LITMIR.BIZ

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the need for increased eschatological awareness – in the course of years – with the simultaneous growth of the involvement in the Church.

      Rosary; Anticipated Matins; Compline

       7 November

      (From the Saturday office of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Holy Mass in the afternoon); Lauds; Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament

      Meditation: during the concelebrated Holy Mass in which I participated. Topic: the Mother of God: quem totus non capit orbis, in Tua se clausit viscera, factus homo – lumen aeternum mundo effudit [He, whom the whole world cannot hold, enclosed Himself in Thy womb, being made man – gave forth to the world the everlasting light].⁶

      The Holy Mass revealed itself to me as Sacramentum Messiae [the sacrament of the Messiah], an act of redemption, in which He is alone with the Father and before the Father. At the same time, the Mother makes this act possible – She, so to speak, creates a space in which this act is fulfilled. She also participates in it most completely from the first ‘fiat’ [‘let it be’]. She complements it to the fullest and draws from it to the utmost. Totus Tuus [Entirely Yours]. Mary can lead us into participation in the act of redemption, Sacramentum Messiae, in the simplest and most mature way.

      Totus Tuus.

      Rosary; Petitionary prayers; Conversation with the Prior

      Two Letters – two problems: (a) to W.; (b) for the Solemnity of Christ the King as a celebration of social charity

      Rosary

      Meditation: Leadership. The bishop has to lead his Church. This is a separate task which cannot be undertaken without ‘rootedness’ and ‘seeing’. The completion of this task enters the dimension in which Christ – the Good Shepherd – is the foundation, the beginning and the end. In this meditation the question is only briefly raised and outlined. I will have to return to it. The bishop’s leadership over the Church needs to be embedded in Christ as the Good ‘Shepherd’.

      This is not an easy task. It rests on the office and spiritual gifts of episcopacy. This issue will have to be elaborated on too. The following profiles can be outlined: leadership through thought; leadership through example – role model; leadership through heart – and the humble pursuit of all matters with prayer.

      The Little Hours; The Way of the Cross: following Marian themes and the text of the Magnificat; Rosary, until Vespers

       Completion: 19 December [probably 1970]

      In the morning: Matins; Lauds; Prime

      Meditation: Reflection on the entire topic of rootedness – seeing – leadership: esp. that last topic. The leadership of thought, example, command and above all the leading of matters and people with prayer.

      Reflections on ‘borderline’ matters

      Rosary; The Way of the Cross (Advent); Reading

      Adoration: The need for a more complete expression of my consecration to God has grown over the last few months, which were full of human experiences.*

      ^* response (T. to (b)) only as a sign that one must always be ready.

      The framework for this consecration has been formed by the consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the act of ‘holy slavery’: ‘… my body and soul, my goods, both interior and exterior, and even the value of all my good actions, past, present and future; leaving to Thee (Mother) the entire and full right of disposing of me, and all that belongs to me, without exception, for the greater glory of God, in time and in eternity …’⁷

      Within this fundamental act of consecration and the entrusting of myself, I wish: (1) to be at Lord Jesus’ complete disposal when it comes to the service and ways of serving the people of God in the Church; (2) to accept all experiences, which according to His thought and will belong to the entirety of my earthly path; (3) asking only for grace, so that I could always live up to the task: so that I could accept, undertake, serve.

      1–5 September 1971 The Bishops’ Conference Retreat at Jasna Góra Led by Bishop L[ech] Kaczmarek¹

      

       1 September

      Introductory [meditation]:

      1. Dinumerare nos doce dies nostros, ut perveniamus ad sapientiam cordis [So teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom] (Ps.).²

      2. Voluntas Tua – pax mea [Your will – my peace] (St Gregory of Nazianzus).

      3. God is omnipotent – man is impotent? (Primate).

       2 September

      Rosary; Petitionary prayers; Prayer to the Holy Spirit; Participation in the Mass celebrated by His Excellency Primate Stefan Wyszyński³

      Meditation: I turn to the Mother of souls, of my soul! The Mother of conscience, the Mother of divine grace, the Mother of the inner man, the Mother of the inner mysterium – at the start of the retreat that is to shed new light on the way of the soul. I entrust to Her all (theological, diocesan Synod’s, personal) concerns.

      Talk: Episcopus – imago Patris [Bishop – image of the Father]. How to act on this ‘image’? (paura [fear], prudenza [prudence], pazienza [patience]). Not to take any decision without prayer. The proper meaning of the dialogue with priests. Goodness and firmness.

      Ancillary reflection: Confrontation of fatherhood as a value which comes from above, from the Father, with the contemporary idea of social life, which comes from below, and which, in a way, does not leave any place for the father. A fervent prayer for fatherhood to be fulfilled in the Church despite these unfavourable circumstances – although, as the retreat leader said, ‘priesthood (and so also episcopacy) will be ever more difficult’ (Malraux).

      The Little Hours (word for the Week of Mercy)

      Talk: ‘Blessed is he whom thou dost choose and bring near’ (Ps.)⁴ – the problem of emptiness as the cause of priests’ resignations. Priest, bishop: forma gregis [example to the flock].⁵

      Conversations with priests who are going down a path with no way out – formational conversations aimed at renewing priesthood in individual priests. Care for priests and their pastoral duties. The bishop knows what threatens contemporary priests (neomodernism, Bultmann, Küng) – practical materialism, pessimism (‘earthly life is not the highest value’ – Fr Kolbe’s words).⁶ The lack of prayer, routine, lack of love for learning – the bishop knows that priests need unity, mutual love, openness to the world (Ecclesia semper reformanda [the Church always being reformed]).⁷

      Reflection: (a) petition for the ability to turn to the value that lies beyond the value of earthly life; (b) ([illegible] – the witness [illegible] of my devotion to God); (c) on the topic of what serves the unity among bishops and what impedes that unity (de affectu collegialitatis [on the feeling of collegiality]).

      (‘The bishop is the parish priest of parish priests and the father of the fathers of families’ – St Francis de Sales.)

      Spiritual reading: (1) Sacraments of the post-Concilliar Church; (2) Znak;⁸ (3) on Fr M. Kolbe

      Rosary (longer); The Way of the Cross (shorter)

      Talk: Episcopus – homo doloris [Bishop – man of suffering]. Longing for heaven, thoughts about death and eternity; let us not be afraid of death, but let us be afraid of the responsibility for life; responsibility for ‘our sheep’.

      Suffering in the bishop’s life: falsi fratres [false

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