Every day he prayed the Rosary, prayers from the breviary, litanies. On Thursdays, he prayed holy hour, on Fridays the Stations of the Cross. During Lent, of course, he sang Bitter Lamentations. In May, on the terrace at our Lady of Fatima Chapel, we sang Marian May’s songs every day, and in June, litany to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Every Thursday, John Paul II adored the Blessed Sacrament for an hour. He never forgot about these prayers! It was the same when he was in the Vatican and on pilgrimages. We told the organizers that they had to take this into account. Sometimes they tried to make a difference in the schedule of the day at the last moment, to add some meeting. We were warning them about this. And, when they did, the Pope did not give up the prayer and there was an hour delay. In addition, there were silent prayers; for example, in the chapel, when he looked at cards with prayer requests from people who were in need. People were writing to the Pope. These requests, organized, written down, we put on a kneeler in the chapel. The Pope read each one. Each card had the intention, the name of the person for whom the Holy Father was supposed to pray and information about where he/she lived. There were a lot of requests. We were changing the cards twice a week.
Secretary of the two Popes – an interview with Archbishop Mieczysław Mokrzycki.
Literary Publishing House, 2017
