In God’s Hands: The Spiritual Diaries of Pope St John Paul II

Message du S. Père aux prêtres [The Holy Father’s letter to all priests] (to mark the end of the year of faith).

Other signs of the ‘negative attitude’: When I greatly desire the good of e.g. my community, I need to be careful that this ‘great desire’ does not turn into a kind of hostility towards others.

Rosary (III); Penitential psalms; Litany of the Saints; Office prayers; Compline

14 September: Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Lauds; Participation in the concelebrated Mass, and simultaneously:

Meditation 1: (Consideration): A continuation of yesterday evening’s meditation. One needs to be vigilant because even here I have heard of some breakdowns. There needs to be a deep wish for the good, and a courageous defence of the Church, righteousness and truth – but one needs to be vigilant so that it does not become an ordinary ‘vehemence’. This difficult aspect of self-improvement should be entrusted in particular to the Mother of God (Saturday!).

Prime; Participation in the Low Mass, and simultaneously: Rosary (I), Rosary (II)

Meditation 2: In a sense a continuation of yesterday morning’s reflection on the topic of union with God. Today I consider the ‘structure of condemnation’. Condemnation, just like salvation, the union with God, is a mystery of faith. However, if one can per analogiam [by analogy] use personalist structures, various stages are, so to speak, revealed. A failure to meet in truth and love caused by some weakness or mistake is something other than the rejection of God – because He upsets e.g. one’s vanity.

Actually, we only know the figure of the condemned angel (‘… prepared for the devil and his angels’).

And Christ says: ‘the one who does not believe will be condemned’

and ‘depart from me into the eternal fire … truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me’.

One needs to consider these mysteries further:

The structure of rejection is closely linked to the structure of conscience (quod non est ex fide, peccatum est [whatever does not proceed from faith is sin]):

the question of good and bad faith (bonae et malae fidei). The rejected angel is certainly of bad faith; he hates God, even though he knows that He is the fullness of good, and he does not want to serve Him, even though he knows he ought to.

The problem of ‘conviction’: certain conscience – and doubtful conscience (one must not act in accordance with the latter). The problems ‘ad cautelam’ [‘for caution’].

The Way of the Cross (in unity with the Mother of God); The Little Hours;

Conversation with Br Ludwik (and Marian) – about vocation; Vespers

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament: Thanksgiving for the wonderful reality of the Eucharist, in which I have been participating for so many years as a priest, and for ten years as a bishop!

Consideratio super sacerdotio et de sacerdotibus [Reflection on priesthood and priests]: During the retreat I read a report on the debates of priests from the Kraków Archdiocese on this topic during deanery and inter-deanery conferences. Regarding the need to appoint a council of priests and clergymen.

I concluded the retreat by taking part in the closing day of the visit of the icon of the Mother of God to Giebułtów and the beginning of its visit to Modlnica. I constantly, and specially, consecrate my ten years of episcopacy and further service, as long as divine providence allows, to the Mother of God. I entrust to Her the matter of the renewal of presbyterium [priesthood] in particular.

Evening Mass for Monika and Jacek on the tenth anniversary of their marriage UIOGD

9–13 August 1969 (#ulink_79314381-15be-5278-9036-722586772d49) Retreat at Bachledówka

Topic: ‘Good in its divine source and its human verification’

9 August In the afternoon: preparation for the retreat: (a) Holy Mass, penitential psalms; (b) reading notes from previous retreats; (c) searching for the topic (Myst. SS Trinit., myst. Ecclesiae: sacerd. populi regal., mysterium iniquitatis: triplex concupisc. [The mystery of the Holy Trinity, the mystery of the Church: the priesthood of a royal people,

the mystery of evil: the triple concupiscence

]); (d) apart from that – a glance at the Church that the Holy Spirit has entrusted to me.

10 August

Intentions; Preparation for Holy Mass; Lauds; Holy Mass; Thanksgiving and prayers; Prayer for the gifts of the Holy Spirit

Meditation 1: Vatican II and, in particular, the Constitution on the Church, takes for its starting point God’s eternal love for man (‘philantropia divina’). The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is seen from the perspective of this love (missiones Div. Person. [the divine Persons’ mission]). This starting point, which reveals above all God’s immanence (‘God for man, for the creation’) needs to be considered in more depth, in the direction of God’s transcendence. God’s eternal love ‘for man’ is explained by and stems from the fact that ‘God is love’.

(Contemplation of the mystery of deity.) We think of God through creatures and on the basis of creatures. Although we ascribe to Him to an infinite degree (per viam eminentiae [by way of eminence]) all types of perfection that we find in the created world, deity, God’s nature – which the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit possess – is not only a summation of these perfections inferred from the world. Deity is transcendent in relation to everything that is created. Despite the similarity and ‘per viam eminentiae’, God is ‘completely different’ from the world.

A special point of this contemplation of deity – ‘God in Himself’ – is the mystery of good. It seems that within the world good is always connected to some need, it responds to some need – and this is how one can discover and verify it. Human thought and human sensitivity to values move towards ‘bonum in se’ [‘good in itself’] with much difficulty. However, the contemplation of good beyond the structure of our needs, longings and desires is the deepest need and yearning of the human soul, which reflects the trait of divine likeness, characteristic of the human soul.

God Himself as good is – if one may say so – beyond any need. He is the Absolute, or the fullness of good, and also the fullness of glory. He does not need any of the creatures nor man to add anything to His divine perfection, happiness and glory. And this is why God’s ‘philantropia’, the love of man and creatures in general – beyond any need or usefulness – introduces us into the correct order of good. And it alone constitutes and guarantees this order.

If we were left with the worldly dimension, where good is to a large extent explained by need, benefit and usefulness – and this interpretation is the main trait of the materialistic axiology – man would be doomed to an almost hopeless search for ‘bonum in se’. And by the same token he would be doomed to dampen the deepest desire that lives in his soul, the desire for selfless good – and the selfless desire for good.

God determines and at the same time releases this desire – and through this He creates the foundations for love in the human world. ‘I came to bring fire to the earth’.

For love presupposes good in itself, ‘bonum in se’.

Adoration: Glorification of God coming out of the depth of my heart, God as the good which exceeds everything else and which came close to man – and through the sacrament of its presence – the Eucharist – is still among us. Sacramentally, but in a way personally.

prandium [lunch]

Reading: Fr Jaworski, ‘On the philosophical and pre-philosophical knowledge of God’

Reading: Fr Macharski, ‘Remarks on the organisation of pastoral units’ – and a reflection on the tasks of the diocese

At the same time, the retreat is to help me deepen my love for the Church, which the Eternal Bridegroom has entrusted to me. In the margin of these reflections I make notes on the topic of the implementation of the Council and the diocesan structures.

Rosary; Vespers

Meditation 2: ‘The Church has been seen as “a people made one with the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”’ (L[umen] G[entium] 4).

A continuation of the meditation on the mystery of God oriented towards the reality of the Church (Myst. Ecclesiae [The mystery of the Church]) in accordance with my own plan for the retreat (‘philantropia’). The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the unity of the Godhead and the inexpressible mystery of the personal union in the Trinity simultaneously carry out this wonderful mission which shapes the divine reality of the Church. The Church is born and lives by the principle of this mission; it is the Church’s foundation, so to speak. Through this mission and in this mission humankind partakes in the divine unity, which brings about the unity of people in the Church and through the Church. First, it is an inner unity of man established by truth and love, and then the principle of communality among people.

The entire Church – and its every part – receives this unity from the mission of the divine Persons. The mystery of the universal Church and the particular Church.

The divine mission is shared by people in the Church in various ways.

Matins of the following day; The Way of the Cross; Rosary; Compline; Examination of conscience

11 August

Morning intentions; Lauds; Prime; Holy Mass; Thanksgiving (and Rosary)

Reading: (Catechism); (Congr. pro Clericis [Congregation for the Clergy])

Prayer for the gifts of the Holy Spirit