“Up, to the source!” We are celebrating the centenary of the birth of Saint John Paul II. The holy Pope was always able to perceive hope amid the difficulties of history. He speaks to us of this hope in his poem Roman Triptych:

If you want to find the source, you have to go up, against the current… Where are you, source? Where are you, source?… tell me the secret of your beginning!… Allow me to wet my lips in spring water, to feel its freshness, reviving freshness.

And what is this source? John Paul II discovered in the life of every man a primary and continuous source of renewal: the love of the Creator. It is a spring that does not stop flowing even when we want to dry it up with our sin, and therefore it restores us with its mercy. And it is a spring of love which allows us to love at the same time, making us a source of love and life for our brothers and sisters. Christ came into the world to reveal to us the depth and freshness of this love of the Father, the origin from which everything comes, and to teach us how to respond to this love. Here is the key to the jubilee: to recognize, with St. John Paul II, the source of the love of the Creator that flows in your family, in your work, in your parish. And then we understand what it means: “do not be afraid!” That is, do not be afraid to open your heart to this source, to let yourself be enlivened and transformed by it, to bear fruit according to its measure.

– Fr. José Granados, Superior General, DCJM