In God’s Hands: The Spiritual Diaries of Pope St John Paul II

Copyright

William Collins

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This eBook edition published by William Collins in 2017

Copyright © Centrum Jana Pawła II ‘Nie lękajcie się’ 2017

English translation © Dr Joanna Rzepa 2017

Znak Publishing House on behalf of the author hereby asserts the author’s moral right to be identifed as the author of this work

Cover photo by Gianni Giansanti, Corbis

A catalogue copy for this book is available from the British Library.

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Source ISBN: 9780008101053

eBook Edition © February 2017 ISBN: 9780008101060

Version: 2018-02-08

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction by the Archbishop of Cardiff, George Stack

Introduction to the Polish Edition

Preface by the Metropolitan Archbishop of Kraków, Stanisław Cardinal Dziwisz

The Secret of Father Karol Wojtyła – Pope John Paul II’s Spiritual Notes

The Retreats

1962

1962

[31 October – 4 November] 1962

6–7 July 196? [probably 1963]

19–23 [August] 1963

[5–8] March 1964

31 August – 3 September 1964

17–20 [August] 1965

[19]64 (65?)

31 October – 1 November 1966

19–21 December 1966

29 February 1968

11–14 September 1968

9–13 August 1969

4–7 November 1970

1–5 September 1971

5–6 July 1973

9–12 August 1973

1974

[3–7 September] 1974, The Holy Year

4–8 July 1975

21–26 September 1976

5–9 July 1977

26–29 June 1978

[October 1978]

4–10 March 1979

24 February – 1 March [1980]

8–14 March 1981

28 February – 6 March 1982

20–26 February 1983

11–17 March 1984

24 February – 2 March 1985

16–22 February 1986

8–14 March 1987

21–27 February 1988

12–18 February 1989

4–10 March 1990

17–23 February 1991

8–14 March 1992

28 February – 6 March 1993

20–[26] February 1994

5–11 March 1995

25 February – [2] March 1996

16–22 February 1997

1–7 March 1998

21–27 February 1999

12–18 March 2000

4–10 March 2001

17–23 February 2002

9–15 March 2003

Footnotes

About the Author

About the Publisher

Introduction

Not since the publication of Journal of a Soul, the spiritual autobiography of Pope John XXIII, have we had such privileged access into the spirituality of a pope. This is what we have been given with the publication in English of the spiritual diaries of Pope John Paul II. In God’s Hands has already been published in his native Poland and in Italy where it has been a phenomenal success. English-speaking readers will now benefit from the extraordinary insights of this spiritual journal.

The two notebooks from which it is drawn are not chronological. However, the first covers the years 1962–1984, whilst the second includes notes at retreats given to the Pope and Roman curia between the years 1985 and 2003. The electrifying element in this publication are the pages of handwritten reflections, explanations and prayers bearing characteristic insights of Pope John Paul II. There is an Ignatian structure to much of his response to the various presentations, homilies, feast days, Liturgy of the Hours and Mass celebrated during the retreats. This structure enables an amazing personal response to take place, with the unique ability to link such thoughts and texts to his own inner life as well as to the public ministry he was called to exercise in the Church and in the world.

In God’s Hands is unusual in that the immediacy of the Pope’s response is given, not just through his handwriting, but in the deepest thoughts elicited by the presentations of the retreat givers. This is not a sedate, refined or sanitised journal of devotion. It allows the reader to follow the different paths which lay before one who was sincerely discerning the will and plan of God unfolding in his own life.

In all this, the leitmotif of obedience to the will of God is obvious not least in his episcopal motto ‘Totus Tuus’. In his devotion to Mary, Pope John Paul II saw someone who was attentive to the will of God, the woman who listened, the woman who believed that God’s plan could be fulfilled through her obedience. By the same token, that obedience, which is based on prayerful listening and the response which follows, was the foundation of the dynamism he was able to bring to the papal ministry.

‘Prayer is the language of our hope’ wrote Cardinal Ratzinger, quoted in one of the spiritual conferences eliciting a very full entry in the retreat notes. Herein lies another path to the heart of the love of God when ‘Heart speaks to heart’ (Cardinal Newman) but always in the silence of the heart. Of course intercession is part of the prayer of Pope John Paul II as he prays for the needs of the world and the Church and all people. But it is in his prayer of adoration and contemplation that he comes to know himself as he is known. This is the path of the mystic, recognising that heaven is ‘… a space that Christ made for man in God’ (Ratzinger). This is also what allowed the Pope to spend time alone with God in prayer ‘… at the morning watch and even in the night’ (De profundis). So often, such waiting on God is regarded as a waste of time. The act of faith that gives the time and space to such contemplation says that no time is wasted in which God is served. The service of God is the sanctification of time. No time is sanctified more than when it is a pure gift, given in faith with no other expectation than to ‘be’ in the presence of God. This is the prayer which permeates these diaries of Karol Wojtyła.

There is another language of prayer with which he was intimately familiar: the language of suffering. From the devastating attempt on his life in St Peter’s Square on 13 May 1981, and the burden of ill health he subsequently bore, suffering was part of the reality of who he was. Old age and increasing infirmity limited his physical resources in ways which were surely both Calvary and cross to this once energetic man and skilled communicator. Even when he could no longer speak, he did not hide himself away from those who came to see and hear him. He had preached often on the meaning of the suffering of Jesus on Calvary and the significance of the cross in the suffering that each person has to bear. Now he was able to personify that teaching in his own weakness and vulnerability. The final pages of his diaries have lost the intensity and vigour of all that went before. It is significant that the last two entries touch closely the heart of his life and ministry: Mary, his patron and hope, standing at the foot of the cross followed by a meditation entitled, ‘Jonah, or the fear of preaching the love of God’.

Having stood with Mary in her faithfulness throughout his life and having preached the love of God on the worldwide stage, now was the time to return to the Father. His final words on his deathbed were: ‘Let me go to the house of the Lord’ (Psalm 122). In the first chapter of the Gospel of John we read of the disciples of the Baptist asking Jesus, ‘Master, where are you staying?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Come and see’ (John 1:38). In God’s Hands is a chronicle of one who responded to that invitation in prayer and in faith every day of his life.

+George Stack

Archbishop of Cardiff

Chair of the Department of Christian Life and Worship of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales

Introduction to the Polish Edition

We present the reader with a book that covers the content of the two notebooks in which Bishop Karol Wojtyła, and later Pope John Paul II took personal notes and recorded his reflections, which related primarily to the retreats and reflection days which he attended between 1962 and 2003.

The text has not been abbreviated in any way. We have attempted to maintain the layout of the notebooks’ pages, as well as any additional notation: underlining, textboxes, etc.; the marginalia are presented in the same way as in the original notebooks.

The words that were impossible to read are marked as [illegible].

The editorial interventions consisted in the following:

– restoration of the chronological order in the entries from the first notebook;

– translation of phrases and sentences recorded in foreign languages (mainly in Latin and Italian);

– correction of obvious spelling and punctuation mistakes;

– expansion of the abbreviations used in the reflections to facilitate reading; if these abbreviations were not easy to decipher, they were retained in their original form.

All editorial insertions are marked by square brackets.

Translator’s Note

Pope John Paul II’s notebooks were first published in Polish in 2014, and soon afterwards translated into several languages, including Italian, French, German, Romanian and Portuguese. It is a great joy to present the English-speaking reader with this translation. In order to help the reader fully to appreciate the richness of John Paul II’s thought, the English edition provides notes with references to biblical quotations and other important sources used by John Paul II, as well as additional background information on people, places and events mentioned in particular entries. All biblical quotations are given according to the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition. For other sources, wherever possible, full references are given to the editions used by John Paul II and to existing English translations. When citing from John Paul II’s speeches and homilies delivered in Polish, I used the existing Vatican translations with minor adjustments where necessary. To make the edition more accessible, Latin names of regular prayers and services have been translated into English. The edition has greatly benefitted from Dr Máté Vince’s expertise in Latin and Greek, and Dr Andrea Selleri’s assistance with Italian. I gratefully acknowledge their help.

Preface by the Metropolitan Archbishop of Kraków, Stanisław Cardinal Dziwisz

‘I leave no possessions of which it will be necessary to dispose. As for the things I use every day, I ask that they be distributed as seems appropriate. Let my personal notes be burned. I ask that Fr Stanisław see to this, and I thank him for his kind help and collaboration over the years. I leave all my other “thank yous” in my heart before God Himself, because it is difficult to put them in words’ (John Paul II, Testament, 6 March 1979).

This is the instruction that the Holy Father John Paul II left in his Testament. After his death in 2005, I faithfully fulfilled the Holy Father’s will, giving away all his possessions, especially the personal memorabilia. I did not dare to burn the personal notes and notebooks that he had left behind because they contain significant information about his life. I saw them on the Holy Father’s desk, but I never looked into them. When I saw his Testament, I was moved that John Paul II, whom I had accompanied for almost forty years, had entrusted me with his personal affairs.

I did not burn John Paul II’s notes because they are a key to understanding his spirituality, that is, what is innermost in a person: his relationship to God, to other men and to himself. They reveal, so to speak, another side of the person whom we knew as the Bishop of Kraków and Rome, the Peter of our times, the Shepherd of the universal Church. They show his early life, in the years when he was ordained a bishop and installed in the Diocese of Kraków. They allow us to get a glimpse of the intimate, personal relationship of faith with God the Creator, the Giver of life, the Master and Teacher. At the same time, they present the sources of his spirituality – his inner strength and his determined will to serve Christ until the last breath of life.

When I return to John Paul II’s notes, I can see the figure of the Holy Father in the home chapel at Franciszkańska Street,1 as he prays immersed in God, before the Blessed Sacrament, and I hear his sighs coming from the little chapel at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. His radiant face never revealed his inner experiences. He always looked at the cross and the icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa with courage. He learnt from her to surrender himself to God entirely, repeating the words of Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort: Totus Tuus ego sum, o Maria, et omnia mea Tua sunt – ‘I am entirely Yours, O Mary, and all that is mine is Yours’. Complete surrender to God in Mary’s likeness and the fulfilling of God’s will until the end were the characteristic traits of this man of prayer, who discovered the abundant world of the spirit in his relationship with God.

May reading the spiritual notebooks of John Paul II help everyone discover the spiritual depth of the people of the twenty-first century, and may it lead everyone to a greater love of God and other people.

Stanisław Cardinal Dziwisz, Metropolitan Archbishop of Kraków

On the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Patron Saint of the Parish in Wadowice2 Kraków, 21 November 2013

The Secret of Father Karol Wojtyła – Pope John Paul II’s Spiritual Notes

Karol Wojtyła–John Paul II’s personal notes already aroused interest at the time of his death. The Pope wrote in his Testament that Fr Stanisław Dziwisz, his personal secretary and closest collaborator, who had accompanied him for the nearly forty years of his episcopal service in Kraków and the Petrine ministry in Rome, should burn the notes. Fr Dziwisz, the current Metropolitan Archbishop of Kraków, did not burn them out of respect for their author, but presented them to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which examined the life of the Holy Father in the beatification process. A glimpse at the notes was enough to see that their author led a rich spiritual life that embraced all dimensions of his work.

The spiritual notes reveal the depth of Karol Wojtyła’s life with God during the many years (1962–2003) when he served as Auxiliary Bishop, and then Archbishop of Kraków, Cardinal and Pope. They shed light on the secret of the heart of the Peter of our times, who was Bishop of Kraków in the difficult period of communism, and then for almost twenty-seven years led the Barque of St Peter through the turbulent waves of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The spiritual notes contain reflections on inner experiences, resolutions, prayers, meditations and remarks on spiritual progress. They express, above all, their author’s relationship to God, who was the centre of his inner life.

1. Two notebooks

The spiritual notes were recorded in two notebooks: in the diaries ‘Agenda 1962’ and ‘1985’. Both diaries were printed in Italy by the Archdiocese of Milan.

In the first notebook, the author introduced his own page numbering, from 1 to 220. However, the notes are not ordered chronologically: the first entry is devoted to the retreat that Archbishop Karol Wojtyła attended with the Polish Bishops’ Conference at Jasna Góra from 1 to 4 September 1971. In the following pages we find notes from earlier years – beginning with 1962 – which are interwoven with later retreats. The author recorded entries according to his own system and put together personal and spiritual experiences from various years.

The notes in this notebook cover the years when Karol Wojtyła was Auxiliary Bishop and Metropolitan Archbishop of Kraków, and include meditations from days of reflection and private retreats at Kalwaria Zebrzydowska; at the Benedictine Abbey in Tyniec; in Zakopane, at Jaszczurówka, at the Ursulines of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus; at the Bachledówka Pauline Monastery; in Kraków, in the district of Prądnik, at the Albertine Sisters’, in the so-called ‘cottage’ (the house situated in the garden of the motherhouse of the Albertine Sisters’ Convent at 10 Woronicza Street); at the Albertine Sisters’ in Rząska; and the annual retreats of the Polish Bishops’ Conference at Jasna Góra and in Gniezno. The first notebook also contains the notes from the first six years of John Paul II’s pontificate. The notes end with the reflections on the retreat led by Cardinal Alexandre do Nascimento on 11–17 March 1984 in the Vatican.

The second notebook originally belonged to the Pope’s Secretary, Monsignor Emery Kabongo, as witness the erased signature on the first page and the embossed paper seal. The centre of the seal contains the abbreviation ‘EK’ and the edge reads ‘Library of Emery Kabongo’. These notes cover the years 1985–2003. They begin on the page dated 5 January and continue over the next 315 pages, not all of which have been written over.

Thus, the notes taken by Cardinal Wojtyła–Pope John Paul II can be organised in the following way:

The first notebook contains notes covering the years 1962–1984 and focuses on the following events:

– the retreat (Dies recollectionis) after the arrival in Rome for the first session of the Second Vatican Council (9 and 14 October 1962) [p. 2]

– the retreat on the anniversary of priestly ordination at the Felician Sisters’ Convent in Rome (31 October– 4 November 1962) [p. 5]

– the retreat at Kalwaria – The Shrine of Our Lady (6–7 July 1963?) [p. 12]

– the retreat in Tyniec (19–23 August 1963) [p. 13]

– the retreat before the installation ceremony in Wawel Cathedral (5–8 March 1964) [p. 20]

– the retreat at Jasna Góra led by Bishop Kazimierz Józef Kowalski (31 August–3 September 1964) [p. 23]

– the retreat in Tyniec (17–20 August 1965) [p. 30]

– the retreat at [?unknown] (7 November–2 December 1964?/1965?) [p. 36]

– the retreat at Kalwaria Zebrzydowska (31 October– 1 November 1966) [p. 37]

– the retreat at the Albertine Sisters’ Convent (19–21 December 1966) [p. 38]

– the retreat at [?unknown] (29 February 1968) [p. 44]

– the retreat in Tyniec (11–14 September 1968) [p. 45]

– the retreat at Bachledówka (9–13 August 1969) [p. 51]

– the retreat in Tyniec (4–7 November and 19 December 1970) [p. 60]

– the retreat at Jasna Góra led by Bishop Lech Kaczmarek (1–5 September 1971) [p. 67]

– the retreat at Kalwaria Zebrzydowska (5–6 July 1973) [p. 75]

– the retreat at Bachledówka (9–12 August 1973) [p. 76]

– the retreat at [?unknown] 4 July–24 August 1974 [p. 86]

– the retreat in Gniezno led by Bishop Jerzy Ablewicz (3–7 September 1974) [p. 87]

– the retreat at Bachledówka (4–8 July 1975) [p. 99]

– the retreat in Jaszczurówka (21–26 September 1976) [p. 107]

– the retreat at Kalwaria Zebrzydowska (5–9 July 1977) [p. 117]

– the retreat at Kalwaria Zebrzydowska (26–29 June 1978) [p. 126]

– election to papacy (October 1978) [p. 136]

– the Vatican retreats led by:

– Father Faustino Ossanna OFM (4–10 March 1979) [p. 137]

– Archbishop Lucas Moreira Neves OP (24 February– 1 March 1980) [p. 149]

– Bishop Jerzy Ablewicz (8–14 March 1981) [p. 168]

– Father Stanislas Lyonnet SJ (28 February–6 March 1982) [p. 189]

– Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (20–26 February 1983) [p. 205]

– Cardinal Alexandre do Nascimento (11–17 March 1984) [p. 221].

The second notebook covers the years 1985–2003 and the retreats led by:

– Archbishop Achille Glorieux (24 February–2 March 1985) [p. 235]

– Father Egidio Viganò SDB (16–22 February 1986) [p. 247]

– Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach SJ (8–14 March 1987) [p. 265]

– Archbishop James Aloysius Hickey (21–27 February 1988) [p. 283]

– Cardinal Giacomo Biffi (12–18 February 1989) [p. 299]

– Father Georges Cottier OP (4–10 March 1990) [p. 316]

– Archbishop Ersilio Tonini (17–23 February 1991) [p. 333]

– Cardinal Ugo Poletti (8–14 March 1992) [p. 346]

– Bishop Jorge Arturo Agustín Medina Estévez (28 February–6 March 1993) [p. 363]

– Cardinal Giovanni Saldarini (20–26 February 1994) [p. 379]

– Father Tomáš Špidlík SJ (5–11 March 1995) [p. 395]

– Archbishop Christoph Schönborn (25 February–2 March 1996) [p. 400]

– Cardinal Roger Etchegaray (16–22 February 1997) [p. 419]

– Cardinal Ján Chryzostom Korec SJ (1–7 March 1998) [p. 433]

– Bishop André-Joseph Mutien Léonard (21–27 February 1999) [p. 448]

– Archbishop François Xavier Nguyễn Văn Thuận (12–18 March 2000) [p. 454]

– Cardinal Francis Eugene George OMI (4–10 March 2001) [p. 467]

– Cardinal Cláudio Hummes OFM (17–23 February 2002) [p. 475]

– Bishop Angelo Comastri (9–15 March 2003) [p. 479].

The entries in both notebooks were written in Polish. However, the author often introduced phrases in Latin and Italian, especially during the Vatican retreats. The Vatican retreats for the Holy Father and the Roman Curia were always preached in Italian.

2. The schedule of a retreat day

The daily schedule played an important role in the retreats and days of reflection. The order of the retreat that was developed in Kraków, when Bishop Karol Wojtyła began his ministry, included three talks; Lectio spiritualis – spiritual reading; Corona Rosarii – Rosary; Via crucis – the Way of the Cross; Adoratio – Adoration; Matutinum – Matins; Lectio – reading; Sacrum or Officium Eucharisticum – Holy Mass or Eucharist; Vesperae – Vespers; Adoratio Sanctissimi Sacramenti – Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament; Completorium – Compline.