Cardinal Wyszyński about FAITH and MARY

photo : Primate Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski Institute

Pearls and Aphorisms of Blessed Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński about FAITH and MARY.

FAITH

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit

197. There is a direct relationship between the Triune God and all of us, each and every one of us. That is why we are baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity, so that we may be aware that this Unity of the Trinity has, as it were, settled in our personality, taking it into its possession and constantly forming us in itself, because God lives in us.[i]
198. The Hoy Trinity constantly acts in each of us. The Father sends us his Son Jesus Christ not only in the first mission, through the Incarnation, but He also sends him to all his children, whom he multiplies in his Fatherly abundance, to have as many friends of God in heaven as possible and to call as many people as possible to a life of bliss through your friendship, happiness, and joy. For God is the Highest Good, and every Good—indeed the Highest!—is characterized by the fact that it must be shared.[ii]
199. For, all sacrificial activity is directed to the Father’s glory. All power to act and all of our courage flows from the Son who rests in our hands. The entire effectiveness of the priestly ministry flows from the Holy Spirit, Lord, and Giver of life (Creed). Is the Sacrifice celebrated in Holy Mass not the most real expression of our communion with the Holy Trinity?[iii]
200. I still have the right to say “Father” and I will never lose it. Even if my hair turns grey and if I see the sons of my sons around me. This has not made me lose the Father and my right to Him. My entire life passes under this eternal law, even if I am banished from all communities. A father cannot disown his son, he cannot deny me the right to call him Father. Here, even the most totalitarian human will is powerless. The law of nature and life, the law of blood and the heart are stronger than statutory law. Even if my Father blushes with shame, remembering his son, the blushing only confirms my right to him. For here, the blush of truth speaks.[iv]
201. Father! You fashioned the hand of the mother that serves the baby. I have already come to the finished one. This hand—which You wanted to show me on earth—was the first to feel me, the first to touch me, the first that recognized me and helped me. It is the perfect and tender instrument of your fatherly hand. Everything that I have experienced from this maternal hand is your paternal service to man. How wonderful this hand is! Strangely delicate and cleverly suited for every ministry; sensitive and ready to protect at all costs. And so clean that it will not stain anything but purify everything. Could you, Father, help me better than through the extended hand of Your paternal Providence, which reaches with the fingers of my Mother all the way to my feet? With them you wiped away my first tear, with them you washed me from the blood of my birth, with them you gave me my first food.[v]
202. God’s will is always Love. Obedience to God’s will is obedience to love.[vi]
203. This is God’s justice—He pays for a life full of love with an everlasting love that will not fade away or die.[vii]
204. God’s mercy is not so much the holiness and glory of His friends as the salvation of the greatest thieves. Only the sight of the redeemed criminals, whom the whole world hated yet God had saved, will open our eyes to the power of God’s mercy. But this can only happen in the next life because we are not able to comprehend it at present. We must first get to know our misery, at the Last Judgment, and so come to understand why God does not give up on rogues.[viii]
205. We sometimes have an erroneous view of God. We fear Him too much, we fear Him too much. Most often we see Him as the Judge of the living and the dead. He is; that it is true. Yet, don’t we think about it too much? While we think too little about the fact that He is primarily God-Love, God-Life, God-Grace, God-Truth, God-Wisdom, God-Joy, God-Delight. Only by thinking this will we have the correct image of God. If we are aware of this, we will stop fearing Him. God does not want us to fear Him but to fall in love with Him so that we love him.[ix]
206. The greatest fruit of the Father’s love is man because in man there is love. Of all the creatures that exist, only man knows how to love, only man needs love, and only he can show it. Therefore, man is considered God’s most perfect creation. Through the love that is within us, we strive for the great Love that is God.[x]
207. God cannot fail to love you! Believe that! He cannot. This is His “weakness;” the weakness of the Almighty who must love You. And believe this. Little has been said about it so far. If this is not confirmed by modern theologians, they will not tell man the most important thing that he needs most.[xi]
208. Although it seems to us that God is very far away, He embraces us all the time. Each of us is in His arms. As a mother caring for her child forgets about the whole world because she has a child in her arms, so the Heavenly Father “remembers” nothing much more precisely because He has you in His arms. You are the fruit of His loving will.[xii]
209. Christ is truly one of us! He is not some delegate or messenger from heaven who comes out of nowhere. He is one of us! The Gospels rightly quote the genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ and enumerate: genuit, genuit … so that people would know well that this Man comes from man; how the God-man grows out of a people and its humanity.[xiii]
210. Jesus does not exist without Mary! They work together for the regeneration of man. Perfect Man and Perfect Woman in God’s saving plans! Two in man’s fall, and Two in his redemption! From then on, these Two will be at the forefront of humanity’s rebirth and exaltation. Each work of God, the emergence of a new life on earth or new values, will always need the perfect cooperation of two: “They will be two in one”.[xiv]
211. The crucifix is the banner of love. This is the only banner that has survived in the world. All others have rotted, been damaged and torn. But this banner remains.[xv]
212. Christ is, above all, peace for us. It was possible to sing other motives of joy over the stable in Bethlehem. One could speak of great love, which is the essence of God. God is love. It was possible to speak of His justice and mercy, of unusual sensitivity to the work of His hands, to man. And yet the stable in Bethlehem was primarily about peace: Peace for people of good will.[xvi]
213. Love is relevant at all times and in all situations. That is why the historical memory of Pentecost is still valid in God’s Church. The Church would “wither” if the love poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit ceased to exist in him.[xvii]

 

MARY

214. …When, in this life, the Holy Mother stands under the cross, this life becomes brighter and lighter. Even the tears are not so bitter; even our loneliness and abandonment are not so difficult to bear because we have the mediation of our Holy Mother.[xviii]
215. Mary was glorified with all mankind through the Blood of her Son. This is giving humankind Blood through the Son. If today we speak of Mary’s motherhood with regard to the human family and the Church, it is in the name of this kinship. We are bound to Mary through Christ, who gave his Blood, taken from her, for us. That is why she is the Spiritual Mother of the Church.[xix]
216. Mary is first and foremost the Handmaid of the Lord! This is what she called herself when the Archangel Gabriel announced her calling to be the Holy Mother of God. And this is what she was throughout her life on earth. Only later, in heaven, did she become Queen. But on earth she served! She served Jesus, Joseph, Elizabeth, the Spouses at Cana, on Calvary… And she has continued serving until now, because she serves the Holy Church, although She calls her the Queen of the World. She serves each of us, even though we kneel before her—serving—power! Let us remember that Mary serves![xx]
217. Mary brought God closer to people. She gave human form to the God-man, she carried Jesus in her arms, fed him with mother’s milk, embraced him. She took advantage of the familiarity with the Son of God that mothers are entitled to towards their own children. Finally, she gave him to the people. God incarnate had a Mother on earth. This truth overpowers us. God the Father was looking for his Mother Son among the women of this earth. God trusted the Virgin and entrusted her to the Infinite. From that moment on, God became strangely accessible and close to us. Let us take Him from the arms of the Earthly Woman, just as we take into our arms the baby of every mother we know. We gained strange courage and boldness towards God the Father and to His Incarnate Son. After the Heavenly Father, we owe this to Mary, who wanted to be the Handmaid of the Lord.[xxi]
218. We rightly call the Mother of God the “Heavenly Gate,” not only because God incarnate came down to earth through her but also because Mary leads us to heaven with Christ.[xxii]
219. Mary became our Mother in the saddest moment of her life, when she offered Her Only Son. Not in Cana of Galilee, at the wedding feast, not in miracles, not in the vast meadows where her Son fed the hungry crowds, not in the triumphal procession of Palm Sunday, when the crowds cried out: Hosanna to the Son of David! Not when the Palestinian women cried out, “Blessed are the womb that carried you and the breasts that you sucked!” Not then! But Mary became our mother when the blood of her Son was shed, and when every righteous person wept, his soul filled with pain. She became our Mother in the saddest moment of her life and of all mankind, when the world crucified the God-man, when it renounced Him, when, after throwing Him out of the city gate, it crucified Him … Then mankind heard from the lips of the dying Jesus: Here is your Mother.[xxiii]
220. We need her, and let us not be ashamed of that. We need her like lungs need air, the heart blood and love, the feet support, the eyes of light, and the mouth food. Like a child not yet born, he needs his mother: he cannot exist and live without her and outside her.[xxiv]
221. Mary’s life was ordinary and gray, just like the life of every mother and yours, devoted to constant care and minute services. You know how much patience and effort are needed to finally make a child, “inapt” at birth, into a mature person.[xxv]
222. Mary is Mother, Queen, and Handmaid. Now, every woman, if she fulfills her vocation in accordance with God’s plan, is mother, queen, and handmaid throughout her life. And when the time comes for her to accomplish her task, she will be adorned—like Mary in the Cenacle at Pentecost—with the glory of the Holy Spirit.[xxvi]
223. Please her, trust her! She saw you on the way, now she can see your tired legs, injured feet, weary bodies. Don’t add to her sorrow! Not on your knees, but on your feet, with your head held high—because you are winners!—, go to your Mother who is the Comforter and the Cause of joy for all of us.[xxvii]
224. How can we help the Mother of the Church? First of all, by giving ourselves completely to her in the maternal bondage of love (…). We can also help by imitating her virtues (…). We can also support her through praises that are in accordance with God’s will (…). We can also help by listening to her advice, which we are reminded of by the liturgy for the feast of Our Lady of Jasna Góra (…). There is another way to help Mary, Mother of the Church, in her work of cooperation with her Son for the salvation and sanctification of the human family: by defending her honor in our homeland.[xxviii]
225. The idea of aid is a mystery that mobilizes us, activates us, frees us from apathy, inertia, from the attitude of comfortably waiting for someone else to do everything for us, and maybe even for the Church to carry us alive to heaven, as long as we do not have to move hand or foot. Oh no, God’s children! It must not be that easy! To reach glory one must pass through the cross, just as did Christ and His Sorrowful Mother Mary, given to help the Polish Nation, who through the cross and suffering constantly deepens our Nation, sanctifying it with the powers of Christ.[xxix]
226. Mary, through the Incarnate Word, entered much closer than any other creature into the relationship with the Holy Trinity. She thus became a model of this union for all of us, baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It was the work of the Holy Trinity, for each of us is to be a dwelling and temple of the Holy Trinity. The entire life of the Holy Trinity has illuminated Mary’s interior life, just as it must illuminate us.[xxx]
227. The image of the Assumption, going to the Son, seated at the right hand of the Father, encourages us (…) in this valley of tears and tells us that we do not have a permanent dwelling here, but we are waiting for a different one. This dwelling is prepared for us by our Friend and Savior, Jesus Christ.[xxxi]
228. Mother of Beautiful Love! Take all the babies in your arms. Take care of this couple – the mother and the father. Come into their families, watch over them, support them in difficult situations, cheer them up. Teach love …! Change the whole environment so that they understand that life is given with great love and that there is no greater joy than when a person is born into the world. You know, Mother, what a son means because you had a Son and the Son of God. Teach us to love God’s greatest gift: a new life. We entrust them to you and ask that your vigilant, maternal eyes watch with kindness over all families. We cry to you: Under your protection.[xxxii]

Prayer in the chapel of Our Lady of Jasna Góra in the Vatican Grottoes, after the election of John Paul II, before returning to Poland

229. Mary! You know how much we entrusted to you the defense of our Homeland and Christ’s Church in Poland, the faithfulness of the People of God to Heavenly Father, and the national Christian culture. You know that we have fought for decades for the respect of man and his right to freedom, love, justice, and peace. Do not look at our sins and let the Heavenly Father have before his eyes the faith of the Holy Church in Poland. Give us the strength that our faith may always be bound by social love for all people and a sense of duty and responsibility for the Church of God. You know, Mother, that today people say that our homeland deserved to be honored by the election of the Pope from Polish soil. We, on the other hand, know how the merciful and understanding God evaluates our work and efforts, our living faith, and our ardent trust in You. However, we fear, Mother, lest our weaknesses and faults, national defects and various misfortunes cast a shadow on Your Kingdom, lest this shadow falls on Your Servant, whom the Holy Spirit took from the Polish soil and placed here on the Rock of Peter. Therefore, Mother, make the great pastoral efforts undertaken by the Polish clergy and Episcopate effective; that we may be able to defend not only the universal Church but also all Polish families, that they may be faithful to God and to every human being, so that they may respect his dignity as a child of God. In this way, we will not cast a shadow over the ministry of your Son, Karol, to the universal Church. And we so fervently desire that his ministry be pleasing to God and bring the greatest glory to the Holy Trinity! May he truly be a great Pope, not for himself, but for the glory of God and for your glory, Mary, and that he would save the world from the imminent religious, moral, and social decay. We are aware that we have been at the forefront of the greatest struggle, not from today on, not for the past thirty years, but for centuries; From the very beginning, our homeland had the honor of defending the Church and Christian culture, not only within the borders of its own country but also defending the freedom of other peoples and nations. Today, we implore you, Mother today, turn your merciful eyes on the nations that have sometimes threatened the Church in Poland! Let them now experience the grace of God’s great love for themselves, let them love your Son and submit to His sweet lordship.[xxxiii]

 

LOVE >>>

MAN >>>

FAMILY >>>

WORK >>>

SOCIAL THOUGHT of the Church >>>

KILLING THE UNBORN >>>

PRAYERS AND PRISON MEDITATIONS >>>

 

[i] Every Day for the Better! … (from a conference to a national academic pilgrimage), Jasna Góra, 28 May 1961. KP 8, 263.

[ii] Who is the man that you love him so much …? Idzie, 16.

[iii] The Eucharistic Mystery, List I, 83

[iv] Ibid., 17.

[v] Ibid., 23.

[vi] Ojcze, 68.

[vii] From the sermon on the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Laski, 25 August 1943, typescript

[viii] From the sermon on the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Laski, 25 August 1943, typescript, 87.

[ix] The Joy of Transmitting Life – in Love … (from a speech to parents), Warka, 7 May 1961. Primate of Poland, 77.

[x] Paternal Distress in the Cradle of Polish Christianity (from the New Year’s message), Gniezno, Primate’s basilica, 1 January 1965. KP 19, 7-8.

[xi] God-Love Is Closest to You (from a conference to high school students), Szymanów, Secondary School of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, 21 March 1971. KP 36, 151.

[xii] Ibid., 149.

[xiii] Alma Redemptoris Mater … (from an occasional speech), 16 December 1960. KP 7, 292.

[xiv] They Will be Two in One … (from a sermon to young married couples), Warsaw, chapel in the Primate’s house, 27 May 1962. KP 11, 140.

[xv] Joys of Poland of the Millennium (from the message during the Millennium Celebrations), Sochaczew, 18 March 1966. Ibid., 76.

[xvi] In Defense of Free Humanity (from a message to lawyers for the wafer sharing), Warsaw, chapel in the Primate’s house, 30 December 1966. KP 25, 536.

[xvii] Miłość II, 55.

[xviii] Sermon during the May service. Laski, 30 May 1943. Typescript.

[xix] Miłość I, 60.

[xx] Wypełniamy, 9.

[xxi] Ibid., 23-24.

[xxii] Ibid., 153.

[xxiii] From the sermon on the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Laski, 15 August 1944. Mps.

[xxiv] Mary in the Great Novena (from a sermon to pilgrims), Jasna Góra, 11 May 1959. KP 5, Głos, 98.

[xxv] As One of You (from the sermon on the eve of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary), Warsaw, 7 December 1960. Mother of the Son, 14.

[xxvi] From Jasna Góra Victory (from the conference to students), Jasna Góra, 7 May 1972. Głos, 323.

[xxvii] On the Way to Mother. Jasna Góra, 14 August 1963. Ibid., 169.

[xxviii] An Appeal to Help the Mother of the Church. Jasna Góra, 26 August 1969. KP 32, 105-106.

[xxix] Jasna Góra, 15 September 1973. KP 44, 61.

[xxx] Wypełniamy, 149.

[xxxi] At the Feet of the Woman Clothed with the Sun (from a sermon on the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary), Jasna Góra, 15 August 1974. KP 47, 57.

[xxxii] Miłość I, 168.

[xxxiii] Prayer before returning from Rome to Poland after the election of the Holy Father John Paul II. Vatican, Chapel of Our Lady of Częstochowa in the basement of the Basilica of Peter, 28 October 1978. KP 61, 68-69; O polskim, 54-57.