Spirituality of the Religious Life According to St. Stanislaus Papczyński 114 The religious vocation that was greatly valued by the Marian Founder has its source in God’s fatherly love for man and in man’s striving to return this love. The Father, Creator, and Giver of all good things attracts man with His love, manifested in all possible manners from the moment of creation through the offering of His Only Son until man’s personal experience of this love in the outcome of which, man decides to dedicate himself to God out of love, following the example of Christ. In this regard, the total character of man’s involvement is important which embraces all aspects of his life. Following the example of God, man is to dedicate himself as a “sacrificial offering.” He does so following the example of God the Father who thus “offered His only Son” and following Christ’s example who offered Himself in the same way to the Father and man, for the sake of their salvation. This is also the reason for [Papczyński’s] frequently recalling, in his Inspectio cordis meditations, events from the history of salvation, especially those described in the Gospels, as well as for his tirelessly invoking the person of the Incarnate Son of God. Thanks to this, the spirituality of the religious life acquires a powerful quality of a configuration to Christ. On the other hand, without the person of Jesus Christ, there is no way of understanding the place of God the Father in that spirituality. For even the act of creation of the world and man – even as it is the first manifestation of God’s fatherly love – is not fully comprehensible outside of it relation to Christ, through whom and for whom everything has been created. Therefore, Papczyński links these two events and shows the birthplace of the true spirituality of the religious life, namely: the religious’ filial relation to God the Father following the example of Christ, upon whom he [the religious] must gaze, but most importantly – must imitate. In his comment on Christ’s transformation on Mount Tabor and the words: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (Mt 17:5), Papczyński remarks that in this event, God the Father “…showed [the Son] to the disciples.”13 At the same time, He [God the Father] reveals Himself as 13 IC, Second Sunday of Lent, AHC, pt. 3.
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