the radio broadcast from the chapel. He listened to all the talks and participated in the Spiritual Exercises, which he practised privately during retreats. He was accompanied by his personal secretary, Archbishop Stanisław Dziwisz, and other members of the household. The notebooks contained only the printed programme of this retreat, which the Holy Father held in his hand while listening to Bishop Corti’s talks. John Paul II remained faithful to the tradition of annual retreats. His last retreat was made complete through his suffering, which became a special mark in his spiritual diary.
Fr Jan Machniak1
Recollectio (inter.) [Inner retreat]
Praenotanda [Introduction]
8 July
The following key inner topics have been put together and discussed with the father:
1. death
2. power
3. creativity
4. people.
2 September
The recollection of these topics and novum [novelty] (as if a common denominator was found for all the experiences and reflections): I am very much in God’s hands – the content of this ‘Totus Tuus’ [‘Entirely Yours’]1 opened, so to speak, in a new place. When any concern ‘of mine’ becomes in this way Mary’s, it can be undertaken, even if it involves an element of risk (though one must not overdo it: in human terms, i.e. on the human side, the issue needs to be dealt with thoroughly). At a certain point, however, one needs to abandon human calculations and somehow grasp the Godly dimensions of every difficult issue. A peculiar iunctim [junction] of issue 4 with issue 2 begins to emerge here.
I discussed all this with the father too.
1962 Dies recollectionis (sequ.)
[Reflection days (continuation)] after the arrival in Rome for the first session of the Second Vatican Council
9 October
Holy Mass; Lauds; Prime
I participated in the ‘capella papalis’ [‘solemn papal ceremonies’] on the fourth anniversary of the death of the late Pope Pius XII, thanks to whom I became a bishop. Thoughts: (a) moving from external to internal vision, I have realised that all those present are connected in one spirit and it is the Spirit of Christ, the Son of God. I experienced this unity in diversity very clearly, and with various degrees of participation taken into account. Not a gathering of many separate units, but the unity of substance. It is the substance of thought, doctrine – and it is attended to by the Pope and the Council. But it is also the substance of life, morals, which we realise within the one Church, through, above all, the mysterium (sacraments): the unity of our sacrificial posture with Christ’s, sealed with the Communion; (b) a background thought that came to me was about the truth of priesthood and episcopacy, which was also given to me from within Christ’s priesthood through His Vicar on earth (Vicarius Christi).1
Adoration: Christ is entirely within the Church and the Church is entirely within Christ. NB I constantly need to remind myself to wish for a good shepherd for the seat of St Stanislaus above all and fundamentally, without allowing for any ‘mea’ [‘mine’].2
Reading the schema ‘de castitate, matrimonio, familia, virginitate’ [‘on chastity, marriage, family, virginity’].3
Reflection (meditation):
1. quoad theoriam [concerning theory]
2. quoad practicam [concerning practice].
(The problem of a general and ‘perspectival’ leadership in this area.)
14 October
Meditation: Let us consider the most proper way for the human spirit to meet the Divine Spirit. Our Lord Christ laid the foundation for this meeting for every human being – and for the work of the Divine Spirit in the human spirit.
(The theological virtues: the means to adjust the human spirit to the Divine Spirit; the gifts of the Holy Spirit: the means, so to speak, of adjusting the Divine Spirit to the ‘dimensions’ of the human spirit.) A move towards the opening and submission of the human spirit to the Divine Spirit is necessary, particularly during the Council. The goal cannot be the expression or assertion of oneself, the human being, the human spirit alone – but above all the expression of that which comes from the Divine Spirit in the form of virtues and gifts. In this light, the fundamental attitude: (1) a permanent necessity to subordinate creativity to truth; (2) experimentum divinum, non humanum [the divine, not human, experience]; (3) humility.
[31 October – 4 November] 1962
Rome, at the Felician Sisters’ Convent
Topic: The mystery of redemption
Deus, Redemisti nos Domine
in sanguine Tuo ex omni
tribu et populo et natione
et fecisti nos Deo nostro regnum
[God, by Thy blood, O Lord,
you didst ransom us from every
tribe and people and nation,
and hast made us a kingdom to our God]1
31 October
