Saint Stanislaus Papczynski — The Life and Writings

163 Blessed Stanislaus Papczynski Exhorts Us to Evangelization The fact that the Word of God fulfills and makes man happy is confirmed by the motto of the Marians as well as, in the past, by the rule of the Imitation of the Immaculate Mother of Christ, as well as by the witness of the life of Blessed Stanislaus of Jesus and Mary, and the witness of the lives of other Marians, Blessed George Matulaitis-Matulewicz from Lithuania and the Blessed Martyrs from Belarus, Antoni Leszczewicz and George kaszyra. Above all, therefore, they call us to conversion, to have the courage to go to the new poor of our times (John Paul II to the Marians), and to have a new enthusiasm for evangelization. It was also an eloquent sign that Benedict XVI carried out, on the occasion of the above mentioned Beatification, toward the Marians at Our Lady’s Shrine in Licheń, and toward those that visit that place, to consign the Book of the Gospels with the following dedication: “Listen and preach the Gospel follow- ing the example of the Immaculate Mother of Christ.” Today we could add: following also the example of Blessed Stanislaus. It is worthwhile to recall here that the first book written by Fr. Papczynski was a textbook on rhetoric. He mastered the the- oretical art of oratory and, from the time he was a deacon, he preached willingly, in such a way that he gained a reputation as one of the best preachers in the Republic of Poland. Today, he would probably invest mind and heart to find new forms of evangelization, of preaching the Word of God and of guiding souls, in the awareness that the greatest poverty is the absence of God. Conclusion Dear Marians, spiritual sons of the new Blessed, undertak- ing the labor of the evangelization of the world of today, fix your gaze on the example of your Founder. By renouncing his own self, he made a total gift of himself to Christ, and in the Documents and Homilies from His Beatification