Having learned of his nomination to the episcopacy by the Primate of Poland, the then Father Wojtyla communicated the news to his archbishop, prayed the Stations of the Cross and then returned to the Masuri Lake District where he had been rowing with his friends. The pope thought that it would be his last time to enjoy the lake country, yet he writes that he managed to return there each year until 1978.
After the chapter dedicated to his “Calling”, follow five other chapters: “The Work of a Bishop”, “Scientific and Pastoral Commitment”, the “The Fatherly Character of a Bishop” “Episcopal Collegiality” and finally “God and Courage”. The book covers his visits to parish communities, even to the ones furthest off the beaten track. He also writes about his encounters with Polish youth, especially university students and young married couples with children. The pope reflects also on the involvement of the laity and intellectuals in spreading the Gospel, how he always listened to his priests and how his door was always left wide open to talk about their problems and ideas.
John Paul II writes that he has never felt alone. He uses this personal testimony to rebut arguments of priests who say they need to marry to fill their void of solitude. The pope constantly rejects the thesis, while stating that the fatherly role of a bishop must apply even to the priests who have abandoned their vocation or gone wayward. This is so, the pope writes, because a bishop is also a “shepherd” - as in Christ’s parable of the Good Shepherd who, in caring for his flock, searches for the sheep he has lost and carries those who are tired and sick on his shoulders.
The pope refers to this parable often in his writing, reflecting that a shepherd “is there for his sheep and not the sheep for their shepherd.”
The pope concludes that a flock must be led by its shepherd in order to be helped and served. The idea of service is stressed time and again throughout the book. The Holy Father also looks critically on his years of service as a bishop, writing that he was perhaps not always “all that in charge”. He explains that this was partly due to his character, but also partly because he followed Christ’s example of a leader who serves rather than one who is served.
It was a duty of bishops to fight against communism, writes the Holy Father, especially when it restricted the religious freedom of the faithful. He writes about how he, as bishop, acted in the background, even when not reported, right up until the clash over the Church of Nova Huta. Nova Huta was built by the communists and the authorities refused to allow a church to be built in the city. Yet the faithful who worked there formed a parish, and with their bishop, Cardinal Wojtyla, celebrated Mass there every weekend even in the face of police aggression, until the authorities gave in and allowed a church to be built.