211 that the Lord God found this “landing pad”, that He found faith—a foundation on which He can show us Fr. Papczyński’s sanctity and his message for the Church, and particularly for us—his spiritual sons. Thanks to God, we opened ourselves to this grace. Father Papczyński has always been our father but we did not always regard ourselves as his children. We come back to our father as did the prodigal son. And we have received sandals, a cloak and a ring. We held out our arms and called ourselves his sons. This is a true joy. And this joy was with us during the last day of recollection (the fi rst after the beatifi cation), in which all of the members of the Ukrainian Vicariate participated. A step was made, a very concrete step. The future lies before us. We are meeting here, discussing our challenges, refl ecting on our charism, talking about our works that we’d like to bring to life. Those are the very concrete steps, which are to lead us towards discovering the entire depth of the gift of the beatifi cation. During the Jubilee Year of the 100th Anniversary of Renewal and Reform of our Congregation which begins tomorrow, let us turn in a special way to the person of Fr. Renovator. He left new means for us to follow the path of the Marian vocation. We are facing the task of discerning and accepting God’s abundant gifts which we’ve been given so that we can wear these sandals, the cloak and the ring in a worthy manner. Andrzej Pakuła, MIC Italy, Rome, General Councilor and General Postulator Certainly, Fr. Papczyński has become better known and closer to us recently especially through his writings (I’m thinking primarily about Polish-language publications), which appeared in print for the fi rst time in the year of his beatifi cation. Also, of no small importance is the work of reconstructing Fr. Papczyński’s likeness based on his skull, which seems to be quite credible and close to reality. Generally speaking, it is possible to say that our Congregation experienced something of a discovery of the fatherhood of the Congregation’s Founder. It is a very important matter because it places us spiritually in a closely-defi ned relationship with him and gives us an identity. Our research and discoveries conducted in the framework of the beatifi cation gave us an impulse to seek to understand the idea that guided him in founding our Congregation, as well as new ways of interpreting our charism in such aspects as, e.g., the Immaculate Conception, prayers for the dead, the concept of our Congregation and the intentions behind its founding; and fi nally, the riches of Fr. Founder’s personality. Consequently, the Congregation turned its greater attention to the matter of self-awareness. The beatifi cation was perceived as the Church’s confi rmation of our way of life
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