105 Apostolate or Contemplation: 1677-1723 the way to heaven by word and example. He was the first to do what later he taught them to do.”155 In a letter addressed to the Marians in the Korabiew Forest, he ordered all of them, including seminarians studying moral theology, to preach a short sermon in the church on Saturdays. Should the superior deem a sermon appropriate, “on the following Sunday in the small church, standing by the altar and not by the ambo, they will fruitfully repeat [it] to the people, if they be present.”156 It should be noted that this letter was addressed to the hermitage in the Forest, where the eremitic-penitential regulations were still in force. In Norma Vitae, he instructed the superiors to select and encourage “such ones who have been instructed in the necessary doctrine and who have virtuous qualities, so that their preaching may bring salutary fruit to the listeners, […] just as in their own churches they will not preach without the mandate of the Superior, so in other churches they will not preach without the blessing of the Ordinary.”157 According to a preserved testimony, he encouraged his brethren to deliver sermons, hear confessions, console the discouraged and those broken in spirit, support the poor, and strengthen the faith of those in doubt.158 He put in a lot of effort and made many diplomatic efforts to discreetly indicate to the Marians their duty to engage in apostolate without discrediting the erection decree of Bishop Święcicki, which could have offended him. In Norma Vitae, he emphasized this: “Since the contemplative life is not binding you so strictly, […] those gifted with such talents will not be prevented from humbly helping pastors in their church work.”159 For the first time, the Congregation’s third goal appears here: assisting pastors. Since 1692, the Marians were defined as those bringing help to souls in Purgatory and assisting parish priests. In his petition to the Holy See in 1692, Fr. Papczyński called the Marians the Congregation, founded “to support the souls of the faithful departed who are deprived of help and to help parish priests in their pastoral care.”160 155 Wyszyński, Stróż, n. 86, p. 112. 156 S. Papczyński, Letter to the Marians in the Korabiew Hermitage, 7, in: Selected Writings, p. 921. 157 The same, The Rule of Life, VII, 5, in: Selected Writings, p. 74-75. 158 Navikevicius, p. 189. 159 S. Papczyński, The Rule of Life, I, 3, in: Selected Writings, p. 57. 160 S. Papczyński, First Petition to the Holy Congregation of Bishops and Religious, Rome, Aug. 22, 1692, in: Selected Writings, p. 951; Positio, Papczyński pp. 515-517.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mw==