<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:14pt"><div><span></span></div><div><div align="center"><font style="font-size: 28pt; text-decoration: underline;" face="Arial">REVEALING NEW BOOK ON JOHN PAUL DOCUMENTS MYSTICAL SIDE, INCLUDING A
TRANSFIGURED FACE</font></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Anyone with doubts about
the effectiveness of traditional Catholic prayer and relics need only look at
Pope John Paul II -- whose life, as it turns out, was even more prayerful,
self-sacrificing, and mystical that previously related.</font></div><div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font> </div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Let's start with the
self-sacrifice:</font></div><div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font> </div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to Monsignor Slawomir Oder, who has
written an international bestseller, <i>Why He Is A Saint</i> (published in New
York, London, and Milan), the late pontiff constantly helped the needy and as a
priest literally gave shirts, jackets, and coats off his back, even in frigid
weather. That generosity continued as he was promoted up through the hierarchy.
On one occasion, the future saint gave a poor family in Brazil his very
cardinal's ring -- which had been presented to him by Pope Paul VI! Blessed John
Paul II even gave away his shoes -- his only pair, in another case (forcing him
to ask for a pair before celebrating Mass). </font></div><div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font> </div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font color="#ff0000">That
unselfishness and his mystical side</font> drew even the most worldly to
appreciate his unique presence. This is a Pope who would often upset travel
schedules by halting to pray, at great length, in front of a tabernacle or at a
Marian shrine. In fact, he promised the Madonna to visit a shrine for every
vocation added to one particular monastery that suddenly boomed with new
vocations. He walked five miles to one. </font></div><div align="justify"><var id="yui-ie-cursor"></var> </div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He readied for the morning
services the night before, reciting the preparatory prayers in Latin. When he
awoke, he remembered the intention for which he was to celebrate Mass. When he
arrived in the sacristy, he would kneel and pray for fifteen to twenty minutes.
The Pope once was heard to say, "They try to understand me from without. But I
can only be understood from within."</font></div><div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font> </div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Those working at the
Vatican or other offices would be shocked to find him praying in a closet, or
spread out -- for hours -- on a cold marble floor, his arms outstretched to form
a Cross. Here is the "charisma" -- the presence -- that drew presidents and even
Mikhail Gorbachev! </font></div><div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font> </div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One aide even found him
praying in a washroom, kneeling in front of a sink. Every morning, when he
emerged from the refectory after breakfast, he would walk through the sacristy
and kiss all the relics kept on a table next to the altar. </font></div><div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font> </div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"So many times I saw his
face, after contemplation and Adoration, visibly changed and happy," said one
person close to him. "During prayer he seemed to be in continual conversation
with God, like Moses who spoke with God Face to Face. During prayer, Wojtyła did
not notice anything that happened around him. He seemed to lose all sense of
time, to the extent that his secretary at a certain point would have to shake
him out of this extraordinary state of concentration because other commitments
awaited him."</font></div><div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font> </div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Long intellectual debates
upon which he was to base a decision often were left hanging as he concluded
that he would pray about the answer.</font></div><div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font> </div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font color="#ff0000">At one
point,</font> when martial law was declared in Poland, John Paul II -- "with the
greatest of tranquility" -- told assembled Polish monsignors, "We must pray
greatly and wait for a sign from God."</font></div><div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font> </div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It certainly affirms what
many Marian, charismatic, and traditionalist Catholics likewise practice.
</font></div><div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font> </div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During Mass, he elevated the Host for
very long periods, carefully showing it to each side of the altar. On Good
Fridays, he was greatly relieved at three p.m. because the Lord was then off the
Cross.</font></div><div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He had a particular
reverence for the saints. He read files on them constantly. He invoked
especially the Blessed Mother as "Queen of Poland, Virgin of Jasna Góra, Virgin
of Kalwaria, Virgin of Myślenice, Virgin of Rychwald, Virgin of Ostra Brama,
along with the Virgin of Fatima. Monsignor Slawomir -- who is postulator of John
Paul's cause -- documents a particular fondness of the Pope's for the as-yet
unapproved site of Medjugorje in Bosnia-Hercegovina, where the author says John
Paul II sent one archbishop incognito to report back. Did John Paul II -- as
many have speculated -- actually see Mary himself? Asked this by a member of his
entourage, the Pope had said, "No, I've never seen the Madonna, but I sense
her."</font></div><div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font> </div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><i>And then there was Padre
Pio. </i>The famous stigmatic winked at Father Wojtyła when he arrived in San
Giovanni Rotundo as a priest and some time later described to a seminarian a
Polish pope who would be "a great fisher of men" (followed by one who would
"amply confirm the brothers," which some now say was a reference to the current
pontiff). While it is well-known that the future Pope met St. Pio in 1947 -- and
that several healings were effected by the requests of Wojtyła to the monk on
behalf of the infirm (including a spectacular cure of "incurable" cancer) --
what has not been widely revealed is that John Paul II, as that younger priest,
once discussed the stigmata with St. Pio (who allegedly told him his shoulder
wound was the most painful -- an interesting comment in light of recent accounts
that state, at least in the initial years, that Pio did not have the shoulder
wound, but one on his side).</font></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font color="#ff0000">Slawomir documents other "unusual episodes" </font>in the life of
the great Wojtyła, including the recollection of a witness who had an audience
with the Pope after taking part in his private chapel Mass. "At a certain point
in the conversation," says Slawomir, "[the witness] had the impression that the
pontiff's face wavered and vanished, replaced by the benevolent image of the
face of Padre Pio. When he revealed his experience to the Pope, he heard the
simple reply, 'I see him, too.'"</font></div><div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font> </div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"His devoted love for Mary
only grew and flourished when the connection between the third secret of Fatima
and the assassination attempt of May 1981 became clear," writes the postulator.
"In connection with the dramatic event, extrajudicial sources confirm, John Paul
II also saw a link with the apparitions of the Queen of Peace in Medjugorje, in
the former Yugoslavia, which began at the end of June of the same year. The Pope
spoke of it in very favorable terms and said, 'To say that nothing is happening
at Medjugorje means denying the living and praying testimony of thousands of
people who have been there.' To Monsignor Murilo Sebastião Ramos Krieger,
archbishop of Florianopolis in Brazil, who was going for the fourth time on a
pilgrimage, he confirmed, 'Medjugorje is the spiritual center of the
world.'"</font></div><div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font> </div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The intensity and the rapt
concentration with which he addressed Mary conferred upon the Pope, in the eyes
of those who observed him, an almost supernatural aura," adds the postulator.</font></div><div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"A guest at Castel Gandolfo
during the summer holidays recalled that after regularly reciting the Rosary
with him in the garden, 'John Paul II went over to the statue of the Madonna of
Lourdes and asked me to step away. He spent at least another half hour praying
there, and it was as if his person were also physically transformed."</font></div><div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font> </div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><i>[resources: <a href="http://us.mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/books2.htm#whyheissaint"><font color="#0066cc">Why He Is a Saint</font></a>]</i></font></div></div><div> </div><div><div><div><font color="#0000bf"><i><font face="comic sans ms"><div><em><font color="#0000bf" face="Comic Sans MS">Like a deer that longs for running waters so my soul longs for you, O God.</font></em></div></font></i></font></div><div><font color="#0000bf"><i><font face="comic sans ms">Ps 42:1</font></i></font></div><div><i><font color="#0000bf" size="1" face="Comic Sans MS"></font></i> </div><div><i><font color="#0000bf" size="1" face="Comic Sans MS"></font></i> </div></div></div></div></body></html>