Father and Shepherd #2 | Seminary and priestly ordination

Młody ks. Stefan Wyszyński i jego obrazek prymicyjny, fot. Instytut Prymasowski Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego

Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński the Primate of Poland has remained in the memory of Poles as a statesman, defender of faith and freedom of the homeland, advocate of unconditional human dignity.

In 1917, Stefan told his father that he wanted to be a priest. His father – as the Primate later recalled – did not express his enthusiasm, asked if he was aware of what he was deciding on. However, Stefan managed to convince his father. He agreed for his son to go to a minor seminary, that is, to the Pius X High School in Włocławek. After two years of studying and passing his High School diploma, Stefan entered the Theological Seminary in Włocławek. Here he received a solid intellectual and spiritual formation.

During the retreat before ordination, he wrote ten points as a program for his interior life. They testify to the maturity with which he entered the path of priestly service to God and man.

Timete Deum.

1. Speak little – live without noise – silence.
2. Do much without fever, take it easy.
3. Work systematically.
4. Avoid daydreaming – don’t think about the future, that’s God’s thing.
5. Don’t waste your time, because it doesn’t belong to you: life is purposeful and therefore every moment of it as well.
6. Inspire good intentions in everything.
7. Pray often in the midst of work – sine me nihil potestis facere [without Me you can do nothing].
8. Respect everyone, because you are inferior to them; God opposes the proud.
9. Omni custodia custodi cor tuum quia ab ipso vita procedit [Guard your heart with all strength, because from it life flows].
10. Misericordias Dei in aeternum cantabo [The Mercy of God I will sing for ever] ”.

A strengthening and warning for Stefan were the words of his grandmother – Katarzyna – uttered a few months before his ordination in 1923: “I asked her for a blessing on the priestly path. This simple woman, bidding me farewell, said: Remember, if you are a bad priest, do not show yourself to me. (…) I remember it well to this day and I will never forget it. These simple, but decisive the words given by a Christian woman were of great importance to my personal life. ”

The time of his priestly ordination was a real test of faith for Stefan. He wanted it so much, so he prepared for it. Yet, instead of being ordained, he had to go to the hospital with the misdiagnosis of typhoid fever. It turned out to be serious pneumonia, but not tuberculosis, as some biographers say. The living conditions in the seminary were very difficult, the students were often hungry.

“I was ordained a priest in the chapel of Our Lady in the Cathedral Basilica in Włocławek. I was ordained alone – on 3^rd August 1924. My colleagues were ordained on 29^th June and I went to the hospital on that day. However, it was a happy circumstance because thanks to this I was able to receive my ordination in the chapel of Our Lady. When I came to the cathedral, the old sacristan, Mr. Radomski, said to me: Father, with such health, I think we should go to the cemetery rather than to the ordination. Everything happened in such a way that only the merciful eyes of the Blessed Mother looked at this strange rite that was taking place at that time. I was so weak that it was most comfortable for me to lie prostate on the ground than to stand ”.

Humanly speaking, Father Wyszyński’s health did not give promise to high hopes. Yet God’s plans were different. “It was my wish to be able to celebrate at least a few Masses in my life. Yet God added many more, unforeseen years to those years, and He decided a time. (…) From that moment on, I feel that I am pulling not with my own forces, but with God’s powers, so I cannot attribute anything to myself, I cannot talk too much about my priesthood, about what happened in my life, because I was only submissive to God “.

He went to Jasna Góra Monastery with the celebration of his first Holy Mass. Why? On 5^th August 1924, at Jasna Góra, he celebrated the first Holy Mass. Why? “I went to Jasna Góra to have a Mother, so that she would stand at every Holy Mass, as she stood with Christ on Calvary”.

Father and Shepherd #1 | Childhood >>>