Cardinal Wyszyński about the CALENDAR OF THE LITURGICAL YEAR

photo: Primate Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski Institute

Pearls and Aphorisms of Blessed Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński about the CALENDAR OF THE LITURGICAL YEAR.

Advent

320. Advent reminds us that “my land” must open up and give birth to a Savior for all who expect Him from me … How many people are waiting for me to bring them some liberation, relief, consolation, joy, hope, help, salvation![i]
321. …We need the Holy Church to remind us of how to walk straight and prudently on this earth. Therefore, even though the coming of Christ took place a long time ago, the Holy Church still reminds us today in Advent that Christ has come and constantly comes again to our souls and hearts.[ii]

 

Christmas

323. I look at the Bethlehem manger – in the stable … And a terrible thought comes to my mind: how good it is, Son of God and Son of Man, that there was no place for you in the inn because you had to look for … a stable! And then you ended up in “my stable.” Actually, you didn’t have to do anything, because you are never obliged to do anything; you only act through the Love that you are. It was Love that led you to the stable, or rather it was out of love that you chose the stable to make it, for me and every human being, a temple. It is said that gratitude characterizes the people of good breeding. I do not know if I am made of good breeding, but I would like to show you my gratitude for the fact that you have chosen … a stable. There are places I don’t like to go to, although people live and work there because I think these places are dirty and have a bad effect on me. I may avoid a hospital, although my suffering brother is waiting for me there. I avoid it, however, because it reminds me of my possible future suffering. – I no longer avoid the hospital anymore, because You, God’s Child, are lying there tightly wrapped in swaddling clothes … Or it may be the crowded, stuffy waiting room of a suburban train station, full of smoke, that I carefully avoid by walking on a frosty platform, just to avoid going in there and getting dirty and surrounded by smoke. I will go in, I will go in right now, without fear and disgust. I will look at the dozing, bundled up people, at their tired, weary faces. Maybe they need help? Maybe I’ll serve them in some way? The railway “stable” is also full of you … Or maybe I know the address of a house where sin alone reigns and the entrance is only for sin? Thank God, I never crossed the threshold. “I know there’s someone there for me to save, but I won’t go!” What would others say about me? Did you think about it, Son of God and Son of the Immaculate Virgin, when you laid down in the stable on the hay to save me? What will others say about it? So, I will go to this house where sin reigns, to save someone, to bring someone out of there and bring them to you, and you will save him.From today on, there will be no dirty, ugly, stable places for me. I will cross every threshold without fear of “getting dirty” if there is a person behind that threshold who can be helped. Any place can be a temple! And  for me there will be no “dirty,” “base,” “gray” people, who are not worth paying attention to, because the grayness of their everyday existence and their hard, physical work do not attract my eyes and thoughts, constituting a nameless crowd that I will not see … I respect every man who, in his work, regardless of its type, makes the world a better place, more pleasing to God and people … Oh! how I would like to sanctify every place where a person lives and works! Today I will sanctify them with the thought that you, the God from the stable in Bethlehem, live in every place …[iii]
324. Oh, Little God! lying in a stable among animals. Almighty God! Grant, by the power of your human birth, You, the Son of God and the Son of Man, that I may be … a man! That I may be a humane man! May I be in Your image and likeness! That even among animals I might be – a man! I want nothing more on earth than this one: to be a real … humane person![iv]
325. A man weighed down by his fate, crushed by everyday trifles and torments, may lose his sensitivity for the meaning of life that was once conceived. One has to remember the great joy in Bethlehem in order to understand the joy of every earthly mother and the joy of the father, who is in heaven, that a man has been born into the world.[v]
326. Every man’s career begins on the ground … in diapers, even if today he wore the uniform of an ambassador or general. And it will end on diapers—perhaps bigger ones—if there is not a lack of diapers on his deathbed. Therefore, one has to respect what a person has grown from and what he will inevitably return to. At the end of our lives, all our possessions, all their profit, will be gathered again … into diapers.[vi]
327. In times of proud mass culture, the Church’s presentation of the Child is a reminder that, in this world, in its rich system, in the enormous events and experiences of thousands of years, this … little person is the most important.[vii]
328. We are standing on the threshold of everyday life. How unattractive it is. How much rubbish, dust, anger, exasperation, impatience three is in it! Can I bring God into this life? Do not ask! You have the answer in the stable …[viii]
329. Bethlehem connects heaven and earth, but it also brings God among men and teaches us to look at ourselves with brotherly eyes. For, here, with the Mother and Child, next to the shepherds are the Magi! And they are all only children of God. This is the meaning and power of Bethlehem, the equalization of the social classes! The wise men came to the stable and the shepherds to the palace where the King was born![ix]
330. Christ wanted to reveal himself to the nations. The work of the universal Church, the whole people of God, began when the representatives of various nations knelt before the Divine Child. Jesus’ crib is the cradle of the Universal Church.[x]
331. Truly, Christ was born once in Bethlehem, but he continues being born on the altars and in people’s souls! Christmas is repeated throughout the year when God’s children are born into the world in so many families of the entire nation! For we are all—like the Firstborn Son—God’s children. Looking at the cradle, we can say truthfully that the God-man was born into the world.[xi]
332. The celebration of Christmas has a profound theological significance. But it also has enormous humanistic significance. This is the joy of God and man! We confess so many truths in the Creed, but we kneel for one: The Word was made flesh. Everyone’s knees, beginning with the Pope, bend before this one truth.[xii]
333. Christmas is the joy of the whole human family. If the birth of every human being brings so much joy to the domestic family, then how great is that of the whole human family over the birth of the God-man, who descended from heaven for us humans and for our salvation![xiii]

 

The Last Day of the Year

333. Time does not come back; it expires forever. The year we have lived is no longer our property. After it, others will come, or perhaps they will not come … Sometimes we say: I’ll do that later. And yet we can sense that neither what has passed nor what is ahead of us belongs to us, but only the present moment. The task of human life comes down to this very present moment. It alone is in our hands, within our reach. What we plan or intend may or may not come be realized. We only have the present time.[xiv]

 

Lent

334. What can be humbler than a lump of ash, like sprinkling ashes into beautiful hairstyles and mops of hair? It is man’s humility that touches God.[xv]
335. The Church has a special ability to bring peace to peoples’ hearts, to be cleansed of faults, and reconciled with others, through fasting. It is a penitent, confessed, and absolved community, that satisfies God and neighbor like a watered garden, like a flowing spring whose waters never fail (Isa 58:11). Only such a community can deeply live the day that the Lord has prepared and understand Christ’s greeting: Peace be with you! It is I myself. Do not be afraid! (Lk 24:36-39).[xvi]
336. Lent will become a school of temperance and self-control. Today we are called to save money, let us save a penny, health, strength, and time in order to use them to serve the glory of God and the good of the nation.[xvii]

 

Post-Communion Prayer on Holy Thursday

337. I will not lose this image from before my eyes, mind, and heart when You, the Son of the Lord’s Handmaid, kneel at my feet, taking the form of a servant. I cry out like Peter: You will never wash my feet. I can’t allow that! Here is the last outburst of self-centeredness. But you say to me: Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me (Jn 13:9). Lord! then also my hands, head, and feet; I surrender everything to You! Christ, teach me, teach us all, to love one another in society, not with words, but by serving one another. I will no longer “bargain” with you; I already consent to you as you kneel at my feet.[xviii]
338. Look, Father, how many children do you have! How Your love “grew”! How Your Heart “widened”! What endless possibilities it has! You yourself constantly reveal Your new and ever newer possibilities to the world. Truly, and above all, that a world may come into being where there is greater love! It is even greater than the sea of sins and offenses against You, more than the hurricane of blasphemies thrown at Your Holy Name! Above all, even one spark of love that smolders in a fading heart is greater. It is worth living for it, and she must be saved. That is why I said: Behold, Father, I have come to do Your will (Heb 10:9).[xix]

 

With Christ on the Way of the Cross

339. It may seem to me that I am incapable of many tasks and efforts, of professing my faith, of assuming my position. I will think: I am not walking alone, my cross is carried by my God. There are two of us: him and me. A Christian is never lonely; Christ is with him. They go together. In my daily effort, I will especially remember this: You are with me; you put your arm under my cross. So, let us go together.[xx]
340. How high humanity is, that man does not owe everything only to God, that he must personally participate in the toil of God, who saves the world. This is respect for man, for me, for each of us. Yet, at the same time, it is an indication of how much we are all needed by God and the Church in God’s work on earth and in the work of the Church. So, I take the cross of Jesus, not only mine but also the cross of the work of changing the world. I take the cross of the Church on my shoulders and carry it with Christ, who lives in the Church.[xxi]
341. Even Jesus, although God, needed his Mother’s help on this earth. Even a strong man, full of character, power, extraordinary self-reliance, self-confidence, must perceive near him such delicate, maternal strength that it is sometimes necessary, worthwhile, seemly to obey…[xxii]
342. Yet, even the cross ends. It is not the greatest law of this land. There is only one Good Friday on earth for the cross. Then, the hope of Holy Saturday will come. The triumph of Easter will come. How good it is to remember this in agony and toil.[xxiii]
343. Whenever the cross torments me, I will remember that I am called from death to life. When the toil of work weighs down on me, I will remember: the work will end, the sheets of paper will come out, the ink will dry, the sweat from my forehead will be wiped off, the sun of God will come to shine above my head. And yet I am a child of life. The cross remained behind me. Before me is Life![xxiv]

The Resurrection

344. Surrexit Dominus vere et apparuit Simoni. Alleluia. This is Peter’s true joy because it was a sign of forgiveness. It was enough for Christ to look at Peter; it was an absolution given to the visible head of the Church by Christ. It is our joy as well because it is associated with hope. Christ forgave Peter; hope is also growing that he will forgive us too. The one who told us to pray for our enemies and does so himself knows that we are not his enemies. And more than that, we can count on Christ’s merciful gaze.[xxv]
345. The greatest service of the work of redemption is to free us from ourselves, to give us a model of how to sacrifice ourselves for others through love. The cross (…) will always be a reminder for us: Here is a man who did not strive for human life but gave his life for us. This is the greatest model of dedication.[xxvi]
346. We must also strongly believe in Christ’s resurrection and in our own, each of us. Therefore, Easter is not only the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection but also a reminder that we too will be resurrected, thus coming through the cross and death to life. So, Easter is for each of God’s children redeemed on the cross.[xxvii]

 

The Ascension

347. The Ascension – humanity’s greatest advancement.[xxviii]
348. The Ascension is God’s ambitious plan to straighten up all weary knees, to raise drooping shoulders, and to make drooping heads look upward with hope.[xxix]

 

Pentecost

349. The celebration of Pentecost is not only a memorial of what was once in the Upper Room, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles, gathered together with Mary and the women; it is also a feast that is always relevant. In it, we worship what constantly happens in the Church and what cannot cease in Her, because it is an expression among us of the power of God who is Love.[xxx]
350. We have in ourselves the need for love, we need to strive for infinity, towards heaven, and that is why God sends the Spirit-Comforter.[xxxi]

 

Corpus Christi

351. Corpus Christi is a celebration that once again in the liturgical cycle emphasizes man’s greatness. If a man were unimportant, modest, and small, irrelevant, surely God would not have made such extraordinary efforts and would not have worked so many miracles to nourish him with his Body.[xxxii]

 

All Saints Day

352. Facing the celebration of All Saints, let us remember that each of us is (…) a mustard seed, tiny but destined to become a tree on which the birds of heaven can find food. God the Father Himself leads everyone to Himself, waiting only for submission. This is the true aim of our life. Everyone has the opportunity to fulfill this goal because the apostolate nourishes with its own spirit, heart, and thoughts, just as Christ nourishes with his body and blood.[xxxiii]

 

The Catholic Sense of Suffering

353. Offer your ordeal to Christ in the hour in which you break down inwardly, dying of terrible weariness; that is when you are his closest to him. Then, you purify yourself to the depths. Do not be discouraged if, at first, you do not find relief in the prayer that accompanies your efforts. The light will envelop you later. You have to reach it.[xxxiv]
354. I will accept with full confidence even my cross to which I am nailed because I can still talk to my God on it. I can still give Him what is most noble to us – my spirit: Father, into Your hands …[xxxv]
355. The suffering that people dislike so much is a necessary part of our personal perfection and sanctification.[xxxvi]
356. Our cross is different from the Cross of Christ because Christ’s cross was made of wood, and ours is the burden of duties and the toil of life. Its content, however, is equal to that of Christ, because Christ’s Cross was also the cross of duty.[xxxvii]
357. We only go through suffering, but suffering is not our condition, stability, vocation, and destiny. We are destined for joy, happiness, and glory. Everything that hurts us is only a fragment and a temporary torment.[xxxviii]
358. There are many people who, perhaps from a distance, support you with their prayers, work, and toil, gaining resources that can help to alleviate your suffering. They all gain heaven through your suffering. Just as Christ, through his passion, suffering, and the cross, led us to heaven, so through your suffering and the cross many people find the meaning of life, reap merits, win the kingdom of God and the eternal joys of heaven.[xxxix]
359. Suffering changes each of us. Then, we begin to understand better life’s meaning and value, the value of the human body and each of its members, and the richness of the Creator’s gifts, implanted in our humanity.[xl]
360. Today the world needs a spirit of repentance and reparation. So, we offer our sufferings for the world, for great sinners, for people who do evil, for those who are hated and abandoned by all because of their great anger. Even this anger takes revenge on them because it deprives them of their joy. Someone has to come to their aid. Let us offer our sufferings for all sinners.[xli]

 

Death and Eternal Life

361. When we find that there is nothing to be done, we have lived our lives badly. When I find out today that I am starting over; I have everything to gain.[xlii]
362. The Church instills in us such powerful faith in the resurrection of the body that we expect it in our daily lives. We calmly entrust our dearest mothers to the earth, because we know that this humble servant of God will give the accumulated ashes back to the Heavenly Father, who is the Creator of both the earth and man. The Church’s teaching on the Resurrection soothes the tragedy of the mystery of death and enhances the great dignity of the human person.[xliii]
363. The tomb is never man’s end. Christianity is full of optimism and living faith. It always looks to the future … It never puts an end to the development of the human family, never says: “that’s enough.” On the contrary, may the saints sanctify themselves.[xliv]
364. We believe that a well-fulfilled and properly led life brings man, even though he dies, to live because God will resurrect him on the last day.[xlv]
365. In each person’s life, there will be a moment when we will feel that we have already done everything we had to do and that it is time to leave. But that does not make us sad. Why? Because we know and believe that we do not have a permanent dwelling here. We await the one that our Savior and Brother, Jesus Christ, is preparing for us in the Father’s house. The open heaven on the day of the Ascension resembles Christ’s heart opened on the cross, which the authors of early Christianity call the open door to all sacramental graces and a sign of love.[xlvi]
366. After suffering and torment, another reality of life will come the resurrection! Indeed, I will rise again, I will be changed, I will become—as so to say—a new creature, although in the same personality.[xlvii]

 

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[i] Miłość I, 29.

[ii] Saturday is the Day of God’s Mother. Warsaw, the chapel of the Sisters of the Family of Mary at ul. Żelazna, 10 December 1960. Ibid., 270.

[iii] Miłość I, 103-104.

[iv] Ibid., 109.

[v] Ibid., 82-83.

[vi] Ibid., 96.

[vii] Ibid.

[viii] Ibid., 101.

[ix] Ibid., 111.

[x] Ibid., 112.

[xi] Wypełniamy, 53.

[xii] In the Defense of Life. Warsaw, Cathedral Basilica of Saint John, 25 December 1969. Wielka, 198.

[xiii] Rejoice and be Glad With All Your Heart … Warsaw, Primate’s House, 23 December 1976. KP 56, 166.

[xiv] Address to the youth. Piaseczno, 16 November 1975. KP 52, 188-189.

[xv] Miłość I, 208.

[xvi] Pastoral Letter For the Lenten Journey to the Living God. Warsaw, 2 February 1953. Listy, 240.

[xvii] From the Summons to Work for Sobriety. WDL R. 25: 1948, p. 63.

[xviii] Miłość I, 277.

[xix] Ibid., 289.

[xx] Droga, 13-15.

[xxi] Ibid., 27.

[xxii] Ibid., 21.

[xxiii] Ibid., 57.

[xxiv] Ibid., 57-59.

[xxv] Zapiski, 155.

[xxvi] The Contemporary Face of Faith. Warsaw, Church of the Pallottine Fathers, 12 January 1968. KP 28, 44.

[xxvii] Christ, the Model of Our Resurrection. Warsaw, Primate’s house, 9 April 1977. KP 57, 154.

[xxviii] You are Witnesses of the Existence of the Polish Nation. Warsaw, 7 May 1964. KP 17, 245.

[xxix] The Stones Will Cry Out. Warsaw, Primate’s house, 30 April 1967. KP 26, 188.

[xxx] Miłość II, 47.

[xxxi] Sermon on the Solemnity of Pentecost. Laski, 13 June 1943. Typescript.

[xxxii] Miłość II, 60.

[xxxiii] The Mustard Seed Grown in Poland for the Church and the World. Warsaw, Cathedral Basilica of Saint John, 31 October 01978. About Polish, 66.

[xxxiv] Sermon delivered in 1949. Typescript.

[xxxv] Way of the Cross for writers. Jasna Góra, 4 May 1958. KP 4, 186.

[xxxvi] Parents, Your Hour Has Come. 15 August 1959. Wielka, 225.

[xxxvii] Way of the Cross for students. Jasna Góra, 28 May 19671. KP 8, 275.

[xxxviii] To God – Our Joy … Warsaw, the academic church of Saint Anna, 7 April 1963. KP 14, 30.

[xxxix] Family of God, Rejoice … Warsaw, 12 March 1967. KP 26, 107.

[xl] Address to the sick. Warsaw, Lent 1974. KP 45, 142.

[xli] When Suffering, Let Us Think About The People Who Suffer More. Warsaw, 19 February 1978. KP 59, 112.

[xlii] Way of the Cross for lawyers. 3 November 1957. KP 3, 167.

[xliii] Pastoral Constitution on the Presence of the Church in the Modern World. Warsaw, Cathedral Basilica of Saint John, 20 March 1966. KP 23, 110.

[xliv] Sermon during the consecration of the rebuilt Stations of the Cross. Warsaw, Church of Saint Barbara, 12 September 1968. KP 29, 343.

[xlv] Address to the parish family in Kowalewo. 23 August 1970. KP 34, 244.

[xlvi] The Mystery of the Church’s Stability: Jesus and Mary. Kozłów Szlachecki, 10 May 1972. KP 40, 42-43.

[xlvii] Lenten speech to the sick. Warsaw, 26 February 1975. KP 49, 144.