107 exist. It’s probably impossible to give a straight answer to the question: should our interpretation today of our Founder’s concern for the white habit be only “a challenge to faithfully preserve all that is connected to the mystery of Mary’s Immaculate Conception present in the Marian spiritual and apostolic life” (following Fr. Kumala’s suggestion), or should we, accepting this argument, just simply go back to wearing the white habit? Surely, more that one debate lies ahead, but we must all certainly accept its ultimate result as the will of God and a call to unity. Today’s world promotes individualism and endeavors for success, without paying any attention to other people. The “rat-race” phenomenon is well known in many businesses. Our unity of life and action as a religious community should be our response and a sign of opposition. The latest instruction of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life tells us: “… it is better to take one step together than to take two or more alone.”17 Time and energy offered to the community and to the confreres will blossom with greater communal unity and a better apostolate.18 It is necessary for us today to seek ways of building and strengthening this community. Certainly, all forms of being together, such as in the chapel, in prayer, during celebrations, at meals, in small groups sharing the Word of God, personal experiences and refl ections, in retreats and renewals, in times of vacation and recreation, serve this purpose. Again, it is a matter of a decision by each of us, of the superiors and the house communities, which would express our conviction that building up the Marian community is one of our priority tasks. It would entail, among other things, enlarging our one- and two-person posts to at least three people or closing them down, should it be impossible. It will take the effort of everyone for the unity to be created between people gathered together by the Lord, so that they may dedicate their lives to one another. Father Papczyński attributed a signifi cant role to asceticism in the Marian communal life. He ordered the Marian residents of Puszcza Korabiewska to preserve strict silence during meals and to publicly and frankly acknowledge their faults before meals. He instructed his companions to conduct a communal fl agellation three times a week; he forbade the consumption of any kind of food and drink outside the communal meals, as well as drinking hard liquor “on pain 17 The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Instruction “The Service of Authority and Obedience, Faciem tuam, Domine, requiram,” Vatican, May 11, 2008, 25a. “In today’s cultural atmosphere, community holiness is a convincing witness, perhaps even more than that of the individual: this shows the perennial value of unity, a gift left by the Lord Jesus,” ibid., 19. 18 “(...) time dedicated to improving the quality of community life is not time wasted because, as the late and fondly remembered Pope John Paul II repeatedly emphasized, «all the fruitfulness of religious life depends on the quality of community life»,” Ibid., 22.
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