He should be the first when it comes to sacrifice and devotion.” Each night, he looked out his window to Saint Peter’s Square and to the whole world, and made the sign of the cross over it, blessing the world goodnight. He declared, “the shepherd should walk at the head and lay down his life for his sheep.
He remarked, “If the bishop doesn’t set an example by fasting, then who will?” The Holy Father knew that his first duty to the Church was his interior life. Forged in the furnace of affliction, he became one of God's most treasured gifts to mankind during the 20th century - and more than 4 years of the 21st century. From his first breath to his last, he was different than all the rest of us. During Lent, he would eat one complete meal a day, and always fasted on the eve of our Lady’s feast days. Saint John Paul the Great was truly a saint and truly great. Each Friday (and every day in Lent), he prayed the Stations of the Cross, and preferred to do this in the garden on the roof of the Papal Apartments. He prayed several Rosaries each day, went to confession every week, and did not let a day pass without receiving Holy Communion. He made time to pray before and after his meals, and interspersed his Breviary prayers (the Liturgy of the Hours) throughout the day and night, calling it: “very important, very important.” At six in the morning, at noon, and again at six in the evening, he would stop whatever he was doing to pray the Angelus, just as he had done while working in the chemical plant in Poland. “Prayer was the rhythm of the Holy Father’s life.
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