3rd Anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II

April 2 marks the third anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II.   To mark the event, Pope Benedict celebrated a special Mass in St Peter's Square in which he recalled his predecessor.

He said: "Just like three years ago just a short time has passed since Easter. The heart of the Church finds itself still submerged in the mystery of the resurrection of the Lord. [Pope John Paul] felt an extraordinary faith in Him, and with Him, he maintained an intimate, unique, uninterrupted conversation. It was enough to see him praying: he literally submerged himself in God and it seemed that everything else during those moments was left outside."

The Holy Father recalled how Karol Wojtyla suffered even in childhood. "Very soon he decided to carry it beside Jesus, following in his footsteps," the Pope said. "He wanted to be his faithful servant to the point of welcoming the call to the priesthood as a gift and a commitment for all of his life. With Him, he lived, and with Him, he wanted to die."

Benedict XVI recalled how "the words of the angel of the Resurrection, ('Be not afraid'), addressed to the women before the empty tomb became a type of motto on the lips of Pope John Paul II, since the solemn beginnings of his Petrine ministry."

"He repeated them on various occasions to the Church and to the world," the Pope continued. "He always pronounced them with inflexible firmness, first raising up [his] crosier predominated by the cross, and later, when his physical energies were weakening, nearly clinging to it, until that last Good Friday, in which he participated in the Way of the Cross from his private chapel, embracing within his arms the cross."

"That 'be not afraid' was not based on human strength, nor on successes accomplished, but rather, only on the word of God, on the cross and resurrection of Christ. In the degree in which he was being stripped of everything, at the end, even of his very words, this total surrender to Christ manifested itself with increasing clarity.

"As it happened to Jesus, also in the case of John Paul II, words gave way at the end to the ultimate sacrifice, to the gift of self. And death was the seal of an existence totally given to Christ, conformed to him even physically with the traits of suffering and trusting abandonment to the arms of the heavenly Father. 'Let me go to the house of the Father,' these words -- report those who were at his side -- were his last words, the fulfillment of a life totally oriented to knowing and contemplating the face of the Lord."

"Let us give thanks to God because he has given the Church this faithful and courageous servant," the Pope concluded. "And while we are offering for his chosen soul the redeeming Sacrifice, we ask him to continue interceding from heaven for each one of us, for me in a special way, who Providence has called to take up his inestimabl