JOHN PAUL II'S QUOTES FOR 2014
DECEMBER 2014
A temperate man is one who is master of himself. One in whom passions do not prevail over reason, will, and even the "heart". A man who can control himself! If this is so, we can easily realize what a fundamental and radical value the virtue of temperance has. It is even indispensable, in order that man may be fully a man. It is enough to look at some one who, carried away by his passions, becomes a "victim" of them—renouncing of his own accord the use of reason (such as, for example, an alcoholic, a drug addict)—to see clearly that "to be a man" means respecting one's own dignity, and therefore, among other things, letting oneself be guided by the virtue of temperance. - General Audience, November 22, 1978. [READ FULL TEXT]
NOVEMBER 2014
"Whom do we regard as a strong, courageous man? This word usually conjures up the soldier who defends his homeland, exposing to danger his health, and in wartime, even his life. We realize, however, that we need fortitude also in peacetime. And so we highly esteem persons who distinguish themselves for socalled "civil courage". A testimony of fortitude is offered to us by anyone who risks his own life to save some one who is about to drown, or by one who provides help in natural calamities, such as fire, floods, etc. St Charles, my patron saint, certainly distinguished himself for this virtue when, during the plague in Milan, he carried out his pastoral ministry among the inhabitants of that city. But we think also with admiration of those men who climb the peaks of Everest or of the cosmonauts who set foot on the moon for the first time. [...] The virtue of fortitude always calls for a certain overcoming of human weakness and particularly of fear." - General Audience, November 15, 1978. [[`¨[READ FULL TEXT]
OCTOBER 2014
"The system must be for man, not man for the system. Therefore defence is necessary against the hardening of the system. I am thinking of social, economic, political and cultural systems, which must be sensitive to man, to his complete good. They must be able to reform themselves, their own structures, according to what the full truth about man requires." - General Audience, November 8, 1978. [READ FULL TEXT]
SEPTEMBER 2014
"...may the Church - prudently strengthening herself with the gifts of the Holy Spirit and, in particular, with the gift of counsel - take part effectively in this great march towards the good of all, and so may she show to everyone the way to eternal salvation." - First Wednesday General Audience, October 25, 1978. [READ FULL TEXT]
