John Paul II Quotes

264th pope of the Catholic Church (1978–2005)

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John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 1920 – 2 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his death in 2005. He was elected pope by the second papal conclave of 1978, which was called after John Paul I, who had been elected in August to succeed Pope Paul VI, died after 33 days. Cardinal Wojtyła was elected on the third day of the conclave and adopted the name of his predecessor in tribute to him. John Paul II is recognised as helping to end Communist rule in his native Poland and the rest of Europe (especially Eastern Europe).

From: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Pen Names: Andrzej Jawień • Stanisław Andrzej Gruda • Piotr Jasień

Native Name: Jan Paweł II

Alternative Names: Karol Wojtyła • Karol Wojtyla • Pope John Paul II • Saint John Paul II • Pope Saint John Paul II the Great • JPII • JP II • PP Ioannes Paulus II • Karol Józef Wojtyła

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Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him.

A democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism.

Learning to think rigorously, so as to act rightly and to serve humanity better.

Christians and Muslims, we have many things in common, as believers and as human beings. We live in the same world, marked by many signs of hope, but also by multiple signs of anguish. For us, Abraham is a very model of faith in God, of submission to his will and of confidence in his goodness. We believe in the same God, the one God, the living God, the God who created the world and brings his creatures to their perfection.

Knowledge must then lead to education in self-control.

It is unbecoming for a cardinal to ski badly.

The universal call to holiness is closely linked to the universal call to mission.

Have no fear of moving into the unknown. Simply step out fearlessly knowing that I am with you

For this reason the Council was not first of all to condemn the errors of the time, but above all to strive calmly to show the strength and beauty of the doctrine of the faith.

Love demands a personal commitment to the will of God.

Not all are called to be artists in the specific sense of the term. Yet, as Genesis has it, all men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece.

the love of our Lord must always be made accessible, so that anyone can see that all the works of perfect Christian virtue spring from love and have no other objective than to arrive at love.19

In God’s eternal plan, woman is the one in whom the order the order of love in the created world of persons takes first root.

Life is entrusted to man as a treasure which must not be squandered, as a talent which must be used well.

Genesis 1 says that man was created in the image of God. In Genesis 2, he becomes the subject of a covenant with God. A person is meant to be a partner of God. He must discern and choose between right and wrong, life and death. Among all living creatures of the visible world, man alone has been chosen for communion with God. Every human person has a unique, exclusive, unrepeatable relationship with God himself.