Beatification of JPII

My dear friends,

Happy Easter! :)

I would like to share the lovely news that our late pope is being beatified tomorrow!!! :D

If you would like to watch the liturgy LIVE online, here are the timings:-

a) Vigil celebration - Sat 30 Apr 8pm Rome time = 2am SG time (tonight!)
b) The Beatification - Sun 1st May 10am Rome time = 4pm SG time
c) Thanksgiving mass - Mon 2nd May 10:30am Rome time = 4:30pm SG time

There are a few websites screening live e.g. http://pope2you.net/index.php?id_testi=61, and be prepared for a long, long service / mass with various parts in latin and other languages. :P

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Why should we bother?
1) Pope JPII was a really amazing man. :) His list of "accomplishments" are only outweighed by the number of countries he personally visited and the reconcilliation he brought during his years as pope. :) He even came to Singapore when we were infants! (1986) :P

He was a man who loved women and children (in a good way), and you'd see at his masses, children being brought to him and blessed, women being recognised for the good work they've done silently behind the scenes. His desire to reach out to God's people shows through his regular appearances at the papal window, and the famous Popemobile. :P He also instituted World Youth Day to reach out to young people all over the world, not only Catholics, but to celebrate youth and to inspire faith. :)

Some of us are probably most directly influenced by him through his teaching of the Theology of the Body, where he expresses God's plans for us as manifested in our physical bodies and realigns us with the church's teachings on marriage, sex and relationships, which are especially relevant in our desensitised society today. Christopher West has made his teachings more wide-spread through books and study kits which are available in the youth office (ask Moses if you want to borrow :) )

If you're interested in who this man was, and why people love him so much, try watching Karol: A Man who Became Pope, and the sequel Karol: The Pope, The Man. :)


2) We are part of this larger, international Church community! sometimes we are so caught up with our own little pockets of faith & life, that we tend to forget that there is this sense of Church larger than our own church ministry, our own parish, and our Singapore diocese! If we proclaim (or mumble) every Sunday that we are "one holy, Catholic Church", then shouldn't we be concerned / interested in what our catholic Church is doing throughout the world??


3) It is VERY RARE that we get to WITNESS the beatification / canonisation of a holy person we knew in our lifetime. The usual process to sainthood takes decades, and this time round Pope Benedict XVI specially hastened the process because many ppl had witnessed his exceeding holiness. :)

For those of you who want to know more about beatification & canonisation of saints, you can read http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1101498.htm (it's short & sweet)

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I can't finish writing all the reasons i have for encouraging you to learn about JPII, but I do hope you'll at least be inspired by his love for the people, and his humble holiness. :)

a mini fan of JPII,
amanda :)