Lest You Remain

which finds its most full expression in the grace that is in God’s love. This inner road of Fr. Stanislaus, that stayed hidden during his childhood and yearly youth, begins to surface in times when the Lord started to reveal to him his road in life— his vocation. Different options were available to him. He could have opted for the beauty of the married and family life; the beauty of serving people in his home town inheriting after his father his blacksmith trade. Or, he could have chosen to serve his Fatherland by enlisting in the army. He was free to choose his way of life. However, in the depth of his heart he knew that he would be free to the fullest, if he chose to respond to God’s proposal. Thus, he listened attentively to God’s voice, discerning it among the rustle of tree leaves or birds’ singing; while gazing at the starry sky or maybe admiring sunrise and sunset. There was surely such a moment in his spiritual journey when he stood still and tried to decide which way to pursue so that to prove his faithfulness to the obtained grace of beauty, faithfulness to God’s love. What did he choose? He chose the road that was sure to lead him to the perfect beauty living a pure, poor, and obedient religious life through following faithfully Jesus Christ. He understood this vocation in life as the call to show the others the beauty of Jesus Christ’s person, as the religious life can be properly described in the shortest manner. Years later, Fr. Stanislaus wrote in his testament: “The curious may look at my portrait, but for the religious to follow, I leave the example of the life of my Lord, Jesus Christ.” Father Stanislaus knew that the radi- ance of his beauty is nothing as compared to Christ’s beauty, thus throughout his whole life he tried to persuade himself to be fascinated by Christ’s beauty alone. The faithfulness to the grace of beauty does not end with one single choice but continues until the end of one’s life. Our sensitivity to the beauty of spiritual life makes it possible to the Lord to give us further tasks, which are more demanding but which also show more fully God’s beauty in human hearts. What was it that the Lord again revealed to Fr. Stanislaus? The Lord called him to make efforts in order for the Piarists community, to which Fr. Stanislaus belonged at the time, to regain its brilliance—the brilliance of its original fervor in the religious charism. In Fr. Stanislaus’s times the Piarists Order was living through a deep spiritual crisis: the spirit of piety and penance was on the decline, the vow of strict poverty was taken lightly, and religious devoid of all moral principles were made superiors. The ruin of the order was imminent. In those very circumstances Fr. Stanislaus had to fulfill his religious ideals, planted by his Novice Master—revered and greatly appreciat- ed for his love for the Piarist Order’s charism. Guided by his inner longing for the beauty of the religious life, Fr. Stanislaus made attempts to oppose the laxity of the religious observance, by demanding above all the observance of strict poverty and fidelity to the charism of religious and Piarist life. However, his efforts didn’t produce any positive results. Instead, he met with unjust accusations and persecutions. But is it possible to extinguish a L EST Y OU R EMAIN W ITHOUT W ORK IN THE V INEYARD OF THE L ORD 212