still unconscious and
happy, that was to accompany us up to the blessed altar that was
later to give us everything in life.”

Then completed his studies at the Pontifical Roman Seminary. In

1904 he was ordained a priest and became secretary to the
Bishop of Bergamo. In 1921 he entered the service of the
Apostolic See as President of the Central Council for Italy of the
Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith; in 1925 he
became Apostolic Visitor and then Apostolic Delegate to Bulgaria
and, in 1935, to Turkey and Greece; in 1944 he was named
Apostolic Nuncio to France. In 1953 he was created Cardinal and
made Patriarch of Venice. In 1958 he was elected Supreme
Pontiff. During his pontificate he convened the Roman Synod,
established the Commission for the Revision of the Code of
Canon Law, and summoned the Second Vatican Ecumenical
Council. He died in Rome on the evening of 3 June 1963.

SECOND READING
From the addresses of St. John XXIII, pope.
(In the solemn inauguration of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, 11 October 1962: AAS 54 [1962],
786-787. 792-793.)

The Church is the most loving mother of all

Today, Venerable Brethren, is a day of joy for Mother

Church: through God's most kindly providence the
longed-for day has dawned for the solemn opening of the
Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, here at St. Peter's
shrine. And Mary, God's Virgin Mother, on this feast day
of her noble motherhood, gives it her gracious protection.

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Certain it is that the critical issues, the thorny problems
that wait upon man's solution, have remained the same
for almost twenty centuries. And why? Because the whole
of history and of life hinges on the person of Jesus Christ.
Either men anchor themselves on Him and His Church,
and thus enjoy the blessings of light and joy, right order
and peace; or they live their lives apart from Him; many
positively oppose Him, and deliberately exclude
themselves from the Church. The result can only be
confusion in their lives, bitterness in their relations with
one another, and the savage threat of war.

In these days, which mark the beginning of this Second

Vatican Council, it is more obvious than ever before that
the Lord's truth is indeed eternal. Human ideologies
change. Successive generations give rise to varying errors,
and these often vanish as quickly as they came, like mist
before the sun.

The Church has always opposed these errors, and often

condemned them with the utmost severity. Today,
however, Christ's Bride prefers the balm of mercy to the
arm of severity. She believes that, present needs are best
served by explaining more fully the purport of her
doctrines, rather than by publishing condemnations. Not
that the need to repudiate and guard against erroneous
teaching and dangerous ideologies is less today than
formerly. But all such error is so manifestly contrary to
rightness and goodness, and produces such fatal results,
that our contemporaries show every inclination to
condemn it of their own accord—especially that way of
life which repudiates God and His law, and which places
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excessive confidence in technical progress and an
exclusively material prosperity. It is more and more
widely understood that personal dignity and true self-
realization are of vital importance and worth every effort
to achieve. More important still, experience has at long
last taught men that physical violence, armed might, and
political domination are no help at all in providing a
happy solution to the serious problems which affect them.

The great desire, therefore, of the Catholic Church in

raising aloft at this Council the torch of truth, is to show
herself to the world as the loving mother of all mankind;
gentle, patient, and full of tenderness and sympathy for
her separated children. To the human race oppressed by
so many difficulties, she says what Peter once said to the
poor man who begged an alms: "Silver and gold I have
none; but what I have, that I give thee. In the name of
Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk." (Acts 3:6) In
other words it is not corruptible wealth, nor the promise
of earthly happiness, that the Church offers the world
today, but the gifts of divine grace which, since they raise
men up to the dignity of being sons of God, are powerful
assistance and support for the living of a more fully
human life. She unseals the fountains of her life-giving
doctrine, so that men, illumined by the light of Christ, will
understand their true nature and dignity and purpose.
Everywhere, through her children, she extends the
frontiers of Christian love, the most powerful means of
eradicating the seeds of discord, the most effective means
of promoting concord, peace with justice, and universal
brotherhood.

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RESPONSORY           cf. Mt 16:18; Ps 48:9
Jesus said to Simon, you are Peter, and upon this rock I
will build my church, *
     - And the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail
against it.
God has established it forever. *
     - And the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail
against it.

CONCLUDING PRAYER
O almighty and eternal God,
who throughout all the world made in blessed Pope John
a living radiant example of Christ the Good Shepherd,
grant us, we ask, that through his intercession,
we may be enabled to pour out an abundance of Christian
charity.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy
Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

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 MEMORIAL OF
ST. JOHN PAUL II
(Common of Pastors)

October 22

Karol Jósef Wojtyła was born in 1920 in Wadowice, Poland. After

his ordination to the priesthood and theological studies in Rome,

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he returned to his homeland and took up various pastoral and
academic tasks. First he became Auxiliary Bishop of Krakow. In
1964 he was named its Archbishop and took part in the Second
Vatican Ecumenical Council. On 16 October 1978 he was elected
Supreme Pontiff and took the name John Paul II. His exceptional
apostolic zeal, particularly for families, young people, and the
sick, led him to make numerous pastoral visits throughout the
world. Among the many fruits which he has left as a heritage to
the Church are above all his rich body of teachings, the
promulgation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and of the
Codes of Canon Law for the Latin Church and for the Eastern
Churches. In Rome on 2 April 2005, the eve of the Second
Sunday of Easter (or of Divine Mercy), he died peacefully in the
Lord.

SECOND READING
From the Homily of Blessed John Paul II, Pope,
for the Inauguration of his Pontificate
Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ.

Peter came to Rome! What else but obedience to the

inspiration received from the Lord could have guided him
and brought him to this city, the heart of the Empire?
Perhaps the fisherman of Galilee did not want to come
here. Perhaps he would have preferred to stay there, on
the shores of Lake of Genesareth, with his boat and his
nets. Yet guided by the Lord, obedient to his inspiration,
he came here!

According to an ancient tradition, Peter tried to leave

Rome during Nero' persecution. However, the Lord
intervened and came to meet him. Peter spoke to him and
asked. "Quo vadis, Domine?" -- "Where are you going,
Lord?" And the Lord answered him at once: "I am going

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to Rome to be crucified again." Peter went back to Rome
and stayed here until his crucifixion.

Our time calls us, urges us, obliges us, to gaze on the Lord
and to immerse ourselves in humble and devout
meditation on the mystery of the supreme power of Christ
himself.

He who was born of the Virgin Mary, the carpenter' Son

(as he was thought to be), the Son of the living God (as
confessed by Peter), came to make us all "a kingdom of
priests".

The Second Vatican Council has reminded us of the

mystery of this power and of the fact that Christ' mission
as Priest, Prophet-Teacher and King continues in the
Church. Everyone, the whole People of God, shares in this
threefold mission. Perhaps in the past the tiara, that triple
crown, was placed on the Pope' head in order to signify
by that symbol the Lord' plan for his Church, namely that
all the hierarchical order of Christ' Church, all "sacred
power" exercised in the Church, is nothing other than
service, service with a single purpose: to ensure that the
whole People of God shares in this threefold mission of
Christ and always remains under the power of the Lord; a
power that has its source not in the powers of this world,
but instead in the mystery of the Cross and the
Resurrection.

The absolute, and yet sweet and gentle, power of the Lord
responds to the whole depths of the human person, to his
loftiest aspirations of intellect, will and heart. It does not

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speak the language of force, but expresses itself in charity
and truth.

The new Successor of Peter in the See of Rome today

makes a fervent, humble and trusting prayer: Christ,
make me become and remain the servant of your unique
power, the servant of your sweet power, the servant of
your power that knows no dusk. Make me a servant:
indeed, the servant of your servants.

Brothers and sisters, do not be afraid to welcome Christ

and accept his power. Help the Pope and all those who
wish to serve Christ and with Christ' power to serve the
human person and the whole of mankind.

Do not be afraid. Open, I say open wide the doors for

Christ. To his saving power open the boundaries of states,
economic and political systems, the vast fields of culture,
civilization and development. Do not be afraid. Christ
knows "that which is in man". He alone knows it.

So often today, man does not know that which is in him,

in the depths of his mind and heart. So often he is
uncertain about the meaning of his life on this earth. He is
assailed by doubt, a doubt which turns into despair. We
ask you, therefore, we beg you with humility and with
trust, let Christ speak to man. He alone has words of life,
yes, of life eternal.

RESPONSORY           2 Corinthians 4:11,16

Do not be afraid. The Redeemer of mankind has revealed

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the power of the Cross and has given his life for us.
- Open, open wide the doors for Christ.

In the Church we are called to partake of his power.

- Open, open wide the doors for Christ.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

O God, who are rich in mercy

and who willed that the blessed John Paul the Second
should preside as Pope over your universal Church,
grant, we pray, that instructed by his teaching,
we may open our hearts to the saving grace of Christ,
the sole Redeemer of mankind.
Who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

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