202 About prayer. I often recite the Novena through the intercession of Blessed Fr. Stanislaus and I recommend it to people who ask us to pray for them. It is also important for me to know that they ask for his assistance with their problems. Janusz Kumala, MIC Poland, Licheń, Director of the Marian Formation Center There is a saying that no seed ever sees the fl ower which it produced. I think that it may be applied to the beatifi cation of Father Founder and our generation that witnessed it. Father Papczyński was the seed that never saw the fl ower of the Congregation he founded, which came to blossom in Fr. Wyszyński’s time. As the Renovator, Fr. Matulewicz also was such a seed, but the true blossoming of the Congregation came after his time. In some ways, the beatifi cation is yet another such seed that starts to make a fl ower (which we can see already), but what exactly this fl ower is going to be only the future generations will see. In any case, we must strongly emphasize one thing: the gift of the beatifi cation inscribed itself into the great work of the renewal of our Congregation. Looking at the history of our Congregation, we notice that it was continuously undergoing some renewal and that its growth was achieved through this rebirth. And this is, one may say, the specifi cs of our presence within the Church: to live by the spirit of continuous renewal and reform. The beatifi cation of Father Founder is the conclusion of a certain stage in our development, but it is also the beginning of a new one. Thus, it is not accidental that the time of the beatifi cation coincided with the 100th Anniversary of our Congregation’s renewal. Divine Providence wants to show us God’s unceasing care for our community. The gift of the beatifi cation is a clear and unequivocal confi rmation of the Marian way of life. As the Father and Guide of the Marian Vocation, Fr. Papczyński appears to us in the grace of the beatifi cation and he wants us to know that we’re still following the proper Marian path. However, this does not mean that we’ve fulfi lled everything on this path. The Founder’s charism shines brightly in the light of the beatifi cation and it encourages us to verify our faithfulness to the Marian vocation. Although the Congregation’s history in the past 100 years was diffi cult, even traumatic at times (the period of our Constitutions’ reform after Vatican II), nevertheless, our Blessed Fr. Founder wants to tell us today that we, guided by the Holy Spirit, Divine Providence and the Church, continue to follow the right path, as to our understanding of the charism and our presence in the Church. It means that we, as the Marians, for better or for worse, realize and participate in the charism left to us by Father Founder based upon the measure of our holiness or sinfulness.
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