Peter’s keys confirm the bishops’ authority and strengthen it. Vatican I: the significance of Bismarck’s reaction, the significance of the German bishops’ response, which was immediately approved by Pius IX.
(b) ‘Fear not – I have the keys’ (Revelation).19 Peter’s keys – the keys to happiness related to the deposit of faith and grace. ‘The keys that will open so that none shall shut and that will shut so that none shall open’ (Isaiah).20 There is a longing for such keys, for a bedrock, in the world.
(c) Bishops’ authority is connected with the cross (cf. St Paul’s speech in Miletus).21 To lead the Church in accordance with God’s will – this must be connected with the carrying of the cross. (Evidence: Paul VI’s pontificate.) It is, above all, the inevitable struggle with Satan (Il Papa e il diavolo [The Pope and the devil]).
(d) And therefore the bishop might experience a temptation to flee from authority (St Boniface:
Ecclesia non est relinquenda sed regenda Veritas fatigari potest, sed vinci et falli non potest.
[The Church is not to be abandoned but to be controlled The truth can be impeded, but it cannot be conquered nor deceived]).
The Holy Spirit has anointed us so that we can conquer satan in difficulties, even though sometimes it might seem that he is winning. ‘You have been anointed by the Holy One’ (1 John).22
(e) The crosier (Baculum from battero = to strike) should bear two marks: the mark of fatherhood and the mark of the Eucharist. (The Church, through the will of God, is a monarchy, it will never be a democracy), but it is a fatherly monarchy. Paternalism is a mistake, fatherhood is the truth (1 Cor. 15: For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers … I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel).23
(f) What contradicts the bishop’s fatherhood? Permissivism, protectionism, parochialism, indecisiveness, verbosity (empty talk), overproduction of dialogue. The bishop’s fatherhood has to be full of love and prudence.
(g) The mark of the Eucharist: one needs to follow the Eucharistic Christ – for God, one needs to be the host, and for people, the bread (imitamini quod tractatis [imitate what you practise]): Theology of bread.
During the retreat one should see that which should be placed on the paten, but which we do not place there. (Could we not give more to people?) Brother Albert’s theology of bread: One has to imitate the Eucharistic communion.
Meditation
Talk 5: On the retreat confession, on the sacrament of penance. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit.
(a) The Father’s love is forgiving – Luke 15 – on the prodigal son. The way to happiness leads through the confessional – each Lord’s Prayer is an amazing psychotherapy – the sacrament of penance: to rebuild our love of God completely (not ‘almost’ completely).
(b) The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is with us in the sacrament of penance. In amplexu Crucis [Embracing the Cross], we can receive all graces and cleanse ourselves from all sins. The Catechism of the Catholic Church: ‘through the sacraments we celebrate our existence’.24 Through the sacrament of penance a personal intervention of the merciful Christ takes place in my soul.
Example: Servants of God, Brother Balicki and Cardinal Mercier. Bene, Domine quia humiliasti me [Lord, it is good that you made me humble].25
– Contrition for God’s graces which I have wasted, in the confession.
– Confession always has to be connected with work on oneself, constant rebuilding, since the bishop ‘positus in Ecclesia quasi in statu perfectionis acquisitae’ (S. Th.) [‘is placed in the Church as if in acquired perfection’ (St Thomas Aquinas)].
(c) The communion of the Holy Spirit; in confession the Holy Spirit is certainly with us (Seraphim of [Sarov]: the aim of Christian life is to acquire the Holy Spirit) – ‘peace be with you’ – rebuilding the communion with the Holy Spirit, we are rebuilding the communion with the Church, with our neighbours.
All this is the aim of our retreat confession.
Short meditation; Rosary; Examination of conscience; After lunch – reading; Confession; Adoration; Vespers; Rosary
The Holy Year’s pilgrimage to St Adalbert’s tomb: enriched by the jubilee indulgence
Concelebration; Introduction by His Eminence Cardinal Primate
[Talk] 6: Contio [Sermon]: on the words from St John’s Gospel on the grain of wheat which falls into the earth … and bears fruit. Three grains – the first is Jesus Christ, the second – St Adalbert, the third – we. The entire theology of the Holy Year indulgence was developed on this basis.26
Procession and benediction with the Blessed Sacrament, including: Holy Hour in the spirit of satisfaction; Penitential psalms; Litany of the Saints; Compline; Reading
6 September
Getting up; Morning prayers; Lauds; Prime; Concelebration at the tomb of St Adalbert; Thanksgiving
Talk 7: Glory to you, Word of God.
(a) The beauty of the Word of God; reflection on the first human word; Modrzejewska;27 [illegible] (cf. Parandowski, Alchemia słowa).28
(b) The word of God is the power of God to save man (per Evangelica dicta deleantur nostra delicta … [let the words of the Gospel erase our sins …]). Lord, only say the word and my soul shall be healed … The word of God has an amazing therapeutic power. From the Synod of Bishops’ instrumentum laboris [working paper]: vi Spiritus Sancti praedicatio Verbi Dei semper efficax est [by the power of the Holy Spirit, the preaching of the Word of God is always effective]. Although sometimes we cannot see the effects clearly. – Verbum – Sacramentum [Word – Sacrament].
(c) Rex regum – metuendus Censor [The King of kings – fearsome Judge] (!) demands of us to preach the entire word of God; Acts of the Apostles – St Paul’s speech in Miletus: the entire will of God. According to St Paul, the violation of this entirety resembles murder. (Paul says: I am innocent of the blood of all of you … for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.)29 The doctrine of faith is complete or it does not exist at all (bonum ex integra causa, malum ex quovis defectu [a thing is good when good in every respect; it is wrong when wrong in any respect]). The bishop needs to have ‘sensum limitis’ [‘a sense of his limitations’].
(d) The aim of preaching the word of God, evangelisation, is salvation. The usual path to salvation is through Christ present in the Church. Involvement in the world (pre-evangelisation) cannot be an anti-testimony, i.e. an end in itself. It also has to be a testimony given to God and the eschatological reality.
(e) Metuende Censor [O fearsome Judge]: Christ is also metuendus Censor [fearsome Judge] of our language. The language that does not grow old is the language of the Gospels. It is a language that calls us to follow Christ. One needs to take the effort to find the appropriate contemporary language, but also not to lose the biblical language.
