Studia Pastoralne
Rocznik Wydziału Teologicznego UŚ

CURA PASTORALIS IN THE LIGHT OF A PASTORAL ECCLESIOLOGY OF FATHER FRANCISZEK BLACHNICKI
On 21st of November 2004 is 40 anniversary of announcing a dogmatic konstitution about Church Lumen gen-tium, which endeepening the reflection of Church mistery shows at the same time a base of aftercouncil conception of religious service. It implicates at the same time new understanding of meaning "service", more often expressed by latin cura pastoralis instead of cura animarum. This is the way as father Blachnicki understood religious service. He in his scientifical work and charizmatical intuition undobtfuly foreheaded his epoch, becoming a special kind of prophetic lumen of assimilation and realization of teaching Vaticanum II.
Fr. Blachnicki endeepening ecclesilogy of Vaticanum II and works of contemprorary to him theologists discove-red that an expression koinonia, shows as one of accepting in ecclesiology a very rich reality under the name "Church". That "new picture of Church" became so precious, as it could become a leading picture for pastoral the-ology and religious service, expressing at the same time purpose, subject, aims and methods cura pastoralis of Church. Basing on new vision of Church, the autor of ecclesiological deduction of pastoral theology formulated a principle in a way of acting in the Church: "Church salvation intercession (means religious service), should be cele-brated in this purpuse and in this way to realisation selfgiving God in Christ in word, sacrament and to condition free receiving in together giving in Holy Spirit through faith and love, for personification the community in vertical (with God) and horisontal (with brothers) in visual and effective sign of eucharistic gathering, and a local community in unity with common Church".
Analising theological - pastoral work of fr. Blachnicki, one can state that he reviewed and improved till the end of his life ecclesiological conception of pastoral theology, verifing at the same time his thoughts in practice in Light - Life Movement of a living Church as its founder. He has even suggested a neccessity of creating pneumatological - Christological - ecclesiological tractat of pastoral theology, where a pneumatological vision of Church would be appreciated. That is why one of servant of God suggestion was a proposal to go from service to evangelization. He named it a Copernican turn. In that state it is possible to lead a whole and organic conception cura pastoralis, under-stood as a proccess of building a Church in local community. Reality of Church starts from evangelisation, which iniciates liberation proccesses of people and given environment. Next step is to endeep - by catechumenal formation - to life in ecclesial community (martyria, leiturgia, diakonia). That is why a main conclusion coming from the fact that Church realised in concret, local communities is for fr. Blachnicki a postulate to rebuild a whole religious servi-ce so it would serve the formation of basic communities of christian life in parishes. So it is neccessary to leadin a model of parishal community. To solve this dilemma; how to lead a model of postcouncil parish in life as one cannot build a living community without existing adult ecclessiological communities, the founder of Light - Life Movement showed a part and a chance in contemprorary life for different movements based on a whole and catechumenal for-mation. Fr. Blachnicki realised at the same time that composing model of realisation a parish as a community in Light - Life Movement has a fundamental influence on a style of work and priests life.

KATECHUMENAL PRINCIPLES IN THE ACADEMICAL, PASTORAL SERVICE
Political and social changes in Poland are connected with changes in 1989 y. They had a magnificiant influence on changes in actual situation in the Church. They also made possi-ble to work more open and free in the pastoral service. From the other hand they put the church in front of new appeals, also connected with so important pastoral activity as aca-demical pastoral service (APS) in Poland. In the letter Novo millennio ineunte John Paul II calls for swimming out on depth in third millenium (see NMI 58). And this is definetely impossible without sensible realising of catechumen. Source of catechumenal institution is a principle which Tertulian formed classically: Fiunt,non nascuntur christiani. You have to grow christian and it means to create service in such a way as to lead the man towards the adult faith.
In the article we tried to answer on the question: if and how in the academical principle, catechumenal service is present, which is a condition in leding to holliness (see NMI 29-43). Expieriences of Polish academical pastoral services in its institutional shape is mainly connected with three ways of activity. First is connected with between war ethap and it characterises of pastoral service with activity of many associations and academical organi-sations. Second period - real socialism - starts from searching a new shape of completely new service. In its final version it functioned mainly near few churches or parishes, mainly where students used to live in greater number. Guideline of Polish Episkopat for APS from 1953, 1967, 1971 y. Draw on its purpuses taking into account more counciliar vision of Church. Analising that part which mainly ends by changes in 1989 y. one must state that APS was understood as organised service of priest which had on its purpuse endeepening religious life of academical youth. One can say that shape of pastoral service presented in status from 1971 y. which notabene is actual up today is just a constitution of precoucil, individual concept of pastoral service, expressed in words from Vaticanum II. Academical pastoral service after 1989 y. according of project novelised by academical priests - status from 1999 y. for its main purpuse states its building in academical environment - by Jesus Christ Holy Spirit - community in university presented God and being sign of unity be-tween people and God.
New forms of Status anyway have a significant regards towards ecclesiological concep-tion of pastoral service and stressing social - community formation and also including ommiting so far a work of academical pastoral service, which is evangelisation of univer-sity culture. Little modification of particular work of APS connected with accepted model of pastoral service does not show anyway how this process should look like. Purposes are shown but not the way. Of course all different centers APS try to work out this way. But this principle can only be realised first of all where are small formation groups. Looking on conspects from the central ones, catechumenal principle is present. The only problem is that in a big center there are many groups adjusted to many students necessities, taking into account only one part of formation.

INDIRECT AND DIRECT PREPARATION FOR THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE AND RECONCILIATION
In the awareness of many faithful the sacrament of penance is but a sheer formality, if not a magical way of getting rid of sin. This attitude manifests itself in the way preparation is made for this sacrament. Quite often the major focus is on reading an examination of conscience from a book of prayers and confessing one's sins, whereas the other conditions of adequate and fruitful participation in the sacrament: penitence, contrition, resolution to amend one's life and penance are performed only on a formal level. While preparing the faithful for the sacrament of penance and reconciliation one should, therefore, speak of indirect and direct preparation. As far as the ministry of penance, one can clearly see specific conclusions and tasks. The main source of the present crisis of this sacrament may be found in reducing the whole penance practice solely to individual confession at the cost of non-sacramental forms of taking sins away. The major postulate is therefore to celebrate the liturgy of the sacrament of penance in the context of the whole penance practice of the Church. For the preparation for the sacrament of penance and reconciliation cannot be separated from the holistic context of penance as the major life attitude of everyday conversion understood here as the biblical metanoia. Moreover, the common practise of celebrating the sacrament may make one conclude that the character of penance is purely personal and that the purpose is to re-establish a correct relation between an individual and God. The reality is that a man does not live in perfect isolation from one's brothers and sisters. One's salvation takes place in a human environment. Therefore one can enumerate these most vital pastoral postulates preparing for the sacrament of penance: shaping the sensibility of the faithful to an individual and social character of sin and conversion, emphasizing the communal element in preparation for the liturgy of the sacrament of penance and understanding a confessor's involvement in shaping the social and ecclesial attitude of a penitent.

PREPARATION FOR THE SACRAMENT OF CONFIRMATION: LOST OPPORTUNITY?
Summary
The aim of preparation for Confirmation is the formation for a testimonial form of Christian life and practising of apostolate. In the context of these tasks the present mode of preparation for the reception of the sacrament of Confirmation still remains highly insufficient.This preparation is of a too individualistic and formalcharacter. It does not prepare for living in a community and therefore does not meet its major purpose of fostering Christian maturity. In this context a new meaning should be bestowed upon the roles of witnesses and mystagogy in preparation for the reception of the sacrament of Confirmation.The conclusion is that in pastoral practice one should take into consideration the fuller introduction of the confirmed to a parish life by a catechumenal method. In order to achieve this aim one can use more profoundly the deuterocatechumenal formation of the Light-Life Movement (Ruch Światło-Życie) an experience of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal which is quite efficient in introducing into a reality of faith through seminars of faith renewal. There is also a very valid postulate at stake to create „spirituality centres” in dioceses or special centres preparing adults for Confirmation according to the Rites of Christian initiation of adults (Ordo initiationis christianae adultorum).
Keywords: catechisation, catechumenate, Christian initiation, mistagogy, sacrament of Confirmation

FAMILY AS COMMUNION OF LIFE AND LOVE IN THE HOME CHURCH OF LIGHT MOVEMEN.
Summary
Family in itself is the fulfilment of one of the most basic human needs, since a man in his ontological dimension is homo familiaris. It may serve its purpose due to the fact that it is a privileged place of realization of human love and at the same time a place opened to receiving life. Thanks to this family is able to fulfil the need of an emotional bond with one’s neighbours, mutual understanding, security, a desire to have children as well as religious needs, including initiation into mysteries of religious and ecclesial life. In order to meet these aims a family must become „a community of life and love” (KDK 48). The foundation of this community is a communion of spouses with God which in turn will manifest itself in communion between spouses and communion between parents and their children. This personal vision of marriage and a Christian family, based on the idea of father Franciszek Blachnicki, is the aim of the Home Church. For families participating in the movement a nuptial communion is the foundation of communion of the whole family, and from even broader perspective, an opportunity to build an ecclesial community. This is why a family can and should call itself a home Church. In view of the above the basic aspect of the charism of the Home Church was described as „the self-gift in a marriage and a family”. The basis of formation of a marriage and a family is a nuptial spirituality, which is aspiring to holiness together with one’s spouse. The nuptial communion is built through the so called obligations. They are as follows: daily private prayer, daily family prayer, monthly nuptial dialogue, the rule of life and participation, at least once a year, in a formation retreat. Thanks to implementation of these tasks spouses get closer to one another and to God. The obligations are met by a daily effort of spouses and mutual support of other married couples gathered in the circles of the Home Church.

THE PRESBYTERIAT IN SERVICE OF A COMMUNION IN LIGHT OF THE POST-COUNCIL TEACHINGS OF THE CHURCH.
Summary
Contemporary ecclesiology postulates: „the Church as communion might be more clearly understood and concretely incorporated into life” (The Final Report of the Extraordinary Synod). This idea should pervade all actions of presbyters and influence a new style of priesthood. This is confirmed both by post-council teaching of the Church and the teaching of the Church in Poland. It was particularly developed in a post-synodal exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis (1992) in which John Paul II emphasised that „the ecclesiology of communion becomes decisive for understanding the identity of the priest, his essential dignity, and his vocation and mission”. Other documents of Magisterium Ecclesiae followed this direction. Three documents of the Congregation for the Clergy deserve special attention: Directory on the Ministry and Life of Priests (1994), a letter The Priest and the Third Christian Millennium, Teacher of the Word, Minister of the Sacraments and Leader of the Community (1999) and an instruction The Priest, Pastor and Leader of the Parish Community (2002). Among Polish documents there are two written by the Second Polish Plenary Synod that deserve special attention: Needs and Tasks of a New Evangelisation at the Break of the Second and the Third Christian Millennium and Priesthood and Consecrated Life as Community of Life and Ministry with Christ. The documents emphasise that a priest should always remember that he „sanctifies himself by his care for a community which had been entrusted to him. This care should be manifested in being with a community and in a community”. Therefore the synod suggests that „in nominating parish priests one should take into account not so much and not only seniority and achievements but practical pastoral skills, especially the ability of team-work and a social sensitivity”.

DIREKTORIUM DES LITURGISCHEN DIENSTES

PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN PREACHING THE WORD OF GOD.
Summary
God speaks to a man and at the same time speaks to him through the other person. We are, therefore, within the realm of interpersonal relations. Hence while talking about preaching the Word of God one has to pay attention to circumstances and rules of interaction of the preached Word of God on a listener’s reason, will and emotions as major receptors of the content of the church preaching and at the same time as factors of the act of a personal faith. Such a preaching of the Word of God results from its purpose, securing both the personalistic and ecclesiastical character of the preaching. Therefore in the preaching of the Word of God a vital role is performed by a social community. Experience shows that even a solid intellectual and religious formation does not suffice for a proper shaping of the attitude of faith, if one does not have a proper support in an environment of one’s life. Hence the preaching cannot escape sociological conditions and be restricted only to transmitting an orthodox Christian teaching. Preaching the Gospel in the community of the faithful should be supported and intensified by a communal experience of this church community of faith.

EUCHARISTIC GATHERING AS THE HEART OF CELEBRATING „THE EIGHTH DAY” IN A PARISH
Summary
It is true that in free Poland Sunday became relativized. More and more Poles spend this holy day in new „temples of consumption” which are supermarkets. Hundreds of thousands of people are forced to work. It is sad that the apostolic letter of the pope, Dies Domini, in which John Paul II appealed for respecting Sunday did not trigger any legal repercussions in Poland. In view of desacralised time and a lack of a deeper understanding of the meaning of Sunday as the day of celebration, one can see a necessity of a permanent upbringing to celebrating Sunday.
The Eucharist is, in a sense, the aim of a religious life because from the Christian perspective the purpose of life is getting involved in God’s redemptive plans. Their pivotal point is Jesus Christ and His Passover mystery which is constantly being personalised in the Church. It is done especially in a Eucharistic gathering thanks to which people get unified with Christ in the word and the sacrament and with one another. In this way it is the Eucharist where the community with God and among people becomes real and gets deepened. This type of a communion is the purpose of the whole history of salvation. Of course in the eschatological perspective it is also the source towards the purpose since this is the sign pointing at the ultimate community which will get realised at the end of the history of salvation. Being the source, however, it already includes its own purpose to which it is supposed to lead.
In view of the above it seems that both in teaching and upbringing the link between Sunday and what can be called „the theology of the eighth day” is insufficiently emphasised. For Sunday, as John Paul II emphasises in Dies Domini: “is not only the first day, it is also „the eighth day”, set within the sevenfold succession of days in a unique and transcendent position which evokes not only the beginning of time, but also its end in „the age to come”. [...] Sunday symbolizes that truly singular day which will follow the present time, the day without end which will know neither evening nor morning, the imperishable age which will never grow old; Sunday is the ceaseless foretelling of life without end which renews the hope of Christians and encourages them on their way (No. 26).“
On the other hand eschatological dimension of the Eucharist, emphasised by the theology of the eighth day, expresses the very nature of a Christian existence on the earth. It is a privileged moment in which the Church experiences itself as „the pilgrim”. The Mass stimulates Christians to live in an eschatological way, as pilgrims, with their eyes and hearts turned upwards. Therefore the Sunday Eucharist should be a real celebration. Theology of the eighth day may be reflected concretely in the pastoral practice of a parish community. For the world does not need a parish in which you can find all sorts of convenient facilities, actions and entertainment which are produced and distributed by the world, but the place of a pilgrimage and joy. The place where one can experience the presence of the Holy Spirit and where someone coming for the first time is forced to notice something else and shout like those who were entering the first Christian communities Truly God is among you! (1 Co 14:25).

EFFECTIVE EVANGELISATION EXEMPLIFIED IN LIFE AND ACTIVITY OF SAINT EUGENE DE MAZENOD (1782–1861)
Summary
In the post-synodal apostolic exhortation on the formation of priests in the circumstances of the present day Pastores dabo vobis, John Paul II described the new evangelisation as the most important and urgent task of the Church at the end of the second millennium. Therefore it calls for a new zeal, new methods of preaching and giving testimony to the Gospel”, and most of all a new involvement of priests. A priest who combined all these factors was Eugene de Mazenod, the founder of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. The testimony of his life and activity, in spite of the time that had passed, may be very inspiring even today. First of all it is because the 19th century France is not that different from the contemporary Western civilisation, especially when we realise, that the ideology of the French Revolution is the source of many contemporary cultural trends. Second of all, it is because in his activity one can find all the conditions of the effective evangelisation: a personal experience of salvation, ability to assess reality from the Gospel point of view, an apostolic zeal as the manifestation and testimony to love and propagating the spirituality of communion. John Paul II himself was convinced about exceptional values of this saint and found in him the example and the advocate of evangelisation of our times.
Keywords: apostolic zeal, effective evangelisation, Eugene de Mazenod, experience of salvation, signs of the times, testimony of love, the sense of community