John Paul II and the Gate of Dawn
While in Lithuania, Pope John Paul II prayed the Rosary at the Gate of Dawn on September 4, 1993, together with pilgrims from Lithuania and abroad. Before starting the prayer, the Pope made the following remark:
“Every day for many centuries now, this shrine at the Gate of Dawn has been receiving the multitudes of pilgrims who come to bring the joys and worries of their lives to the Mother of Mercy. This Gate has thus become a place of meeting with the Mother of God and of the Church, a place that unites believers from many lands. Christians from Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and other countries gather as brothers and sisters to share the same faith, the same hope and the same charity, in the presence of the Virgin Mary. At the Vatican there is a Lithuanian chapel with a painting just like this one here. From there the successor of Peter often unites himself with the prayer that rises to God in this place.”
