Today, April 27th is John’s birthday. I thank God for creating him and giving him to me as my husband and partner on this journey towards heaven. Happy birthday, Sweetheart! 

It’s also our wedding anniversary. We got married on John’s birthday four years after we met. He always says, ” There’s no way that I’ll ever forget our anniversary!”  After getting married and graduating  from college we moved to Milwaukee where John would do graduate work in theology at Marquette.  He studied and wrote on John Paul II’s thoughts, especially The Theology of the Body, ultimately writing his dissertation on gender with a special focus on JPII’s teachings.  A few years later John would write the forward to the 1997 edition of The Theology of the Body.

As Pope, JPII played a major role in our journey together.  He became Pope when we were both sophomores in high school and he served in that ministry for the first half of our marriage. A few years after Pope John Paul II died, John and I were appointed to The Pontifical Council for the Family  which he established on May 9th 1981, just two weeks after John and I met.  Then, on April 27th 2014, JPII was canonized, becoming Pope Saint John Paul II. He was declared a Saint on John’s birthday and our anniversary.

Over the years I have seen the influence of JPII in our marriage and ministry, and since his canonization I have been asking him to intercede for John as he continues to teach and write and to pray for him to have the courage to speak the truth as JPII did.  We have definitely felt his intercession and guidance and believe that he has played a part in bringing us to his homeland, Poland. I am so very excited to see what God has planned for us while we are there and to share it with all of you.