Pope John 23rd was known as the 'Papa buono' or Good Pope John. He convoked the Second Vatican Council and died while it was in session. Here are some of his most memorable quotes:
“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”.
“Christ's flock is made up of sheep that not only listen to their shepherd, but are also able to recognize his voice, to follow him, faithfully and with full awareness, on the pastures of eternal life”.
“In this world of ours, every believer must be a spark of light, a center of love, a vivifying ferment for the mass; and it will be that all the more as, in the depths of his being, he lives in communion with God”.
“The feelings of my smallness and my nothingness always kept me good company”.
“Every Christian must be convinced of his fundamental and vital duty of bearing witness to the truth in which he believes and the grace that has transformed him”.
“Born poor, but of honored and humble people, I am particularly proud to die poor”.
“The council now beginning rises in the Church like the daybreak, a forerunner of most splendid light”.
“It often happens that I wake up at night and begin to think about a serious problem and decide I must tell the Pope about it. Then I wake up completely and remember that I am the Pope”.
“A peaceful person does more good than a learned one”.
"To keep me from sin and straying from Him, God has used devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. My life vows destined to be spent in the light irradiating from the tabernacle, and it is to the Heart of Jesus that I dare go for the solution of all my problems"
"Never Hesitate to hold out your hand; never hesitate to accept the outstretched hand of another."