Ad Honorem Immaculatae Conceptionis Mariae Oblatio

Documents of the 1st Theological Symposium of the Marian Fathers’ School of Spirituality assembles articles prepared for the symposium, which was planned for October 20-21, 2020 in Licheń, as part of the General Convention of the Congregation of the Marian Fathers. Un- fortunately, the pandemic, which affected the whole world at that time, made it impossible for the authors of the articles to meet and to discuss the proffered issues. However, this did not stop us frompublishing these materials. Furthermore, with time, it was possible to add to the previ- ously planned symposium conferences other papers that interpreted in a broader context the meaning of the act of the Oblatio and religious consecration. These two issues are clearly connected with one another, creating a point of reference for the religious identity in the spirituality of the Marian Fathers. Consequently, the title “ Oblatio and Consecra- tion” was chosen for the planned symposium. For the Oblatio made by St. Stanislaus of Jesus and Mary is an act of consecration, constituting a turning point: it closes his Piarist period and also opens the stage of his new vocation, that is, the founding of the Congregation of the Marian Fathers. By making the act of the Oblatio , our Saint becomes the Fa- ther and Founder of a new institute and publicly declares the founding charism, already imprinted on his heart by the Holy Spirit. A few years later, he personally recalled these moments and described his experi- ences in the work entitled Fundatio Domus Recollectionis (Founding of the House of Recollection). Recognizing the Oblatio as the beginning of a new religious community is tantamount to acknowledging religious consecration as the most important element of the religious identity in the spirituality of the Marian Fathers: it means that someone is recog- nized as a Marian religious and that the origin of his religious life began with his consecration. It is also true, even if sometime later – for various reasons judged necessary – this consecrated person was unable to live in the community. Such are the theological and spiritual effects of as- signing the primacy to religious consecration. From the Foreword