During the 1987 papal visit in the United States of America, Saint John Paul II was introduced to Tony Meléndez, a Nicaraguan-born armless singer, guitar player and songwriter who sang a song entitled “Never Be the Same”.
“Tony, you are truly a courageous young man. You are giving hope to all of us. My wish to you, is to continue of givingthis hope to all, all the people.”
(Los Angeles, 15. 09. 1987. 09. 15.)
The performance of Tony Meléndez and the words of Saint John Paul II:
(HU) „Az összes ember igazi méltósága kéne a gazdasági tevékenység alapvető irányító elve legyen, mivel a gazdaság és a termelés az ember javát szolgálják és nem fordítva.”
(EN) “The true dignity of every human person should be the basic ethical principle governing economic activity, since the economy and production are for the good of the human person and not vice versa.”
(HU) „A földi érdekek és a lélek vágyai nem zárják ki egymást, de összhangba és egységbe kell őket hozni egymással.”
(EN) “Wordly values and the longings of the soul do not exclude each other but they have to be harmonized and integrated with each other.”
(IT) „Interessi terreni ed aspirazioni spirituali non si escludono reciprocamente, ma hanno bisogno di essere armonizzati ed integrati.”
(RO) „Intersele pământene și dorințele sufletului nu se exclud, doar că acestea trebuie armonizate și integrate între ele.”
(Máriapócs, 18. 08. 1991. 08. 18)
Egy rövid 2016-os dokumentumfilm a máriapócsi kegyhelyen tartott pápai szentmiséről/A documentary from 2016 about the papal holy mass held at the Máriapócs shrine (HU):
“There’s also the loneliness that can come with being pope. When you’re elected to the papacy, you have to leave your old life behind. You give up everything, even your name. The new name you take when you ascend to the Chair of Peter symbolizes the new identity you’re assuming. The old you is gone. The new you lives according to the demands of the Church and the expectations of Vatican protocol.
John Paul II, however, didn’t completely buy into that line of of thinking. When he could, he fought it. He didn’t want to stop enjoying life because he was now the pope. He didn’t want to cut off ties to so much of what he loved. So, in the midst of Vatican demands and expectations, he carved out a space for himself in which he could find the peace, recreation, and laughter that he knew were essential to a well-ordered life.”
(Widmer, Andreas: The Pope and the CEO: John Paul II's Leadership Lessons to a Young Swiss Guard. Foreword by Weigel, George. Emmaus Road Publishing, Steubenville, 2011.)
Scenes with Saint John Paul II and young people, including a clown show in the Cortile San Damaso, a courtyard of the Apostolic Palace, Vatican:
(HU) „Senki sem önmaga miatt kapta az életet; az élet közös örökség és közös kötelezettség.”
(EN) “Life is not ours for our own sake alone; life is a common heritage and a common responsibility.”
(IT) „Nessuno ha la vita per se stesso; la vita è comune eredità e comune impegno.”
(Ferhegyi ‒ ma Liszt Ferenc ‒ nemzetközi reptér/International Airport ‒ currently Ferenc Liszt ‒Ferihegy/Aeroporto Internazionale di Budapest-Ferihegy ‒ oggi Ferenc Liszt ‒, 20. 08. 1991. 08. 20.)
if you do not travel,
if you do not read,
If you do not listen to the sounds of life,
If you do not appreciate yourself.
You start dying slowly
When you kill your self-esteem;
When you do not let others help you.
You start dying slowly
If you become a slave of your habits,
Walking everyday on the same paths…
If you do not change your routine,
If you do not wear different colours
Or you do not speak to those you don’t know.
You start dying slowly
If you avoid to feel passion
And their turbulent emotions;
Those which make your eyes glisten
And your heart beat fast.
You start dying slowly
If you do not change your life when you are not satisfied with your job, or with your love,
If you do not risk what is safe for the uncertain,
If you do not go after a dream,
If you do not allow yourself,
At least once in your lifetime,
To run away from sensible advice...
“And tomorrow, like everyone, I’ll be a pile of worms and disappear.”
“Either you’re happy with very little, free of all that extra luggage, because you have happiness inside, or you don’t get anywhere! I am not advocating poverty. I am advocating sobriety.”
“We have invented a mountain of superfluous needs. Shopping for new, discarding the old. That’s a waste of our lives! When I buy something, or you buy something, you’re not paying money for it. Your paying with the hours of life you had to spend earning that money. The difference is life is one thing money can’t buy. Life only gets shorter. And it is pitiful to waste one’s life and freedom that way.”
“What I do recommend is that we stop wasting resources on useless things, on luxuries houses that require six servants to maintain. What good is all that? What good is it? None of that is necessary. We can live much more modestly. We can spend our resources on things that are really important for everyone.”
“Man may very well be the only animal capable of self-destruction.”
“Human nature is constructed in such a way that you end up learning much more from suffering than form a life of ease. That does not mean that I recommend a quest for suffering, or anything like that. But this is what I want to make people understand: You can always pick yourself up again. It’s always worth it starting from zero again, once, or a thousand times, as long as you’re still alive. That’s the biggest lesson in life. In other word, you are not defeated until you give up the fight. You give up the fight by giving up the dream. Fighting, dreaming, being down on the ground, confronting reality that’s what gives meaning to existence, to the lives we lead.”
“You can’t live life when you nurse a grudge. And you can’t live going in circles.”
“You have to learn to pack up your scars and keep going, headed for the future. If I spend my time licking my wounds, I’m not moving forward. I see life as the road that lies ahead. What counts is tomorrow.”
