it remains incomparable to the other two. It is difficult to grasp this ‘more’. It seems that charity is always responsible for the union with a person that takes place within that which is good, and the union with that which is good that takes place in a person. Its nature is, in a sense, bipolar, being simultaneously ‘personalist’ and ‘axiological’. It has to be love ‘above all’ for God, who is the fullness of good – and for creatures, specifically people, according to the measure of good they represent. Love is not bound to a person in a way that would make it impossible for it to go beyond that person (where it is possible) towards good. At the same time, a proper relation between good and charity makes it always possible to turn love towards other people – not only one specific person, but people in general. Love is characterised by the properties which St Paul wrote about (1 Cor. 13). Its essence is beyond properties and it is such a participation in God that it fills all eternity.
The Way of the Cross: Expanding on these reflections, e.g. Station II: ‘ubi amatur, iam non laboratur, et si laboratur, etiam labor amatur’ [‘in love, there is no hardship; even in hardship, the hardship is loved’]; Station VIII: the strength of love lies also in the identification of that which is not love – even though it appears to be – for what it is.
The Little Hours; Adoration (Words of Our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross); Rosary; Vespers; Afternoon meditation on practical issues (separately)
Continuation: 26 September, 28 September [probably 1965]
7/8 November: Dies recol. [Reflection days]
Main thoughts: (a) participatio in sacerdotio Christi – in summo sacerdotio [participation in Christ’s priesthood – in the highest priesthood]; (b) priesthood and the days of death (1–2 November) coincide in my life in a significant way; (c) then thoughts ‘de redemptione’ [‘of redemption’] come back (redemptio – redemption = the restoration of full worth to man and creatures in general); (d) a supplement to the meditation on theological virtues: charity is a participation in the very person, and differs from faith and hope in that it leads to a participation in a person, thus, a union; (e) just like at the retreat, also here one feels an eagerness to complete tasks (which at this stage I have put in some order).
7/8 November
This day was a kind of anticipation of the retreat day (intertwined with other activities). The key thoughts of the day: (1) the reality of the Most Holy Trinity (preface); (2) the issue of ‘meaning – service’.
2 December
Matins; Holy Mass; Lauds; Prime
Meditation 1: The Church as the means to the end, which is God Himself: the union of persons–souls with Him. Simultaneously, the same Church as Sponsa [Bride]: the divine order is the order of love.
Meditation 2: God Himself gives ‘meaning’ to man and his actions. At the same time, there is a drive towards this ‘meaning’ in man. This drive is turned into service when man accepts the meaning given to it by God. This ‘meaning’ is always larger than man. It overwhelms him.
Vespers; The Way of the Cross (associations with Genesis)
Meditation 3: A timely one on the topic of ‘pastor – auctor’ [‘shepherd – creator’]
Conclusion: to order things according to the meaning given to them by God, though the question remains.
Meditation 4: Litany of the Saints. Modus procedendi [how to proceed] in case 1.
Adoration; (Talk for the Felician Sisters)
Spiritual reading (F. Wulf SJ, La vie spirituelle dans le monde d’aujourd’hui)1
Matins; Rosary; Penitential psalms; Compline
[Kalwaria]
(Twentieth anniversary of priestly ordination)
The Little Ways:1 An extraordinary theological fusion of Christ’s way of the cross and His Mother’s way. Christ’s priesthood was planted, sown and deposited in the people of God as their permanent inheritance. My own priesthood was also born out of the people of God’s inheritance.
Holy Mass at the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary; Talk on current issues; (1 November) the ordination of subdeacons in the cathedral; The Way of the Cross; Prayers for the dead
19–21 December 1966 Retreat at the Albertine Sisters’ Convent Topic: iustificatio – restitutio – (vocatio) [justification – restitution – (vocation)]
19 December
Preparation for Holy Mass: ‘Order – grace’ (Meditation 1);
Holy Mass, Thanksgiving; Lauds, Prime
Meditation 2: Vocation and eschatology. Having to consider some more specific issues related to my vocation, I am looking for the broadest background possible. The human vocation is eschatological, directed at God Himself through participation in His life and eternity. Recently I have connected this eschatological vocation with the idea of ‘restitutio’: the creation’s return to the Creator. Such a return is, so to speak, the primary function of the Son–Word: Christ. At this point the earthly Advent exceeds its historical boundaries. Everything in Christ aims for ‘restitutio’ [a return to the original condition] – for a return to the Father. Man participates in this in a conscious way through faith. Conscious participation in Christ’s ‘restitutio’ coincides with human justification (iustificatio) as the basic conception of being in grace.
The second eschatological element is judgement. We also await Christ from this angle: first, historically, as Word made flesh – Word that is truth: the truth-norm expressed in the Gospels. Then as Word–Judgement (‘The Father judges no one but has given all judgement to the Son’).1 As the consequence of incarnation and redemption, the Word’s judgement will be as if a special ‘self-judgement’ of humankind:
