36 Teach us to be one with you in heart and mind. Help us to live out the Gospel every day of our lives. Teach us your rule and help us to learn to love our brothers as Christ commanded us.” T he Sequela Christi in the Marian Tradition Having examined the idea of coming after Christ as given in the Holy Scriptures and documents of the Teaching Magisterium, let us see how this thought is presented in the tradition of our Congregation. In the fi rst place, it must be said that the Marian sources do not contain any new or totally original interpretation of this matter. Indeed, it would be highly suspicious, should the Marian tradition contain some radically new ideas as compared with the biblical and Magisterium’s teachings. However, it is worthwhile to fi nd out how the Marian sources refl ect the idea of following Christ and if any of the above-mentioned aspects are being presented in our tradition in some special way. In Vita consecrata, John Paul II invited us to make such a refl ection, urging all consecrated persons to rethink their Constitutions and Rules, which contain the program of following Christ.9 Let us examine in turn three sources of the Marian tradition: Blessed Stanislaus Papczyński, our Founder; Blessed George Matulaitis-Matulewicz, our Renovator; and our current Constitutions. T he Sequela Christi in the Writings of Blessed Stanslaus Papczyński For this section, I mainly used excerpts from Fr. Andrzej Pakuła’s Doctoral thesis entitled Religious Spirituality According to Stanislaus Papczyński and the Early Tradition of the Congregation of Marian Fathers. Four aspects seem to be particularly characteristic of our Founder: centering our formation on Christ—Christ as the model for the consecrated man; the dynamism of the relationship with Christ; the passion and paschal dimension of following Christ; and the eschatological dimension. Christ as the Model of Consecrated Men Blessed Stanislaus decidedly places Christ in the center of religious spirituality, presenting Him as the norm of the consecrated life. Christ is, above all, the Bridegroom, with whom the Religious are united through the vows and whom 9 VC, 32.
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