This morning, at the age of 102, a close collaborator of John Paul II, Mrs. Wanda Połtawska (https://www.cirkev.cz/zemrela-spolupracovnice-sv-jana-pavla-ii-wanda-poltawska_28262), passed away. She shared a heartfelt, long-lasting friendship with Karol Wojtyła, a priest, bishop, and later Pope John Paul II. As a RIP tribute to her life, we bring an excerpt from a letter that Archbishop Wojtyła sent to her the day before his departure to the conclave, at which he was elected pope on October 16, 1978.
10. 8. 1978
+ My dear Wanda!
(…) I am leaving tomorrow. I hope everything will be resolved by the end of this month. These are certainly great and important matters. It is necessary to connect with their inner greatness, which comes from God. It is important to enter into them. After all, you know from elsewhere that such greatness needs to be sought. You have always tried to seek greatness alongside me. It is also your intention and the truth about you. It has often been difficult for you to reconcile with this truth in what life brings you, but that does not mean that this truth is not true.
But I ask for patience for you precisely in the everyday matters that distract you and pull you away from the truth. I pray daily to God for Andrzej and for all your children. The Lord God has entrusted you to me with your deep and at the same time not simple "self" and with your whole life, with everything that belongs to it; I will give account to God for that. I do not stop trusting in Christ and His Mother in everything. (…) I entrust you to God’s hands near Wisłok, in Kraków, and in Przemyśl, everywhere.
Brother
(quoted from the book Diary of Friendship.
Correspondence between Wanda Połtawska and Karol Wojtyła. Paulínky 2011)
