55 Matulaitis period of our history although its roots can be easily identified in the Oblatio of the Father Founder: “I confess that I believe everything which the holy Roman Church believes and everything that she will henceforth teach to be believed.”1 Even if it is hard to see an intentional act of referring to the Oblatio in the disposition of the Blessed Father Renovator, we cannot exclude the mystic bond of those two men and the supernatural mutual completion of their pursuits coming from the Holy Spirit in His continuous creative and renewing activity. It is worth remembering that the Blessed Renovator brings with him the enormous richness of his personality, intellect and spirit. Father George successfully practiced discernment of place and time so as not to miss God’s will but to fulfil it to His glory and to the benefit of people, more or less consciously needing the Gospel. The discernment that he practiced has remained the most significant space for decisions concerning evangelisation and all pastoral work, effective only when undertaken in accordance to God’s will. God’s will is not a coincidence, it is not just rubber-stamping something that a man carelessly and without proper preparations has decided and is now trying to execute. The Holy Fathers of our Congregation teach us to avoid such an attitude and to earnestly regard God’s presence. Let’s try to examine this process in our Blessed Renovator. Spiritual discernment / listening to the Word of the Lord A sower is someone who first of all listens to and seeks the Word of the Lord and God’s will in everyday life, of which the Journal of Blessed George Matulaitis is distinctive evidence.2. It is a testimony of how the seed of the message of the Gospel falls on the good soil of the heart. It is the opposite of spiritual minimalism which could be imagined by another soil: its barren and shallow layer, a paved road of rigid routines, stereotypes, conformity in thinking and acting where nothing is going to sprout. The words of Christ, full of truth and creative spirit, cannot be absorbed by such soil – they remain fruitless Father Renovator regards the Word of God as something which is not spoken without reason: it calls and it acts. It cannot be understood at any time because the Word itself sets the time when it wants to be heard. Not 1 St. Stanislaus Papczyński, Historical writings, in: St. Stanislaus Papczynski, Selected Writings of Saint Stanislaus Papczyński, PROMIC, Warsaw, Poland, Marian Heritage, Stockbridge, MA, USA, 2022, p. 872. 2 George Matulaitis – Matulewicz, Journal, Stockbridge, 2003.
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