Spirituality of the Religious Life According to St. Stanislaus Papczyński 44 the body, so the love of God eliminates from the heart the love of the world and of all vain things.”48 Man receives the power of true love through the Holy Spirit, because “the Holy Spirit often inspires them with a special grace to lead a better life, and attracts them to the divine love in many different ways.”49 However, the acceptance of God’s love leads to a spiritual battle that aims at conquering “whatever of the world, of perverse desires, or of self-love exists within you, or uproot and bravely beat back whatever attacks your mind, already consecrated to another Master,”50 namely: Christ. The author of Inspectio cordis believes that this kind of struggle is – on the one hand – a sign of a positive response to the endowed gift of God’s love; while on the other, it is an expression of human freedom and a personal endeavor to love God. For there can be no coercion in love. To substantiate his teaching, Saint Stanislaus recalls the life of St. Paul the Apostle. He uses St. Paul’s example to show that Christ did not force Paul to follow Him, but that “He attracted Paul with the bands of love.”51 To live by God’s love is a religious’ personal choice, which is made not only in the area of his ideas, desires, and intentions, but his factual deeds, as well. “The essence of perfect love is to observe the divine words,” teaches the Marian Founder, adding that it is necessary to fulfill them “exactly,” because this is the proper attitude of the “sons of God” who “would like to be lovers of the best and greatest Father.”52 What is more: those who truly loveGodwill seek the slightest opportunities, theminutest deeds, the ‘lowliest jobs,’ ‘despised occupations,’ discovering in them a chance to ‘kindle the flames of God’s love with their fervor.’ They 48 IC, XII Sunday After Pentecost, AHC, p. 3; cf. A. Pakuła, Idea doskonałości zakonnej..., pp. 15-17. 49 IC, Sunday in the Octave of Corpus Christi, AHC, pt. 2. 50 IC, XIV Sunday after Pentecost, BHC, pt. 1. In researching the main features of Marian spirituality based on the Constitutions of 1930, Fr. W. Nieciecki, MIC, remarked that the idea of a spiritual struggle with self-love and various forms of selfishness, aimed at supernatural love – which is inherently appropriate to Christian spirituality at all times – has its specific features also manifest in the tradition of the Congregation of Marian Fathers, beginning with the teaching of Saint Stanislaus Papczyński. Cf. W. Nieciecki, Główne cechy duchowości Zgromadzenia Księży Marianów w świetle Konstytucji mariańskich z 1930 r., Rome 1965, pp. 90-112. 51 IC, Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles, AHC , p. 3. 52 IC, Sunday of Pentecost, BHC, pt.1.
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