Many students of the John Paul II Institute in Rome are concerned about a massive re-working of the school’s mission. They initiated a novena of prayer that concludes today, August 14, 2019 (the memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe).
Below are the prayers that may be used for the final day of the novena.
Ninth Day: August 14
Beloved John Paul II: in his homily at your funeral, your dear friend and fellow bishop, Cardinal Ratzinger said:
Finally, on a more personal note, I would like to thank God for the gift of having worked for many years with Blessed Pope John Paul II. I had known him earlier and had esteemed him, but for twenty-three years, beginning in 1982 after he called me to Rome to be Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, I was at his side and came to revere him all the more. My own service was sustained by his spiritual depth and by the richness of his insights. His example of prayer continually impressed and edified me: he remained deeply united to God even amid the many demands of his ministry. Then too, there was his witness in suffering: the Lord gradually stripped him of everything, yet he remained ever a “rock”, as Christ desired. His profound humility, grounded in close union with Christ, enabled him to continue to lead the Church and to give to the world a message which became all the more eloquent as his physical strength declined. In this way he lived out in an extraordinary way the vocation of every priest and bishop to become completely one with Jesus, whom he daily receives and offers in the Church.
Prayer to Saint John Paul II:
Blessed are you, beloved Pope John Paul II, because you believed! Continue, we implore you, to sustain from heaven the faith of God’s people, and continue to watch over the John Paul II Institute.
Beloved Saint John Paul II, we thank you for all that you gave us and for all that we continue to receive through your intercession. We thank you for being a witness to the mercy of our heavenly Father, for being a true friend and disciple of Jesus who fully reveals man to man himself, and for being such an eloquent instrument of the Holy Spirit, having entrusted everything to Mary, the spouse of the Holy Spirit – Totus Tuus.
With you, we pray your act of entrustment to Mary…
O Mother, you know the sufferings and hopes of the Church and the world: come to the aid of your children in the daily trials which life brings to each one, and grant that, thanks to the efforts of all, the darkness will not prevail over the light. To you, Dawn of Salvation, we commit our journey through the new Millennium, so that with you as guide all people may know Christ, the light of the world and its only Savior, who reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.
Related stories:
The JPII Institute authorities have been caught off guard (Catholic Herald, 8/8/19)
JPII Institute VP Warns: ‘More Here at Stake Than Just an Institution’s Survival’ (National Catholic Register, 8/7/19)
Amid JPII Institute controversy, Benedict XVI meets with recently dismissed professor (Catholic News Agency, 8/5/19)
The JPII Institute has been plunged into an identity crisis (Catholic Herald, 8/1/19)
The JPII Institute purge is a sign of weakness, not strength (Catholic Herald, 8/1/19)
After John Paul II Institute students publish letter, president defends changes (Catholic News Agency, 7/30/19)
JPII Institute Students Publish Letter Expressing ‘Immense Concern’ Over New Statutes (National Catholic Register, 7/30/19)
