John Paul II: Man of the Millennium, a Biography
By Luigi Accatoli
Translated by Jordan Auman OP (St. Paul’s Publications)
This concise biography provides an easily readable picture of the Pope John Paul, the most remarkable world leader of the closing decades of the 20th century.
He was born Karol Josef Wojtyla, the son of a Polish Military officer in Wadowice Poland in 1920. He lost his mother and siblings early on and grew into maturity under the watchful eye of his father. Educated in classic literature and Polish language, he loved sports and in high school developed a passion for theatre and poetry. After brief period of freedom, Poland suffered another four decades of suffering under Nazism and Communism. During World War II, Wojtyla was part of the peaceful underground resistance which took the form of cultural activities. In 1942, a year after his father’s death, he responded to his call and joined a seminary in secret while working as labourer in a stone quarry. Ordained in Rome in 1946, he returned home to a Poland that had become satellite state of Stalinist Russia. He taught at Lublin University while performing his pastoral duties under persecution from the Communist puppet government. His confrontation with Communism that began in those days may well be said to have concluded years later when as Pope he was destined to be an instrument of its dismantling the world over. There are quite a few things that make him unique. He is the first Pope who came from Eastern Europe. The Key themes of his life mission were forgiveness and reconciliation in a shattered world. He showed it to the world through personal example, as when he met and forgave the man who had shot to kill him. The most widely travelled pontiff ever, he extended his hand in a show of brotherhood and charity to worlds outside Christendom, especially Islam. His bold and path-breaking leadership has left its mark deep in modern history.
God’s Pauper St Francis of Assisi
by Nikos Kazantzakis.
The celebrated Greek novelist and poet presents the life of the most popular saint of Christianity in an engaging lyrical novel. It is a poetic reinterpretation that the popular reader will find deeply moving. Narrated by Leo, a fictional disciple and companion of Francis, it explores the inner and outer struggles of St Francis as a human being: a passionately romantic young man who turns his back on a life of luxury and social acceptance to embrace a life of poverty and suffering driven by his love for Christ.
Leo meets Francisco Bernadone, the romantic son of a wealthy merchant of Assisi who did business at his father’s cloth shop during the day and sang serenades below the windows of the local beauties. Himself a restless soul, Leo is a wandering beggar in search for God when he meets Francis. Francis tells Leo that he lacks nothing. Leo tells him, “I pity you.” Francis is mystified. For him “heaven is too high” and the earth is “too good” and “near.”
Leo witnesses Francis’s renunciation of his father’s inheritance. Accused before the bishop of insanity by his father, Francis has no defense except to take off his garments and hand it over as the last thing he owns from his father. Christ visits Francis one night in the guise of a wounded tramp and gives him the gift of the Stigmata, which Francis bears joyfully all his life. Francis embraces lepers, does servile jobs for anyone, and preaches to birds animals and trees. He works miracles and gathers a large following around him. When they visit Rome for the Pope’s sanction for the new order, the Pope is mystified by the manner and appearance of Francis.
Francis took everything as a gift—sadness and joy, rejection and praise, darkness and light. He brought about a spiritual revolution in the church and in the world. While preparing for death, Francis gives his life message “What is love? It is not simply compassion, not simply kindness. In compassion there are two: the one who suffers and he one who feels compassion. In kindness there are two: the one who gives and the one who receives. But in love there is only one; the two unite, become inseparable. The ‘I’ and the ‘you’ vanish. To love means to love oneself in the beloved.” And his final message is, “Poverty, peace and love. Nothing else.” Kazantzakis fills up the gaps in the Francis legend with his brilliant imagination to make the characters appear as real people. The novel takes us to the heart of the Franciscan spirit.
Dr Gigy Joseph
To subscribe to the magazine, click Subscribe
