Pope John Paul 2nd Writings

[the_rev]

Do you know of any writings the Pope has written on Love?

If you cuold share them with me and site your source, I'd appreciate it!

[StColette]

Let's see, I know that "Love and Responsibility" would deal more with Love in a more marriage type of relationship.

TRUE HUMAN LOVE REFLECTS THE DIVINE
Pope John Paul II
Given on 25 September 1993 in Asti, Italy

Dear Married Couples,

1. It gives me great joy to meet you in this cathedral, where you frequently gather with your Bishop and priests for the Married Couples' Mission in which you are involved, and which will end at Pentecost next year. I am even more delighted to be doing so in the company of Cardinal Angelo Sodano, an illustrious son of your land.

I greet dear Bishop Severino Poletto, your dynamic Pastor, and I thank him for the words he has addressed to me. I also greet the married couples who, on your behalf, have expressed sentiments of devoted affection to me, explaining the interesting pastoral enterprise in which you are involved. You are aiming at strengthening your links with Christ, deepening his message by paying special attention to "the Gospel of marriage."

Your experience is very timely. The Church and the world today more than ever need married couples and families who generously let themselves be schooled by Christ.

The many sad aspects of our time and the unprecedented forms of violence that unfortunately mark it are ultimately explained by the closure of hearts to God's love. How urgent then is the task of believers, above all of Christian families, to restore to today's society the necessary anchoring of faith and love in the safe haven of God's word.

The love experienced within the family offers a favourable climate where that personal relationship with God which is the source of authentic individual and community renewal can take root and develop.

Obviously this implies that it is genuine love. Often, unfortunately, in the hedonistic culture we experience today, it is rather its caricature and even its betrayal that are labeled with the name of love. Appropriately, the biblical passage just proclaimed is, in two instances, concerned with clarifying the true meaning of love.

2. "In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him" (1 Jn 4:9).

Here is love at its source. Love is the gift of self. It means emptying oneself to reach out to others. In a certain sense, it means forgetting oneself for the good of others. Authentic human love reflects within itself the logic of the divine. In this perspective, the duty of conjugal fidelity can be fully grasped. "You are everything to me, I give myself totally to you, for ever": this is the commitment that springs from the heart of every person who is sincerely in love.

Fidelity! Next to this comes fruitfulness, another typical aspect of the relationship between spouses. Is there not a link between the demographic decline and the alarming phenomenon of a considerable number of couples between whom love so easily withers and dies?

Dear married couples, do not be afraid! You are living the greatness of love animated by the generous desire to see it spread and virtually incarnated in the faces of your children. When a couple refuses to collaborate with God to transmit the gift of life, they have great difficulty in finding in themselves the resources to sustain mutual understanding.

3. The biblical text continues: "In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us" (1 Jn 4:10).

God's love is totally gratuitous. Such therefore should be the love of a couple and the relationship between the members of a family. By virtue of love the parents will be able to devote their best energies to the work of bringing up their children, assuring them of consistent guidance and surrounding them with caring and respectful affection. In turn, the children will find in love the deepest motivation for a responsible, docile and grateful attitude towards their parents. Love drawn from God's heart spurs the whole family to find the time to attend to the elderly, to devote themselves to the sick, to be involved in the difficult situations around them, including regional problems and the more general problems of the nation. The family does not live its vocation to the full if it is not open to the needs of the community. When its members seal themselves off in a sort of group selfishness, they automatically deprive themselves of the opportunity to grow in love and thus to experience true joy.

4. Dear married couples, the presence of so many of you and your children fills my heart with emotion. Allow me to embrace you with affection. At the end of our meeting I should like to leave you two "assignments" in the Lord's name.

I draw one from the recommendation contained in the First Letter of Peter: "Come to him, [Christ] a living stone" (1 Pet 2:4). Yes, dear brothers and sisters, make sure that Christ the Lord is your teacher and also your children's.

It is from him that you should draw the right criteria for direction and discernment in every situation. Forcefully resist the divorce mentality that disrupts God's plan for marriage as an indissoluble covenant of love.

Do not let into your homes that permissive culture which allows everything, even the suppression of life before it blossoms or before it declines and comes to an end naturally.

5. The other assignment concerns your responsibility to proclaim the Gospel. Be evangelizing communities, able to transmit and radiate the Gospel! Is not this the goal of the Married Couples' Mission in which you are involved? Have the courage of the Gospel!

I bless you, dear friends, and I encourage you to continue in your providential initiative, hoping that the missionary concern that motivates you will continue to shape the entire pastoral activity of the Diocese.

Dear brothers and sisters! I entrust each one of you, your children, your families, your projects, to the love of the Father, and I invoke the protection of your patron saints and the motherly intercession of our Lady on your homes.

My blessing to all of you! I must say that the expression "Married Couples' Mission" is very thought-provoking because usually, when we think of mission and missionaries, we are referring to those who go to distant lands. Sometimes married couples do too.

Instead today, after the Second Vatican Council, we are very aware of the mission that involves all Christians. We are all missionaries and the family's mission is irreplaceable. It is irreplaceable if we consider it as the fundamental cell of that larger society, for the Church, for evangelization and for the new evangelization.

We also know from experience and from tradition, how much all of us, Bishops, Cardinals and the Pope himself, owe to our family, to our parents, our teachers in the faith, in human and Christian nobility and in the virtues. We are indebted to them, and first and foremost to God, but we are also indebted to our many brothers and sisters, and above all to our parents who gave us life and raised us. Human life must be reared not only in the physical and biological dimension, but also in the spiritual.

This is the irreplaceable evangelization that takes place in the family and to which you are called. This is why, although you do not travel to distant lands, you are the apostles, evangelizers and missionaries of your own families.

For this, the missionary spirit is necessary, the very spirit of the Apostles but also of our parents and grandparents, who knew how to make the family a domestic Church. This is a lovely expression that we have inherited from the Fathers of the Church. We have the universal Church, the diocesan and the parish Church, but the domestic Church is irreplaceable.

I hope that all of you, fathers, mothers, and all your children, will form this domestic Church to be a community mission. It happens through this communion of individuals which is specific to the family, between the couple and then between the generations.

I thank you for this meeting, I entrust you to the protection of the Holy Family, a family in which the Son of God was born and brought up as a man, as a human child. This is a wonderful reality. Be devoted to the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary and Joseph. I entrust all those present and all the families of your city and your Diocese to them.

[url="http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP2MAR.htm"]http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP2MAR.htm[/url]

URBI ET ORBI (Love One Another as Brothers and Sisters)
Pope John Paul II
Christmas Message and Blessing to City and World, 1996

1. All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God" (Ps 98:3). On this day of joy, the people of Rome and the whole world hear the joyful proclamation of the birth of the Son of God: Christmas is a mystery of grace to be contemplated Christmas is a marvellous event to be shared. The source of today's happiness is described, in tones of wonder by a Polish Christmas carol: "God is born, man's might is amazed: the Lord of Heaven empties himself! The fire subsides, the splendour is veiled, the Infinite is encompassed. Scorned, yet clothed with glory, the mortal King of the ages! And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us" (F. Karpinski, 18th century).

2. The Poet recalls the Prologue of the Gospel of John, which presents as a mystery what Matthew and Luke describe as an event.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God... In him was life, and the life was the light of men; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (Jn 1:1-5). The light shone in the night over the stable of Bethlehem; it shone before the eyes of men, revealing to all that God's Word had come into the world.

3. But the Evangelist tells us "The world was made through him, yet the world knew him not" (Jn 1:10). Only the shepherds of Bethlehem recognized him: in their poverty, watchful, they hastened to follow the light that showed them the place where the Son of Mary had been born. They were the first to receive the Word: and the Word gave them "power to become children of God" (Jn 1:12).

4. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews writes: "In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world" (Heb 1:1-2).

The Son, who reflects the glory of the Father and bears the very stamp of his nature, upholds all things by his word of power (cf. Heb 1:3). It was he who created the universe: in him it exists and by him is preserved in existence. Yes, the Incarnation of the Son of God is as it were the crowning of creation.

For this reason another Polish Christmas carol says that "on Christmas day all creation rejoices", for in the newborn Son of the Virgin, creation recognizes its Creator and Lord.

5. Brothers and sisters the world over, Let us join in this song of joy, as everywhere there resound, in different tongues the traditional melodies of Christmas. Let them resound with joy in churches and cathedrals, where Christians gather about the crib, and welcome the Son of God.

May these melodies bring peace and serenity especially to those places where, as in Bosnia-Hercegovina or Guatemala, after long years of war at home and abroad, weapons have at last fallen silent and men tread anew the path of understanding and fraternity.

6. But the echo of the songs of Christmas must travel much farther! It must resound beyond walls where the dash of arms is still heard, shattering the spell of peace brought by this holy day. I am thinking of Bethlehem and all the Holy Land, where Jesus was born and lived: the land which he loved, the land where hope must not die, despite provocations and profound differences. I am thinking of Cyprus, still divided, and Algeria in the throes of unjustifiable violence. On this festive day I also look to the East, to Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, where fratricidal struggles and conflicts of identity continue, spawning desolation and death.

7. And how can we forget Africa? At its very heart, in the region of the Great Lakes, this young continent is experiencing amid the general indifference of the international community one of the cruelest human tragedies of its history. Thousands and thousands of people —our brothers and sisters— wander, displaced, victims of fear, hunger and disease; they—alas!—will not be able to feel the joy of Christmas. No one can remain indifferent before this scandal, which words and pictures can only faintly begin to describe.

8. To resign ourselves to such violence and injustice would be too grave a rejection of the joy and hope which Christmas brings. God becomes man and tells us once again that hatred can be overcome, that it is beautiful to love one another as brothers and sisters. O Divine Child, by your gentle presence encourage men and women to overcome hatred and rancour help them to return to dialogue and to walk together along the path of life. Voicing the silent longing of all mankind the Polish poet also says: "Raise your hand, Divine Child! Bless our dear country with good counsel and well-being. Sustain her strength by your own. Bless our home, our fields, and every town and city. This is my wish for every country in the world. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us".

9. Today's Christmas Liturgy tells us once again "A holy day has dawned for us; come, let us adore the Lord" (Gospel verse). We come to you, Word of God, to receive of your wisdom; we come to you, Christ, Son of God, to beg your graces and blessings. You, Child of Bethlehem, Son of God and Son of the Virgin Mary, are our Redeemer. You save every human being by the gift of your life. Grant that peace may flourish wherever your name is spoken. Raise your hand, Divine Child and bless the earth which has seen your salvation: out of love, you have come to dwell among us.

[url="http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP961225.htm"]http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP961225.htm[/url]

BLESSED IS THE PEOPLE FOUNDED ON LOVE
Pope John Paul II
Closing Mass of Synod for Lebanon 14 December 1995

1. "Blessed is the people founded on love".

At the conclusion of the work of the Special Assembly for Lebanon of the Synod of Bishops, these words of today's liturgy, which we sang a short time ago as the refrain of the responsorial psalm, are very appropriate. In fact they seem to correspond in the best possible way to the objective that directed our work over these last weeks. The Synod Assemblies that concern the life of the Church in a nation or a continent by their very nature propose: to seek the meeting points between men, social groups and nations to found them on love.

This seems to be particularly important for the Near East, and especially for your homeland. We are well aware that Lebanon is a land rich in many religious and cultural traditions. Catholics belonging to various Eastern Churches and the Latin Church live there together with Christians from other Churches and Communities; with these there are also Muslims. For all of them Lebanon is a "common task". All need that social dimension of love that allows men to build together. And we know well how much Lebanon needs to build and rebuild, especially as a result of the sad experience of many years of war, in its search for a just peace and for security in its relations with neighboring countries.

The Second Vatican Council reminded the People of God of the tasks that the Church, and especially the lay faithful, are called to carry out in the social and political community. In fulfilling these tasks the faithful also draw their inspiration from the faith: in it they find specific and very valid reasons for committing themselves to the service of the common good of the earthly city. It is obvious how important this aspect of Christian commitment is for Lebanon, whose historical roots are of a religious nature. And it is precisely because of these religious roots of the Lebanese national and political identity that, after the sad period of war, it was desired and was possible to initiate a Synod Assembly in order to seek together the way to a renewal of faith, to greater collaboration and to a more effective common witness, without forgetting the reconstruction of society. This conviction of ours, I am sure, is also shared by our brother Christians who do not belong to the Catholic Church, as well as by Muslims.

Your ancient ancestors heard the words of Christ

2. We are now gathered around the altar in St. Peter's Basilica to give thanks to God for the gift of the Synod. The liturgy reminds us that one day, beloved Brothers of the Church in Lebanon, your ancestors were among the crowds that surrounded Jesus to listen to his teaching. In fact, St. Luke writes that there was "a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases.... And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: 'Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you ... on account of the Son of Man!

Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven' (Lk 6:17-23).

Your ancestors of 2,000 years ago listened to these words of Christ. But were they not also spoken for us, for the people of our time, for the Christians of today, for the Lebanon of modern times?

Do not these words of Christ contain a sort of fundamental program, in which the Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for Lebanon was to find its inspiration? Let us continue to listen to this Gospel passage, and let us try to relate it to what was said in the last few days in the Synod Hall.

We do so while remembering with emotion that once the feet of the world's Redeemer walked your land (cf. Mt 15:21-28; Mk 7:26-36), that his eyes admired its beauty. The first reading of today's liturgy, taken from the Song of Songs, makes us think of this. I wish that the Redeemer's glance, so full of love, may accompany all of you who have taken part in the Synod Assembly and also all the brothers and sisters you represent.

3. "Earnestly desire the higher gifts" (1 Cor 12:31).

Thus the Apostle writes in his First Letter to the Corinthians. On this occasion as we conclude the Synod for Lebanon, we also feel that these words of Paul are addressed to us. The Apostle thus concludes his "hymn to love": "So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor 13:13). And a short while before he had said, with words that we will never tire of reading and meditating on: "Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous ... it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong.... Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Cor 13:4-7). Yes, love is indeed like this!

We must carefully reflect on hymn to love

In proclaiming to the disciples of Corinth the truth about love, St. Paul insists on the many fruits that it is capable of bearing and that are evident not only in the lives of individuals or families, but also in the life of entire nations.

"Blessed is the people founded on love", the responsorial psalm told us. And for us, after some weeks of synodal work, these words have a particular wealth of meaning: they tell us that we must carefully reflect on the hymn to love in the Letter to the Corinthians if we want to work fruitfully for the reconstruction of Lebanon by contributing to the restoration of the spiritual and moral fabric of a society of such noble and ancient traditions.

For this reason, are we not in need of great patience? Love is patient. Is it not necessary to forget the evil suffered in so many ways? Love is not resentful. Is not a great perseverance required for this? Love bears all things. And lastly, is not a great hope necessary? Love spurs us continually to cross the threshold of hope.

Venerable and beloved brothers and sisters, may faith, hope and charity abide with you. May these three theological virtues on which the Christian life is based remain with you. But let us not forget that the greatest of all is love. Put love above all things! Amen.

[url="http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP951214.HTM"]http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP951214.HTM[/url]

[StColette]

BLESSED VIRGIN IS MODEL OF PERFECT LOVE
Pope John Paul II

Mary and Joseph raised their Son and helped him grow to adulthood, introducing him to the religion of Israel and preparing him for his mission

"Looking at the results, we can certainly conclude that Mary's teaching was deep and effective, and found very fertile soil in Jesus' human psychology", the Holy Father said at the General Audience of Wednesday, 4 December, as he focused on Mary's role in raising her Son Jesus. Here is a translation of his catechesis, which was the 38th in the series on the Blessed Virgin, and was given in Italian.

1. Although occurring by the work of the Holy Spirit and a Virgin Mother, the birth of Jesus, like that of all human beings, went through the phases of conception, gestation and delivery. In addition, Mary's motherhood was not limited to the biological process of giving birth, but as it happens with every other mother, she also made an essential contribution to her son's growth and development.

A mother is not only a woman who gives birth to a child, but one who brings him up and teaches him; indeed, we might well say that, according to God's plan, the educational task is the natural extension of procreation.

Mary is the Theotókos, not only because she conceived and gave birth to the Son of God, but also because she accompanied him in his human growth..

Mary was particularly suited to being a teacher

2. We might think that, since Jesus possessed in himself the fullness of divinity, he had no need of teachers. But the mystery of the Incarnation reveals to us that the Son of God came into the world in a human condition similar to us in all things except sin (cf. Heb 4:15). As is the case with every human being, Jesus' growth, from infancy to adulthood (cf. Lk 2:40), also needed his parents' educational activity.

The Gospel of Luke, particularly attentive to the childhood period, says that at Nazareth Jesus was obedient to Joseph and Mary (cf. Lk 2:5 1). This dependence shows us that Jesus was receptive, open to the teaching of his mother and Joseph, who also carried out their task by virtue of the docility he constantly showed.

3. The special gifts which God had showered on Mary made her particularly suited to her task as mother and teacher. In the concrete circumstances of everyday life, Jesus could find in her a model to follow and imitate and an example of perfect love for God and for his brothers and sisters.

Along with Mary's motherly presence, Jesus could count on the paternal figure of Joseph, a just man (cf. Mt 1:19), who provided the necessary balance in the educational activity. Carrying out his role as father, Joseph co-operated with his wife in making the home in Nazareth an environment favourable to the growth and personal maturity of the Saviour of humanity. By later introducing him to the hard work of the carpenter, Joseph enabled Jesus to be involved in the world of work and social life.

4. The few elements that the Gospel offers do not allow us to know and fully appreciate the ways in which Mary taught her divine Son. Certainly she, together with Joseph, introduced Jesus to the rites and prescriptions of Moses, to prayer to the God of the Covenant by using the Psalms, to the history of the people of Israel centred on the Exodus from Egypt. From her and Joseph Jesus learned to attend the synagogue and to make the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover.

Looking at the results, we can certainly conclude that Mary's teaching was deep and effective, and found very fertile soil in Jesus' human psychology.

Mary and Joseph are models for all parents

5. Mary's educational task with regard to such a unique son presents several special features in comparison with the role of other mothers. She only provided favourable conditions for the development of the potential and essential values for growth, already present in the Son. For example, the absence of any form of sin in Jesus demanded a constantly positive orientation from Mary, which excluded any form of corrective intervention. Furthermore, although it was his mother who introduced Jesus to the culture and traditions of the people of Israel, it was he, from the time of his finding in the temple, who would reveal his full awareness of being the Son of God, sent to spread the truth in the world and exclusively follow the Father's will. From being her Son's "teacher", Mary thus becomes the humble disciple of the divine Master to whom she had given birth.

The importance of the Virgin Mother's task remains: from his infancy to adulthood, she helped her Son Jesus to grow "in wisdom and in stature, and in favour with God and man" (Lk 2:52), and to prepare for his mission.

Mary and Joseph can therefore be seen as models for all educators. They sustain them in the great difficulties that the family encounters today, and show them the way to their children's precise and effective formation.

Their educational experience is a sure reference point for Christian parents who are called, in ever more complex and difficult conditions, to devote themselves to the service of the integral development of their children's personality, so that they will live lives worthy of man and corresponding to God's plan.

[url="http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/jp2bvm38.htm"]http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/jp2bvm38.htm[/url]

THE POWER OF LOVE IS GIVEN TO MAN AND WOMAN AS A SHARE IN GOD'S LOVE

Pope John Paul II
General audience of October 10, 1984

1. We are continuing to outline the spirituality of married life in the light of the Encyclical "Humanae vitae".

According to the doctrine contained there, in conformity with biblical sources and all Tradition, LOVE, from the subjective viewpoint, is a POWER, that is, a capacity of the human soul, of a theological nature. It is therefore the power given to man in order to participate in that love with which God Himself loves in the mystery of creation and redemption. It is that love which "rejoices with the truth" (1 Cor 13:6), that is, in which there is expressed the spiritual joy (Augustine's "enjoyment") of every authentic value: a joy like that of the Creator Himself, who in the beginning saw that everything "was very good" (Gen 1:31).

If the powers of concupiscence try to detach the "language of the body" from the truth, that is, they try to falsify it, the power of love instead strengthens it ever anew in that truth, so that the mystery of the redemption of the body can bear fruit in it.

The Fullness of Good

2. Love itself—which makes possible and brings about conjugal dialogue according to the full truth of the life of the spouses—is at the same time a power or a capacity of a moral nature, actively oriented toward the fullness of good and for this very reason toward every true good. And therefore its role consists in safeguarding the inseparable connection between the "two meanings of the conjugal act," with which the encyclical deals (HV 12), that is to say, in protecting both the value of the true union of the couple (that is, the personal communion) and the value of responsible fatherhood and motherhood (in the form that is mature and worthy of man).

Love Coordinates

3. According to traditional language, love, as a higher power, coordinates the actions of the persons, the husband and the wife, in the sphere of the purposes of marriage. Although neither the conciliar constitution nor the encyclical, in dealing with the question, use the language at one time customary, they nonetheless deal with what the traditional expressions refer to.

Love, as a higher power that the man and the woman receive from God along with the particular "consecration" of the Sacrament of Marriage, involves a correct coordination of the purposes, according to which—in the traditional teaching of the Church—there is constituted the moral (or rather "theological and moral") order of the life of the couple.

The doctrine of the Constitution "Gaudium et spes", as well as that of the Encyclical "Humanae vitae," clarifies the same moral order in reference to love, understood as a higher power that confers adequate content and value to conjugal acts according to the truth of the two meanings, the unitive and the procreative, with respect for their inseparability.

In this renewed formulation the traditional teaching on the purposes of marriage (and their hierarchy) is reaffirmed and at the same time deepened from the viewpoint of the interior life of the spouses, that is, of conjugal and family spirituality.

4. The role of love, which is "poured out into [the] hearts" (Rom 5:5) of the spouses as the fundamental spiritual power of their conjugal pact, consists—as was said—in protecting both the value of the true communion of the spouses and the value of truly responsible fatherhood and motherhood. The power of love—authentic in the theological and ethical sense—is expressed in this, that love CORRECTLY UNITES "THE TWO MEANINGS OF THE CONJUGAL ACT," excluding not only in theory but above all in practice the "contradiction" that might be evidenced in this field. This "contradiction" is the most frequent reason for objecting to the Encyclical "Humanae vitae" and the teaching of the Church. There must be a well- examined analysis, and not only theological but also anthropological (we have tried to do this in the whole present reflection), to show that there is no need here to speak of "contradiction," but only of "difficulty."

Well then, the encyclical itself stresses this "difficulty" in various passages.

And this arises from the fact that the power of love is implanted in man lured by concupiscence: in human subjects love does battle with threefold concupiscence (cf. 1 Jn 2:16), in particular with the concupiscence of the flesh which distorts the truth of the "language of the body." And therefore love too is not able to be realized in the truth of the "language of the body" except through overcoming concupiscence.

Linked with Chastity

5. If the key element of the spirituality of spouses and parents— that essential "power" which spouses must continually draw from the sacramental "consecration"—is LOVE, this love, as it is seen from the text of the encyclical (HV 20), is by its nature linked with the chastity that is manifested as mastery over oneself, that is, continence: in particular, as periodic continence. In biblical language, the author of the letter to the Ephesians seems to allude to this when in his "classic" text he exhorts spouses to "defer to one another out of reverence for Christ" (Eph 5:21).

We can say that the Encyclical "Humanae vitae" constitutes precisely the development of this biblical truth about conjugal and family Christian spirituality. Nonetheless, to make it more manifest, there needs to be a deeper analysis of the virtue of continence and of its special significance for the truth of the mutual "language of the body" in married life and (indirectly) in the whole sphere of mutual relationships between man and woman.

[url="http://www.catholic-pages.com/marriage/jp2-10.asp"]http://www.catholic-pages.com/marriage/jp2-10.asp[/url]

The Theological Virtue of Love: Love for God

Pope John Paul II, General Audience, October 13, 1999

1. In Ancient Israel the fundamental commandment of love for God was inserted into their daily prayer: "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today. Drill them into your children. Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest."

At the root of this command to love God in a total way we find the love which God Himself bears for humanity. He awaits a true and proper response of love from the people he loves with a preferential love. He is a jealous God (cf. Ex 20:5), who cannot tolerate idolatry, to which his people are continually tempted. Hence the commandment: "You shall have no other gods before me" (Ibid., v. 3).

Israel continually grows in the understanding that beyond this relationship of profound respect and exclusive adoration, they must have a childlike and even nuptial attitude towards the Lord. The Song of Songs is intended and read as such, transfiguring the beauty of human love in the spousal dialogue between God and his people.

The Book of Deuteronomy recalls two essential characteristics of this love. The first is that man would never be worthy of this love, if God did not give him the strength, through "circumcision of the heart" (cf. Dt 30:6), to rid the heart of every attachment to sin. The other characteristic is that, far from being mere feeling, this love is a concrete "walking in the ways" of God, and observing "his commandments, decrees and ordinances" (Ibid., v.16).

2. The precept of Deuteronomy returns unaltered in the teaching of Jesus, who defines it as "the greatest and first of the commandments," strictly uniting it to the love of neighbor (cf Mt 22:34-40). Reproposing the precept in the same terms as the Old Testament, Jesus shows that on this point revelation has already reached its apex.

At the same time, precisely in the person of Jesus, the sense of this commandment assumes its fullness. In him, in fact, the maximum intensity of man's love for God is realized. From now on, to love God with all my heart, all my soul and all my strength means to love this God who is revealed in Christ, and to love him with Christ's love, infused in us "through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Rm 5:5).

3. Love constitutes the essence of the new "commandment" taught by Jesus. It is in effect the soul of all commandments, the observance of which confirms and even becomes the clear demonstration of love for God: "For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments" (1 Jn 5:3).

This love, which is complete love for Jesus, represents the condition for being loved by the Father: "Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him" (Jn 14:21).

Love for God, made possible by the gift of the Spirit, is founded on the mediation of Jesus, as he himself affirmed in his priestly prayer: "I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them" (Jn 17:26). This mediation is made concrete above all in the gift that he made of his life, the gift that gave the greatest love a sweeping testimony, by requiring from others the observance of what Jesus commands: "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you" (Jn 15:13-14).

Christian love draws from this wellspring of love, which is Jesus, the Son of God offered for us. The capacity to love as God loves is offered to every Christian as the fruit of the paschal mystery of the death and resurrection.

4. The Church has expressed this sublime reality by teaching that love is a theological virtue. It is worthy of being called a virtue directly referring to God, and allows the human creature to enter into the circuit of Trinitarian love. In fact, God the Father loves us as he loves Christ, seeing in us His image. This image is, so to speak, painted in us by the Spirit, who like an "iconographer" accomplishes it in time.

It is also always the Holy Spirit who designs the fundamental lines of the Christian response in the depths of our person. The dynamism of love for God springs forth as such from a sort of "connaturality" accomplished by the Holy Spirit who, according to traditional Eastern language, "divinizes" us.

In the strength of the Holy Spirit, love inspires the moral action of the Christian, and directs and reinforces all the other virtues, which build in us the structure of the new man. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, "the exercise of all the virtues is animated and inspired by love. This is the 'chain of perfection' (Col 3:14); it is the form of the virtues; it articulates and coordinates them; it is the source and end of their Christian practice. Love guarantees and purifies our human capacity to love. It elevates to the supernatural perfection of divine love" (N. 1827). As Christians, we are always those called to love. (Zenit Translation) ZE99101321

[url="http://www.cin.org/jp2/jp991013.html"]http://www.cin.org/jp2/jp991013.html[/url]

[StColette]

Also in the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte the Pope points out to be Witnesses of Love, you'll have to scroll down to the fourth part of the Apostlic Letter to see the part that begins "Witnesses to Love"

[url="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_20010106_novo-millennio-ineunte_en.html"]http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_pau...ineunte_en.html[/url]

[phatcatholic]

just go to catholicculture.org, search for "love" in the library, and read all the results by JPII

[cathqat]

[quote name='the_rev' date='Feb 1 2005, 07:56 AM'] Do you know of any writings the Pope has written on Love?
[/quote]
My favorite is the beginning of [i]Redemptor Hominis[/i] 10:

[quote]Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it. This, as has already been said, is why Christ the Redeemer "fully reveals man to himself." If we may use the expression, this is the human dimension of the mystery of the Redemption. In this dimension man finds again the greatness, dignity and value that belong to his humanity. In the mystery of the Redemption man becomes newly "expressed" and, in a way, is newly created. He is newly created! "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." The man who wishes to understand himself thoroughly-and not just in accordance with immediate, partial, often superficial, and even illusory standards and measures of his being-he must with his unrest, uncertainty and even his weakness and sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ. He must, so to speak, enter into him with all his own self, he must "appropriate" and assimilate the whole of the reality of the Incarnation and Redemption in order to find himself. If this profound process takes place within him, he then bears fruit not only of adoration of God but also of deep wonder at himself. How precious must man be in the eyes of the Creator, if he "gained so great a Redeemer," and if God "gave his only Son "in order that man "should not perish but have eternal life."[/quote]

[musturde]

[quote name='StColette' date='Feb 1 2005, 03:33 PM'] Let's see, I know that "Love and Responsibility" would deal more with Love in a more marriage type of relationship.

TRUE HUMAN LOVE REFLECTS THE DIVINE
Pope John Paul II
Given on 25 September 1993 in Asti, Italy

Dear Married Couples,

1. It gives me great joy to meet you in this cathedral, where you frequently gather with your Bishop and priests for the Married Couples' Mission in which you are involved, and which will end at Pentecost next year. I am even more delighted to be doing so in the company of Cardinal Angelo Sodano, an illustrious son of your land.

I greet dear Bishop Severino Poletto, your dynamic Pastor, and I thank him for the words he has addressed to me. I also greet the married couples who, on your behalf, have expressed sentiments of devoted affection to me, explaining the interesting pastoral enterprise in which you are involved. You are aiming at strengthening your links with Christ, deepening his message by paying special attention to "the Gospel of marriage."

Your experience is very timely. The Church and the world today more than ever need married couples and families who generously let themselves be schooled by Christ.

The many sad aspects of our time and the unprecedented forms of violence that unfortunately mark it are ultimately explained by the closure of hearts to God's love. How urgent then is the task of believers, above all of Christian families, to restore to today's society the necessary anchoring of faith and love in the safe haven of God's word.

The love experienced within the family offers a favourable climate where that personal relationship with God which is the source of authentic individual and community renewal can take root and develop.

Obviously this implies that it is genuine love. Often, unfortunately, in the hedonistic culture we experience today, it is rather its caricature and even its betrayal that are labeled with the name of love. Appropriately, the biblical passage just proclaimed is, in two instances, concerned with clarifying the true meaning of love.

2. "In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him" (1 Jn 4:9).

Here is love at its source. Love is the gift of self. It means emptying oneself to reach out to others. In a certain sense, it means forgetting oneself for the good of others. Authentic human love reflects within itself the logic of the divine. In this perspective, the duty of conjugal fidelity can be fully grasped. "You are everything to me, I give myself totally to you, for ever": this is the commitment that springs from the heart of every person who is sincerely in love.

Fidelity! Next to this comes fruitfulness, another typical aspect of the relationship between spouses. Is there not a link between the demographic decline and the alarming phenomenon of a considerable number of couples between whom love so easily withers and dies?

Dear married couples, do not be afraid! You are living the greatness of love animated by the generous desire to see it spread and virtually incarnated in the faces of your children. When a couple refuses to collaborate with God to transmit the gift of life, they have great difficulty in finding in themselves the resources to sustain mutual understanding.

3. The biblical text continues: "In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us" (1 Jn 4:10).

God's love is totally gratuitous. Such therefore should be the love of a couple and the relationship between the members of a family. By virtue of love the parents will be able to devote their best energies to the work of bringing up their children, assuring them of consistent guidance and surrounding them with caring and respectful affection. In turn, the children will find in love the deepest motivation for a responsible, docile and grateful attitude towards their parents. Love drawn from God's heart spurs the whole family to find the time to attend to the elderly, to devote themselves to the sick, to be involved in the difficult situations around them, including regional problems and the more general problems of the nation. The family does not live its vocation to the full if it is not open to the needs of the community. When its members seal themselves off in a sort of group selfishness, they automatically deprive themselves of the opportunity to grow in love and thus to experience true joy.

4. Dear married couples, the presence of so many of you and your children fills my heart with emotion. Allow me to embrace you with affection. At the end of our meeting I should like to leave you two "assignments" in the Lord's name.

I draw one from the recommendation contained in the First Letter of Peter: "Come to him, [Christ] a living stone" (1 Pet 2:4). Yes, dear brothers and sisters, make sure that Christ the Lord is your teacher and also your children's.

It is from him that you should draw the right criteria for direction and discernment in every situation. Forcefully resist the divorce mentality that disrupts God's plan for marriage as an indissoluble covenant of love.

Do not let into your homes that permissive culture which allows everything, even the suppression of life before it blossoms or before it declines and comes to an end naturally.

5. The other assignment concerns your responsibility to proclaim the Gospel. Be evangelizing communities, able to transmit and radiate the Gospel! Is not this the goal of the Married Couples' Mission in which you are involved? Have the courage of the Gospel!

I bless you, dear friends, and I encourage you to continue in your providential initiative, hoping that the missionary concern that motivates you will continue to shape the entire pastoral activity of the Diocese.

Dear brothers and sisters! I entrust each one of you, your children, your families, your projects, to the love of the Father, and I invoke the protection of your patron saints and the motherly intercession of our Lady on your homes.

My blessing to all of you! I must say that the expression "Married Couples' Mission" is very thought-provoking because usually, when we think of mission and missionaries, we are referring to those who go to distant lands. Sometimes married couples do too.

Instead today, after the Second Vatican Council, we are very aware of the mission that involves all Christians. We are all missionaries and the family's mission is irreplaceable. It is irreplaceable if we consider it as the fundamental cell of that larger society, for the Church, for evangelization and for the new evangelization.

We also know from experience and from tradition, how much all of us, Bishops, Cardinals and the Pope himself, owe to our family, to our parents, our teachers in the faith, in human and Christian nobility and in the virtues. We are indebted to them, and first and foremost to God, but we are also indebted to our many brothers and sisters, and above all to our parents who gave us life and raised us. Human life must be reared not only in the physical and biological dimension, but also in the spiritual.

This is the irreplaceable evangelization that takes place in the family and to which you are called. This is why, although you do not travel to distant lands, you are the apostles, evangelizers and missionaries of your own families.

For this, the missionary spirit is necessary, the very spirit of the Apostles but also of our parents and grandparents, who knew how to make the family a domestic Church. This is a lovely expression that we have inherited from the Fathers of the Church. We have the universal Church, the diocesan and the parish Church, but the domestic Church is irreplaceable.

I hope that all of you, fathers, mothers, and all your children, will form this domestic Church to be a community mission. It happens through this communion of individuals which is specific to the family, between the couple and then between the generations.

I thank you for this meeting, I entrust you to the protection of the Holy Family, a family in which the Son of God was born and brought up as a man, as a human child. This is a wonderful reality. Be devoted to the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary and Joseph. I entrust all those present and all the families of your city and your Diocese to them.

[url="http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP2MAR.htm"]http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP2MAR.htm[/url]

URBI ET ORBI (Love One Another as Brothers and Sisters)
Pope John Paul II
Christmas Message and Blessing to City and World, 1996

1. All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God" (Ps 98:3). On this day of joy, the people of Rome and the whole world hear the joyful proclamation of the birth of the Son of God: Christmas is a mystery of grace to be contemplated Christmas is a marvellous event to be shared. The source of today's happiness is described, in tones of wonder by a Polish Christmas carol: "God is born, man's might is amazed: the Lord of Heaven empties himself! The fire subsides, the splendour is veiled, the Infinite is encompassed. Scorned, yet clothed with glory, the mortal King of the ages! And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us" (F. Karpinski, 18th century).

2. The Poet recalls the Prologue of the Gospel of John, which presents as a mystery what Matthew and Luke describe as an event.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God... In him was life, and the life was the light of men; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (Jn 1:1-5). The light shone in the night over the stable of Bethlehem; it shone before the eyes of men, revealing to all that God's Word had come into the world.

3. But the Evangelist tells us "The world was made through him, yet the world knew him not" (Jn 1:10). Only the shepherds of Bethlehem recognized him: in their poverty, watchful, they hastened to follow the light that showed them the place where the Son of Mary had been born. They were the first to receive the Word: and the Word gave them "power to become children of God" (Jn 1:12).

4. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews writes: "In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world" (Heb 1:1-2).

The Son, who reflects the glory of the Father and bears the very stamp of his nature, upholds all things by his word of power (cf. Heb 1:3). It was he who created the universe: in him it exists and by him is preserved in existence. Yes, the Incarnation of the Son of God is as it were the crowning of creation.

For this reason another Polish Christmas carol says that "on Christmas day all creation rejoices", for in the newborn Son of the Virgin, creation recognizes its Creator and Lord.

5. Brothers and sisters the world over, Let us join in this song of joy, as everywhere there resound, in different tongues the traditional melodies of Christmas. Let them resound with joy in churches and cathedrals, where Christians gather about the crib, and welcome the Son of God.

May these melodies bring peace and serenity especially to those places where, as in Bosnia-Hercegovina or Guatemala, after long years of war at home and abroad, weapons have at last fallen silent and men tread anew the path of understanding and fraternity.

6. But the echo of the songs of Christmas must travel much farther! It must resound beyond walls where the dash of arms is still heard, shattering the spell of peace brought by this holy day. I am thinking of Bethlehem and all the Holy Land, where Jesus was born and lived: the land which he loved, the land where hope must not die, despite provocations and profound differences. I am thinking of Cyprus, still divided, and Algeria in the throes of unjustifiable violence. On this festive day I also look to the East, to Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, where fratricidal struggles and conflicts of identity continue, spawning desolation and death.

7. And how can we forget Africa? At its very heart, in the region of the Great Lakes, this young continent is experiencing amid the general indifference of the international community one of the cruelest human tragedies of its history. Thousands and thousands of people —our brothers and sisters— wander, displaced, victims of fear, hunger and disease; they—alas!—will not be able to feel the joy of Christmas. No one can remain indifferent before this scandal, which words and pictures can only faintly begin to describe.

8. To resign ourselves to such violence and injustice would be too grave a rejection of the joy and hope which Christmas brings. God becomes man and tells us once again that hatred can be overcome, that it is beautiful to love one another as brothers and sisters. O Divine Child, by your gentle presence encourage men and women to overcome hatred and rancour help them to return to dialogue and to walk together along the path of life. Voicing the silent longing of all mankind the Polish poet also says: "Raise your hand, Divine Child! Bless our dear country with good counsel and well-being. Sustain her strength by your own. Bless our home, our fields, and every town and city. This is my wish for every country in the world. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us".

9. Today's Christmas Liturgy tells us once again "A holy day has dawned for us; come, let us adore the Lord" (Gospel verse). We come to you, Word of God, to receive of your wisdom; we come to you, Christ, Son of God, to beg your graces and blessings. You, Child of Bethlehem, Son of God and Son of the Virgin Mary, are our Redeemer. You save every human being by the gift of your life. Grant that peace may flourish wherever your name is spoken. Raise your hand, Divine Child and bless the earth which has seen your salvation: out of love, you have come to dwell among us.

[url="http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP961225.htm"]http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP961225.htm[/url]

BLESSED IS THE PEOPLE FOUNDED ON LOVE
Pope John Paul II
Closing Mass of Synod for Lebanon 14 December 1995

1. "Blessed is the people founded on love".

At the conclusion of the work of the Special Assembly for Lebanon of the Synod of Bishops, these words of today's liturgy, which we sang a short time ago as the refrain of the responsorial psalm, are very appropriate. In fact they seem to correspond in the best possible way to the objective that directed our work over these last weeks. The Synod Assemblies that concern the life of the Church in a nation or a continent by their very nature propose: to seek the meeting points between men, social groups and nations to found them on love.

This seems to be particularly important for the Near East, and especially for your homeland. We are well aware that Lebanon is a land rich in many religious and cultural traditions. Catholics belonging to various Eastern Churches and the Latin Church live there together with Christians from other Churches and Communities; with these there are also Muslims. For all of them Lebanon is a "common task". All need that social dimension of love that allows men to build together. And we know well how much Lebanon needs to build and rebuild, especially as a result of the sad experience of many years of war, in its search for a just peace and for security in its relations with neighboring countries.

The Second Vatican Council reminded the People of God of the tasks that the Church, and especially the lay faithful, are called to carry out in the social and political community. In fulfilling these tasks the faithful also draw their inspiration from the faith: in it they find specific and very valid reasons for committing themselves to the service of the common good of the earthly city. It is obvious how important this aspect of Christian commitment is for Lebanon, whose historical roots are of a religious nature. And it is precisely because of these religious roots of the Lebanese national and political identity that, after the sad period of war, it was desired and was possible to initiate a Synod Assembly in order to seek together the way to a renewal of faith, to greater collaboration and to a more effective common witness, without forgetting the reconstruction of society. This conviction of ours, I am sure, is also shared by our brother Christians who do not belong to the Catholic Church, as well as by Muslims.

Your ancient ancestors heard the words of Christ

2. We are now gathered around the altar in St. Peter's Basilica to give thanks to God for the gift of the Synod. The liturgy reminds us that one day, beloved Brothers of the Church in Lebanon, your ancestors were among the crowds that surrounded Jesus to listen to his teaching. In fact, St. Luke writes that there was "a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases.... And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: 'Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you ... on account of the Son of Man!

Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven' (Lk 6:17-23).

Your ancestors of 2,000 years ago listened to these words of Christ. But were they not also spoken for us, for the people of our time, for the Christians of today, for the Lebanon of modern times?

Do not these words of Christ contain a sort of fundamental program, in which the Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for Lebanon was to find its inspiration? Let us continue to listen to this Gospel passage, and let us try to relate it to what was said in the last few days in the Synod Hall.

We do so while remembering with emotion that once the feet of the world's Redeemer walked your land (cf. Mt 15:21-28; Mk 7:26-36), that his eyes admired its beauty. The first reading of today's liturgy, taken from the Song of Songs, makes us think of this. I wish that the Redeemer's glance, so full of love, may accompany all of you who have taken part in the Synod Assembly and also all the brothers and sisters you represent.

3. "Earnestly desire the higher gifts" (1 Cor 12:31).

Thus the Apostle writes in his First Letter to the Corinthians. On this occasion as we conclude the Synod for Lebanon, we also feel that these words of Paul are addressed to us. The Apostle thus concludes his "hymn to love": "So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor 13:13). And a short while before he had said, with words that we will never tire of reading and meditating on: "Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous ... it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong.... Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Cor 13:4-7). Yes, love is indeed like this!

We must carefully reflect on hymn to love

In proclaiming to the disciples of Corinth the truth about love, St. Paul insists on the many fruits that it is capable of bearing and that are evident not only in the lives of individuals or families, but also in the life of entire nations.

"Blessed is the people founded on love", the responsorial psalm told us. And for us, after some weeks of synodal work, these words have a particular wealth of meaning: they tell us that we must carefully reflect on the hymn to love in the Letter to the Corinthians if we want to work fruitfully for the reconstruction of Lebanon by contributing to the restoration of the spiritual and moral fabric of a society of such noble and ancient traditions.

For this reason, are we not in need of great patience? Love is patient. Is it not necessary to forget the evil suffered in so many ways? Love is not resentful. Is not a great perseverance required for this? Love bears all things. And lastly, is not a great hope necessary? Love spurs us continually to cross the threshold of hope.

Venerable and beloved brothers and sisters, may faith, hope and charity abide with you. May these three theological virtues on which the Christian life is based remain with you. But let us not forget that the greatest of all is love. Put love above all things! Amen.

[url="http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP951214.HTM"]http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP951214.HTM[/url] [/quote]
whoa, lebanon.

[phatcatholic]

hehe, how ya doin w/ this rev?