For Christmas every year, He enjoyed like a child. He was checking on the work with the Nativity scene at the St. Peter’s Square. He was sending Christmas cards to his dearest ones. He was waiting for the arrival of Highlanders from Poland, who were brining to the Vatican not only spruce trees and homemade sausage, but also hay for the Christmas Eve table. And, that’s “something”, which John Paul II missed so much; a piece of the house, beloved Tatra Mountains, Christmas caroling on a Highlander’s note. They could not bring to him the snow from Podhale. Archbishop Mieczysław Mokrzycki, now Archbishop of Lvov, served by his side for the last nine years of John Paul II’s life as the second secretary. With emotions, he recalls every Christmas Eve at the Vatican; pre-Christmas hustle in the kitchen, the smell of spruce trees that stood in every room, kitchen stools that were placed at the table, so that all guests can fit in. And, evening full with Christmas carols, every day, up to the Three Kings. A hundred-year-old songbook who helped those who needed it; as, John Paul II did not need to use it. He knew all Christmas carols.
With the permission of Archbishop Mieczysław Mokrzycki,”A place for everybody”
‘Znak’ Publishing House, Krakow 2013
