TOTUS TUUS EGO SUM
ALL THAT I HAVE, ALL THAT I AM, IS YOURS

Some extracts from the Spiritual Testament of John Paul II

‘Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming’ (Mt 24:42)–these words remind me of the last call, which will happen at the moment the Lord wishes. I desire to follow Him, and I desire that everything making up part of my earthly life should prepare me for this moment. I do not know when the moment will come, but like everything else, I place it too in the hands of the Mother of my Master: Totus Tuus. In the same maternal hands I leave everything and everyone with whom my life and vocation have linked me. In these hands I leave, above all, the Church, as well as my Nation and all humanity. I thank everyone. Of everyone I ask forgiveness … (6 March 1979)

Being on the threshold of the third millennium in medio Ecclesiae I wish once again to express gratitude to the Holy Spirit for the great gift of Vatican Council II, to which, together with the entire Church–and above all the entire episcopacy–I feel indebted. I am convinced that for a long time to come the new generations will draw upon the riches that this Council of the 20th century gave us. As a bishop who participated in this conciliar event from the first to the last day, I wish to entrust this great patrimony to all those who are and who will be called in the future to realise it. For my part I thank the eternal Pastor Who allowed me to serve this very great cause during the course of all the years of my pontificate … (1 March 1985)

As the end of my life approaches I return with my memory to the beginning–to my parents, to my brother, to the sister (I never knew because she died before my birth), to the parish in Wadowice, where I was baptised, to that city I love, to my peers, friends from elementary school, high school and the university, up to the time of the occupation when I was a worker, and then in the parish of Niegowic, then St Florian's in Krakow, to the pastoral ministry of academics, to the milieu of … to all milieux … to Krakow and to Rome … to the people who were entrusted to me in a special way by the Lord.

To all I want to say just one thing: ‘May God reward you’.

In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum (17 March 2000)

A FINAL TESTAMENT?

On Tuesday 22 February, in the interval between the Pope's two visits to a Rome hospital, and very soon before his death, a new book written by him was launched. As such, it could be looked upon as a kind of public last will and testament. It was his fifth book since Crossing the Threshold of Hope was published a decade ago.

This book, Memory and Identity, is based on his reflections on the ideological conflicts of the 20th century - "the ideology of evil", freedom and its limits, nations and nationalisms, the dangers of democracy, Europe, and the relations between church and state. Its Italian publishing house plans to bring out 14 editions of the book in 11 languages.

Memory and Identity is based on conversations John Paul II had with two Polish friends, the philosophers Krystof Michalsky and the late Jozef Tishcner, in 1993 at the Papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo. ‘All this is the opening of the Pope's heart’, said Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, at the official launch. ‘Someone taped them and transcribed them, but it remained unpublished until now.’

The final section of the book is the most personal. Pope John Paul II recollects events after he was shot at St. Peter's Square in May 1981 by the Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca. It is the first time he has written about the attempt on his life, and he describes his feelings and the pain in the moments after being shot. He speaks of forgiving Agca immediately after the assassination attempt, as he was being taken to the hospital. Finally, he describes vividly his meeting later with his would-be assassin.

Memory & Identity: Personal Reflections, Pope John Paul II, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (Allen & Unwin), London, 2005, ISBN 0-297-85075-X, RRP $35.00.