The most appropriate effects of redemption in the human being are deeds that stem from it – deeds that through Mary are rooted in Christ, through one’s belonging to Her (Tuus [Yours]), and that are simultaneously in accordance with Christ’s law, with His gospel – in the highest accordance. Here also, among other things, the issue of Father W. (Three possibilities: to simply remain humble and make use of what is at least partly true in there; to make light of it: he will improve as he is young; ‘to keep watch’ and make sure he has improved intellectually and also ‘morally’. First and foremost, one needs to pray for him and for the right decision.)
Adoration; Final concluding meditation (the issue of envy); Matins (memorial of St Charles);9 Rosary
4 November
Holy Mass with the relic of St Charles’s heart, celebrated by the Pope
Meditation: ad instar s. Caroli afferre se ipsum ad bonum commune Ecclesiae et in domicilio et in Dioecesi, participans hoc modo in opere Redemptionis [to work towards the common good of the Church both at home and in the diocese after the example of St Charles, thus participating in the work of salvation].
Adoration
[1 December 1962]
Missa ad intentionem satisfaciendi S. Cordi BMV [Mass offered in reparation to the Most Sacred Heart of Mary]
[2 December 1962]: First Sunday of Advent
There are, so to speak, two planes: the divine plane (the love of the Son–Word for the Father) and the human plane (people’s yearning for the true God, for the revelation of God in the Son–Word). These two planes approach and come into contact with each other – this is the spirit of Advent.
My Advent (a reminder from last year): a strong wish for God–Christ to enter into every matter. In this context, there is the experimental meaning too: it is still in fieri [in the process of ‘becoming’] in me, in others, in an objective way and regarding its future sense.
6–7 July 196? [probably 1963] Kalwaria – The Shrine of Our Lady1
Aims:
1. To ask for peace and good for the Church of Kraków, efficacy of action, vocations.
2. To prepare the basis for the retreat.
3. To move forward certain tasks.
In general: preferably the form of reflection days (= meditation connected with other tasks).
Confession; Holy Mass; Meditation; The Way of the Cross; The Little Ways2
(a) Numerous threads, reflective and ‘existential’. One needs to bring them all here and pass them into These Hands in accordance with the principle ‘Totus Tuus’ [‘Entirely Yours’].
(b) The main topic of the retreat emerges: ‘between past and future’.
19–23 [August] 1963 Retreat in Tyniec1 Topic: Justification – grace
19 August
Compline; Adoration; Meditation
20 August
Lauds; Prime
Meditation before Holy Mass:
1. Holy Mass brings the rhythm of Christ, the rhythm of the Son of God into our lives.
2. (The integrating role of consciousness – the disintegrating role of sensuousness.)
Holy Mass; Thanksgiving; Reading the Holy Scripture; Reading the Council schema; Meditation; The Way of the Cross
A reference to the previous retreat held in Rome on 31 October – [4] November 1962. The dogmatic topic that requires a deeper spiritual reflection is the mystery of justification (iustificatio). Man cannot be ‘just’ before God; he can only be ‘justified’ before Him. The former is proved by the fact that man is not equal to God, his Creator, and the latter by Christ and the entire order of grace.
No creature can be in a position of justice before its Creator. Man is in a way a synthesis of creatures. As a creature in general, he and his existence are unconditionally dependent on his Creator; he is dependent also by virtue of his nature and, consequently, unequivocally subordinate. As a being endowed with vegetative (sensual) life, he is subject to the laws of life and death (generatio et corruptio) like other creatures. As a spiritual being – a person – he bears a more special resemblance to the Creator, which obligates him to maintain the order of justice, i.e. to give to everybody what rightly belongs to them (which also includes paying religious worship to God). The fact of personhood does not render invalid man’s vegetativeness and animalitas [animal nature], which turns him into ‘ash and nothing’2 before his Creator. As a person, man can enter into personal contact with the Creator; this contact, however, has to be initiated by the Creator. When He initiates it, it consists (like the act of creation) in an act of mercy, because man as a creature is fully dependent and subordinate. In particular, he needs to be justified because of his sin, which, as an offence to God, does harm to the very essence of this personal contact understood in the way it is understood and intended by the Creator – and it is His prerogative to define the essence of the contact He establishes with His rational creature.
Justification comes through Christ, the Son of God, who initiates this essential contact and gives it, to a certain extent, the qualities of His contact with the Father. Therefore, justification is expressed in us as the new esse [being] – ‘esse ad Patrem’ [‘being towards the Father’] (i.e. sanctifying grace), and the continuation of this personal contact consists in faith, hope and love.
Vespers
Adoration: Lord Jesus hid in the womb of Mother Mary, which He left as a human being – and in the womb of Mother Church, so that it could give birth to sons of God.
Rosary; Spiritual reading (G. Vann)3
Meditation: I note down briefly: the (diocesan) bishop’s authority and vocation require, on the one hand, generosity and courage, and on the other hand, service to everybody and universal charity, in particular charity for priests. Regarding all these points: reservations. ‘Episcopatum desiderare’ [‘To aspire to the office of bishop’]4 – but it cannot be ‘propter se’ [‘for oneself’]. Many things have yet to ‘burn out’
