225 the man who grew to know himself.” One of our confrere once wrote this. He recently left our Congregation and the priesthood. Is it true that he explored all of the options offered by religious observance in order to get to know himself while he was in our Congregation? One of the main means of getting to know oneself is through meditation, when one comes in all truth before God. The element of forgiveness. Many have left the Congregation or are breaking up religious or parish communities because they cannot forgive; the confreres cannot mutually forgive: “Holiness does not consist in never having erred or sinned. Holiness increases the capacity for conversion, for repentance, for willingness to start again and, especially, for reconciliation and forgiveness.”6 And in this spirit of reconciliation, our Founder ought to be an inspiration for each one of us. Indeed, how many had he himself to forgive?! In his Doctoral thesis, Fr. A. Pakuła said that one of the features of Fr. Papczyński’s spirituality was his belief in love and forgiveness. In this very spirit, the First Chapter of the Congregation was celebrated in 1685; and the General Chapter of 1725 established an annual communal act of forgiveness: deprecatio mutua. Wouldn’t it be worthwhile to get this practice back? Maybe, we can appoint a date for this (in a future issue of our MIC Calendar)? Who is to know, if this won’t be an opportunity to rebuild bridges and to melt a lot of ice of aversion which now exists between us? Andrzej Szostek, MIC Poland, Lublin, General Councilor, Professor at CUL I’ve got the refl exes of a chess-player who plays by correspondence, and I don’t always recognize the importance of things instantaneously. Maybe, within fi ve-years, my refl ections with regard to the beatifi cation will be more mature. In any case, all that I’m going to say now, in the following fi ve parts, would be of a somewhat provisory and cautious character. 1. To me, Fr. Stanislaus’s beatifi cation is not only an opportunity to recall his idea of the Congregation that he founded, but also—and maybe even more—a chance to bring his way of striving for sanctity closer. This is not the sanctity of a Stoic, pagan character, some sort of showing off one’s moral fi tness. This is a humble, simple trust in the Mother of God, a fervent meditation on Christ’s Passion. And let’s see what an unusual person this little boy had fi nally become, this stubborn and frequently troublesome confrere from the times of the Piarists! 6 Benedict XVI, General audience on January 1, 2007.
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