Feast of Our Lady Mother of the Church

Established in Poland in 1971.

Mary is the Mother of the Church. Theologians have given the Mother of God this title from the beginning of the Church, as in the past century the popes Leo XIII, John XXIII and Paul VI have done. The Polish bishops submitted a Memorial [??] to Paul VI, with the fervent plea that he declare Mary the Mother of the Church, and once more give the whole family of mankind to her maternal heart. On 16th September 1964 during the third session of the Vatican council, Stefan Cardinal Wyszyński, in the name of seventy Polish bishops, gave a speech [there’s a word for this, isn’t there? Anyone?] in which he showed the necessity of declaring Mary the Mother of the Church. He drew on the experience of the Polish nation, for whom the Mother of Christ, present in its history and whom it had always invoked, had been refuge, help and victory. The Polish bishops also worked hard to see that doctrine about Our Lady was included in the Constitution on the CHurch, since this underlines the dignity of Mary as the Mother of the Church, and her active presence in the mystery of Christ and the Church.

In 1968 Paul VI confirmed his declaration on the Mother of the Church in the “Pauline Creed”. The Polish episcopate then added a new invocation to the Litany of Loretto, “Mother of the Church, pray for us”. They also appealed to the Holy See for this petition to be added to the Litany throughout the Church, and that the feast of Our Lady Mother of the Church be likewise established in the whole Church.

[from brewiarz.pl, trans. bat Ionah]

 

Thomisizing phenomenology in “Person and Act” [a contemporary review]

This is a transcript published in Analecta Cracoviensia 5/6 (1973-4) of a talk by Antoni Stępień about the then Karol Wojtyła’s Acting Person (as it’s known in its, apparently dodgy, English translation).  I didn’t note the occasion on which it was given, unfortunately.  I think some get-together about Person and Act.  Rough translation done by me as an exercise, am sticking it here as the best place not to lose it until I organize my work better :), and someone might be interested. Anyone who is and can fill me on the anglosphere phenomenolololological terminology – I will buy you several beers.

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The book Person and Act  – as we read on p22 – is an attempt to combine two philosophies, the philosophy of being and that of consciousness. It is a meeting ground – a meeting neither accidental nor superficial [lit. external] – of Thomism and phenomenology.  Contrary to the opinion of professor Kalinowski quoted here, I think it is in fact a book of the philosophy of man. The kind of philosophy it presents can,  I would say, be called Thomisizing phenomenology. Why?

We are dealing with a certain description of what is immediately given, a description which in its basic shape does not  … go beyond the meaning of that which is immediately given. Nonetheless, in certain formulations this description is filled out with theory taken from elsewhere. On pp 40, 52, and 62, there are formulations that go beyond phenomenological description. This further step is taken with reference to a certain theory, the theory of Thomistic metaphysics. This is done in such a way that basically, it is phenomenology, though conducted along the lines of a certain metaphysics, and what is more, drawing, in some formulations, on certain conceptual schemes taken from Thomistic metaphysics, though this is not always indicated. For this reason I would define this book as being one of Thomisizing phenomenology.

 

The vow of King John Casimir

Great mother of the God-Man, most holy virgin, I, Jan Kazimierz, by the grace of your Son the King of Kings and my Lord, and by your mercy, king, falling at your most holy feet, take you to be my patron and queen of my dominions. I recommend myself and my Polish kingdom, my dukedoms of Lithuania, Ruthenia, Prussia, Mazovia, Samogitia, Livonia, Smoleńsk and Czernichow, and the armies of both nations and all my peoples, to your particular care and protection. In this woeful condition of my kingdom, full of calamities, I humbly implore your pity and help against the enemies of the Roman Church. And since, constrained by your remarkable kindnesses, I and my nation burn with a new and zealous desire to consecrate ourselves to your service, I swear, in my name as in that of my senators and my peoples, to you and to your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, that I will spread your praises and devotion to you through all the lands of my kingdom.

I promise and vow that when by your powerful intercession and the great mercy of your Son, I gain victory over the enemies and especially over the Swedes, I will ask the Apostolic See that this day be celebrated every year for ever in thanksgiving to you and your Son, and with the bishops of the kingdom I will strive that what I swear be carried out by my peoples.

Since with great sadness of heart I see that on account of the cries and oppression of the serfs the plagues of pestilence, war, and other calamities have these seven years fallen on my kingdom from the hands of your Son, the just Judge, I further swear and vow that when peace comes I, and all the estates, will use means to free the people of my kingdom from unjust burdens and oppression.

 And since you, most merciful Queen and Lady, have inspired the thought of these vows in me, my senators and the estates of my kingdom, do you bring about that I may obtain from your Son the grace of fulfilling them.