For Greater Things: The Story of Saint Stanislaus KostkaKane, William T. (William Terence)
Religion
For Greater Things: The Story of Saint Stanislaus Kostka
Kane, William T. (William Terence)
Kostka, Stanislas, Saint, 1550-1568
They looked and found the letter. It was very simple and
straightforward, a genuine boy's letter. He had run away, he said,
because he had to. He was called to enter the Society of Jesus. He
had to do what God wanted of him. He knew they would prevent him if
they could. And so he just went. He left them messages of
affectionate regard, and begged them to forward his letter to his
father.
Bilinski sent this letter on at once. Paul also wrote, as did
Kimberker and even the servant who had gone with them in the
carriage. Each tried to shift the blame from himself, told of the
strange behavior of the horses, explained that everything possible
had been done to overtake the fugitive.
And when their letters came, there was high wrath in Kostkov. The
Lord John raved and swore. He blamed everybody, but most of all
Stanislaus and the tricky Jesuits who, he said, were back of the
whole scheme. He wrote to Cardinal Osius that he would not rest
until he had broken up the Jesuit college in Pultowa and driven
every schemer of them out of Poland. As for Stanislaus, he would
follow him across the world, if need were, and drag him back to
Kostkov in chains.
He was a great lord, the Lord John. He loved his second son,
Stanislaus, most dearly, and he loved dearly the honor of his house,
which he thought that son had stained by hi& conduct. A son of his
in beggar's garb, tramping the highways of Europe, begging his bread
from door to door! It nearly broke his heart.
He had princely blood in his veins, he was a Senator of Poland, he
might even become a king. His dearest hopes were in Stanislaus, his
second son. Paul, the eldest, was wild and unsteady. And though
there were two other sons and a daughter, none gave such promise as
Stanislaus. So that the Lord John looked chiefly to him to carry on
the great name and make it more glorious still. No wonder he raged!
Stanislaus had figured all that out beforehand. It hurt him too,
hurt terribly. But what can one do when God calls? God had made all
the Kostkas, given them name and rank. God was the Lord of Lords. It
was heart-breaking to Stanislaus to leave his father in anger. Yet
he trusted that since that was God's will - well, God would find a
way to bring peace out of all this trouble. He put all his fears and
heartache away from him, and went out to do what God wanted.
He had always done that, even when he was a little tad in the rough
castle at Kostkov. God had taught him, God had helped him
wonderfully. But more wonderful still to our eyes is the way the boy
listened to God's teaching and obeyed it.
We think things come easy to the saints. We read or hear of wonders
in their lives, which are evidently God's doing; and we say:
"Of course the saint was good and holy. But it was all done for him.
God made everything smooth. The saint was never in my boots for a minute."
And all the time we forget the things which the saint himself did,
the superb efforts he had to make.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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