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Special
Special Edition
Edition
Consecrating
the World to Mary
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Consecrate Yourself to Mary!
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“Love alone creates”
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Consecration.com
Auschwitz
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Behold
Your
Mother....
in the MI!
C
onsecration to the Virgin began at the
foot of the Cross when Jesus entrusted
Mary to the beloved disciple as
his mother, and the beloved disciple to Mary as her son. When
Jesus said, “Behold your Mother ”
to John, it was not merely to
take her into his house,
but into his heart as his
mother. Just as Mary was
a mother to Jesus, she
was now to be a mother
to all of his disciples.
Fr. Patrick
Consecration to Mary is
Greenough, OFM CONV.
an act of love, whereby
we take Mary as our mother, just as Jesus took
her as His mother, and as He commanded
John to do, with His dying breath.
Consecrating oneself to Mary in the Militia
of the Immaculata (MI) is not just an individual act, but makes us a part of a family. No
matter where you go in the world, when you
meet someone who is in the MI there is an
instant bonding, a feeling of family!
Sometimes people want to complicate
consecration, but it is really very simple. It is
where each person stands at the foot of the
Cross and hears Jesus say to them, “Behold
your Mother,” and from that day onward, they
take Mary into their hearts for always. Love
is like that, ever so simple, yet stronger than
death. Once you are consecrated you will
know what I mean.
In the Immaculata,
Fr. Patrick Greenough, OFM CONV.
MI national president, USA/Canada
International vice president
Table of Contents
6
What Is Total Consecration?
8
What Is the MI all About?
9
Start An MI Village: They Will Come!
10
Jesus and the Holocaust
12
What Is the MI Prison Ministry?
13
St. Maximilian Kolbe and the Eucharist
14
What Is the Militia of the Immaculata?
16
Mary: Dwelling place of the Holy Spirit
18
Father Kolbe for Our Times
19
The Miraculous Medal and Saint Maximilian
22
Saint Maximilian and Auschwitz
24
Who Was St. Maximilian Kolbe?
26
What Is Marytown all About?
27
Maximilian Speaks
28
Changing the World One Prayer at a Time
30
Saint Maximilian and the Jews
34
What Is a Knight at the Foot of the Cross?
35
The Immaculate Conception
37
Now that You Are Consecrated
38
What Is the MI Youth & Young Adults?
5
What Is
Total Consecration?
C
onsecration means to
set oneself aside for
service to God. In truth,
all consecration is by
God and to God. God is the one
who inspires us to give ourselves
totally to Him and all consecration
is ultimately to God alone. God
does not, however, do anything
in us or to us without our consent,
our free will.
Therefore it is necessary that
we choose to give ourselves to
God and that we ask to be consecrated. The ultimate and most
important consecration is Baptism
whereby we are set apart for God,
by God. All other consecrations
should help us to grow in our
baptismal consecration. This is
precisely what Marian consecration does. At our Baptism we
promised to turn away from sin
and live the Gospel life. Unfortunately, as Fulbert of Chartres
(d.1028) stated, We have not
always observed what we have
promised at our Baptism. Nevertheless, we have been handed over
to Our Lady and committed to her
care by the Lord to help us.
Consecration to
the Virgin Mary
Consecration to the Virgin Mary
began at the foot of the Cross,
whereby Our Lord entrusted John
and, symbolically through him,
all Christians to the Virgin Mary.
From the foot of the Cross to the
earliest known prayer to Mary, the
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Consecration.com
Sub Tuum Praesidium (c.300),
to St. John Damascene (d.750)
to St. Louis de Montfort (d.1716),
devotion to Mary and consecration to her has been part of the
Christian tradition and faith.
Marian consecration therefore
is not an “old fashioned” devotion,
but a historical, theological, and
spiritual act whereby one grows
in the holiness of one’s Baptism
and becomes a more perfect
disciple of Christ. Consecration
to the Virgin Mary therefore
should not be undertaken
lightly, for it is a life changing,
faith building act.
to Mary , each
Christian, like
John the
Apostle, welcomes the
Mother of
Christ into his
own home
and heart. He
continues by
saying, As Mary
gave birth to
Christ, the Head of
the Mystical Body,
she also had to have
given birth to all of the
members of that same body.
Why Consecrate Myself
to the Immaculate Virgin?
Traditional definitions of consecration to Mary consist in offering oneself entirely to Mary
in order, through her, to belong
totally to Jesus. All consecrations
therefore are ultimately through/
with Mary to Jesus. This is in
imitation of the Son of God who
offered Himself entirely to Mary
not only in her womb but as a
Son to a Mother, so as to come to
earth and become one with all
humanity. The Son of God’s giving
of Himself to Mary therefore did
not end at His birth but continues
forever, as the bond between a
Mother and a Son is eternal.
Following the entrustment of
John to the Virgin Mary at the foot
of the Cross, Pope John Paul II
teaches that by entrusting oneself
What Happens
at Consecration?
By consecrating ourselves to
Mary we become like her. We too
become filled with grace. We are
overshadowed by the Holy Spirit.
We become the ark of the covenant and the dwelling place of
God. We give birth to Christ in
the world. We become the spouse
of the Holy Spirit. We become
perfect disciples of Christ. We
become intercessors as she did
at Cana. Our hearts are pierced by
a sword. We are at enmity with the
devil and we share in the sufferings of Christ and stand at the
foot of His Cross. Is this not what
every true disciple of Christ longs
for and desires to be? Once again,
however, consecration cannot
be taken lightly. The mission that
Our Lady accepted required great
Fr. John Grigus, OFM CONV., invests a new consecrant member of the MI with
the Miraculous Medal at Marytown’s consecration ceremony, March 25, 2002.
Visit Consecration.com for information about preparing for total consecration!
faith and entailed tremendous
suffering as well.
St. Maximilian Kolbe
and Consecration
St. Maximilian Kolbe, OFM CONV.,
founded the Militia of the Immaculata movement to consecrate the
entire world to the Immaculate
Virgin so as to lead every person
to Jesus Christ as quickly as possible. He stated that the ideal of
every member of the MI is to be
the servant and child of the Im-
maculata, and this out of love.
Saint Maximilian’s consecration to
Mary centers around her Immaculate Conception and her relationship with Jesus as His Mother and
the Holy Spirit as His Spouse.
Saint Maximilian taught that the
will of the Immaculata is totally
united to the Will of the Holy Spirit.
That is why in consecrating ourselves to the Immaculate Virgin
and doing her will, we also give
ourselves to Jesus to do His Will.
Her will does not differ from the
Will of God. Calling upon her
will, without reserve, we manifest
a love for the Will of God, for her
will is so perfectly united with the
Will of God that in nothing does it
differ from God’s. We imitate good,
virtuous people but none of these
is without imperfection. Only she,
immaculate from the first moment
of her existence, knows no imperfection, not the slightest fault.
It is for us to imitate her, to come
near her, to become like her,
to become her own! Consecrate Yourself to Mary!
7
?
Who to Contact
MI
consecration.com
MI International Center
Rome Italy, Casa Kolbe
www.MI-International.org
MI National Center, USA
MARY TOWN—
National Shrine of
1600 West Park Avenue
Libertyville, Illinois 60048
www.Marytown.com
[email protected]
847-367-7800
MI Prison Ministry
Marytown
[email protected]
847-367-7800
Knights at the Foot of the Cross
Marytown
The spiritual and apostolic legacy of
St. Maximilian Kolbe is the gift the
Fr. Kolbe Missionaries share with families
and individuals through various activities.
Reaching out at Conferences:
MI members share with others about
Saint Maximilian and total consecration. MI literature and hundreds of
Miraculous Medals are distributed.
[email protected]
847-367-7800
MI Canada
314 Harwood Avenue, South
Ajax, Ontario L1S 2J0 Canada
www.Consecration.ca
416-465-9466
MI Youth & Young Adults
Some MIs have active apostolates promoting
adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in their
parishes, working in the pro-life movement,
making rosaries, and passing out medals.
www.MIYouth.org
949-533-3306
The Sisters Minor of Mary Immaculate
help with the aged. They take a fourth
vow of MI consecration.
YOUTH MINISTRY
“The Truth Will Set You Free”:
Proud new MI consecrants after a youth
conference. Young people are motivated by inspirational talks, dramas,
testimonies and a vocations panel.
MI Communities
Daughters of the Immaculata
www.DaughtersoftheImmaculata.com
Fr. Kolbe Missionaries
of the Immaculata
www.KolbeMission.org
Sisters Minor of
Mary Immaculate
www.SistersMinorMI.org
“I Am Totally Yours”:
Public consecrations are held at the MI
Consecration.com
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national
center throughout the year.
Conventual Franciscans discuss ways
to promote Marian consecrations.
Conventual Franciscan Friars
www.Marytown.com
Start a Village: They Will Come!
W
ithin the last few
years a new phenomenon has been
occurring across
the country! Militia of the Immaculata Villages have been popping up like popcorn all over
the United States.
The concept was that of the
MI national president, Fr. Patrick
Greenough, OFM CONV. He realized that Marytown, being the MI
National Center for the States, is
also a “City of the Immaculate”
as envisioned by St. Maximilian
Kolbe, like the famous City of the
Immaculate founded in Poland,
called “Niepokalanow. ”
At a City of the Immaculate,
everyone is totally consecrated
to Our Lady and live the vowed
life. All of their work is directed
to promoting the MI and bringing
the world to the Sacred Heart of
Jesus through consecration.
The Village Connection
It was hoped that the MI Villages would be “mirror images”
of the Cities of the Immaculate
for lay people. Villages would be
“smaller versions” of the Cities
of the Immaculate, whereby
by Br. Paschal Kolodziej, OFM CONV.
lay people who are consecrated
would gather for prayer, study,
and evangelization.
These “villages” are run by MI
consecrated people and have
a close connection with the MI
National Center. The villages meet
for prayer once a month, some
every two weeks, and others every
week. Each meeting starts with
a renewal of one’s consecration,
the recitation of the rosary, and a
reading of St. Maximilian Kolbe’s
writings followed by a discussion.
Village members also have
some time for fellowship and
learn from each other how
to live one’s consecration. They
bond with one another quickly
through prayer. The Villages are
for all ages, with some specifically
for the Youth and Young Adults.
Village Evangelization
A few MI Villages also encourage an active apostolate among
its members. They help promote
adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in their parishes and dioceses, are involved with the prolife movement, make rosaries, pass
out medals by the hundreds, and
others have maintained a close
relationship with Knights at the
Foot of the Cross in their area. “ If You Build It ,
They Will Come! ”
—movie, Field of Dreams
Success can easily be measured
by the continuous growth of MI
Villages throughout the continental USA. For a complete listing of
MI Villages, meeting times, and
contacts, please visit our
website at Consecration.com.
If there is no MI Village in
your area, maybe Our Lady is
calling you to start one?
Contact the MI National office
at 847-367-7800, ext. 246
for further information.
( l ) Reciting the MI consecration prayer: MI Village, Marytown, IL
(r) Praying the Rosary: Regina Coeli MI Village, Des Plaines, IL
9
Jesus and the Holocaust
W
hat does Christianity have to say to
Judaism after the
Holocaust? Perhaps
the death of one Jew 2,000 years
ago can speak to the death of six
million Jews during WWII.
Just as Christians remember
the death of Jesus and His darkest
hour, so we need to remember the
darkest hour of the human race
in the Holocaust. It is impossible
to comprehend the suffering of
Jesus in His crucifixion and it
is just as impossible for us to
comprehend what it must have
been like to see one’s parent,
child or friend dragged off, never
to be seen again or, even worse,
murdered before one’s eyes.
In the suffering of those around
us, we see the suffering of Christ
including those whom we do not
understand or love because He
died for all. Therefore, Christ is
present in all suffering and all
suffering is a recrucifixion of
the Body of Christ.
Casting Lots
In the Holocaust, like Jesus,
victims were stripped of their
clothes before being executed.
This was for the economic benefit
of the executioners. The piles of
luggage, garments, shoes, jewelry
and eyeglasses discovered at the
concentration camps bears silent
witness to their plunder.
No Excuses
The human family has been
divided and at war with itself ever
since Cain and Abel. Ever since
then, man has been murdering
his brother and coming up with
endless excuses to justify himself.
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There is no justification and there
are no excuses. Just as Cain tried
to hide when he murdered his
brother, so the murder of millions
in the Holocaust is hidden by our
excuses and our ignorance.
The Death of God
and the Holocaust
For some, the Holocaust signals
the death of God. For them, it is
no longer possible to believe in a
God who allows such atrocities to
happen. Just as Jesus was mocked
on the Cross as His executioners
said, Let God deliver, for He trusted
in God, so was this said to the
victims of the holocaust as well:
Where is your God now? Let Him
deliver you!
To deny that it was God’s will is
to hold that God is powerless in
the world. Yet merely to state that
the death of Jesus, or the death
of six million Jews or the death
of millions more is merely God’s
will risks turning the world into
atheists. What is threatened by the
Holocaust is not God’s existence,
but His goodness.
Redemptive Suffering
What would we have said if we
had walked through the gates of
Auschwitz? This is God’s will?
Would we have offered up our
suffering? Do we too easily and
too quickly and nonchalantly
speak of redemptive suffering?
Perhaps we do as long as it is
someone else’s suffering.
As long as it is not my mother or
father or brother or sister or child
who is murdered, it is easy to call
it redemptive suffering. The truth
is, the innocent do suffer! Yet if the
innocent do suffer, is it not more
comforting to believe that their
suffering is not in vain and has
some higher purpose?
If we believe that not a sparrow
falls to the ground without our
heavenly Father’s consent, must
there not be some redemptive
purpose to the millions of
innocent men, women and
children who fell to the ground
in the Holocaust?
The Challenge
of Forgiveness
As Jesus was dying on the
Cross He prayed, Father, forgive
them, for they know not what
they do. Forgiveness for stealing a
pack of gum is one thing, but for
murdering millions of innocent
people is another thing entirely
and cannot be taken lightly.
Jesus Himself warned of the
judgment facing those who
perpetrate outrages against the
little ones. It would have been
better for them to have a millstone
slung around their neck and to be
cast into the sea! God is a God of
forgiveness and a God of justice.
In the face of such horror as
the Holocaust, is it a sin to cry
out for justice instead of forgiveness? In the end, one cannot
be too quick to judge another
or expect them to forgive when
we have not experienced what
they have.
The forgiveness that Jesus offered from the Cross and that can
be offered in the Holocaust is not
a human forgiveness but a divine
one, and is a gift that is bestowed
only by God. Who receives it and
when they receive it, and why
some may not is a mystery only
God knows and decides.
Eleventh Station: Crucifixion
Nailing to the Cross without any executioners. Christ lies Himself on the Cross,
“nailed” to it by human pain, martyrdom of victims who suffered and died in
prisons, concentration camps and lagers, for God and the homeland.
© Jerzy Duda Gracz
God and the Holocaust
The real question is, why did
God not intervene? Why did God
not intervene in the death of His
own Son? On Calvary Jesus did
not turn away from His Father in
His suffering or blame His Father.
In the face of such incomprehensible suffering and almost unanswerable questions, Saint Maximilian did not lose faith, but found
an even deeper faith, a faith that
called him to lay down his life for
another, for a stranger.
Before we ask God questions,
however, we must ask ourselves
some questions, individually and
communally. We cannot wash our
hands, because we are part of the
human family; therefore we share
in its goodness and in its evil.
We share in Hitler and Stalin’s sins
just as we share in Dr. Schweitzer’s
and Mother Teresa’s goodness
and blessings. We did not fight
the war of 1776, but we share in
George Washington’s victory and
the freedom he won for us. We
therefore also share in the sins of
others as well.
How have we tried to overcome the sins of society? Do we
become involved and do our part
no matter how small to make the
world a better place, or are we
too busy? Do we too easily wash
our hands believing that we can
do nothing?
Christ is present in all
suffering and all suffering
is a recrucifixion of
the Body of Christ.
We Have a Choice
To believe in human nature
or not; to question God or to
trust in Him; to forgive or to seek
revenge; to hope or to despair;
to go on living or to die. In the
end each one of us has to face
these questions in life and
society. Those who do not
risk another holocaust. Consecrate Yourself to Mary!
11
MI Prison
Ministr y
by Deacon Patrick Maher, T.O.CARM.
In prison, and you
cared for me. Mt 25:43
you understand. I’m 6’1.5”
and 220 lbs.
(c) Artist: Fr. Joseph Dorniak, OFM CONV.
T
he late Bishop Sheen once
had to go to a prison to give
a conference and he was nervous about what they would think
of him. Would they think that he was
one of the good guys and they were
the bad guys? That he wore the
white hat and they the black?
So he began his conference by
stating that the only difference
between the inmates and him is
that they got caught, he did not. In
other words, we are all sinners and
have transgressed God’s law. Those
who are in prison are constantly
reminded of their transgressions.
MI Prison Ministry is answering
the call from Our Lady to serve
s First, prayer. This is primary as
do not fully understand what
this is. And to be totally honest,
it frightens me a great deal.
For the one thing that I do
know is that to understand the
act of consecration and partake
of this, to me, is a step that I am
not taking lightly.”
men and women all over the country in this prison apostolate, which
tries to offer inmates a way
to receive peace and forgiveness.
Inmates who ask to be consecrated in prison, unite themselves
with Mary Immaculate in the Militia
of the Immaculata and St. Maximilian Kolbe, the patron saint of
inmates, who himself was a prisoner
in Auschwitz and relates with their
isolation, suffering and pain.
Why Consecrate in Prison?
One inmate wrote: “Something
is definitely happening. I frankly
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Consecration.com
What Is MI Prison Ministry?
Identity with and support for
the incarcerated is the purpose of
MI Prison Ministry. Our aim is to
introduce every inmate to Mary
Immaculate and to St. Maximilian
Kolbe who are models of reparation suffering, to help them to
endure their own inner suffering.
Our goals are:
How Do They Live
Their Consecration?
Another inmate wrote:
I don’t know what all is
involved (I believe I have the
right concept). But I ask you
now to bring me into it. What
can I do (what do I have to
do)? What can you teach me?
Can you? Will you? I don’t
know if I’m saying this right
but I want to be a consecrated
soul, I want to be a son of
Mary. I’m willing to do what
it takes to save other souls.
I’m willing to step up to
the plate....I don’t know if
we ask the Holy Spirit to guide
all to Jesus through Mary.
s Second, consecration
as an MI member to Mary.
s Third, spiritual support with
outreach to religious and laity
as their united prayer with
inmates forms a cenacle
(community) that prays every
Tuesday and Sunday at 8:00 P.M.
True unity of redemptive
suffering with Jesus.
s Fourth, material support with
rosaries, Catholic Bibles, reading material, holy cards, prayer
cards, sacramentals.
If you know of any inmates who
would like us to help them with
their struggles and weaknesses,
let us introduce them to Mary our
Mother for comfort and peace as
she leads them to Jesus her Son.
Send us their name and I.D. number and we will contact them. .*1SJTPO.JOJTUSZt."3:508/
8FTU1BSL"WF-JCFSUZWJMMF*-
1SJTPO.JOJTUSZ!.BSZUPXODPN
.*1SJTPO.JOJTUSZDPNIPNFIUNM
FYU
Eucharist,
God Among Us
by Fr. Patrick Greenough,
OFM CONV.
and the Eucharist
I
n Mary, we have a model
and an image of how to draw
close to the Lord and experience communion with Him. At
the Annunciation, the Holy Spirit
overshadowed her and by their
communion, Jesus was formed
in her womb. In her womb, Mary
experienced communion with the
Son of God.
At His birth, she held Him in her
arms and kissed His cheeks and
dried His tears. When He died,
she held His lifeless body as it
was taken down from the Cross
and gently laid it in the tomb
as she used to gently carry Him
in her arms and lay Him in the
manger when He was born.
After Jesus’ Ascension into heaven,
who hungered, who longed for
and who was more prepared to
received Christ in Holy Communion than Mary?
Mary’s entire life was an endless
communion with the Holy Spirit
and Jesus. This is why she is our
model and example par excellence of how to prepare ourselves
to become one with Christ in the
Eucharist. As St. Maximilian wrote,
“A person unreservedly consecrated
to the Immaculate One knows that there is
no better preparation for Holy Communion than to
undertake that act in union with the Virgin Mary.
She knows best how to prepare our hearts and we can be certain that we
will deeply please Our Lord in thus manifesting the greatest possible love
for Him. Mary truly is Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament who prepares
us and shows us the way to Communion with Christ.” Consecrate Yourself to Mary!
13
What Is the Militia
F
rom the very beginning
of Christianity, Mary has
been the one through
whom people have
received Christ. They did so at
Bethlehem, Nazareth, at Cana and
even in the upper room where the
disciples gathered around the Virgin Mary in prayer waiting for the
coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Mary was the first evangelizer
as she carried the Good News
to her cousin Elizabeth and she
has continued to carry that Good
News to every age and every race
and culture. Through the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe,
millions of people converted to
Christianity. Millions more are
converted and drawn closer to
Christ at Fatima, Lourdes, Knock,
LaSallette and other Marian
shrines throughout the world.
The Conversion of
Alphonse Ratisbonne
One day as Saint Maximilian
was at prayer in the seminary
chapel in Rome, he heard the story
of the conversion of Alphonse
Ratisbonne. It was January 20,1917,
the 75th anniversary of his conversion. Alphonse was a Jewish man
who had no love for Christianity
and quite often spoke publicly of
his disdain for it. He did, however,
have a good Catholic friend with
whom he would have discussions
concerning Catholicism.
One day Alphonse and his
friend agreed to an “experiment.”
Alphonse would wear the Miraculous Medal and pray the Memorare to Our Lady for one week
and wait and see what happened.
Believing that nothing would
14
happen, Alphonse accepted the
challenge. One day while waiting
for his friend who was attending a
funeral at Sant’ Andrea delle Fratte,
Alphonse went inside the church
to wait for the funeral to end.
The following account is in the
words of Alphonse himself and
what he experienced:
“When I traversed the Church,
I arrived at the spot where they
were getting ready for the funeral.
Suddenly I felt interiorly disturbed,
and saw in front of me something
like a veil. It seemed to me that
the entire church had been
swallowed up in shadow, except
one chapel. It was as though all
the light was concentrated in
that single place. I looked over
towards this chapel whence so
much light shone, and above
the altar was a living figure, tall,
majestic, beautiful and full of
mercy. It was the most holy Virgin
Mary, resembling her figure on the
Miraculous Medal. At this sight
I fell on my knees right where I
stood. Unable to look up because
of the blinding light, I fixed my
glance on her hands, and in them I
could read the expression of mercy
and pardon. In the presence of the
Most Blessed Virgin, even though
she did not speak a word to me,
I understood the frightful situation
I was in, my sins and the beauty
of the Catholic faith.”
Chapel of Conversion: Painting of Our Lady of
Grace, in the chapel of the Madonna of the
Miracle, as she appeared to Ratisbonne in the
Basilica of Sant’ Andrea delle Fratte, Rome.
Fr. Maximilian Kolbe celebrated his first Mass
at the altar of this shrine on April 29, 1919.
The Founding of the MI
As Saint Maximilian heard
the story of Alphonse’s conversion
read during prayers, he became
convinced that Mary could convert the entire world to Jesus.
Founding of the MI: The room, now
converted into a chapel, where Kolbe
and his six co-founders established the
Militia of the Immaculata ( MI) in Rome.
Consecration.com
of the Immaculata ?
As Christians we believe that
Jesus is the Way, the Truth and
the Life, and that no one comes
to the Father except through Him.
Each one of us is called to be a
witness and evangelizer of the
Lord. Why not seek the help of
the first and the greatest evangelizer, the Virgin Mary, in spreading
the message of the Gospel and
Christianity? Maximilian, therefore, with six other friars did just
this as they founded the Militia
of the Immaculata (MI) on the
evening of October16,1917, in the
Conventual Franciscan seminary
in Rome, with the express purpose
of bringing the world to Christ
through consecration to the Virgin
Mary. The MI therefore is not just
a private act of consecration but
an act whereby we consecrate
ourselves to the Virgin Mary and
unite ourselves with her and
other members of the MI with the
express purpose of evangelizing
the world and bringing the world
to Christ.
What Is the MI?
It is a public association, canonically recognized by the Vatican,
that is universal and international.
It is open to the laity, priests and
consecrated persons/religious.
It is an association in which the
members, mindful of the calling
of all Christians to personal holiness and to evangelization, and
of Mary’s mission of grace in the
Church and in the world (the fruit
of her perfect union with the Holy
Spirit), recognize in the mystery
of her Immaculate Conception
the focal point of their spirituality,
theology and apostolate (International Statutes of the MI ).
The Purpose of the MI
1. To bring about the conversion
of every person to Christ and
growth in holiness through
consecration to Mary .
Relics of St. Maximilian:
( l ) Original M.I. Charter written by
Kolbe’s own hand in Latin.
(c) St. Maximilian’s habit and cord
with reliquary containing his hair.
(r) Statue of the Immaculata of St. Maximilian’s.
2. The shortest and surest way to
conversion and sanctification is
the Immaculate Virgin Mary as is
evidenced by all the saints.
3. The essence of the MI consists
in one’s belonging to the Immaculata unconditionally, irrevocably and without restriction.
Belonging to Mary may seem
difficult to understand, but did
not Jesus give Himself entirely
to Mary as her Son and did
not John the beloved disciple
receive her totally into his
home and his heart at the foot
of the Cross? Consecration
to the Immaculata is merely
following in their footsteps.
Conditions for Membership
1. One must consecrate oneself
to the Immaculata. This can be
done by the prayer of consecration composed by St. Maximilian Kolbe (see page 4). One
should prepare for consecration
by prayer, the Sacraments and
study about Saint Maximilian and
the MI. It is hoped that one will
strive to continue to grow in one’s
consecration through prayer and
study after one’s consecration.
This can be done in many ways,
such as reading Immaculata
magazine, various books and
pamphlets about Saint Maximilian and the MI available through
Marytown Press and the MI
website, Consecration.com,
and attending MI conferences
offered throughout the country .
2. Wear or carry the
Miraculous Medal.
3. Register at a canonical center
of the MI. Since Marytown is the
MI National Center, one can register there by mail or email. Check
out Consecration.com! Consecrate Yourself to Mary!
15
Mary Immaculate
Dwelling Place of the Holy Spirit
F
ather Kolbe, anticipating
the Mariological doctrine
of Vatican II, developed
a Trinitarian Mariology
with an in-depth reflection on
the relationship between Mary
and the Most Holy Trinity in the
plan of salvation. This Kolbean
perspective has its roots in
St. Francis of Assisi who composed
this beautiful antiphon to the
Blessed Mother:
Hail, holy Lady, most holy
Queen, Mother of God, ever
Virgin; chosen by the Most
Holy Father in heaven, consecrated by Him, with his
most Holy Beloved Son and
the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.
It is this notion of Spouse of
the Holy Spirit, contained in the
Marian Antiphon of the Office
of Our Lord’s Passion, that drew
the attention of Father Kolbe in
a particular way and marked his
Mariological writings:
Holy Virgin Mary, among
all the women of the world
there is none like you; you
are the daughter and the
handmaid of the most high
King and Father of heaven;
you are the mother of our
most holy Lord Jesus Christ,
you are the spouse of the
Holy Spirit. Pray for us,
with St. Michael the Archangel and all the powers
of heaven and all the saints,
to your most holy and
beloved Son, our Lord
and Master.
16
Consecration.com
Rosella Bignami, FKMI
God’s Masterpiece
For Saint Maximilian, the Immaculate Conception is the new
creation, the sublime work of the
Father in Christ and in the Spirit.
The divine maternity is relative
to the Incarnate Word and the
foundation of every other gift
granted to the Virgin, first of all
her Immaculate Conception.
The creature most completely
filled with love, filled with God
Himself, Father Kolbe writes, is
the Immaculata, who never contracted the slightest stain of sin,
who never departed in the least
from God’s will. United to the Holy
Spirit as his spouse, in an ineffable
manner, she is one with God in
an incomparably more perfect
way than can be predicted of any
other creature.
How should we understand
the title spouse of the Holy Spirit
in reference to Mary?
Although Kolbe likes very much
the title Spouse of the Holy Spirit,
he tells us that the union of Mary
and the Holy Spirit cannot be
fully expressed in words. This title
expresses an analogical concept
which seeks to explain the unfathomable mystery of the Incarnation
by the power of the Holy Spirit in
the womb of the Virgin. At the conception of Jesus in Mary’s womb,
the Holy Spirit unites Himself
with Mary, fills her with His presence to the point that He makes
her His spousal dwelling.
Fr. Luigi Faccenda, a Conventual
Franciscan who knows Kolbe’s
spirituality profoundly, writes:
In Kolbe’s thought, Mary appears as the new Ark of the
Covenant in whom God the
Trinity dwells and the Spirit
enters without obstacles, filling her to the point of making
her His spouse.
From that moment the
bond between her and the
Holy Spirit is indissoluble. The
Spirit dwells within her, fills
her with Himself, and associates her with His sanctifying
mission, so much so that one
can say that the Spirit works
“through” the Immaculata.
This is to be understood in
the sense that Mary, being the
Spirit’s dwelling, is not only
the person in whom the Word
takes on human flesh, but
also the “place” of the Spirit’s
manifestation, the “place”
where every other mystery
is fulfilled and the fruits of
divine grace mature.
The Holy Spirit shaped Mary
Immaculate after His own image,
to the point that He made her the
most perfect likeness of the Divine
Being in a simple human creature.
Saint Maximilian looks at the
Immaculata as the woman full of
grace, as a masterpiece produced
by the hands of God.
“The mother of God is the most
perfect of all creatures; she is immaculate, full of grace, all beautiful. From her, God receives the
highest glory a creature can possibly give him. So perfect is she, so
closely bound to the Holy Spirit,
that we can call her His spouse.”
Dispenser of Grace
Precisely in this profound union
with the Holy Spirit, her mediation
of graces finds its origin. A few
hours before his final arrest, on
February 17, 1941, Father Kolbe
dictated one of his clearest and
most complete thoughts containing the essence of his Marian
doctrine. Regarding the relationship between Mary and the
Holy Spirit, he explains:
What sort of union is this? It is
above all an interior union,
a union of her essence with
the “essence” of the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells
in the Immaculata, lives in her.
This was true from the first
instant of her existence.
The Holy Spirit lives in
the soul of the Immaculata,
in the depths of her very
being. He makes her fruitful,
for the very first instant of her
existence, all during her life,
and for all eternity.
In the union of the Holy
Spirit with her, not only do
we have the love of two
beings; in one of the two we
have all the love of the Trinity
itself; and in the other we
have all of creation’s love.
Hence, in this union heaven
and earth meet; all of heaven
with all of earth, the totality
of divine eternal love with
the plenitude of created love.
It is true summit of love.
Our intellect is not able to grasp
the full meaning of this reality
because it is beyond our human
experience. More as a mystic
than as a theologian, Father Kolbe
comes to affirm that “This union
[between the Holy Spirit and
the Immaculata] is so inexpressible and perfect that the Holy
Spirit acts solely through the
Immaculata, His Bride.
As a consequence, she is the
Mediatrix of all the graces of the
Holy Spirit. Since every grace is a
gift of God, the Father through the
Son and in the Holy Spirit, it
follows that there is no grace
which does not belong to
the Immaculata, which is not
offered to her and which does
not remain at her disposal.
So, when we venerate the
Immaculata, we venerate the
Holy Spirit in a very special manner, and because grace comes
to us from the Father through the
Son and the Holy Spirit, so, as is
only right, the fruits of this grace
arise from us to the Father in the
reverse order: through the Holy
Spirit and the Son, which means
through the Immaculata and Jesus.
This is the stupendous prototype
of the principle of action and
equal and contrary reaction, as
taught by natural science.”
The Holy Spirit is the divine
sanctifier and distributor of
the graces of redemption. As
Maximilian explains,“By the
power of the redemption wrought
by Christ, the Holy Spirit transforms the souls of men into
temples of God; He makes us
adopted children of God and
heirs of the heavenly kingdom....
until the end of the world it will
be the task of the Holy Spirit to
form the new members predestined to glory in the mystical
body of Christ.
And as Blessed Louis Grignion
shows, this task is carried to
completion with Mary, in Mary
and through Mary. We are led to
this conclusion, namely, that the
Holy Spirit acts through Mary, by
considering various texts of Holy
Scripture and the sayings of saints,
who are the best interpreters of
Holy Scripture....If we consider
all these truths together we can
conclude that Mary, as Mother
of Jesus our Savior, was made
the Co-redemptrix of the human
race; as the spouse of the Holy
Spirit she shares in the distribution
of all graces.”
This mediation of Mary should
not be confused with the unique
mediation of Christ; nor should
it be understood to add anything
to it. As Vatican II clearly states, the
unique mediation of the Redeemer
does not exclude but rather gives
rise to a manifold cooperation
which is but a sharing in this one
source (LG 62).
Mary’s mediation is totally
relative to and dependent on
that of Christ (LG 60), and it is
much more perfect than that
of every other creature her
intimate and perfect union
with God and his salvific plan.
The Catholic Church does not
teach that the doctrine of the
maternal mediation of Mary
is a necessity, but simply recognizes that it is God’s will and
choice. God in His kindness
and condescension wanted
and wants human cooperation
in His salvific work.
Therefore, Father Kolbe rightly
teaches that “Since she is the Mediatrix of all graces, it is only in so
far as we approach her, that we too,
can become channels of grace,
intermediaries of the graces that
come from the Father by the Son
who merited them, and through
the Immaculata who distributes
them, so that they can flood our
souls and through us reach other
souls as well.”
This is precisely the aim and the
natural result of our consecration
to the Immaculata lived in the
footsteps of St. Maximilian Kolbe.
Therefore:
Let us pray more and more
that we may understand
better and better what the Immaculata said at the moment
of the Annunciation: “I am the
handmaid of the Lord....Let it
be done to me according to
your word.”
In this attitude alone will
we find happiness. This is the
resumé of our mission on this
earth. God made us to be His
instruments...so, let us ask
the Virgin Mary to teach how
our souls too can become
the handmaids of the Lord
(Conference, April 2, 1938). Consecrate Yourself to Mary!
17
Father Kolbe for
Our Times
by Ada Locatelli,
FKMI
Animated by Love
“R
emember your leaders
who spoke the word of
God to you; consider how
their lives ended, and imitate their
faith” (Heb 13:7). This short yet
stirring invitation, which comes
to us directly from the Word of
God, requests from us a grateful
contemplation and appreciation
of the gift of the communion of
saints in our Catholic faith.
Also, in the messages of Pope
John Paul II, we can listen to this
repeated invitation: “Follow in
the footsteps of the witnesses and
teachers who have gone before
you!” ( Message to the Youth of the
World on the Occasion of the XVII
World Youth Day).
Why this insistence? Because of
the special call “to preserve the
faith which we have received and
to pass it on intact to others....” as
true “apostles and witnesses of the
new millennium” (ibid.).
As we reflect on St. Maximilian
Kolbe’s extraordinary witness to
life and holiness, we are gradually
but concretely drawn to a life of
evangelical charity. Love is the
very heart of the Kolbean ideal.
Charity keynoted Father Kolbe’s
entire life, not only the last days
of his existence and “passion”
spent in the starvation bunker
at Auschwitz.
His editorial work was motivated by a strong love for neighbor,
whether in his ignorance of God
and His love, or as a sinner or
an enemy of the Church. In fact,
he wrote: “The purpose of the
Rycerz ( The Knight of the Immaculata magazine) is not only that
of deepening the faith, but also
of devoting oneself to the work
of converting those who are not
Catholic. The magazine’s style will
18
Consecration.com
be always friendly
toward everyone,
regardless of differences of faith
or nationality. Its
distinctive feature
will be love, the
love taught by
Christ”(SK 994).
Fr. Maximilian
Kolbe founded
the Militia of
the Immaculata because of
his love for the
Church, openly
threatened by
Freemasonry,
and because of his
love for the Masons
themselves, in order to win
them back to the love of God.
“How could we not extend
our hand to those people? How
could we not help them pacify
their hearts, raise their minds
above all worldly concerns and
toward the eternal, God Himself?
Love for brethren moves those
souls who have already found
their true life ideal, not forgetting
those who surround them.
The Militia of the Immaculata
is one association among many
which put into practice this
brotherly love” (SK 1237).
“Forget not love.” “Love alone
creates.” These famous expressions of St. Maximilian Kolbe
have become slogans, especially
among youth. As a matter of fact,
they are true programs on which
he based his entire life, emphasizing a continual and tireless giving
of himself to God and his fellow
men. Moreover, he lived his love
for God and his neighbor not only
by dying in the starvation bunker,
but also by putting to good use his
talents, apostolic creativity, time,
and even his health and all his
energies in a generous service
for the Immaculata.
Father Kolbe reflected concretely the gospel of charity in his
life. The Lord Jesus said: “There
is no greater love than this: to lay
down one’s life for one’s friend”
(Jn 15:13). The Saint of Auschwitz
laid down his life for a person he
didn’t even know!
St. Maximilian Kolbe’s loving
witness, matured in his communion with Mary, the Virgin
Mother, demands that we develop
a greater love for man, the Church,
and God. We are called to be
experts in living communion in
every environment, to make the
urgencies of the Church ours, and
to love our brothers and sisters
even to the martyrdom of charity. Since God loves us and has
always loved us, we can also draw
from that free gift of love and be
able to love. This is the unfailing
certainty that comes to us from
the Martyr of Auschwitz. The Miraculous Medal
and Saint Maximilian
T
he Miraculous Medal
owes its origin to the
apparitions of the
Blessed Virgin Mary in
the Chapel of the Rue du Bac,
Paris, in the year 1830. She
appeared as the Immaculate
Conception to Catherine Labouré,
a novice with the Daughters of
Charity and a future saint.
On July 18, the Blessed Virgin,
seated in this convent chapel,
spoke gentle words of encouragement to the twenty-two year
old novice. On November 27, the
Virgin Mother returned, showing
Sister Catherine the design of a
medal that would remind people
of the love and protection that
Our Lady continually offers
to the People of God.
The Medal and
the MI Movement
In January 1917, while at the
Conventual Franciscan Friars’
seminary in Rome, young Maximilian Kolbe heard the Miraculous Medal conversion story
of Alphonse Ratisbonne. This
wonderful account inspired him
to recognize the powerful role that
God had given Mary in the work
of leading people to conversion
and growth in holiness. He understood that the Miraculous Medal
symbolized her active presence in
the Church as Mediatrix of all the
graces that flow from the Heart of
Christ. For the next nine months
Maximilian meditated upon the
Miraculous Medal, the apparition of Our Lady to St. Catherine
Br. Charles Madden, OFM CONV.
Labouré and the marvel of Ratisbonne’ s conversion.
On the evening of October 16,
1917, the seminarian was ready
to put these Marian insights
into a concrete plan of action.
He gathered six Franciscan
companions in a room at the
seminary on Rome’s Via San
Teodoro to establish the Militia
of the Immaculata (whose
members are called MIs).
This movement, which now
numbers millions worldwide,
would bind people together
around one compelling and
fruitful spiritual union with
Mary Immaculate. The MI
would embrace all ages and all
vocations in the church—clergy,
religious, lay men and women,
stirring each to form a personto-person relationship with
Mary by means of the
“Act of Total Consecration.”
Saint Maximilian made the
Miraculous Medal the insignia
of the MI movement. He recommended that people wear it as an
external sign of their consecration
to Jesus Christ through His mother.
Mindful of Mary’ s promise to
Saint Catherine that “all who
wear it will receive great graces,”
Saint Maximilian saw the medal
as a means of safeguarding the
consecration. It reminds MI
members that by their consecration they belong to Mary,
work for her and become one
with her, so that she might act
through them as her instruments
of evangelization.
The ultimate goal of the MI and
of Marian consecration is encapsulated in the Miraculous Medal
image. It is to bring about the reign
of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to
hasten the conversion of individuals, families, society and the entire
world into a “civilization of love” as
called for by Pope John Paul II. 19
19
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A Man For Others
Kolbe: The Saint
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Patricia Treece
Soft cover. 255 pp.
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Soft cover. 186 pp.
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Soft cover. 16 pp.
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Jerzy Domanski, OFM CONV.
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21
Saint Maximilian
and Auschwitz
S
aint Maximilian was confined to Auschwitz from May
28, 1941 to August 14, 1941,
in cellblock 18. At the time,
there were yet no bunks so the
prisoners had to sleep on bagged
straw side by side on the floor.
During the first days of his imprisonment, he worked as a bricklayer pulling carts of gravel and
stones. It was one of the heaviest
chores and each time one slowed
down, the prisoner was beaten by
the guards.
Once, one of the guards loaded
pieces of heavy wood upon the
shoulders of Father Kolbe and
ordered him to run. When he fell,
the guard kicked him in the face
and stomach and beat him with
a stick as he yelled at him.
At the end of the day, Father
Kolbe had to be carried to the
so-called hospital where he was
diagnosed with pneumonia and
exhaustion. When he was released
from the hospital, he was assigned
to block 14 and ordered to peel
potatoes in the camp kitchen.
One time he gave a quarter
of his daily ration of bread away.
Another time he gave away his
wooden shoes. Throughout his
time in the camp, Kolbe exhorted
the prisoners to have faith in the
triumph of good and, even in his
worst beatings, he stated that he
was happy to be able to suffer and
that everything comes from God.
up in the burning sun where they
stood all day long, given no food
or water and often beaten by
the guards.
When some of them collapsed
from exhaustion, dehydration and
sunstroke, they were dragged from
the line up and tossed into a pile
on top of each other like so many
human sticks.
The Path of Glory
Then one day a prisoner escaped and everyone in the camp
had to stand at attention for three
hours until 9:00 P.M. with no food
or water. The order was finally
given for everyone to break ranks
and receive their evening rations
except for cell block 14, from
which the prisoner had escaped.
They were forced to watch as
their food ration was dumped into
the canal; then they were sent to
bed. The next day everyone was
sent to their work detail, except
cellblock 14. They were lined
I Am a Catholic Priest
Eventually, the commandant
chose ten men to die in the starvation bunker, because the escaped
prisoner could not be found.
As he walked through the line of
weary and frightened prisoners,
he chose a man who had a wife
and children. The man cried
out for mercy, but was not granted
his plea.
Suddenly, the unthinkable happened and Maximilian stepped
forward and offered to take his
place. Stunned, the commandant
asked who he was and Maximilian’s only response was that he
was a Catholic priest.
By the grace of God, the commandant granted his request
and Maximilian
went down into the starvation
bunker with the other nine
condemned men. Saint Maximilian not only gave up his
life for the one man, but also
so that the other nine would
not die alone and in despair.
The Charity of Maximilian
While the suffering of Maximilian in Auschwitz was not extraordinary, for all of the prisoners
suffered mercilessly and in an
inhuman manner, the charity
of Maximilian was extraordinary.
In a place where even a scrap
of food meant the ability to
live for another day, Maximilian
once gave all of his food
to another prisoner.
22
The Chapel of Our Lady
The starvation bunker was
in the basement of cellblock
Fr. Maximilian injected with carbolic acid.
Consecration.com
11. The prisoners were led to cell
number 14 and ordered to strip.
From the darkness of the cell
were heard prayers, the Rosary
and hymns in which the prisoners
from the other cells joined in.
In the cell was a pail to be used
for a bathroom, yet it was always
empty as the prisoners eventually
began to drink their own urine as
they were dying of thirst.
Every day the guards would
check on the prisoners, who
would beg for something to eat,
but were refused. During those
visits by the guards, most of the
prisoners were stretched out
on the floor and Maximilian could
be seen standing or kneeling in
their midst.
At the end of the second week,
only four prisoners remained alive.
On the vigil of the Assumption of
the Blessed Virgin Mary, August 14,
the Nazi criminal, Boch, then came
in and injected Maximilian with
carbolic acid in his left arm. This
killed him instantly.
This is why Maximilian is the
patron of those addicted to drugs
and alcohol, since it was a drug
that eventually killed Father Kolbe.
On the feast of the Assumption,
Friday, August 15, his body was
placed in a box and taken to one
of the ovens and burned. His ashes
were later spread in the farm fields
outside of Auschwitz.
One Among Millions
In remembering the sacrifice
and death of Maximilian Kolbe,
we remember the sacrifice
and death of the millions who
died in the Holocaust, especially
the Jews.
Every death in the Holocaust
must never be forgotten and
is a sin against humanity, but
genocide is a sin that was committed particularly against the
Jews as a people.
Two-thirds of European Jewry
and one-third of worldwide
Jewry were murdered in the
death camps. The election of
Hitler in 1933 saw the beginning
of an attempt to marginalize
the Jews from society
as the Nazi propaganda machine began
a systematic attack
upon Jews
in the media as the “misfortune
of Germany.”
Then came the Nuremberg
laws that stripped the Jews of
all legal standing. After Hitler
invaded Poland, the Nazis began
to gather all of the Polish Jews,
numbering almost three million
into ghettos. Many died of illness
and starvation.
While the Nazis murdered other
national and ethnic groups, only
the Jews were singled out for
total and systematic annihilation
known as “Special Treatment” and
the “Final Solution.” In nearly every
country, the Jews were forced to
wear badges and rounded up
into ghettos to be eventually
shipped out to concentration
camps. In the end, it is estimated
that almost six million Jews died
in the Holocaust. Consecrate Yourself to Mary!
23
Who Was
St. Maximilian Kolbe?
R
aymond Kolbe was born
on January 8, 1894, in
Zdunska-Wola, Poland.
Lively and clever,
while still a child, he felt drawn
to follow the Lord and to love
the Immaculata who had offered
him two crowns: one white, symbolizing purity, and the other red,
symbolizing martyrdom.
As a young man, he joined the
Conventual Franciscan Friars and
received the religious name Maximilian. Shortly after, he was sent
to Rome to complete his studies
in philosophy and theology.
Polish by birth but universal in
spirit, taking inspiration from the
most authentic Marian tradition of
his Conventual Franciscan Order,
on October 16, 1917, he established the Militia of the Immaculata, a public association of the
faithful which is international and
universal. Its spirituality consists
in living a total consecration to
the Immaculata in order to attain,
after her example, a more perfect
union with Christ and in order
to collaborate with her for the
spreading of Christ’s Kingdom
in the world.
Ordained a priest in the Conventual Franciscans in 1918, Fr.
Maximilian returned to Poland
and began his untiring missionary
activity. He not only started publishing a monthly magazine,
the Knight of the Immaculata,
but, in 1927, he also established
Niepokalanów (the City of the
Immaculata), where over 700
friars totally consecrated to
24
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Ada Locatelli, FKMI
Friar Maximilian Kolbe spent the
years 1912-1919 as a seminarian
in Rome. In 1917, he founded the
Militia of the Immaculata with six
other student-friars.
Mary devoted themselves to
various evangelization activities,
especially to the printed
word apostolate.
In 1930, moved by the desire
to lead the whole world to Christ
through Mary, he went to Japan
to establish a second City of the
Immaculata, Mugenzai no Sono,
close to Nagasaki. Suffering
from tuberculosis, he returned
in 1936 to Poland and devoted
himself to the spiritual and
apostolic development of
Niepokalanów. It had become
the most prominent Catholic
publishing house in Poland.
In 1939, when World War II broke
out, Niepokalanów, damaged by
bombs, was used as a hospital and
refuge for thousands of refugees,
especially Jews. Maximilian continued his press apostolate
until February 17, 1941, when
he was arrested and imprisoned
in the Pawiak prison, near Warsaw .
On May 28, 1941, he was permanently transferred to the Auschwitz
concentration camp, where he
was destined to hard labor.
With his customary simplicity
and determination, Maximilian, prisoner 16670, continued
to be an instrument in the
hands of the Immaculata in
the midst of his fellow prisoners. Giving heroic witness to the
Gospel of charity, he freely offered
his own life for an unknown prisoner who had been condemned
to death in the starvation bunker.
After nearly two weeks of
intense sufferings, he was killed
by an injection of carbolic acid
on August 14, 1941, the eve of the
Solemnity of the Assumption of
Our Lady into Heaven. On August
15, his body was cremated and his
ashes were scattered to the wind.
His holiness and his spiritual and
apostolic legacy have since spread
throughout the world.
On October 10, 1982, John Paul
II proclaimed him a saint, as
a martyr of charity. Maximilian
Kolbe seems to be primarily
a man of action, both from the
spiritual point of view (an ascetic
person) and the practical (an
organizer, a director of a publishing house, a superior of an amazingly large friary, and an outstanding missionary). And yet this is
only the tip of the iceberg.
Should we stop with this, we
would have only a partial, warped
Fr. Maximilian Kolbe at his
desk in Niepokalanów, Poland
image of his human and Christian
personality and of his spirituality.
Looking more closely at his life,
we will instead discover a constant theme that offers us an
important “key” in understanding
how Raymond Kolbe became
St. Maximilian Kolbe, canonized
as a martyr of charity. This constancy is beautifully expressed
in his simple words : “Let yourself
be guided.”
Saint Maximilian, persistently
inviting both himself and his followers to let themselves be guided,
reveals his awareness that one’s
salvation and sanctification are
above all a free initiative of God
and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Man has only to respond, to obey,
to collaborate: allowing himself to
be guided. All this can be accomplished by following the example
of the Blessed Virgin Mary who,
at the Annunciation, answered:
“Behold, I am the handmaid of
the Lord. May it be done to me ac-
The first missionary friars to
Japan with Father Maximilian.
cording to your word” (Lk 1:38).
For Maximilian, self-abandonment and action are the two faces
of the same medal and of the
same journey in love, answering
God’s love, by which he always
felt embraced. He lived this
experience of abandonment
with realism in his daily life: as a
Franciscan, a priest and a missionary; in the years of his formation
as well as in those of his most
incredible apostolic activities and
of his heaviest responsibilities ;
in the exuberance of his youth as
well as in the time of his physical
and moral sufferings. This living
and loving experience of abandonment was the secret of Fr.
Maximilian Kolbe’s availability to
total surrender. In other words, his
capacity to let himself be guided
characterized the journey of his
whole life, during which he was
gradually transformed to a living
image of Christ, by the work of the
Holy Spirit and the Immaculata. Moments of recreation were a necessary part of his community life.
In 1933, Father Maximilian returned to
Poland from Japan for the provincial
chapter meeting. These young Franciscan
novices and friars of Niepokalanów
gratefully received him home.
The last photograph of Father
Maximilian, prisoner 16670,
taken at the Auschwitz death
camp, May 1941.
25
Marytown
.
Marytown is . .
marytown.com
National Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe
National Center—Militia of the Immaculata
Conventual Franciscan Friary
Kolbe/Holocaust Exhibit
Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Shrine
Daily Mass, Rosary, Benediction
30 room retreat & conference center
Catholic gift shop/bookstore
Six outdoor shrines
8FTU1BSL"WFt-JCFSUZWJMMF*MMJOPJT
847-367-7800
"QMBDFPGQJMHSJNBHFtQSBZFStSFOFXBM
Top: Schedule an individual or group pilgrimage
or retreat. Bottom: Rosary Meditation Garden.
Marytown’s Religious gift shop and bookstore is open daily.
Right: Pilgrims come to receive Jesus at Mass, listen to speakers and
tour the Kolbe/Holocaust Exhibit as part of their retreat day.
26
Consecration.com
Aerial view of Marytown, Libertyville, Illinois.
Maximilian Speaks
“We Must Will to Be Good”
T
here is one trait that we
all have in common:
We find it hard to be
good. We should distinguish between two groups
of brothers: those who want to
be good and actually strive for
perfection, and those who would
like to be good and make some
effort, but who will not make all
the sacrifices necessary for
attaining perfection.
Those are on the right path,
and will reach their goal, who
make very many efforts, although
they do not see the results.
Even if they go back to their
former bad habits and commit
a grievous fault, they can be
sure they are on the right path,
as long as they will it.
But if somone grows discouraged and immediately tells
himself that his efforts bring
no results, he deviates from the
way of perfection. Satan is really
victorious when he finds out
that we can be discouraged.
How shall we treat those who
say, “I would like to but I cannot”?
Tell them that they must really
want to. That would be the first
right step.
“To want” means to use all necessary means, whereas,“I would
like to” means that I’m afraid
to use all the means because
self-love will have to pay a high
price. Souls can be motivated
by selfishness and self-love, even
spiritual self-love. Those who wish
to become saints must will it.
St. Maximilian Kolbe, OFM CONV.
Saint Augustine was very bad,
even depraved. But he said
to himself, “Augustine, many
kinds of persons become saints.
So can you.” He became a saint
because he wanted to. Once the
sister of Saint Benedict, Saint Scholastica, asked him what one must
do to be a saint. All he told her
was, “One must will it. Nothing
else is necessary.”
The Sacred Scriptures say
that a just man falls seven times
daily. We fall more often than
that. But we must rise again
and again. If anyone should say,
“Enough! I can do nothing more,”
he would only reveal his pride
that prompts him to trust his own
strength. Meanwhile our strength
comes from God’s grace. The Lord
can permit us to fall so we might
learn we are nothing. . . .
Sometimes we feel we are
worse today than when we were
out in the world. This can be because we now receive more light
of grace than we did previously.
We can detect even the smallest
particles of dust and remove them.
Therefore, we are not worse today
since we always had these faults
that we could not see before.
The degree of perfection is
measured by the amount of
adversity we overcome in order
to be holy. Let us completely confide in the Immaculata and give
ourselves to her without reserve.
Then we will quickly—very
quickly—become saints. “In our struggle
to be holy, grace
is certainly
required. But we
must also do
the footwork—
we must will
to be better than
we really are”
— explains Saint
Maximilian in
a conference
given to the
Niepokalanów
friars,
May 3, 1937.
27
Changing the World
One Prayer at a Time
T
he purpose of the MI is
twofold: First, one’s personal sanctification and
the other one, equally as
important, is evangelization. Saint
Maximilian wanted to bring the
whole world to Christ.
Evangelization is not about
telling others how wrong they are
or criticizing their beliefs. Evangelization is about sharing our faith
and our personal experiences
of God, and thus whetting their
appetites for the only one who
can satisfy the longing and the
emptiness of their hearts.
To evangelize means to share
faith, love, peace, healing, forgiveness and hope. We have so much
to share with a world that is lacking so much in these things.
But how can one give what one
does not have?
These gifts and virtues come
from prayer. When we pray, it is
not only a conversation with God,
but also like a stone thrown into
a pond that ripples outward. No
prayer is a personal, private act.
It affects not only the one who
prays, but also the whole world.
Maximilian wrote that the field
of prayer is very wide indeed. God
wishes that humble souls who
love Him and who pray might rule
the world by divine goodness and
power and thus save and sanctify
souls and kindle in them the
Kingdom of divine love.
Prayer therefore is the first and
foremost means of evangelization.
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If the world is the way it is today,
it is not that there are not enough
preachers, it is that there are not
enough pray–ers!
Maximilian taught that the most
important means to save souls is
prayer. He said that Napoleon was
once asked what was necessary
to win the battle and he replied,
“Three things are necessary. Money, money and money!” And when
it comes to the sanctification of
souls, we can say that we need
prayer, prayer and more prayer.
Maximilian said prayer gives
rebirth to the world. While exterior
activity is good, it is necessarily of
secondary importance, and even
less in comparison with the interior life—the life of silence, prayer
and of the love of God.
Maximilian, however, taught that
the Lord does not measure prayer
with a yardstick, and it does not
depend on how many rosaries
or chaplets you recite. It is not a
matter of constantly whispering
prayers. The essence of prayer
is the raising of the mind and
soul to God.
In prayer we unite our will to
the will of God so that God’s will
might be done in ourselves and
thus in the entire world, and thus
hastening the coming of the
Kingdom of God. No one was
more eager to bring the world
to Christ than Maximilian.
He traveled the world preaching and sharing the Gospel, yet
his greatest missionary activity
was when he was imprisoned in
the death cell, for there his prayer
was most perfectly united to Jesus
and Mary as he prayed “Let it be
done unto me according to Your
Word,” and “Father into your hands
I commend my spirit.” He fulfilled
his missionary life in the death cell
in Auschwitz!
Saint Maximilian was devoted
to St. Therese of the Child Jesus
who was an example of a true
missionary and evangelizer.
The Church gave the title “Patroness of all Missions” to St. Therese
of the Child Jesus, yet she never
stepped foot out of the cloister
walls in Lisieux.
Her intercession lay not in
personal evangelization, but in
personal sanctification. It is not
a matter of what we do, but how
we do it, with what sort of intention and love. And what was
her intention?
According to Saint Therese,
it was to bring pleasure to Jesus
in anyway possible, from her
little crosses that she carried
to her little acts of love. This is
the kind of missionary that Saint
Maximilian believed we should
be. But how does one learn to do
these little things?
Saint Therese called herself the
“Little flower of the Immaculata”
and said that the Immaculata
brought her up. Saint Maximilian, therefore, encouraged his
followers to be submissive to the
Immaculata and she would teach
them the limitless confidence of
the love and mercy of God.
Imitate her who spent her life
in prayer as she endlessly contemplated the mysteries of God, which
she experienced so deeply, and
intimately in her life. Because she
is the model of prayer, she is thus
the model of evangelization.
From the very beginning of
Christianity, Mary has been the
one through whom people have
received Christ. From the wise
men and shepherds at Bethlehem,
to the neighbors in Nazareth, to
the servers at the wedding feast of
Cana, Mary has been introducing
others to her Son.
Mary was the first evangelizer as
she carried the Good News to her
cousin Elizabeth and ever since,
she has been carrying the Good
News to others, from Guadalupe,
to Lourdes to Fatima. Literally
millions each year draw closer
to Jesus through her.
Saint Maximilian knew of her
power to change hearts when he
first heard the story of the conversion of Alphonse Ratisbonne
through Mary and the Miraculous
Medal. Ever since then, Saint Maximilian has been introducing others to Mary with the sole purpose
of spreading the Kingdom of the
Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Is this not what evangelization
is really all about? Introducing
one person to another. Introduc-
ing others to Mary your mother.
Introducing others to Jesus your
brother and friend. But we can
only introduce Jesus and Mary if
we first know them through prayer.
In prayer we unite our hearts
with the hearts of Jesus and Mary;
Our will with the will of God.
And in the end, it is not we who
pray, but the Holy Spirit who prays
within us with sighs and groanings
beyond words. So evangelization,
through prayer, is not our work,
but the work of God within us
who believe.
If we want the world to be a
better place, and to fall in love
with Jesus, then it does begin
at home, at home in a prayerful
heart! Consecrate Yourself to Mary!
29
Saint Maximilian
and the Jews
Professor Claude R. Foster
Editor’s Note: On April 2, 1928, six
years before Adolph Hitler’s rise to
power in Germany, the Vatican’s
Holy Office published a decree
declaring “the Catholic Church has
always prayed for the Jewish people...Moved by that spirit of charity,
the Apostolic See has protected this
same people against unjust vexations, and just as it reproves all
hatreds and animosities between
people, so it especially condemns
hatred against the people elected
by God, a hatred that today is vulgarly called ‘anti-Semitism.’”1 Prior
to the Nazi invasion in 1939, Poland had been the center of European Jewry where a large, thriving
Jewish community and culture coexisted side-by-side with a majority
Polish Catholic culture. This article
addresses the pastoral relationship
between Maximilian Kolbe and the
Jews, our “elder brothers in faith”
as Pope John Paul II described the
Jewish people.
S
aint Maximilian was a
Franciscan missionary.
In obedience to his Lord’s
Grand Commission (Mt
28:19) and as a loyal son
of St. Francis of Assisi, Saint Maximilian preached the Gospel
to everyone.
On a Tuesday evening, October
16, 1917, in the Seraphic College
in Rome, the 23 year-old Franciscan friar, Maximilian Maria Kolbe,
30
Consecration.com
Some of the refugees housed at Niepokalanów from 1939-1945.
together with six fellow students,
founded the Militia Immaculatae.
According to the original Militia
Immaculatae charter, the goal of
the movement is “the conversion
of all sinners, heretics, schismatics,
Jews and especially Masons,
and the sanctifying of all under
the protection and through the
grace of the Holy Virgin Mary,
the Immaculate.”
The mention of the “Jews” in
the Militia Immaculata’s original
Charter was not based on a prejudice or hostility toward the Jewish
people any more than the mention of “schismatics” represented
a prejudice or hostility to the Russian Orthodox, Lutherans or other
Christian sects operating in Poland
at the time. Fr. Maximilian Kolbe
was filled with a missionary zeal
to convert all to Christ through
His Holy Mother in the Catholic
Church regardless of their creed
or affiliation.
A major goal Saint Maximilian
had was he wished to share his
most precious possession—
namely his faith—with everyone.
Like all Poles in the pre-World
War II period, Father Kolbe had
regular interactions with the Jewish community. Prior to the Nazi
invasion and occupation, Poland’s
Jewish community thrived in the
Catholic Polish nation and was
the largest and most successful
Jewish community in Europe.
Father Kolbe’s diary entries and
letters show a deep affection for
the Jews he met and ministered to,
such as the Russian Jewish prisoners he served in Zakopane in the
1920s and his recollections of his
conversations with Jewish travelers and workers he spoke with in
Krakow, Warsaw and Grodno.
Despite his love of the Jewish
people, and his desire that they
would convert to Jesus Christ as
their long-awaited Messiah, Father
Kolbe also held a deep mistrust of
the secular and political motivations of some of the Jewish leaders involved with Masonic and
Bolshevik (socialist and Communist) organizations sprouting up in
Poland in this period.
Despite his concerns with these
elements, Father Kolbe welcomed
and traded with the Jewish merchants and community around
his new Friary at Niepokalanów.
Jewish artisans and merchants
helped furnish the Conventual
Franciscan Friary that Father Kolbe
led. At one point, the number of
Friars at Niepokalanów grew to
nearly 900, making the “City of the
Immaculata”one of the largest
consecrated religious communities in the world. Father Kolbe
welcomed his Jewish neighbors,
gave tours of the Friary, and
eventually—when it mattered
most—would open the doors
of Niepokalanów to shelter
nearly 2000 Jewish refugees
fleeing the Nazis.
As a Franciscan priest and a
Polish patriot, Saint Maximilian
wished to see his nation within
the fold of the Roman Catholic
Church. In the October 1922
edition of Rycerz Niepokalanej,
he, therefore, warned against the
perceived errors of the doctrines
presented in the following:
Jehovah’s Witnesses, Baptists,
Adventists, Methodists, New Testament Christians, Free Evangelicals,
Evangelicals, Church of God,
Moravians and Old Catholics.
Recalling the February 17, 1917,
Masonic demonstration in Rome
against the papacy, Maximilian
published, in the January 1923
edition of Rycerz Niepokalanej,
and again in the September 1926
edition, a critique against what
Niepokalanów monastic community, circa 1938-1939. Father Maximilian
with beard, stands in right center of the sixth row.
he considered to be a secular
Jewish-Masonic conspiracy against
Christian civilization [Pages 244247 and 265-270].
Recalling also Lenin’s effort
to export his revolution into
western Europe through Poland
which, in the summer of 1920,
saw Warsaw invested by the Bolshevik vanguard, Maximilian was
alarmed. His apprehension had
been confirmed by the goal of
the campaign openly stated by
the Red Army commander,
Michael Tukachevsky:
The fate of the world
revolution will be decided
in the West. The path of
world revolution lies over
the body of Poland.
Convinced that the Bolshevik
plot to achieve this aim primarily
was directed by Jews who had
abandoned Moses for Marx,
Maximilian wrote his critique.
Maximilian was not alone in
believing that such a scheme
existed [See Winston Churchill,
“Zionism Versus Bolshevism:
A Struggle for the Soul of the
Jewish People,” in The Illustrated
Sunday Herald, February 8, 1920.
See Mary’s Knight, pages 270-273].
As a Polish partiot and faithful
Catholic priest, Fr. Maximilian Kol-
be was concerned with the conspiracies and schemes of those
who sought to secularize and
ultimately destroy the uniquely
Catholic nature of Poland. But how
did Father Kolbe oppose those
that opposed the Church—and by
extension the Immaculata? In his
own words:
How shall we fight, especially
as members of the Militia
Immaculatae? Shall we
actually fight with our fists,
an eye for an eye? No! We
should do all we can to win
the Church’s enemies for the
Immaculata. The Immaculata
will do the rest.
We must pray and act in
harmony with God’s will,
and bear the cross. Out of
love for our opponents, we,
with all our resources, will
contest their initiatives, not
counting the cost, but rather
in prayer and sacrifice
commending their hearts
to the Immaculata.
Perhaps Maximilian’s sharpest
critique of what he considered
to be a Bolshevik conspiracy to
establish an international Communist hegemony appeared in
the September 1926 edition
of Rycerz Niepokalanej:
31
At the request of the Wehrmacht Lieutenant
stationed at Niepokalanów, this photo was
taken in January 1941, shortly before Fr.
Maximilian’s arrest on February 17, 1941.
Were it not better for you
Polish Masons deceived by
a handful of Jews, and you
Jewish leaders who permit
yourselves to be duped by
Satan, mankind’s enemy, to
turn to God, recognize
Christ as Savior, love the
Immaculata, and under
her banner win souls for
her? Or do you prefer to be
associated with the head of
the serpent—the serpent who
ensnares the world?...So long
as you live, there is time to
repent, but soon it may be
too late. [Pages 269-270].
It should be noted that the
diatribe in the Rycerz is directed
against “a handful of Jews,” and
that criticism does not equal antiSemitism. As even the Church’s
critics concede the “Church has
rarely been anti-Semitic...Vatican
spokesman in the 1920s and 1930s
could, and very occasionally did,
condemn anti-Semitism.”2 Father
Kolbe as a faithful priest and
astute theologian knew that to be
anti-Semitic would be utterly contrary to his love of the Mother of
Christ, St. Joseph, the Apostles, the
early Church and Christ himself.
The issue which confronted
many in the Church was the
incorrect perception that disproportionately equated Jews with
the growing Bolshevik/communist
political movement. Father Kolbe,
like Saints Peter and Paul as described in the Acts of the Apostles
and the Letter to the Romans,
desired the conversion of the Jews.
When confronted with antiSemitism and overt hostility to
the Jews, Father Kolbe directly opposed it. In 1935, four years before
the Nazi invasion, and while Father
Kolbe was in Japan founding
another “City of the Immaculata”
at Nagasaki, the Maly Dziennik was
published at Niepokalanów. Reacting to an article by the Polish Prelate Trzeciak, Father Kolbe wrote
the editor, Father Wojcik, stating:
When referring to Jews,
I would be very cautious
neither to arouse nor add
to the hatred for them
which some readers already
manifest. Many people are
prejudiced and even hostile
towards them.
As a general maxim,
I would encourage Polish
commerce and industry
rather than merely criticize
the Jews. Apparently, in some
cases, they demonstrate bad
faith and then it’s necessary
energetically to complain
but without ever forgetting
that our main purpose is and
remains the conversion
and sanctification of souls,
winning them for the Immaculata and through love—
love for all souls—including
those of the Jews, the Masons,
heretics and all nonbelievers.
[Page 470].
When he returned to Poland in
June 1936, Maximilian convoked
the editorial staff of the Niepokalanow publications. He said:
While I was in Japan, I was
dismayed to read the article
by the Prelate Trzeciak in
Maly Dziennik concerning
the Jews. Such articles have
no place in our publications.
As soon as I read the article,
I wrote to you to express
my disapproval.
Since I cannot always be
present in the friary or proofread every article before it is
printed, here is the guideline
which I want you to follow
for materials published in
the name of our friary and
of the Militia Immaculatae,
“Could the Immaculata put
her signature to this?” [Brother
Hieronim’s Report, page 491].
In a letter to the Provincial
Anselm Kubit on Tuesday, June 22,
1937, Saint Maximilian wrote:
Concerning Prelate Trzeciak,
of course there are two sides
to the coin. However, I have
heard from his own mouth
his remarks. I, therefore,
have recalled one of our
brothers from the Prelate’s
environment.
The Prelate is anti-Semitic
to the point of chauvinism,
Maly Dziennik cannot publish
articles which represent Prelate’s Trzeciak’s line of thought.
[Page 502].
In mid-December 1939, 3,500
refugees from Poznan and western
Poland, including 1,500 Jews,
expelled from their homes by
Father Maximilian [center] constructing
Mugensai no Sono on the slope of Mount
Hikosan in Nagasaki in 1931.
2. Zucotti, Susan. Beneath His Very Window: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy;Yale University Press, 2000.
32
Consecration.com
Adolf Hitler’s order, found refuge
in Niepokalanów.
Released only a few days
earlier from an internment camp,
Saint Maximilian welcomed the
refugees and provided them with
food and shelter until, by order
of the occupation authority, they
were forced to move on in late
February 1940.
On Monday, January 1, 1940,
Saint Maximilian and his confreres
hosted a party for the Jewish
children residing in Niepokalanów.
Sweets were distributed to the
young and elderly. [Page 592].
At the time mandated by the
occupation authority for them
to vacate the friary, the Jewish
refugees, through their spokesperson, Madame Zajac, thanked the
Franciscans for the generous hospitality which had been extended
to them by Saint Maximilian and
his Franciscan fraternity. [Pages
600-601].
One evening in November 1940,
a fugitive Jew, seeking to avoid
being confined to the Warsaw
Ghetto, came to Niepokalanow
with his Gentile wife. Risking
personal arrest and the closing
of Niepokalanów for helping a
fugitive Jew, Saint Maximilian
directed Brother Ivo to arrange for
accommodations in the friary for
the fugitive and his wife. [Brother
Ivo’s Report, pages 632-633].
While Maximilian was dying
in the Auschwitz hunger bunker
[August 1-14, 1941], Brother Hieronim, his loyal disciple, following
the motto of his spiritual father
Saint Maximilian, risked his life
to save a Jew who had fled from
the Warsaw Ghetto. [Brother Hieronim’s Report, pages 669-670].
Father Kolbe confronted the
evil that Nazism represented and
ultimately paid with his life as a
Martyr for charity to save the life
of another, for which there is no
greater sacrifice. In recent years,
some have unfairly characterized
St. Maximilian Kolbe as not having
done enough, despite his
Pope John Paul II [Thursday, June 7, 1979], in the Auschwitz
starvation bunker in which Fr. Maximilian Maria Kolbe died on the
vigil of the Feast of the Assumption, on Thursday, August 14, 1941.
sheltering nearly 2000 Jews at
Niepokalanów and other Jewish
refugees at considerable risk to
himself and his brother Friars.
Some even more radical voices
have accused Father Kolbe of
being anti-Semitic, despite the
evidence to the contrary.
How would St. Maximilian
Kolbe answer these insults and
false accusations? Kolbe taught
“hate is not creative, only love is
creative.” Kolbe sent his confreres
into the world to serve with the
charge,“Don’t forget love;” and, at
Auschwitz, translated the admonition of his Lord into the deed,
“Greater love has no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his
friends.” In light of these facts the
charges are spurious.
When, on October 19, 1973,
fourteen Catholic missions in
Germany decided to unite in a
ministry to help former inmates of
the Nazi concentration camps, the
name selected for the agency was
the Maximilian Kolbe Werk.
No other name could better
symbolize the reconciliation
between former enemies.
No other name could better
describe the mission of mercy
to the Polish nation whose
suffering was personified in the
martyrdom of her loyal son.
Those conversant with Saint
Maximilian’s ministry and who
are informed concerning the
witness of those who claim
Saint Maximilian as their spiritual
father, understand Christ's own
words that there is no greater
love than a man lie down his life
for another. Consecrate Yourself to Mary!
33
Knights at the
Foot of the Cross
by Br. Paschal Kolodziej,
OFM CONV.
What Is a KFC ?
S
t. Maximilian Kolbe was
in love with the Blessed Virgin
Mary! He wanted to cooperate
with her in any way she saw fit to
bring about as quickly as possible
the reign of the Most Sacred Heart
of Jesus.
We caught a glimpse of his
fervor in a letter he wrote in
1931 to Fr. Flavian Koziura:
“Perhaps the hour has struck
when the MI should start
thinking about organizing
groups that would pray and
offer up sufferings for the MI.
We would benefit much if,
for instance, nuns and especially contemplatives would
offer up some of their sufferings, or hours of adoration
of the Most Blessed Sacrament
for the MI. The sick too, could
win many souls through
their sufferings.”
Due to Saint Maximilian’s
death at Auschwitz, his dream of
a core group of the sick offering
up their prayers and sufferings for
the MI was left in our hands. The
(KFC for short) began with a
small group of Conventual
Franciscan friars, sixteen in all,
who consecrated themselves to
Our Lady and volunteered to
offer up a portion of their daily
prayers and sufferings for the MI.
The official date was the feast
of the Visitation, May 31, 1983.
From these first dedicated friars
the KFC movement spread to
other religious and laity. Today
there are KFC members all over
the world. There are over 1,600
just in the United States alone !
come in all shapes, sizes, ages and
backgrounds. Suffering also comes
in many different ways. Suffering
can be physical, psychological,
emotional or spiritual, each one
being just as difficult as the
other. All suffering can be used
by Our Lady to bring about the
reign of Jesus.
St. Maximilian Kolbe had
a deep appreciation for the
value of redemptive suffering.
Whenever he would show
visiting guests all the various
activities going on at Niepokalanów, he was always quick to
point out that the powerhouse
behind this activity was the friars
in the infirmary! It was their
prayers and sufferings that accomplished so much for Our Lady.
Bridget Brantner was a dedicated KFC
member who now works for the MI
Movement “with both hands free.”
She had a rare disease in which her
body was unable to utilize the food
she ate. Before she ate her last meal,
she said the words “Jesus, Mary,
Joseph, I love you, save souls.”
St. Faustina Kowalska speaks
about suffering in her Diary:“O, if
only the suffering soul knew how
much it is loved by God, it would
die of joy and excess happiness!
Some day, we will know the
value of suffering, but then we will
no longer be able to suffer. The
present moment is ours. Suffering
is a great grace; through suffering
the soul becomes like the Savior;
in suffering, love becomes crystallized; the greater the suffering, the
purer the love.” 8BOUUPLOPXNPSFBCPVU,OJHIUTBUUIF'PPUPGUIF$SPTT t.*/BUJPOBM0GmDF
.*!DPOTFDSBUJPODPNtXXXDPOTFDSBUJPODPNtFYU
34
Consecration.com
The Immaculate Conception
Grace for the Here and Now
D
o you ever feel
infallible? Most of us
would never admit
to being infallible,
although in the midst of a heated
discussion it may appear as if we
think we are!
Being infallible requires much
more than merely having an
opinion. Pope Pius IX declared
an infallible dogma about Mary—
that she was conceived without
sin in the womb of Saint Anne.
“The Immaculate Conception,”
from the Marytown chapel.
Process of Discernment
Infallible statements are acts
of faith and reason. In 1848, Pope
Pius IX first consulted twenty theologians concerning their opinion
on Mary’s immaculate conception, seventeen of whom gave a
favorable reply. After consulting
with a congregation of cardinals
who answered positively on Mary’s
immaculate conception, the Pope
then sent a letter to the bishops of
the world requesting their opinions. Of 603 bishops, 546 were in
favor of the definition, while four
were opposed and the others
were undecided. Then three more
theologians were consulted and
eight drafts of the encyclical were
drawn up.
Finally, after consulting four
cardinals, Pope Pius IX issued
the encyclical Ineffabilis Deus,
on December 8, 1854, proclaiming Mary to be immaculately
conceived, that is, conceived
in the womb of her mother,
Saint Anne, without contracting
the stain of Original Sin.
If only all our opinions could
be as well thought out and
researched as that of the Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius
IX. It was clearly a consensus of
faith and reason by all the Church.
Three-part Dogma
The Dogma of the Immaculate Conception has three main
aspects. It is:
s A SINGULAR GRACE
s ACCOMPLISHED BY THE MERITS
of Jesus Christ
s WHEREBY -ARY WAS PRESERVED
from Original Sin from the first
moment of her conception.
A Singular Grace
In our age of so-called inclusiveness, it is sometimes hard
to understand why God would
bestow such a grace on only
one individual. While it is true that
God loves each one of us, He loves
us each uniquely and at times
works in singular ways. First of all,
God is One, not many. There is
only one begotten Son of God
and there is only one Mediator.
There is only one, holy, catholic
and apostolic Church.
Each one of us was created in a
singular and unique way, never to
be repeated. Mary, too, is one-of-akind and the grace of being conceived without sin was granted to
her in a singular and unique way.
Merits of Jesus Christ
The singular grace that Mary
received at her conception in the
35
womb of Saint Anne was granted
to her only by the merits of Jesus.
Mary did not earn this gift of grace.
It was a free gift of grace given to
her by the merits of the death and
Resurrection of Jesus.
All grace is a free gift from God.
No one earns grace or salvation;
it comes freely from God through
Jesus Christ and our works
are a grateful and faith-filled
response for all that God has
done for us.
Preserved from
Original Sin
At the death of Jesus, it was
as if there was an explosion
of grace that reached back to the
beginning of time and forward to
the end of the world to touch and
redeem all who were ever created
and ever will be created. The grace
of Christ transcends all time and
space. That is why Mary was able
to share in that grace at her conception, although Jesus had not
yet suffered on the Cross.
The Immaculate
Conception and Us
Many people mistakenly think
that Mary’s Immaculate Conception sets her apart from the rest
of humanity. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Rather, the Immaculate Conception is essential
“Diffuse It
Everywhere”
St. Maximilian
Kolbe is part of the
great Franciscan
tradition—its
“Golden Thread”
—of defending the
Immaculate
Conception and
helping the Church
to understand
it more deeply.
Franciscan
history, Maximilian
believed, can
be divided into
two stages.
The first lasted
from the beginning
of the Order until
the dogma was
infallibly defined in
1854. We are now in
the second stage of
Franciscan history.
The Order, and by
extension the MI,
now has the divine
mandate to “diffuse
the Immaculate
Conception
everywhere” in
the life of the
universal Church.
Pope Pius IX: Immaculate Conception “must be
firmly and constantly believed by all the faithful.”
36
Consecration.com
for our spiritual life, our journey of
faith and becoming fully human as
God had always destined us to be.
The Grace of Baptism
At our Baptism, each one of
us was “immaculately conceived”
into the divine life of God. Each
one of us was washed clean from
Original Sin, just as Mary was preserved from it. While we later said
“no” to God at some point in our
life and chose to sin, Mary continued to say “yes” throughout her life
and she therefore continues to be
the model who teaches us how to
cooperate with grace and say “yes”
to God.
The Grace of Confession
At every confession, the grace of
Baptism is renewed within us and
we are washed clean from our sin
and restored to grace by the forgiveness and mercy of God at the
absolution. We become free to say
yes to God again and to cooperate
with His saving grace as did the
Virgin Mary throughout her life.
The Grace of the Eucharist
In each individual Eucharist
we receive the absolute fullness
of grace which the Virgin Mary
received at her conception.
We, too, become “full of grace”!
Mary and Us
As you can see, through the
Sacraments we have the opportunity to be recreated, reconceived
immaculately, and to receive
the fullness of grace as did the
Virgin Mary at her conception.
She is the model for us for receiving and cooperating with God’s
saving grace that He offers not
to just one person but to all of
His children.
Mary’s Immaculate Conception
points not only to Mary, but to us
and what we can become. We, too,
can begin to become holy and full
of grace, immaculately conceived,
now and fully in the Kingdom
of Heaven! Now that You Are
Consecrated
Reprint of
article from
Sept/Oct 1997
Immaculata
magazine.
by Sr. Carolyn Mary Cossack,
SMMI
Ever y thing Is MI
W
hen we are totally consecrated to the Immaculata,
we are hers without reserve.
These are not just words. When the
reality permeates our whole being, there is a deep peace. We are
content with God’s holy will. We
don’t multiply projects and things
we want to do for God. We simply
surrender ourselves totally to
His Holy Mother, and she accomplishes all that God wills through
us, even if we are her poorest
and most miserable instruments.
Living our consecration is
peaceful, but that’s not to say it is
comfortable. Sometimes it means
writing an article when you don’t
know where to begin, or having
to give a talk when, after all your
preparation, you can’t put two
words together in your mind
ten minutes before. It can mean
setting up a summer youth
program, with special speakers
committed to interrupt their busy
schedules and travel distances,
without the certainty that there
will be enough participants until
a few days before the program is
to begin. It means doing what you
must, out of obedience, leaving the
results to our Blessed Mother.
Living our consecration means
being a member of a family , as
Maximilian said, “where God is the
Father, Mary is the Mother, Jesus
in the Eucharist is the older Brother, and all the rest are His brothers
and sisters.” This experience
of “family” occurs whenever
one meets another consecrated
person on a bus, at a meeting, in
an airport or on the phone—it’s
always the same. Just mention
Saint Maximilian, the MI, conse-
said that we will know
the Immaculata more
in humble prayer and in
the loving experience of
her in our daily life than
in any other way. There
is nothing too big for her
to accomplish.
cration or our Immaculate Mother
Mary: Suddenly the person is no
longer a stranger ! You are on the
same wavelength; your ideals
and love for the Church are
identical; and often you know
the same people.
To live our consecration means
to live our baptismal vows to the
fullest. It means to love God
and others as Mary loves them,
and to love her as Jesus does.
It goes beyond imitation of Mary.
It means “to become her ” so that
she can be present wherever we
happen to be. And, wherever she is
present, Jesus is present and loved.
Living our consecration means a
relationship with our Immaculate
Mother that makes it impossible
to imagine life without her and
her divine Son. Saint Maximilian
The surprise is
that there is nothing too little for
her to do, either.
The Immaculata
serves us—she is
a Mother.
How could
it be otherwise
when Jesus said
that the greatest
among us is the
one who serves.
We depend on her for everything!
Ultimately, living our consecration
takes us to the foot of the Cross.
It is there that Mary really becomes
our Mother. It was not by accident
that young John was the only apostle
with Jesus when He died. Why wasn’t
he in hiding with the others, in fear
for his own life?
There can be only one answer—
his devotion to the Mother of Jesus.
He put his own fears aside in his
concern for our Sorrowful Mother.
It was his devotion for our Immaculate Mother that won for him the
distinction of being “the beloved
disciple, ” and of receiving her from
Jesus, Himself, to be the Mother of
us all.
Let us pray that, by our Marian
consecration, each one of us will be
faithful at the foot of the Cross. “ Living our consecration means
being a member of a family . . . .”
37
MI Youth &
Young Adults
by Shevawn Pearson
MI Youth Program
W
e, the MI Youth and Young
Adults, following in the footsteps of St. Maximilian Kolbe,
by means of our total consecration
to the Immaculata, Mother of God
and our Mother, are committed to:
INVITE
Mary into our lives, thus receiving
Christ’s legacy, “Behold your son;
Behold your Mother ” (Jn 19:26-27)
RESPOND
to the call to holiness in union
with Mary, thus fostering our total
personal and spiritual growth.
PARTICIPATE
actively to extend “as far as possible” the Kingdom of the Most
Sacred Heart of Jesus, by sharing in
Our Lady’s maternal mission and
spreading the Gospel in the midst
of all people, especially youth.
Our identity based
upon four main ideals
CHURCH
Like the Church herself, MI
Youth are one, holy, Catholic
and apostolic:
One—united in the one Truth
revealed by Christ in His
Word, and passed on through
the teachings and traditions
of the Church.
Holy—following in the footsteps of Saint Maximilian by
persevering in an ongoing
formation to become saints.
Catholic—testifying to the
universal call to holiness and
witness to the unconditional
love of Christ for the world
and each individual.
Apostolic—upholding
unconditional fidelity to the
Pope and the Magisterium
of the Church.
EuEUCHARIST
“If angels could be jealous of
men, they would be so for one
reason, Holy Communion. ”
—Saint Maximilian.
MI Youth commit to:
s &REQUENTLY PARTICIPATING IN THE
Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
s !DORING *ESUS IN THE "LESSED
Sacrament, the source and
summit of the Christian life
s $EEPENING OUR UNDERSTANDING
and knowledge of Christ, our
Eucharistic Lord, through
prayer and study.
ImIMMACULATA
“ The Immaculata is our ideal
. . . that she might take possession
of our hearts, that she might
love God with our hearts.
Such is our ideal. ”
—Saint Maximilian
MI Youth:
s &OSTERING A lLIAL RELATIONSHIP
with Mary, Mother of the Church
s "EING FORMED IN A TRUE -ARIAN
spirituality rooted in Sacred
Scripture and Church Tradition
s 2ENEWING DAILY OUR ACT OF TOTAL
consecration to the Immaculata
MiMISSION
“ To win as many souls as possible for the Immaculata is our life,
our breath, our every heartbeat. ”
—Saint Maximilian
MI Youth:
s /FFERING EVERYTHING THAT
they are and have to Mary
for the salvation of souls
s 3HARING -ARY WITH OTHERS
s 9OUTH EVANGELIZING YOUTH in our families, schools, parishes,
and youth retreats. 4JHO6QGPS0OHPJOH.*-FBEFSTIJQ'PSNBUJPO
XXXNJZPVUIPSHt.*:PVUI!BPMDPN
38
Consecration.com
I
X
E
V
G
I
W
R
S
'
J
P
I
W
V
Y
S
=
S
X1EV]
THROUGH
THE
MILITIA
OF THE IMMACULATA
Enroll online www.consecration.com
Why Total Consecration?
As the Son of God entrusted
himself to the womb of the Virgin
Mary to come into the world,
so we imitate Jesus and entrust
ourselves to the Immaculate Virgin Mary on our journey to heaven,
for personal sanctification and the
conversion of the world to Christ.
Why Should I join the MI?
The Militia of the Immaculata (MI)
is a worldwide ecclesial movement
founded by St. Maximilian Kolbe in
1917.The MI has the full approval of the
Vatican and canonical statutes, and is
dedicated to bringing the world to the
Sacred Heart of Jesus through consecration to the Immaculate Virgin Mary.
How Do I Enroll?
1) Select a date to have your name recorded
in the register of the MI, preferably a Marian feast day.
2) Prepare yourself by Mass, the Rosary and receiving the Sacrament
of Reconciliation before your consecration.
3) Recite the official act of consecration written by St. Maximilian Kolbe.
4) Enroll your name at Marytown, the MI national center.
5) Wear or carry the Miraculous Medal.
6) Renew your consecration daily.
MI Members Receive Free:
s ! MEMBERSHIP CERTIlCATE
s ! -IRACULOUS -EDAL
s Immaculata magazine
s !NNUAL -) 0RAYER )NTENTIONS
MI Consecration Prayer
Immaculata, Queen of heaven and earth, refuge of sinners and
our most loving Mother, God has willed to entrust the entire order
of mercy to you. I, N. . ., a repentant sinner, cast myself at your feet
humbly imploring you to take me with all that I am and have,wholly
to yourself as your possession and property. Please make of me, of
all my powers of soul and body, of my whole life, death and eternity,
whatever most pleases you.
If it pleases you,use all that I am and have without reserve,wholly
to accomplish what was said of you:“She will crush your head,”and,
“You alone have destroyed all heresies in the world.”Let me be a fit
instrument in your immaculate and merciful hands for introducing
and increasing your glory to the maximum in all the many
strayed and indifferent souls, and thus help extend as far
as possible the blessed kingdom of the most Sacred
Heart of Jesus. For wherever you enter you obtain the
grace of conversion and growth in holiness, since it
is through your hands that all graces come to us from
the most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
V. Allow me to praise you, O sacred Virgin.
R. Give me strength against your enemies.
Militia of the Immaculata
National Center—Marytown
2EXMSREP7LVMRISJ7X1E\MQMPMER/SPFI
7EST 0ARK !VENUE s ,IBERTYVILLE )LLINOIS Consecrate Yourself to Mary!
0(/.% s &!8 s W W WCONSECRATIONCOM
39
Visit the National Center of the MI
Marytown, the National Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe
2EXMSREP7LVMRISJ7X1E\MQMPMER/SPFI
1600 West Park Avenue, Libertyville, IL 60048
40
Consecration.com

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