In God’s Hands: The Spiritual Diaries of Pope St John Paul II

All editorial insertions are marked by square brackets.

Translator’s Note

Pope John Paul II’s notebooks were first published in Polish in 2014, and soon afterwards translated into several languages, including Italian, French, German, Romanian and Portuguese. It is a great joy to present the English-speaking reader with this translation. In order to help the reader fully to appreciate the richness of John Paul II’s thought, the English edition provides notes with references to biblical quotations and other important sources used by John Paul II, as well as additional background information on people, places and events mentioned in particular entries. All biblical quotations are given according to the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition. For other sources, wherever possible, full references are given to the editions used by John Paul II and to existing English translations. When citing from John Paul II’s speeches and homilies delivered in Polish, I used the existing Vatican translations with minor adjustments where necessary. To make the edition more accessible, Latin names of regular prayers and services have been translated into English. The edition has greatly benefitted from Dr Máté Vince’s expertise in Latin and Greek, and Dr Andrea Selleri’s assistance with Italian. I gratefully acknowledge their help.

Preface by the (#ulink_5861f1e9-82f3-5b94-a768-c1896bfc620a)Metropolitan Archbishop of Kraków, (#ulink_5861f1e9-82f3-5b94-a768-c1896bfc620a)Stanisław Cardinal Dziwisz (#ulink_5861f1e9-82f3-5b94-a768-c1896bfc620a)

‘I leave no possessions of which it will be necessary to dispose. As for the things I use every day, I ask that they be distributed as seems appropriate. Let my personal notes be burned. I ask that Fr Stanisław see to this, and I thank him for his kind help and collaboration over the years. I leave all my other “thank yous” in my heart before God Himself, because it is difficult to put them in words’ (John Paul II, Testament, 6 March 1979).

This is the instruction that the Holy Father John Paul II left in his Testament. After his death in 2005, I faithfully fulfilled the Holy Father’s will, giving away all his possessions, especially the personal memorabilia. I did not dare to burn the personal notes and notebooks that he had left behind because they contain significant information about his life. I saw them on the Holy Father’s desk, but I never looked into them. When I saw his Testament, I was moved that John Paul II, whom I had accompanied for almost forty years, had entrusted me with his personal affairs.

I did not burn John Paul II’s notes because they are a key to understanding his spirituality, that is, what is innermost in a person: his relationship to God, to other men and to himself. They reveal, so to speak, another side of the person whom we knew as the Bishop of Kraków and Rome, the Peter of our times, the Shepherd of the universal Church. They show his early life, in the years when he was ordained a bishop and installed in the Diocese of Kraków. They allow us to get a glimpse of the intimate, personal relationship of faith with God the Creator, the Giver of life, the Master and Teacher. At the same time, they present the sources of his spirituality – his inner strength and his determined will to serve Christ until the last breath of life.

When I return to John Paul II’s notes, I can see the figure of the Holy Father in the home chapel at Franciszkańska Street,

as he prays immersed in God, before the Blessed Sacrament, and I hear his sighs coming from the little chapel at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. His radiant face never revealed his inner experiences. He always looked at the cross and the icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa with courage. He learnt from her to surrender himself to God entirely, repeating the words of Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort: Totus Tuus ego sum, o Maria, et omnia mea Tua sunt – ‘I am entirely Yours, O Mary, and all that is mine is Yours’. Complete surrender to God in Mary’s likeness and the fulfilling of God’s will until the end were the characteristic traits of this man of prayer, who discovered the abundant world of the spirit in his relationship with God.

May reading the spiritual notebooks of John Paul II help everyone discover the spiritual depth of the people of the twenty-first century, and may it lead everyone to a greater love of God and other people.

Stanisław Cardinal Dziwisz, Metropolitan Archbishop of Kraków

On the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Patron Saint of the Parish in Wadowice

Kraków, 21 November 2013

The Secret of Father Karol Wojtyła – Pope John Paul II’s Spiritual Notes (#ulink_0e158f39-4682-5ba7-903b-1eee10fb9dba)

Karol Wojtyła–John Paul II’s personal notes already aroused interest at the time of his death. The Pope wrote in his Testament that Fr Stanisław Dziwisz, his personal secretary and closest collaborator, who had accompanied him for the nearly forty years of his episcopal service in Kraków and the Petrine ministry in Rome, should burn the notes. Fr Dziwisz, the current Metropolitan Archbishop of Kraków, did not burn them out of respect for their author, but presented them to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which examined the life of the Holy Father in the beatification process. A glimpse at the notes was enough to see that their author led a rich spiritual life that embraced all dimensions of his work.

The spiritual notes reveal the depth of Karol Wojtyła’s life with God during the many years (1962–2003) when he served as Auxiliary Bishop, and then Archbishop of Kraków, Cardinal and Pope. They shed light on the secret of the heart of the Peter of our times, who was Bishop of Kraków in the difficult period of communism, and then for almost twenty-seven years led the Barque of St Peter through the turbulent waves of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The spiritual notes contain reflections on inner experiences, resolutions, prayers, meditations and remarks on spiritual progress. They express, above all, their author’s relationship to God, who was the centre of his inner life.

1. Two notebooks

The spiritual notes were recorded in two notebooks: in the diaries ‘Agenda 1962’ and ‘1985’. Both diaries were printed in Italy by the Archdiocese of Milan.

In the first notebook, the author introduced his own page numbering, from 1 to 220. However, the notes are not ordered chronologically: the first entry is devoted to the retreat that Archbishop Karol Wojtyła attended with the Polish Bishops’ Conference at Jasna Góra from 1 to 4 September 1971. In the following pages we find notes from earlier years – beginning with 1962 – which are interwoven with later retreats. The author recorded entries according to his own system and put together personal and spiritual experiences from various years.

The notes in this notebook cover the years when Karol Wojtyła was Auxiliary Bishop and Metropolitan Archbishop of Kraków, and include meditations from days of reflection and private retreats at Kalwaria Zebrzydowska; at the Benedictine Abbey in Tyniec; in Zakopane, at Jaszczurówka, at the Ursulines of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus; at the Bachledówka Pauline Monastery; in Kraków, in the district of Prądnik, at the Albertine Sisters’, in the so-called ‘cottage’ (the house situated in the garden of the motherhouse of the Albertine Sisters’ Convent at 10 Woronicza Street); at the Albertine Sisters’ in Rząska; and the annual retreats of the Polish Bishops’ Conference at Jasna Góra and in Gniezno. The first notebook also contains the notes from the first six years of John Paul II’s pontificate. The notes end with the reflections on the retreat led by Cardinal Alexandre do Nascimento on 11–17 March 1984 in the Vatican.

The second notebook originally belonged to the Pope’s Secretary, Monsignor Emery Kabongo, as witness the erased signature on the first page and the embossed paper seal. The centre of the seal contains the abbreviation ‘EK’ and the edge reads ‘Library of Emery Kabongo’. These notes cover the years 1985–2003. They begin on the page dated 5 January and continue over the next 315 pages, not all of which have been written over.

Thus, the notes taken by Cardinal Wojtyła–Pope John Paul II can be organised in the following way:

The first notebook contains notes covering the years 1962–1984 and focuses on the following events:

– the retreat (Dies recollectionis) after the arrival in Rome for the first session of the Second Vatican Council (9 and 14 October 1962) [p. 2]

– the retreat on the anniversary of priestly ordination at the Felician Sisters’ Convent in Rome (31 October– 4 November 1962) [p. 5]

– the retreat at Kalwaria – The Shrine of Our Lady (6–7 July 1963?) [p. 12]

– the retreat in Tyniec (19–23 August 1963) [p. 13]

– the retreat before the installation ceremony in Wawel Cathedral (5–8 March 1964) [p. 20]

– the retreat at Jasna Góra led by Bishop Kazimierz Józef Kowalski (31 August–3 September 1964) [p. 23]

– the retreat in Tyniec (17–20 August 1965) [p. 30]

– the retreat at [?unknown] (7 November–2 December 1964?/1965?) [p. 36]

– the retreat at Kalwaria Zebrzydowska (31 October– 1 November 1966) [p. 37]

– the retreat at the Albertine Sisters’ Convent (19–21 December 1966) [p. 38]

– the retreat at [?unknown] (29 February 1968) [p. 44]

– the retreat in Tyniec (11–14 September 1968) [p. 45]

– the retreat at Bachledówka (9–13 August 1969) [p. 51]

– the retreat in Tyniec (4–7 November and 19 December 1970) [p. 60]

– the retreat at Jasna Góra led by Bishop Lech Kaczmarek (1–5 September 1971) [p. 67]

– the retreat at Kalwaria Zebrzydowska (5–6 July 1973) [p. 75]

– the retreat at Bachledówka (9–12 August 1973) [p. 76]

– the retreat at [?unknown] 4 July–24 August 1974 [p. 86]

– the retreat in Gniezno led by Bishop Jerzy Ablewicz (3–7 September 1974) [p. 87]

– the retreat at Bachledówka (4–8 July 1975) [p. 99]

– the retreat in Jaszczurówka (21–26 September 1976) [p. 107]

– the retreat at Kalwaria Zebrzydowska (5–9 July 1977) [p. 117]

– the retreat at Kalwaria Zebrzydowska (26–29 June 1978) [p. 126]

– election to papacy (October 1978) [p. 136]

– the Vatican retreats led by:

– Father Faustino Ossanna OFM (4–10 March 1979) [p. 137]

– Archbishop Lucas Moreira Neves OP (24 February– 1 March 1980) [p. 149]