Saint pope John Paul II’s notion of the experience of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ

Abstract

The article analyzes Saint Pope John Paul II“™s Notion of the Experience of a Personal Relationship with Jesus Christ, by highlighting three aspects. First, for Saint Pope John Paul II, an authentic Christian experience always contains the dimensions of “˜givenness“™ and “˜inwardness.“™ In other words, man enters into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ only if his heart has inwardly been touched by God“˜s love first. Second, the experience of faith in Christ is dynamic by its very nature: to believe in Christ means to follow Christ through concrete acts of love and service to God and other human beings. Third, a person can have an authentic Christian experience only if he belongs to the Body of Christ, the Church.