Ad Honorem Immaculatae Conceptionis Mariae Oblatio

195 Why do I love Saint Stanislaus Papczynski? Saint Stanislaus Papczynski is one of the most important people in my life. It is the grace for me to know, imitate and love him. Why do I love him? It is not because of the many miracles God has done through his interces- sion; not because of his wisdom or his extraordinary work for the Church; not because he founded the Marian Fathers’ Congregation. I love him be- cause of his style of life, his acceptance of difficulties and his faithfulness to the will of God. At the beginning, when I entered the Marian Formation House in Sai- gon, I was not much interested in his life and in his person. I thought that between him and me there was a too long distance: nationality, language, culture, life’s time and, first of all, nobody in Vietnam knew him. However, after studying a lot about him during the Novitiate under the direction of Fr. Boguslaw, our Novice Master, my opinion was completely changed. I have realized that I can see myself in his person like in the mirror. I un- derstood that I am a little bit similar to him. Everything what God wanted to do with himHe also wants to do with me. He wants me to become a holy person. Because of this I want to know Father Founder more and more. I’m sure that I can learn many things from him. First of all, how to accept the suffering and the difficulties on the way of my vocation. Father Stanislaus was able to accept everything without complaining. Especially, when as a young man he got seriously sick and became even a beggar. He had nothing in that time; no house, no relatives, no money. People despised him. He laid down on the street and begged. How much he had to suffer! How shamed he was! However, he accepted everything in the faith and because of the faith in Jesus Christ. That situation makes me reflect a lot about myself. How many times I did not want to accept my reality? How many times I wanted to escape my problems? I avoided to speak about my weakness because I was afraid of the truth. Father Founder teaches me that only through the sufferings and difficulties I can discover the will of God in my life. He makes me understand the sufferings and dif- ficulties as the grace through which I can come closer to God.