343 part ii: meditations for more solemn feasts works, he promoted the true religion with such a great zeal and endeavored to eradicate the schisms with such eagerness, that he earnestly asked his father, the King, and the Polish Senate for a decree totally forbidding the followers of the Greek Schism in Russia, by which means he hoped to put an end to the schism.154 Oh, may the Most Holy Eucharist also rouse you to good works, so that your soul may shine with them before men, and thus our Heavenly Father may be glorified. 3. “You yourselves like men who wait” (Lk 12:36). Consider, that St. Casimir already enjoys the beatific vision and immerses himself in the comforts of the glory of the heavenly Fatherland, whereas you are still waiting [f.106r] to contemplate God face to face, the same God Who you are about to receive under the species of bread. Truly, this happiness of yours will be great if only you try to prepare yourself to receive Him worthily. Oh, if only you had a little bit of that ardor with which this saintly prince was burning for the Holy Sacrament! Oh, if you possessed even the smallest spark of love, with which he was glowing towards the Mother of that Lord whom you are about to receive! He gave witness to that love in a splendid hymn which he personally composed and which was buried with him, and then found on his chest, completely intact, many years after its author’s death!155 154 The Greek schism began in 1054, when Leo IX excommunicated the patriarch M. Cerularius, who in turn excommunicated the Pope. Cf. M. D. Knowles, and D. Obolenski, Historia Kościoła, Trans. Ryszard Turzyński, vol. II, Pax, Warszawa 1988, pp. 248-249; cf. Romuald Gustaw, ed., Kazimierz Jagiellończyk (1458-1484), in: Hagiografia Polska, vol. I, Księgarnia św. Wojciecha, Poznań 1971, pp. 742-743. 155 Paolo Rabikauskas, BS, vol. III, Istituto Giovanni XXIII nella Pontificia Universita lateranense, Roma 1963, 903 (s.v. Casimiro (Kazimieras, Kazimierz), principe…, sancto): “Some attribute to Casimir the canticle ‘Omni die.’ In favor of this opinion there seemed to be a rubric in the prayer book of Casimir’s brother, Alessandro, written in 1490 … where the canticle is introduced with the note: ‘Alia oratio Illustris principis Kazimiri, Serenissimi Poloniae regis nati. Oratio quotidiana’; the hypothesis also seemed to be supported by the fact that when the saint’s tomb was opened in 1604, a copy of the same canticle was found in it. It is now known that the hymn originated in the 13th or 14th century, but it is due to the
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