Charity as the Basis and Source of the Spirituality of the Religious Life 31 only motivation and the objective of the religious’ every aspiration. However, neither the Norma vitae nor any other work of St. Stanislaus provides a definition of love/charity or even a description that could fulfill this purpose. Consequently, the concept of love takes on various meanings in his works. He wrote in Latin and therefore used different nouns to define love (charitas, dilectio, amor) as well as verbs (amare and diligere), basically attaching the same meaning to them; yet, while using the word charitas, he frequently refers directly to mercy.3 Wishing to indicate another content of the concept, he usually added a descriptive: amor spiritualis, amor carnalis, amor divinus. A similar manner of using Latin concepts is found in Regula decem beneplacitorum, although its author, talking about love, in most cases used amor and amare. Other works from that period do not add any new information to the topic at hand. In the Christian tradition, the above-named definitions were meant to describe individual kinds of love/charity.4 They were synonymous in the early documents of the Marian Fathers’ tradition, which becomes even more noticeable when we consider their use in a sentence. It seems that the reason lies mainly in the character of the analyzed works: they weren’t intended as systematic treatises on love/charity, but as practical, theological, and ascetic directives for growing in the spiritual life and religious formation. We should not exclude an additional possible factor: the impact of St. Augustine’s theological doctrine on the theological and spiritual thought of our Founder – as well as the author of the Regula decem beneplacitorum – and other works of the period. It is known that the Bishop of Hippo’s focus was not on terminology, but on the internal intentions of human actions and he regarded various definitions of charity/ love as synonymous.5 3 Cf. A. Pakuła, Miłość jako podstawa życia zakonnego według “Inspectio cordis” Stanisława Papczyńskiego OIC (1631-1701), RT 42(1995) z. 5, p. 109-119. 4 Cf. F. Prat, Charité, DSAM, t. 2, Paris 1953, kol. 508-530; F. Drączkowski, Miłość syntezą chrześcijaństwa, Lublin 1990, p. 13-28; R. Coste, Miłość, która zmienia świat. Teologia miłości, przeł. M. Stokowska, Rzym-Lublin 1992, p. 15-20. 5 Cf. F. Drączkowski, ibid., pp. 22-23. It is noteworthy that Papczyński, educated by the Jesuits and the Piarists who mainly taught Thomistic scholasticism (like
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