"The dawn of the New Millennium", a historical stage that can "indicate an extraordinary springtime of hope for believers and for humanity", the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 has a "tireless" voice: John Paul II. At audiences and solemn festivities the Jubilee is the focal point of a fervent prayer to the Virgin Mary, a Message to be meditated, a simple greeting to pilgrims, an exhortation to open one's heart to hope and commitment.

Also on these occasions, the Jubilee "is fast approaching". It is a recurrent phrase that betrays the Pastor's anxiety to lead to the millenary passage a renewed, reconciled, more united Church, ready for the challenges the New Evangelization will set before her in the third Christian Millennium.

The Pope addresses everyone, believers and non-believers alike, certain of the importance the two thousand years which have passed since the birth of Christ represent not only for Christians, "but indirectly for the whole of humanity" (Tertio Millennio Adveniente, 15). He addresses young people especially. He exhorts them to choose the Cross of Christ and encourages them to listen to the Wind of the Spirit. His invitation to World Youth Day in the Year 2000 is warm and urgent.

He refers constantly to the apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente. The panorama of citations shows that the Holy Father is leading the Church firmly on the great themes proposed in the fundamental Jubilee Charter. The three-year Trinitarian journey towards the Holy Door is always entrusted to Mary's intercession. And the Pope's Prayer at this time of conversion is "Abide with us, Immaculate Mother, in the heart of our preparation for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000".

To the clergy of the diocese of Rome at the beginning of Lent. 26 February 1998

"In Tertio millennio adveniente I had written that "in our own day too, the Spirit is the principal agent of the new evangelization" (n. 45). But the city mission is, for this Rome of ours, the concrete way to carry out the great task of the new evangelization. It fully merits what I added in the same paragraph of the Apostolic Letter: "Hence it will be important to gain a renewed appreciation of the Spirit as the One who builds the Kingdom of God within the course of history and prepares its full manifestation in Jesus Christ, stirring people's hearts and quickening in our world the seeds of the full salvation which will come at the end of time".

As the Great Jubilee approaches, the occasions of grace that the Spirit is preparing for the Church and mankind, in particular for this Church and this city of Rome, are taking more precise form. I am thinking of the International Eucharistic Congress; I am thinking of the World Youth Day, the Jubilee of Families, the Jubilee of Priests and the other events planned and expected. The City Mission prepares us priests and our faithful to experience these events in their true meaning of grace, faith and conversion. Thus we must pray unceasingly to the Holy Spirit, because we are well aware that he alone can convert hearts and bestow faith and grace.

In looking that this year's tasks in the light of the Great Jubilee, the visit to families that you will make this Lent appears to be the best preparation for the great event of the Jubilee of Families, the purpose of which is to put Christ at the centre of the family life and thus to restore the family to its authentic and inalienable human and Christian dignity.

In the same way, the "Youth Mission", which is a specific objective of the City Mission, prepares the ground for the World Youth Day of the Year 2000. On Palm Sunday of this year, the young people of Italy and Rome will receive from the young people of France, in St. Peter's Square, the Holy Year Cross that has made a missionary pilgrimage across the continents and nations, from Rome to Buenos Aires, from Santiago de Compostela to Czestochowa, from Denver to Manila, to Paris and again to Rome. The special meeting of the young people of Rome with the Pope, on the Thursday before Palm Sunday, will also take place outdoors this year for the first time, in the square in front of the Basilica of St John, the cathedral of Rome: in fact we want to be able to welcome all the young people who participate in greater numbers every year, and to emphasize the missionary dimension of this event, directed to every young person in Rome.

Dear Priests, in addition to its Christological aspect, the Great Jubilee "has a pneumatological aspect, since the mystery of the Incarnation was accomplished 'by the power of the Holy Spirit'" (Dominum et Vivificantem, n. 50). It was brought about, as we well know, in the womb of the Virgin Mary and through her free, immediate and total consent. Mary is thus "the woman who was docile to the voice of the Spirit, a woman of silence and attentiveness, a woman of hope who, like Abraham, accepted God's will 'hoping against hope' (cf. Rom 4:18)" Tertio millennio adveniente, n. 48)."

From the Message for the 13th World Youth Day, published on 22 December. The Day was celebrated on a diocesan level on 5 April 1998, Palm Sunday.

"As you know, the second year of the preparatory phase of the Great Jubilee began with the First Sunday of Advent and is dedicated "in a particular way to the Holy Spirit and to his sanctifying presence within the community of Christ's disciples" (Tertio millennio adveniente, n. 44). With a view to the celebration of the next World Youth Day, I invite you, in communion with the whole Church, to look to the Spirit of the Lord who renews the face of the earth (cf. Ps 104 [103]: 30).

"The Church", in fact, "cannot prepare for the new millennium 'in any other way than in the Holy Spirit'. What was accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit 'in the fullness of time' can only through the Spirit's power now emerge from the memory of the Church. The Spirit, in fact, makes present in the Church of every time and place the unique Revelation brought by Christ to humanity, making it alive and active in the soul of each individual" (Tertio millennio adveniente, n. 44).

For the next World Day, I consider it fitting to suggest these words of Jesus for your reflection and prayer: "The Holy Spirit will teach you all things" (cf. Jn 14:26). Our age appears disoriented and confused; sometimes it even seems no longer to know the difference between good and evil; God is apparently rejected, because he is unknown or ignored.

In this situation, it is important to go in spirit to the Upper Room, to relive the mystery of Pentecost (cf. Acts 2:1-11) and to "let [ourselves] be taught" by God's Spirit, docilely and humbly enrolling in his school, so as to acquire that "wisdom of heart" (Ps 90 [89]: 12) which sustains and nourishes our life.

To believe is to see things as God sees them, to share God's vision of the world and of man according to the words of the psalm: "for in your light do we see light" (Ps 36 [35]: 9). This "light of faith" in us is a ray of the Holy Spirit's light. In the Sequence of Pentecost we pray thus: "O most blessed light divine, shine within these hearts of thine, and our inmost being fill!".

Jesus thought it was important to stress the mysterious character of the Holy Spirit: "The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit" (Jn 3:8). So should we give up trying to understand? Jesus thought precisely the contrary, since he assures us that the Holy Spirit himself can guide us "into all the truth" (Jn 16:13)".