LITMIR.BIZ

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be a democracy), but it is a fatherly monarchy. Paternalism is a mistake, fatherhood is the truth (1 Cor. 15: For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers … I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel).²³

      (f) What contradicts the bishop’s fatherhood? Permissivism, protectionism, parochialism, indecisiveness, verbosity (empty talk), overproduction of dialogue. The bishop’s fatherhood has to be full of love and prudence.

      (g) The mark of the Eucharist: one needs to follow the Eucharistic Christ – for God, one needs to be the host, and for people, the bread (imitamini quod tractatis [imitate what you practise]): Theology of bread.

      During the retreat one should see that which should be placed on the paten, but which we do not place there. (Could we not give more to people?) Brother Albert’s theology of bread: One has to imitate the Eucharistic communion.

      Meditation

      Talk 5: On the retreat confession, on the sacrament of penance. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit.

      (a) The Father’s love is forgiving – Luke 15 – on the prodigal son. The way to happiness leads through the confessional – each Lord’s Prayer is an amazing psychotherapy – the sacrament of penance: to rebuild our love of God completely (not ‘almost’ completely).

      (b) The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is with us in the sacrament of penance. In amplexu Crucis [Embracing the Cross], we can receive all graces and cleanse ourselves from all sins. The Catechism of the Catholic Church: ‘through the sacraments we celebrate our existence’.²⁴ Through the sacrament of penance a personal intervention of the merciful Christ takes place in my soul.

      Example: Servants of God, Brother Balicki and Cardinal Mercier. Bene, Domine quia humiliasti me [Lord, it is good that you made me humble].²⁵

      – Contrition for God’s graces which I have wasted, in the confession.

      – Confession always has to be connected with work on oneself, constant rebuilding, since the bishop ‘positus in Ecclesia quasi in statu perfectionis acquisitae’ (S. Th.) [‘is placed in the Church as if in acquired perfection’ (St Thomas Aquinas)].

      (c) The communion of the Holy Spirit; in confession the Holy Spirit is certainly with us (Seraphim of [Sarov]: the aim of Christian life is to acquire the Holy Spirit) – ‘peace be with you’ – rebuilding the communion with the Holy Spirit, we are rebuilding the communion with the Church, with our neighbours.

      All this is the aim of our retreat confession.

      Short meditation; Rosary; Examination of conscience; After lunch – reading; Confession; Adoration; Vespers; Rosary

      The Holy Year’s pilgrimage to St Adalbert’s tomb: enriched by the jubilee indulgence

      Concelebration; Introduction by His Eminence Cardinal Primate

      [Talk] 6: Contio [Sermon]: on the words from St John’s Gospel on the grain of wheat which falls into the earth … and bears fruit. Three grains – the first is Jesus Christ, the second – St Adalbert, the third – we. The entire theology of the Holy Year indulgence was developed on this basis.²⁶

      Procession and benediction with the Blessed Sacrament, including: Holy Hour in the spirit of satisfaction; Penitential psalms; Litany of the Saints; Compline; Reading

       6 September

      Getting up; Morning prayers; Lauds; Prime; Concelebration at the tomb of St Adalbert; Thanksgiving

      Talk 7: Glory to you, Word of God.

      (a) The beauty of the Word of God; reflection on the first human word; Modrzejewska;²⁷ [illegible] (cf. Parandowski, Alchemia słowa).²⁸

      (b) The word of God is the power of God to save man (per Evangelica dicta deleantur nostra delicta … [let the words of the Gospel erase our sins …]). Lord, only say the word and my soul shall be healed … The word of God has an amazing therapeutic power. From the Synod of Bishops’ instrumentum laboris [working paper]: vi Spiritus Sancti praedicatio Verbi Dei semper efficax est [by the power of the Holy Spirit, the preaching of the Word of God is always effective]. Although sometimes we cannot see the effects clearly. – Verbum – Sacramentum [Word – Sacrament].

      (c) Rex regum – metuendus Censor [The King of kings – fearsome Judge] (!) demands of us to preach the entire word of God; Acts of the Apostles – St Paul’s speech in Miletus: the entire will of God. According to St Paul, the violation of this entirety resembles murder. (Paul says: I am innocent of the blood of all of you … for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.)²⁹ The doctrine of faith is complete or it does not exist at all (bonum ex integra causa, malum ex quovis defectu [a thing is good when good in every respect; it is wrong when wrong in any respect]). The bishop needs to have ‘sensum limitis’ [‘a sense of his limitations’].

      (d) The aim of preaching the word of God, evangelisation, is salvation. The usual path to salvation is through Christ present in the Church. Involvement in the world (pre-evangelisation) cannot be an anti-testimony, i.e. an end in itself. It also has to be a testimony given to God and the eschatological reality.

      (e) Metuende Censor [O fearsome Judge]: Christ is also metuendus Censor [fearsome Judge] of our language. The language that does not grow old is the language of the Gospels. It is a language that calls us to follow Christ. One needs to take the effort to find the appropriate contemporary language, but also not to lose the biblical language.

       ³⁰

      (idol – a sin, idol – an error)

      Meditation: a general description of the retreat – examination of the (bishops’) spirit; The Way of the Cross considered individually in relation to certain words of the retreat.

      Talk 8: (De Beata [On the Blessed One])

      (a) s. Bernardus: totus mundus exspectat responsum Mariae – ecce ancilla Domini [St Bernard: the whole world expects Mary’s response – She is the handmaid of the Lord]:³¹ Through these words Mary became the Mother of our reconciliation with God – through these words uttered in Nazareth, and repeated under the cross. God reconciled the world in Christ through the mediation of Mary.

      (b) Mary reveals Her Immaculate Conception when – while a new world is being born, a new world full of wars – She comes to reconcile people with God.

      We must help Her with this, work with Her. What would have happened if Mary had said ‘no’? What would have happened if Fr Maksymilian had said ‘no’?³²

      (c) The three ‘aperi’ [‘open!’] of St Bernard.³³ The response of the heart open to faith – Mary’s faith was paid for dearly with Her sacrifice. Sacrifice is the implication of faith (cf. the analysis of the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help – in the East, ‘a terrible vision’) – only through this kind of faith can we become Mary’s assistants, like Fr Kolbe. Such faith reaches prophetic dimensions.

      crede! [believe!]

      Is this the answer of faith that I give to God every day, together with Mary?

      (d) St Bernard: Mary’s lips are open to adore God: confitere! confess! The Mother of God is the Mother of brave confession. Evidence: Fr Kolbe.

      Is the answer that I give to God every day an answer of faith, notwithstanding the circumstances, together with Mary?

      (e) St Bernard: Suscipe! [Receive!]. Mary taught Fr Kolbe how to accept God through love. Mary heals us from our coldness (satan’s name – ‘coldness’) so that we can work

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