THE JEWELER’S SHOP: A Meditation on the Sacrament of Matrimony, Passing on Occasion into a Drama

The Jeweler's Shop (subtitled A Meditation on the Sacrament of Matrimony, Passing on Occasion into a Drama) (Polish: Przed sklepem jubilera) is a three-act play, written in 1960 by Karol Wojtyła (later Pope John Paul II), that looks at three couples as their lives become intertwined and mingled with one another.

Love is one of the greatest dramas of human existence, writes Pope John Paul II. In this illuminating three-act play—here in the only English translation authorized by the Vatican—he explores relationships between men and women, the joys—and the pain—of love and marriage.

The action unfolds in two settings at once: a street in a small town, outside the local jeweler's shop (people go to buy their wedding rings there), and the mysterious inner landscape of personal hopes and fears, loves and longings. Each act focuses on a different couple: the first happily planning their wedding, the second long-married and unhappy, the third about to marry but full of doubts. Writing with power and understanding about a love that survives the grave, a love that has withered and died, a love budding out of complexes and insecurities, the Pope addresses such fundamental human concerns as: What does it mean to fall in love? When do we know that a love is real—and can it last? If it dies, how do we go on living—and loving again? There are no easy answers, and there is no happy ending—such is the nature of men and women, and such is the nature of love—but there is hope, if we only acknowledge our need and accept the risks of a deep and lasting commitment.

This is a play full of wisdom on a subject of great relevance to all, and it provides a special insight into the thoughts of the man who, like no other, has captured the imagination of people of all faiths throughout the world.

Karol Wojtyla—Pope John Paul II—has long been involved with the theater. As a student of literature, then priest, bishop and archbishop, he acted, directed, wrote dramatic criticism, made a Polish translation of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, and has authored six plays.

Speaking to the intellectuals and artists of his old metropolitan See of Krakow during his historic journey to Poland in June 1979, Pope John Paul II recalled that one of the closest friends of his youth "considered the spoken word and the theater to be my calling, but Our Lord Jesus thought it was priesthood". CONTENTS Introduction 9 Act I. THE SIGNALS 21 Act II. THE BRIDEGROOM 45 Act III. THE CHILDREN 69