Common Grounds


The Evangelical Pope | A Future of Grace and Hope and Love

May 06, 2024

Living Words from John Paul II

Edited by Abraham A. van Kempen

 

Published Sunday, June 25, 2023 


Each week we let Saint Pope John Paul II share meaningful signposts to spark socio-economic resolves through justice and righteousness combined with mercy and compassion; in short, love.

 

 

              17 “See, I will create

                  New heavens and a new earth.
               The former things will not be remembered,
                  Nor will they come to mind.
              18 But be glad and rejoice forever
                 In what I will create,
               For I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
                 And its people a joy.

               __ Isaiah 65:17-18 (New International Version)

 

 

The Vatican, 19 November 1997 | From God comes the beginning of time and all later unfolding.

 

Time is God’s gift. Continuously created by God, it is in his hands. He guides its unfolding according to his plan. Every day is a gift of divine love for us.

 

Our future is, first and foremost, God’s future, in the sense that he alone knows it, prepares it, and brings it about. Of course, he calls for and invites human cooperation, but he never ceases to be the transcendent ‘director‘ of history.

 

Only God knows how the future will be.

 

               We know it will be a future of grace.

 

               It will be the fulfillment of a divine plan of love for all humanity and each one of us.

 

               That is why, as we look to the future, we are full of hope and are not overcome with fear.

 

The journey to the Jubilee is a journey of hope.

 

Excerpted from:

 

POPE JOHN PAUL II, GENERAL AUDIENCE, Wednesday, 19 November 1997

https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/audiences/1997/documents/hf_jp-ii_aud_19111997.html