Theological Foundations new file

16 Theological Foundations ing. However, a comprehensive study of the thought of both of these authors has never been conducted. In an effort to remedy this, I decided to devote my attention to their teaching and thus hope to fill this gap in such an important area of Polish moral theology. The principal sources for this work are the writings of Stanislaus Papczynski and George Matulaitis-Matulewicz. Both authors left many writings on various subjects. I have selected, first of all, those writings concerning the issues of moral life, i.e. the religious statutes that were drafted by each of them, the instructions which they prepared for these statutes, little ascetic works, personal notes, letters, homilies, sermons and conferences. The most extensive work which is very helpful in preparing a study on Father Papczynski’s teaching is INSPECTIO CORDIS. We do not know the exact time when this work was written. The Venerable Servant of God probably wrote it after 1679 and before 1685. It is a manuscript measuring 18.5cm x 14.5cm and numbering 186 leaves of text. Inspectio contains meditations for Sundays (Part I), more solemn feasts (Parts II-III) , days of recollection (Part IV) and for particular days of the week (Part V). Each meditation, divided into a few points, is a com- mentary to a particular verse of the Gospel taken from the text of the Holy Mass for that particular day or selected because of a certain truth of faith, a particular religious vow or a virtue appropriate for those in the religious life. The daily morning meditations concern the Lord’s Passion, the evening meditations regard ultimate affairs of man. Two meditations were prepared for each day: one for the time before receiv- ing the Eucharist and one for the time after. The basic source used by the Venerable Servant of God in preparing Inspectio Cordis was the Holy Scriptures which he quoted and referred to all the time. As can be seen from the note which the author had written on the title page, he wrote Inspectio in haste. This is why his comments to the fragments of the Holy Scriptures were limited to what he was able to recall from memo- ry or to what he carried in his heart. Yet, because of all this, Inspectio is an original work and is the fruit of its author’s rich personal reflection