Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 AN UNFORGETTABLE CHRISTIAN & AWESOME BOOK!, Apr 27, 2023
The man was a saint and this book only proves the sanctity, beauty, and spiritual strength of this Christian leader. He will be greatly missed, not only by Catholics, but by those of us Protestants who dearly loved and admired Pope John Paul II. His was a legacy, not just a life. An extraordinary book!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
BEAUTIFUL WORDS FROM A BEAUTIFUL HUMAN BEING, Apr 18, 2023
Thank you John Paul II for your inspiring messages in this book. I will cherish them forever !!!
26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
Electing and loving the Pope, Apr 4, 2023
Like the reviewer before me, I have recently purchased this book and am currently reading it. It is, indeed, inspiring. I would also like to suggest that, with the death of Pope John Paul II, admirers also buy (if you can find it) or rent the movie, Shoes of the Fisherman, based on the book by Morris West, which I have also read. This book, very loosely based on the person of John XXIII, made into a movie in 1968 with Anthony Quinn, is about the election of a new pope after the current one dies (circa 1963, the year Pope John died). What is remarkable about the story is that a Russian, who had been imprisoned in Siberia by communists for twenty years, becomes the new Pope. It is almost prophetic regarding the election of Pope John Paul II, a Pole with a history of fighting communism in his homeland. John Paul II wasn't elected until 15 years after the book was published, and 10 years after the movie was made.
There is much in the movie about the election with real footage of the people of Rome and the world on the scene in St Peter's square; the black/white smoke and the meaning of each; views inside the Vatican and the requisite conclave whereby the sequestered Cardinals elect a new Pontiff; and much more. It's a quick study in what is happening right now.
As a non-Catholic, but an admirer of the Pope and his stature in the world, I find the movie very enlightening and learn more from it each time I watch it. I also find what I learn from it to be very helpful in understanding other works written about Pope John Paul II and by him, including this one.
Carolyn Rowe Hill
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
Wow!, Apr 3, 2023
I just purchased this book. I am only in the first few chapters and it is absolutely insprational. It also has significant meaning for me now that he has passed. I truly believe he was a saint of his day and a light to me and my friends. This might be surprising, seeing as we're fifteen, but I hear that he had a way with youth and I truly believe this. Please pray for him.
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
Blessed words, Apr 3, 2023
This book is a sort of `quotable quotes' from Pope John Paul II, the third-longest-serving pope in history. It is compiled as a labour of love by Anthony F. Chiffolo, drawn from many different sources, as diverse as daily audience statements to encyclicals, prayers to formal speeches. In these words, the Pope addresses matters internal and external to the church, ranging as broadly as did his 26-year papacy.
Many of the statements are theological in nature, but this is not a systematic theology. However, it is no mere `collected sayings' either, for by being compiled in a topically-arranged format, one can get a greater sense of the mind and heart of the pope on individual topics. Some of the topics are more spiritual and theological: God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (individually reflected upon as well as in their Trinitarian unity); Soteriology (salvation); Ecclesiology (Sacrament, Church, Priesthood, etc.); as well as a section on the Blessed Virgin Mary, to whom the Pope gives special adoration. Some of the topics are very practical: Marriage and the Family; Progress and the Modern World; the Christian Life.
`Christ offers you his friendship. He gave his life so that those who wish to answer his call can indeed become his friends.'
The Pope tried his best to be a spiritual leader for all people, and had a special affection and affinity for the young people. The above quotation comes from a message to the young people of Cuba in 1998; there was a certain rock-star quality about the pope that has been widely commented upon, and it is this work with the youth of the world that will insure his name and influence being felt for generations to come.
This is a wonderful collection of pieces that show only the vaguest shadow of why Pope John Paul II will be remembered, but it is an accessible and user-friendly volume in which to remind oneself of his words and presence, which continue in different ways.
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