St. Stanisław Kostka enjoys universal worship in Poland. In the age of the Church's "adaptation" to the world, 1 could think... why. What did this Polish teenager do to get to the altars? The list of his accomplishments, falling into the modern ear, looks poor. Nor will a little progressive observer see the perpetrator of the large ventures in the dead Jesuit. He was neither a crucial preacher nor a missionary... small a planet man could appreciate in his short life. This is the peculiar charism of the young Polish nobleman. The essence of his holiness was to “flee” before the present, in a fantastic way crowned by a fugitive to the Jesuit assembly despite the pursuit of relatives. possibly if St. Stanislaw was captured by his brother and bent to his father's will, present we would see the evidence of his greatness and talents. But he left us another lesson. An example that the highest authority of the Church does not want to follow today.
“A Strange” Holiness
St. Stanislaw Kostka's holiness is “strange” not only today. His lifestyle met with misunderstanding even of his loved ones. His view of eternal affairs was so far advanced that he did not find acceptance even in the Catholic family. He didn't usage his life enough.
As we read in his brother Paul Kostka's memoirs, this was due to his upbringing. For the boys received in the home a factual Christian formation, which hardened them to free themselves of the “old man”. ‘Our parents wanted us to be raised in the Catholic faith, acquainted with Catholic dogma, and not be loved. What is more, they acted hard and hard with us, they always drove us, as they did by the household, to all piety, modesty and honesty, so that no of the people around us, including the many servants, could complain about the smallest thing. Everyone, as parents, was allowed to exhort us, all as we worshipped you," The brother of the future saint wrote.
Yet Stanislaus not only shaped the household order of the house. From the very beginning, the young man had a large distance from worldly life. He seemed so perplexed for an eternal intent that the earthen forces, able to turn their eyes distant from their Christian destiny for a moment, had already affected his wellness as a child. As Paul Kostka later mentioned: “When we sat at the household table together and something secularly was told a small besides freely, dear brother had the habit of turning his eyes to heaven, losing consciousness, and how dead he would fall under the table if individual did not capture him. This made the father gotta encourage the guests to average his words at the reception.”
Strange childhood, isn't it? In a way. He who prays regularly, and sometimes reaches for prayer texts with a rich tradition, knows that this concept was utilized in Polish as a synonym for “miracle”. For example, medieval prayers said: “Healthy Mary, strangely conceived the Son...”. In turn, “strangely” in ancient times meant any god worshiped by the Gentiles. In Spanish we call God “Dios”, in the pagan pantheon of Greece reigned “Dzeus”. Poland’s “strangeness” has the same origin as these terms and is connected with the praindo-European concept called God... In specified a sense he “strange” others Stanislaus – looking at God's matters so much, that among the mundane, consternation... and sometimes anger.
When young Kostka and his brother went to a Jesuit gymnasium in Vienna, the young man in discipline was leading, but he missed prayer and contemplation. During the late nights, he lay on a cross in peace, causing impatience among the roommates who lived together. They even went to kick a devout young man. Yet Stanislaus continued to pray and dedicated himself to asceticism... To the point that his life began to collapse. Of course, the parent or brother did not like it.
However, this wellness breakdown was peculiarly crucial for the life of St Stanislaus. During his illness, he had a imagination of Our woman to instruct the young man to supply the ranks of the Jesuit order. It was faithfulness to this call, despite life’s adversities, that made the name of the future clergyman celebrated and meant not a tiny adventure for him.
The intention of joining the ranks of the Society of Jesus was to implement the Polish advanced school student immediately. Shortly after his recovery, he sought advice from his confessor on how to become a Jesuit. He sent him back to his superior, who, however, made the consent of the spiritual profession dependent on the opinion of his parents. Im John Kostka neither thought to approve of his son’s intent, and with anger he refused to enter the Society of Jesus. The teenage Stanislaus did not abandon his mission. Following the advice of the confessor, he decided to walk to Augsburg, where I later was a saint and a doctor of the Church Peter Kanizius... But he did not want to argue his father’s will. So he waited for an event that would give him a reasonable basis.
Such came soon, during 1 of many conflicts between Paul and Stanisław. A year older Kostek himself later declared that he was a “stalker” of his brother. ( Afterward, due to repentance, he founded many spiritual works in Przasnysz.) Stanislaw besides resented the treatment he had experienced. This time, he said that if Paul did not change his conduct, he would become the origin of his escape. The year of the older teenager mocked the announcement... The future saint immediately wrote a farewell letter to the household and educator of Józef Bilinski, and left unnoticed west...
Stanislaus was moving towards God...
This event resulted in a fantastic pursuit. St. Stanislaus pursued in a fewer hundred-foot walk after calling, in the people of the educator and brother pursued him for this temporality. The future Jesuit hid in the woods around a guest on the road to Augsburg, and even switched clothes with a close beggar to avoid being recognized. Paul erstwhile even caught up with St. Stanislaus, but he, dressed up, went off as an average pilgrim. erstwhile he asked if he had seen the young Kostka somewhere, he replied that he was going to the place of their conversation in the morning.
There is small more left of St. Stanislaus's life. After reaching Augsburg he did not find a state there and had to travel to an even more distant Dylingia .There he was not allowed to enter the order, due to the heretic Rokosz, which against religion and regulation sparked the honour of the brothers under the leadership of the Polish clergyman. However, Peter Kanazius agreed to accept the young man as a test for his ministry, and erstwhile he did, he sent him back to Rome as a candidate for the order. The Polish young man died shortly after – already as a Jesuit, celebrated among brothers and superiors from interior perfection. A period after his death, Paweł Kostka arrived in the eternal city. He was expected to make St. Stanislaus come home. But he found only a memory of the holiness and beginnings of worship of his own relative.
...A The church is captured
Of all the accidents of the holy young man in life, his escape deserves peculiar attention. It contains as if a wonderful metaphor of the full life of a devout boy from Rostov. From his earliest years, St. Stanislaus escaped before the present. The affairs of the planet stretched their arms out for him. The present saw his life differently than the will of the Supreme. But the young man continued to slip distant from her, pursuing the saving destiny of a Christian.
This painting is simply a peculiarly valuable lesson for the modern. The discipline we're not utilized to. Everywhere we hear that our desire to delight God and service his will must alternatively search dialog with temporality. We are to exert ourselves as much as we can, to stand up and put the principles of religion on our heads to unite with the position of this world...
A fatal image of this trend is the present focus of the highest leaders of the Church not on matters of morality and faith, but on the global political project. After all, it is the construction of a balanced order of universal brotherhood that is the leading star of the Francis pontificate. The last journey of the Holy Father to the east Asian countries adds only further sad reasons to think so. The Holy Father did not visit Indonesia, Singapore and East Timor to call everyone to believe in Christ and His Church. It wasn't about beginning up to many gates of supernatural life and divine sonship. Instead, in the center of the papal message were: respect and respect for all religion, social harmony, peace and pluralism. If there was any spiritual message in it, it's anti-missionary...
Building a friendly atmosphere of “inclusiveness” in the Church, favouring migrants, or greening became “eyes in the head” of the Holy See. A swallow of today's state of affairs was the engagement of Paul VI and John XVIII in the proposal to “adjust” the Church to modern times. The Church was expected to halt “strange” and awaken the “understanding” of the planet of the second half of the 20th century. Including liberals, hippies, or communists...
After decades of strengthening the “dialogue” The Church with “this world” can be clearly declared that the Mystical Body of Christ, alternatively of giving way to the grasp of secularism like St. Stanislaus, stands on the way and looks with joy at his own capture. The “carrying” of the faithful from the way of faithfulness to the Divine Master continues in the best of projects specified as the blessings of single-sex couples, the admission to the activities of the heretic clergy of LGBTQ, the strengthening of the program of moral teaching changes...
It remains for us to pray for the intercession of the Polish teenager, so that the holy shepherds will get the Church to run again. May St. Stanislaus Kostka give strength on the way and for us to say in the last hour: “In good competitions I performed. I finished the run."
Philip Adamus
