Pope John XXIII

Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (November 25, 1881 – June 3, 1963) was elected as John XXIII, the 261st Pope of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City on October 28, 1958. He called the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) but did not live to see it to completion, dying two months after the completion of his final encyclical, Pacem in Terris. He was beatified on September 3, 2000. His feast day is October 11 in the Catholic Church. He is also commemorated on June 3 by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and on June 4 by the Anglican Church of Canada.

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• From the saints I must take the substance, not the accidents of their virtues. I am not St. Aloysius, nor must I seek holiness in his particular way, but according to the requirements of my own nature, my own character and the different conditions of my life. I must not be the dry, bloodless reproduction of a model, however perfect. God desires us to follow the examples of the saints by absorbing the vital sap of their virtues and turning it into our own life-blood, adapting it to our own individual capacities and particular circumstances. If St. Aloysius had been as I am, he would have become holy in a different way.
  • Journal of a Soul (1903)

• Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do. http://thinkexist.com/quotes/pope_john_xxiii/

• I have looked into your eyes with my eyes. I have put my heart near your heart. http://thinkexist.com/quotes/pope_john_xxiii/

• If God created shadows it was to better emphasize the light. http://thinkexist.com/quotes/pope_john_xxiii/

• A peaceful man does more good than a learned one. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/p/pope_john_xxiii.html