Saint Stanislaus Papczynski — The Life and Writings

S AINT S TANISLAUS P APCZYNSKI 162 The Support of the Mystery of the Immaculate Conception At a certain moment in the life of Blessed Stanislaus, the grace and the desire to persevere on his path found a particular support in the mystery of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of Christ. In this truth of the Faith, he discerned both the presence of God as well as the special role of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This mystery was the source of his recognition, admiration, and adoration of God. Toward Mary on the other hand, there was love, veneration and the desire to live as she did. This can clearly be seen in these words which he wrote: “It was the right thing [...] to say that there would be conceived, really by the work of the Holy Spirit, the One who was full of grace, full of the Holy Spirit. O, if only one could say about your deeds that they come from the Holy Spirit, that they have been done in the Holy Spirit! It is truly a great happiness to acquire the Holy Spirit, it is an even greater happiness, to possess the Holy Spirit, it is an even greater happiness to act according to the Holy Spirit, and it is the greatest happiness to come to the end of one’s days in the Holy Spirit” ( Inspectio cordis ). Blessed Stanislaus was therefore happy when the Church approved The Rule of the Ten evangelical Virtues of the Blessed Virgin Mary ( Decem beneplacitorum ) as the norm of life of the Marian Fathers. even though it is no longer binding on the reformed Congregation today; nevertheless, it constitutes an ex- traordinary patrimony of Marian piety which consists in the imitation of the Mother of Jesus. To some extent, it is incorpo- rated in the current Marians’ motto: For Christ and the Church: Pro Christo et Ecclesia . Who, in fact, more than Mary, lived for Christ and the Church?