The facts of Pope John Paul II's life are well known, but the mystery of his unique journey has not always been as clear. The pope himself once said: "In God's plan, nothing happens by chance." The Holy Father's life bears that out. His narrow escapes from death, starting in boyhood, seem miraculous. The premature death of his mother, father and beloved older brother, his life under the Nazis in occupied Poland and his years in an underground seminary all helped shape his life choices. Later, the cardinal of Cracow refused to give him permission to join a contemplative religious order, a decision that now seems providential. ("In the future," the cardinal reasoned, "he will be needed by the whole Church.")

John Paul II is a pope of milestones, a poet, mystic, philosopher and theoretician. John Paul II: A Life of Grace brings these elements of his personality and many events of his life into focus as part of the mysterious action of God in helping this great man discover and accept his destiny.

Translated by Marsha Daigle-Williamson, Ph.D.