In today's Opinion Journal.
And, in the remembering, certain unforgettable images will come to mind: the young Pope bouncing infants in the air and the old Pope bowed in remembrance over the memorial flame at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem's Holocaust memorial; the Pope wearing a Kenyan tribal chieftain's feathered crown, the Pope waving his papal cross in defiance of Sandinista demonstrators in Managua, the Pope skiing, the Pope lost in prayer in countless venues; the Pope kneeling at the grave of murdered Solidarity chaplain Jerzy Popieluszko, the Pope slumped in pain in the Popemobile, seconds after taking two shots from a 9mm semi-automatic--and the Pope counseling and encouraging the would-be assassin in his Roman prison cell.
It was on one of the many channels among which I flipped back and forth this weekend that an interviewed priest or bishop was talking about a conversation he had with someone else about then- priest Karol Wojtyla's relationship with the young people. To the question, "Why is it that young people respond to him the way they do?" the someone else answered something to the effect of, "Everything that he says to them and exemplifies in his own actions sum up to say, 'Your life was destined from the beginning. Do not settle for anything less than moral and spiritual greatness.'"
Papa, we love you and hope to see you again someday. May we all be as holy as you exhorted us to be. :)