206 various initiatives of the recent past, as I see it, Marians are always just a bit Marian. This is refl ected in our internal religious life and apostolate, but more than anything in our very selves, in this, on how we think and live as particular individuals—members of an Institute, which according to the vision of our Founder was to be Marian to the core—as members who “zealously praise and promote the honor of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin […] and lay down our lives and shed our blood, if need be” (cf. Rule of the Order of Marian Fathers, Vilnius, 1791, p. 10). This is based on my memory of a word by a certain Provincial Superior during one of the Chapters in the late 1990s, he ventured a sad hypothesis that a good number confreres believe, especially those who were to leave our ranks, that the Marians are, at most, a kind of an Association of Diocesan Priests with a slightly deeper then usual Marian spirituality. I believe that we must do everything in our power that such a disastrous outlook, if it still exists somewhere, needs to be rooted out. Before starting our Congregation’s main Internet page, I made a point of investigating every available Internet site of religious institutes, concentrating particularly on those with a Marian character. With some jealousy and admiration I investigated the sites of such congregations as the Carmelites, the Servites, the Marists, the Marianists—to name just those best known. Even at a glance, I could tell that these were the communities, which above all, lived in accord with a Marian spirit … Oh, how many of their writing can be seen as initiatives promoting their charism! Everything, which they undertake, is clearly marked by a Marian spirit. It’s good that we have Salvatoris Mater, the famous Licheń and Stoczek, the Marian Publishing House in Poland and the Association of Marian Helpers in nearly every administrative unit of our Congregation. What, therefore, stands in the way of our having, in each of our parishes, the Legion of Mary, but above all the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception, which was so particularly encouraged by our Blessed Founder and so zealously promoted by the Servant of God, Fr. Casimir Wyszyński? (cf. Constitutions of the Order of the Immaculate Conception of the Most B.V.M., Vilnius, 1791, 8–II) Despite appearances, today’s people are drawn to the Blue Scapular, which, other than the Marians, no one else in the Church promotes on such a large scale. We ought to remember that, while promoting the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception, we not only spread the Marian charism, but also our eschatological one, because, in accordance with the Founder’s will, who linked spreading of devotion to the Immaculate Conception with help for the dead, the primary goal of these confraternities was to assist the Poor Souls in Purgatory. Our service in parishes and retreat centers presents a perfect opportunity to develop in a practical and organized manner, certain elements of our spirituality.
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