THE IDEA OF CHRIST-CENTRED SPIRITUAL LIFE IN THE TEACHING OF ST. JOZEF SEBASTIAN PELCZAR (Chrystocentryzm zycia duchowego w nauczaniu sw. Jozefa Sebastiana Pelczara)

The author focuses on the idea of Christ-oriented spiritual life as taught by St. Józef Sebastian Pelczar, a bishop in Poland at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. His pastoral activity and scientific works were based on the teaching of Christ and contributed to the rebirth of spiritual life of the society. Józef Sebastian Pelczar's idea of spiritual life is discussed in its two main aspects : 1) sacramental/ecclesiastical and 2) prescriptive/educational. In both cases Jesus Christ is perceived as the Master. In the centre of Józef Sebastian Pelczar's concept there are the questions of the role of evangelical mysteries of the life of Christ, the problem of the cooperation between man and God's grace and, finally, the need to change one's life following the pattern of Jesus. The author illustrates his theses with biblical and theological sources with particular regard to the works by Józef Sebastian Pelczar.