He was a great devotee of Our Lady and consequently a lover of the Rosary prayer so much that he already said in the year of his 1978 election: “The Rosary is my favorite prayer. Wonderful prayer! Marvelous in its simplicity and depth".

When one thinks of a man who was the Vicar of Jesus Christ, one cannot help but startled by imagining the great responsibility he must have carried on his shoulders. Certainly he could have counted on the prayers of millions of faithful, but without personal prayer it would not have been possible to grow in holiness. We understand this well by continuing to meditate on his words: “The Rosary accompanied me in moments of joy and in those of trial. I have handed over many worries to it, I have always found comfort in it”.

So it must be for us too. We must live the life of the Gospel holding Mary Most Holy by the hand, as the holy pope did. Let's listen to him again: with the echoes of the words" Hail, Mary" in the background, the main episodes of the life of Jesus Christ pass in front of  the eyes of the soul. Based on the whole joyful, painful and glorious mysteries, they put us in living communion with Jesus through - we could say - the Heart of his Mother. At the same time our heart can live through the Rosary all the facts part of individual lives families, nations, the Church and humanity. Personal happenings, or belonging to your neighbors, and in particular of those closest to us, who are most dear to us. Thus the simple prayer of the Rosary beats the rhythm of human life”.

What music sweeter and more celestial than that of the Ave Maria? What soundtrack best suited to the life of a Christian? Yes, because knowing that we have a Mother, who is a safe refuge in this valley of tears, can only make our journey more joyful and safer.

How can we forget that his  love for Holy Mary and prayer, inspired him to gift the world with the luminous mysteries of the Rosary? A further opportunity for meditation on the Gospel to remind us of the gift of Baptism, marriage and the intercession of Mary Most Holy, of the coming of the Kingdom of God, of the Transfiguration and of the Most Holy Eucharist.

Jesus is "the light of the world" (Jn 8:12) and these mysteries are the emanation of this Light in our lives.

We have to open the doors to Jesus Christ, we have to open wide the doors to the Light. We have to let him in, and let him sit in the most important room of our heart. This is the heartfelt invitation of our John Paul II, his words still sparkle in the memory and will never be canceled.

In fact, there are many people who leave the Savior outside the door, He knocks, but he cannot open it because the handle is only inside. He doesn't force us, he waits. And here is where the invitation of the Polish Holy Father has a value of perennial relevance.

Among the many wonders that this man achieved by leaving a remarkable memory in history, I would like to pay homage to his holy memory with a miracle occurrence: the one that allowed his canonization. I consider it appropriate to highlight miracles, because they are proof that God confirms the holiness of one of His servants. These were the days of the beatification ceremony of John Paul II.

Floribeth Mora Díaz, 48 at the time, married to Edwin Antonio Arce Abarca and mother of four children, goes to the hospital for a very severe headache. After a short time the diagnosis: rupture of a fusiform aneurysm of the right middle cerebral artery with subarachnoid hemorrhage. There was little to do.She is sent home. This is his story.

"At the beginning of the celebration," staring at that image of the Pope, I turned to him and said these exact words with great faith: Intercede with God, because I do not want to die, and help me to heal. I stayed awake for the entire duration of the Mass and at the end I fell asleep.'” And upon awakening, by the next morning, when John Paul II has been blessed for about seven hours, the woman turns her gaze to the image of the pope and makes a sign of the cross. Floribeth continues: "Suddenly, to my great surprise, as I continued to stare at his face, I felt in my heart how his voice was saying to me: Get up, do not be afraid !. I was astonished and had the feeling that her hands, as shown in the cover photograph, were rising from the bottom up, to urge me to get up. I got out of bed, as the Holy Father had urged me, and went to the kitchen where my husband was. He said to me very worried: What are you doing here? I replied that at that moment I was experiencing a great peace in my heart, that I felt physically very well, but I did not have the strength to tell him what had happened to me a few minutes before because I was afraid that he would call me crazy '". Floribeth was completely healed and never had any trouble, and will never have any again.

By thanking God and the intercession of his saints we can live remnants of Heaven on Earth. We never lose hope, we remain faithful in the little, and we will be faithful in the much. I would close this brief meditation in the company of the Polish pontiff with a wonderful phrase: “Take your life in hand and make it a masterpiece”.

This exhortation is valid for every human being, whoever he is, wherever he lives, whatever the color of his skin. It is an invitation to holiness: a masterpiece that is realized in earthly existence, perhaps in hiding, and is found spectacular and indestructible in Paradise.

We pray to this saint that no man wastes his priceless life. So be it.