On one October evening of 1984 year, together with the editor-in-chief of L’Osservatore Romano, Mario Agnes, we went for a dinner with the Pope. Then, the message just came that the corpse of the priest Jerzy Popiełuszko was found. He was killed eleven days earlier by the agents of the secret police and John Paul II wanted to go to the Chapel. Also, I began to pray for Fr. Jerzy whom I previously met. I was asking God to open up his merciful arms as soon as possible for that priest who was so very generous, so very holy, whose great faith led him to promote the rights of workers and “Solidarność” (“solidarity”) up to endangering his own life for it. I opened my eyes for a moment, and I saw Wojtyła praying – the intensity with which he prayed, the way he prayed….
I am ashamed to admit, but I stopped praying. He was enough!
Indeed, all the moments of his life were united in prayer. All the problems of his life were finding solution in prayers. One day – Cardinal Camilo Ruini was saying – the Holy Father waiting for a very important phone call from the President of the United States George Bush apologized to the people invited for dinner and went to the Chapel to pray.
He prayed for those whom he was supposed to see during the audience, for priests whom he ordained, for his co-workers, for those who were writing to him. He was not separating prayers and work: his entire life was a prayer.
At the permission of Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz – “At the side of the Saint”
St. Stanislaus BM Publisher, Kraków 2013
