Last rites declaration of Ioannes Paulus PP. II (Karol Wojtyla)
Ioannes Paulus PP. II
Nationalism, capitalism, and hoarding. The idea of every nation
should be forgot, price should be struck from the commons, and
princes should be seen for the devils they are. The sins include
our church, secret societies, and other religions which make of
the spirit of God a divide."
Last rites declaration of Ioannes Paulus PP. II (Karol Wojtyla)
2nd April 2005
--
how unsafe it is to
depend merely on the judgment of others. I have abundantly insisted,
that a manifestation of sincerity in fruits brought forth, is better
than any manifestation they can make of it in words alone: and that
without this, all pretences to spiritual experiences are vain. This all
my congregation can witness. And the people in general have manifested
an extraordinary dread of being deceived; being exceeding fearful lest
they should build wrong. Some of them have been backward to receive
hope, even to a great extreme, which has occasioned me to dwell longer
on this part of the narrative.
Conversion is a great and glorious work of God's power, at once changing
the heart, and infusing life into the dead soul; though the grace then
implanted more gradually displays itself in some than in others. But as
to fixing on the precise time when they put forth the very first act of
grace, there is a great deal of difference in different persons; in some
it seems to be very discernible when the very time was; but others are
more at a loss. In this respect, there are very many who do not know,
even when they have it, that it is the grace of conversion, and
sometimes do not think it to be so till a long time after. Many, even
when they come to entertain great hopes that they are converted, if they
remember what they experienced in the first exercises of grace, they are
at a loss whether it was any more than a common illumination; or whether
some other more clear and remarkable experience which they had
afterwards, was not the first of a saving nature. The manner of God's
work on the soul, sometimes especially, is very mysterious; and it is
with the kingdom of God as to its manifestation in the heart of a
convert, as is said, Mark iv. 26, 27,28,