229 sions and we probably all noticed with joyful surprise that we had found a living person in Fr. Papczyński, a witness to Jesus Christ, a witness to faith. The story of his life, his witness to Jesus Christ has an important meaning to us today. This is how I see the fi rst fruit of the beatifi cation. The second matter is my satisfaction from belonging to a community, like Fr. Ryszard Wojciechowski spoke about earlier. I notice that this topic has recently come up more often in our midst. On various occasions, we ask ourselves about the unity in our Congregation as a whole, and about its unity in its individual communities; we also discuss the quality of our mutual relations. It is very signifi cant that Fr. Founder’s elevation to the altars prompted these kinds of questions, because it is a matter of our identifi cation with the Congregation. I want to say that my sense of belonging to the Congregation defi nitely increased since the beatifi cation. Also, I noticed that the beatifi cation promotes a refl ection on our fundamental charism—the mystery of the Immaculate Conception, not only and not primarily in its devotional, but in its eschatological aspect. The Immaculate Conception is the hallmark of the new life in Christ, which is strongly connected to my baptismal and religious consecration. The mystery of the Immaculate Conception is a sign calling me to ongoing conversion. Pvils Zeia, MIC Latvia, Rēzekne, Provincial Superior What did Fr. Stanislaus’s beatifi cation bring to the Latvian Province and to each one of us? We talked about it after refl ecting on one of the conferences. We found that each of us had lived out the beatifi cation in his individual way. Our elders, who are nearing their 90th birthdays, said that the beatifi cation did not give them much because they’ve heard it all in the novitiate already, at which time Fr. Benedict Škrinda acquainted us in detail with Fr. Papczyński’s life, his trials, and his striving for holiness. Our elders always believed Fr. Papczyński to be holy and that it was only the Church that had delayed the offi cial beatifi cation, for unknown reasons. On the other hand, our younger generation, myself included, although I’m over 60, did not hear a lot about Fr. Papczyński, his life and work. It was as if the beatifi cation opened our eyes to the fact that we are in possession of a great treasure. We read all of the available printed materials. The participation in the beatifi cation ceremonies has become a great experience for us, the Latvians. Maybe, some of us, who were directly involved in the preparations of this event, had not lived it out as strongly as we should have. We arrived
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