Ad Honorem Immaculatae Conceptionis Mariae Oblatio

114 In order to answer the aforesaid questions, we must define the elements of Father Papczyński’s personal choices that led to the development of the community and which he included in the text of his Oblatio . Offering Oneself to God In the first place, our holy Father Founder did “offer and consecrate to God the Father Almighty, to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, and also to the Mother of God the Ever-Virgin Mary, Conceived without original sin, my heart, my soul, intellect, memory, will, feelings, my whole mind, my whole spirit, my interior and exterior senses, and my body, leaving abso- lutely nothing for myself.” 6 In the context of the circumstances surrounding the creation of this document, this offering of himself may appear only as a personal act of dedication to God. However, reading this text from the perspective of the Church’s teaching on the subject of consecrated life to- day, we will realize that one of the principle characteristics of a mature re- ligious community is the ability of its members to offer themselves to God. After all, the very ability to carry out the mission of one’s own Institute is impossible without a previous realization that one is completely dedicated to God 7 . This dedication to God is a condition sine qua non not only for the functioning of the community, but even for its long-term survival. This first quality of a member of a mature community had been pres- ent in the entire life of Father Papczyński. In the First Testament , which he wrote in the belief that he would die soon due to poor health after his return from Rome in 1692, he returns to this idea of total devotion to God: “I, unworthy Priest and greatest sinner, Stanislaus of Jesus Mary, every day expecting the day of death, uncertain as to the time for all, am ready to ac- cept it with humble thanksgiving as defined by the Lord of life and death.” 8 Further in the text, he explains why he is so devoted to God and stripped himself completely of his personal will: the reason is his vow of obedience that he practiced in the communal life. This explanation is provided be- cause – as a religious – he has no cause to write a will in a secular legal 6 Oblation , in: Historical Writings of Blessed Stanislaus Papczyński , Stockbridge, 2007, p. 28. 7 Cf. Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Fra- ternal Life In Community, “ Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor”, 40, Rome, 1994 (afterwards: FLC). 8 The First Testament , in: Historical Writings of Blessed Stanislaus Papczyński , Stockbridge, 2007, pp. 93-94.