Spirituality of the Religious Life According to St. Stanislaus Papczyński 26 as a conference on the basic theological ideas contained therein. Since we intend to set the research within a historical context potentially leading to determining the originality of the analyzed opinions, the findings of this study will sometimes be measured – by comparison – against the general situation of the Polish spirituality of the day. Because the source documents have been written only in Latin, in order to uncover the significance of their statements and to more precisely interpret the meaning, including the implicit one, we shall use their original language as this work’s primary reference language, even though some of the documents may have been already translated into Polish. For the same reason, the work will quote characteristic original Latin terms or phrases that deepen the theological sense of the problems being discussed. The work is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is dedicated to an examination of charity as the basis and the source of the spirituality of the religious life. After discussing the concept of supernatural love, we will show customary ways of growing in love/charity (purgation, illumination, union), and this love’s essential meaning for the common life and the organization of a religious community. The second chapter will attempt to interpret the Trinitarian context of the spirituality of the religious life according to the examined documents. In other words, it will show the place of God the Father and the hallmarks of the religious person’s relationship to Him, followed by an analysis of the characteristic features of relating to Christ with the goal of following in His footsteps (sequela Christi) and becoming like Him. We will indicate the causative role of the Holy Spirit in the initiation of the religious life in its communal and individual dimensions. In the third chapter, will consider the relationship with the Mother of God from the immaculist perspective, but particularly, the aspect of Mary’s maternal presence, the imitation of her virtues and the fulfillment of the basic aim for which the Institute was founded. The fourth chapter will discuss the means of formation of the spirituality of the religious life which were clearly emphasized in the analyzed documents, namely: prayer and mortification, the meaning of
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