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3 September

Wrocław

Funeral of Bishop A. Wronka. Concelebration and the Word of God were a kind of ‘memento’ on the way to Gniezno.

Gniezno

8.00 p.m.

The opening of the retreat/(absent)/separately: Veni Creator [Come, Creator]

And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Counsellor, to be with you for ever – the Spirit of truth. He will guide you into all the truth, for He will take what is mine and declare it to you.³

Evening reading

4 September

Morning intentions; Rosary; Petitionary prayer; Lauds; Mass concelebrated at the altar of St Adalbert; Thanksgiving

9.00 a.m.

Talk 1:

Reference to Ephesians

(a) Christ is the sign of the invisible God, His visible image (God’s portrait painted on Man’s face). Example: Panin, Solzhenitsyn.⁴

(b) Christian – priest – bishop as a sign of Christ.

(c) The bishop is a sign of Christ because he proclaims the glory of the Father. Do I proclaim God, who is love; or love, which ‘is God’? – verticalism ↔ horizontalism.

(d) The bishop is a sign of Christ – the Good Shepherd. Hence the priority of pastoral work in a bishop’s life. Does anything overshadow this single work or distract me from it?

(e) The shepherd knows his sheep (do I know my priests? my alumni? my congregation?). Do I do everything I can to win those who are far away? New initiatives – creativitas [creativity] in the good sense of the word.

(f) Bishop – a living sign of Christ. His heart, his blood (the example of St Januarius), his hands (the example of the priest from Brzozów) are always ready to give, never to receive nor take away.

Meditation

Talk 2: On the breviary.

‘Jesus Christus orat pro nobis ut Sacerdos noster, orat in nobis ut caput nostrum, oratur a nobis ut Deus noster’ (s. Aug.) [‘Jesus Christ prays for us, as our priest; He prays in us, as our head; He is prayed to by us, as our God’ (St Augustine)].⁵

(a) On Christ’s prayer, which He said so often, at so many places and times.

(b) On the breviary: the hymn of God’s glory transplanted into the earthly life of the Church.

(c) Since Christ prays for us in the breviary, we need to have hearts as wide open as He has.

(d) A communal psalm of the bishops (cf. Acts of the Apostles) bears the stigma of the Holy Spirit. His power. Vespers should be separated and communal Lauds introduced.

(e) Collective prayer and constant prayer. We need to have faith in the power of constant prayer. Status orationis [the state of prayer], existential prayer.

(f) This is what the breviary is for: the liturgy of hours. The truth of hours.

(g) The pinnacle of pastoral work – and at the same time, its source, because this is when Christ prays in us.

(h) Further discussion of the new breviary.

(i) How is it with my breviary? Do I, despite many tasks, try to retain the truth of hours?

(j) Prayer – the breath of the mystical body (Paul VI) is not only the fruit of every man’s religious sense, but above all, the fruit of the Holy Spirit’s work in us ‘qui orat in nobis gemitibus inenarrabilibus’ [‘who prays for us with sighs too deep for words’] (St Paul)⁶ – so ‘we pray in the Spirit’ (St Paul).⁷

(k) And then the liturgy of hours will lead us to the heavenly liturgy (cf. Isaiah, Revelation).

Shorter meditation; Angelus; Examination of conscience (in relation to preaching)

(After lunch) reading: Fr Granat, Ku człowiekowi i Bogu w Chrystusie [Towards Man and God in Christ] and others

The Way of the Cross: An amazing text, the prayer to the Holy Spirit, who is the ‘maker of the Eucharist’. The entire Way of the Cross is a reference to the Holy Mass; each Station refers to a different word, a different meaning, a different problem, e.g.

I: to the words of greeting

III: to confiteor [I confess …]. On the sins of neglect in the lives of priests and bishops

IX: on celibacy

XII: on the entire celebration of the Most Holy Sacrifice.

It would be worthwhile to have the entire text!

Letter to the youth

Talk 3: On death as exspectatio [expectation].

(a) sit mors pro doctore [let death be our teacher] (St Augustine).

(b) (Lack of work on the future of humankind (Prof. Rzepecki) interview in Kultura).⁸

(c) theologia expectationis [theology of expectation] and the spirituality of our waiting for the Lord:

The example of Pius XI.

(d) Christus – metuendus Pastor [Christ – fearsome Shepherd]. Waiting for the Lord fills our consciousness and tries each of us especially in difficult moments: ‘tell me what you are waiting for?’

(e) Eschatological testimony. Our waiting for Christ is such a testimony – and this testimony is given by celibacy ‘propter regnum coelorum’ [‘for the sake of the kingdom of heaven’]⁹ for ourselves and for others.

(f) It is about chastity that is not limited to sexual matters. All our sacrifices as well as all our work etc. testify to our waiting for the Lord.

(g) The theology and spirituality of expectation give us the skill of dying, the ability to die by submitting everything to God and the Church. Bishop Łoziński: ‘Do not pray for my healing, pray for me not to waste the grace of suffering.’

(h) Maranatha! [Our Lord, come!]¹⁰

(i) ‘… and He will serve them!’¹¹ … The eternal life consists in Christ serving us: Auctor et consummator fidei nostrae [The pioneer and perfecter of our faith].¹²

(j) Re-capitulatio in Xto [Conclusion in Christ]: everything will come back to Christ, everything will be at His feet, everything will be concluded in Him, ‘that God may be everything to every one’¹³ … – And it is there that Christ ‘will serve us’ … with truth (!) and fatherly love (!). Pater futuri saeculi [Everlasting Father];¹⁴ the joy of seeing the Father’s face.

(k)‘No longer do I call you servants, but friends’¹⁵ – this is what Xtus [Christ] said at the first consecration – so He shall serve the bishops with truth and brotherly, friendly love.

(l) ‘I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us’ (Romans 8).¹⁶

(m) Therefore it is worth it to follow Christ, it is worth it to consider everything ‘refuse’.¹⁷

Vespers; Adoration; (Anticipated) Matins; Rosary (I), (II), (III); Compline; Benediction with the Blessed Sacrament: conclusion of the whole day (the Holy Spirit – the Fire of the Word; the vehicle of the Holy Spirit – the Blood of Christ); Reading; Sleep

5 September

Getting up; Morning prayers; Lauds; Holy Mass concelebrated at St Adalbert’s altar; Thanksgiving

Talk 4: Ecclesia non est relinquenda, sed regenda [The Church is not to be abandoned but to be controlled].¹⁸

(a) (Example: ‘the world without the key’.)

The Church – the authority of the keys, the authority of Peter, the authority of the bishops (Matthew 16). Vatican II, L[umen] G[entium] III. Peter’s keys are not in conflict with the bishops’ keys; Peter’s keys confirm the bishops’ authority and strengthen it. Vatican I: the significance of Bismarck’s reaction, the significance of the German bishops’ response, which was immediately approved by Pius IX.

(b) ‘Fear not – I have the keys’ (Revelation).¹⁹ Peter’s keys – the keys to happiness related to the deposit of faith and grace. ‘The keys that will open so that none shall shut and that will shut so that none shall open’ (Isaiah).²⁰ There is a longing for such keys, for a bedrock, in the world.

(c) Bishops’ authority is connected with the cross (cf. St Paul’s speech in Miletus).²¹ To lead the Church in accordance with God’s will – this must be connected with the carrying of the cross. (Evidence: Paul VI’s pontificate.) It is, above all, the inevitable struggle with Satan (Il Papa e il diavolo [The Pope and the devil]).

(d) And therefore the bishop might experience a temptation to flee from authority (St Boniface:

Ecclesia non est relinquenda sed regenda Veritas fatigari potest, sed vinci et falli non potest.

[The Church is not to be abandoned but to be controlled The truth can be impeded, but it cannot be conquered nor deceived]).

The Holy Spirit has anointed us so that we can conquer satan in difficulties, even though sometimes it might seem that he is winning. ‘You have been anointed by the Holy One’ (1 John).²²

(e) The crosier (Baculum from battero = to strike) should bear two marks: the mark of fatherhood and the mark of the Eucharist. (The Church, through the will of God, is a monarchy, it will never 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 with Her to reconcile people with God. An amazing ‘thank you’ of St Bernadette Soubirous.

(f) The nation, world, Church and heaven await our – Polish bishops’ – constant answer, ‘yes’ uttered with Mary. The future depends on this and nothing else. Amen.

Magnificat; Act of Consecration to Our Lady (Primate); Benediction with the Blessed Sacrament

Major Council of the Bishops’ Conference in the afternoon

Breviary; Adoration; Rosary

7 September

Concluding meditation: In order to respond ‘yes’ to God with the Most Holy Mother, one has to be a sign of Christ through prayer (breviary), celebrating the Eucharist, the spirituality of expectation, solemnity of authority, verbal service, the spirit of penance …

Deo gratias! [Thanks be to God!]