54 our community: “ … that the confreres, in the Vineyard of the Lord and with the greatest effort, devotion and zeal: profess, proclaim and honor the mystery of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary; assist the dying and the souls suffering in Purgatory; and spread the Kingdom of God on earth, serving Christ and the Church” (C3). Blessed George properly discerned the Marian characteristic, especially of the ministry “Pro Christo et Ecclesia”, which helped him in sharpening his understanding of the signs of the times. The vision of love and service for the Church of Christ – a bride born out of the pierced side of the Paschal Lamb – formed him, as a shepherd. In a charismatic way, he offered the Marian path first to his closest friends who shared his intellectual, spiritual and ideological passions. He recognized the needs of the Church and of the common people – the neglected and exploited workers – and he endeavored to restore fundamental justice so that no one would have to go against God’s order; so that no one – as a Christian endowed with the dignity of a child of God – would act against that dignity by cheating, stealing, exploiting others and even killing. He discerned new elites of the emerging Republic of Poland in young people with talents and enthusiasm, supported by responsible and assiduous intellectual and spiritual formation. He did not omit the so-called lay persons in the Church, which was best expressed in the mission of the Marian religious brothers, envisioned by Fr. George as carrying the Gospel of Christ wherever the door is closed to priests, while using their expertise and experience obtained from previous professions. He did not exclude them from performing intellectual work. God’s vision led the Bishop of Vilnius to building unity as a witness to the well-understood mission of Christ’s disciple: “ … that they may be one” (cf. Jn 17:11). We see this witness to unity in the way Blessed George implemented the ideas that he lived by. It is hard to imagine that Blessed George could gather a circle of significant personalities of the day, without opening to them, without having solid knowledge, joint passions and interests, commitment to the idea of the renewal of man and his cultural environment. The priority belongs here to the issue of social justice and its understanding from the perspective of Church teaching. Blessed George’s desire to live in proximity to God, to become a spiritual person, a religious united with God was
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