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

Morning intentions; Rosary; Petitionary prayer; Lauds; Mass concelebrated at the altar of St Adalbert; Thanksgiving

9.00 a.m.

Talk 1:

Reference to Ephesians

(a) Christ is the sign of the invisible God, His visible image (God’s portrait painted on Man’s face). Example: Panin, Solzhenitsyn.

(b) Christian – priest – bishop as a sign of Christ.

(c) The bishop is a sign of Christ because he proclaims the glory of the Father. Do I proclaim God, who is love; or love, which ‘is God’? – verticalism ↔ horizontalism.

(d) The bishop is a sign of Christ – the Good Shepherd. Hence the priority of pastoral work in a bishop’s life. Does anything overshadow this single work or distract me from it?

(e) The shepherd knows his sheep (do I know my priests? my alumni? my congregation?). Do I do everything I can to win those who are far away? New initiatives – creativitas [creativity] in the good sense of the word.

(f) Bishop – a living sign of Christ. His heart, his blood (the example of St Januarius), his hands (the example of the priest from Brzozów) are always ready to give, never to receive nor take away.

Meditation

Talk 2: On the breviary.

‘Jesus Christus orat pro nobis ut Sacerdos noster, orat in nobis ut caput nostrum, oratur a nobis ut Deus noster’ (s. Aug.) [‘Jesus Christ prays for us, as our priest; He prays in us, as our head; He is prayed to by us, as our God’ (St Augustine)].

(a) On Christ’s prayer, which He said so often, at so many places and times.

(b) On the breviary: the hymn of God’s glory transplanted into the earthly life of the Church.

(c) Since Christ prays for us in the breviary, we need to have hearts as wide open as He has.

(d) A communal psalm of the bishops (cf. Acts of the Apostles) bears the stigma of the Holy Spirit. His power. Vespers should be separated and communal Lauds introduced.

(e) Collective prayer and constant prayer. We need to have faith in the power of constant prayer. Status orationis [the state of prayer], existential prayer.

(f) This is what the breviary is for: the liturgy of hours. The truth of hours.

(g) The pinnacle of pastoral work – and at the same time, its source, because this is when Christ prays in us.

(h) Further discussion of the new breviary.

(i) How is it with my breviary? Do I, despite many tasks, try to retain the truth of hours?

(j) Prayer – the breath of the mystical body (Paul VI) is not only the fruit of every man’s religious sense, but above all, the fruit of the Holy Spirit’s work in us ‘qui orat in nobis gemitibus inenarrabilibus’ [‘who prays for us with sighs too deep for words’] (St Paul)

– so ‘we pray in the Spirit’ (St Paul).

(k) And then the liturgy of hours will lead us to the heavenly liturgy (cf. Isaiah, Revelation).

Shorter meditation; Angelus; Examination of conscience (in relation to preaching)

(After lunch) reading: Fr Granat, Ku człowiekowi i Bogu w Chrystusie [Towards Man and God in Christ] and others

The Way of the Cross: An amazing text, the prayer to the Holy Spirit, who is the ‘maker of the Eucharist’. The entire Way of the Cross is a reference to the Holy Mass; each Station refers to a different word, a different meaning, a different problem, e.g.

I: to the words of greeting

III: to confiteor [I confess …]. On the sins of neglect in the lives of priests and bishops

IX: on celibacy

XII: on the entire celebration of the Most Holy Sacrifice.

It would be worthwhile to have the entire text!

Letter to the youth

Talk 3: On death as exspectatio [expectation].

(a) sit mors pro doctore [let death be our teacher] (St Augustine).

(b) (Lack of work on the future of humankind (Prof. Rzepecki) interview in Kultura).

(c) theologia expectationis [theology of expectation] and the spirituality of our waiting for the Lord:

The example of Pius XI.

(d) Christus – metuendus Pastor [Christ – fearsome Shepherd]. Waiting for the Lord fills our consciousness and tries each of us especially in difficult moments: ‘tell me what you are waiting for?’

(e) Eschatological testimony. Our waiting for Christ is such a testimony – and this testimony is given by celibacy ‘propter regnum coelorum’ [‘for the sake of the kingdom of heaven’]

for ourselves and for others.

(f) It is about chastity that is not limited to sexual matters. All our sacrifices as well as all our work etc. testify to our waiting for the Lord.

(g) The theology and spirituality of expectation give us the skill of dying, the ability to die by submitting everything to God and the Church. Bishop Łoziński: ‘Do not pray for my healing, pray for me not to waste the grace of suffering.’

(h) Maranatha! [Our Lord, come!]

(i) ‘… and He will serve them!’

… The eternal life consists in Christ serving us: Auctor et consummator fidei nostrae [The pioneer and perfecter of our faith].

(j) Re-capitulatio in Xto [Conclusion in Christ]: everything will come back to Christ, everything will be at His feet, everything will be concluded in Him, ‘that God may be everything to every one’

… – And it is there that Christ ‘will serve us’ … with truth (!) and fatherly love (!). Pater futuri saeculi [Everlasting Father];

the joy of seeing the Father’s face.