The Evangelical Pope | Peace awaits its prophets

Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi, Italy / Image Credit: Viator.com

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.

               36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul?

               ___ Mark 8:36 (New International Version)

Fort Simpson, Canada – 20 September 1987 | What the Sacred Texts say about the individual also applies to nations: what profits a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?

What would the lives of the Indians, the Inuit, and the half-breeds become if they no longer defend the values ​​of the human spirit that they have upheld for generations?

What if they no longer see the earth and its goods as gifts entrusted to them by the creator?

What if the bond of family life were to weaken and the alterations were to undermine their society?

What if they adopted strange ways of thinking where people are judged by what they have and not by what they are? 1

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Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi, Italy – 27 October 1986 | There is no peace without a passionate love for peace. There is no peace without an unyielding determination to obtain peace.

Peace awaits its prophets.

               We have collectively filled our eyes with visions of peace.

               These visions release forces for a new language and gestures of peace.

               They break the fateful chains of discord inherited by history or smeared by modern ideologies. 2

Excerpted from:

1. APOSTOLIC JOURNEY TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND CANADA

MEETING WITH THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN CANADA ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS JOHN PAUL II, Fort Simpson, Canada, Sunday, 20 September 1987

https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/speeches/1987/september/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19870920_indigeni-fort-simpson.html

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2. PASTORAL VISIT TO PERUGIA AND ASSISI

ADDRESS OF JOHN PAUL II, TO THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES, AND ECCLESIAL COMMUNITIES AND OF THE WORLD RELIGIONS, Basilica of Saint Francis, 27 October 1986

https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/speeches/1986/october/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19861027_prayer-peace-assisi-final.html