The CatholiCity Message
Volume XVIII, Number 10 – August 14, 2014
Dear CatholiCity Citizen,
Hello friends! Today we join each other on the Feast of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, founder of the Militia Immaculata, modern media visionary, tireless advocate of total consecration to Mary, and of course, the "Martyr of Charity" who was murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz on this day in 1941 after volunteering to take the place of a condemned man.
Uncle Max's Beard and the Two Crowns
My longtime readers know the Mary Foundation would not exist had Maximilian Kolbe not inspired me to consecrate my heart to Mary as a student at Notre Dame. Our (and your) almost insanely "impossible" apostolate is almost entirely modeled upon the principles Uncle Max used while establishing the world's largest Franciscan friary and media apostolate in the backwater of Poland during the 1920s (Wikipedia):
The Immaculata friars [in the City of the Immaculata, or "Niepokalanow," Poland] utilized the most modern printing and administrative techniques in publishing catechetical and devotional tracts, a daily newspaper with a circulation of 230,000 and a monthly magazine with a circulation of over one million. Kolbe also used radio to spread his Catholic faith and to speak out against the atrocities of the Nazi regime. He is the only canonized saint to have held an amateur radio license.
Here are two things you likely do not know about Saint Maximilian. First, although his remains were cremated by the Nazis and dumped into a field near the concentration camp, first class relics exist of the saint (a first class relic typically being a fragment of a saint's bones). I know because I have two, consisting of hairs preserved when one of his fellow friars shaved Kolbe's beard when he returned from Japan in 1939. The superior at Niepokalanow entrusted me with these when I wrote to him describing the Mary Foundation and our devotion to Kolbe. They are preserved in frames and my coworkers and I "tap" one of the relics when we enter and leave our shipping headquarters (which we have always called the Kolbe Center) (as does my family when we enter and leave my home). In fact, I brought the relic over to touch my keyboard as I type this.
Many people also do not know Our Lady appeared to young Raymond Kolbe when he was a little boy (Maximilian is his Franciscan name). Here are his own words:
That night, I asked the Mother of God what was to become of me. Then she came to me holding two crowns, one white, the other red. She asked me if I was willing to accept either of these crowns. The white one meant that I should persevere in purity, and the red that I should become a martyr. I said that I would accept them both.
Courageous, and in a way, quite clever, especially for a child. The white crown of purity of course, represented his priestly vocation. And now, as with the old Paul Harvey radio program, for the rest of the story...
The Nazis kept meticulous records, so it was possible to determine, based on the date of his martyrdom, where Maximilian's ashes were almost certainly deposited. As it happens, over the centuries in local areas in Poland, sometimes quite small parcels, typically were given their own standard (symbols), usually depicted on a flag. The flag for the patch of land holding Saint Maximilian Kolbe's ashes bears two images...consisting of a red crown and white crown!
January 8, 2015 will mark the 120th birthday of this supremely modern saint, and if you were ever touched in any way by Mary Foundation materials, this message, my novels, or CatholiCity, you are in Uncle Max's debt. I like to tell people that he was ahead of his time—and he is still ahead of our time.
Have you consecrated yourself to the Immaculate Heart of Mary? To consecrate means to set aside for a holy purpose. Total consecration means that you are entrusting every aspect of your existence to Mary (even your faults) for whatever purpose she designates for you while accepting her deepest desire is for you to do the will of her son. It is a deeply mystical adventure not just as a son or daughter of Mary, but also as sister or brother of Jesus. (This is why many describe the act as consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary through the Sacred Heart of Jesus.)
Over the centuries many devotions have developed for consecrating your heart to Mary, the most popular probably being a 33-day preparation promoted by Saint Louis De Montfort, which can be found easily in many places online. Me? Early on I was struck by how Maximilian would encourage people to make the consecration with little preparation or understanding of what it was, even asking random passengers to do so on buses and trains while he was a seminarian in Rome. Having lived the consecrated life for decades now, I still tend to believe it has to be experienced to be comprehended—like swimming, or loving your mom, or eating pizza. If you're up for it, you can consecrate your heart to Immaculate Mary today with some of your fellow CatholiCity Citizens using the prayer below. I must advise you, though, for better or for worse (and for some, like Kolbe, and indeed, like Jesus, it may translate into real suffering in your life—I can attest to this) prepare for major changes.
Please, I strongly recommend you read through the prayer itself first before praying it, which explains what is involved. If you have already consecrated your heart to Mary, then join me in renewing your consecration. (Members of Kolbe's Militia Immaculata renew their consecration daily by reciting the Miraculous Medal Prayer: "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee, and for all who do not have recourse to thee, especially for the enemies of the Church." Now you know where I got the title for my second novel, Conceived Without Sin.)
Quotations
Never be afraid of loving the Blessed Virgin too much. You can never love her more than Jesus did.
Saint Maximilian Kolbe
If angels could be jealous of men, they could be so for only one reason: Holy Communion.
Saint Maximilian Kolbe
Consecration to Mary is like putting a quarter into a vending machine and having an endless stream of soda cans come out.
G.K. MacBrien
Some Remaining Feast Days in August
- August 15, Friday, Assumption of Mary, Holy Day of Obligation
- August 16, Saturday, Saint Stephen of Hungary, who officially enthroned Mary as perpetual Queen of Hungary.
- August 20, Wednesday, Saint Bernard of Clairvoux, the Memorare Guy.
- August 22, Friday, the Queenship of Mary
- August 27, Wednesday, Saint Monica, prayerful mother of the convert, Saint Augustine, next...
- August 28, Thursday, Saint Augustine of Hippo. Wild man. Convert. Genius. Seriously, this dude is in the Smart Dude Hall of Fame. Here is a typical mind-blowing gem: "Since love grows within you, so beauty grows, for love is the beauty of the soul."
Consecration to Immaculate Mary Prayer
As mentioned above, please carefully read through the prayer before praying it. And if you pray it, then mean it, and keep in mind you will spend eternity as a person especially consecrated to Immaculate Mary, along with me (or so I hope in Christ), Uncle Max, and so many others. Let us begin in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit...
I (state your name), a faithless sinner, renew and ratify today into your hands, O Immaculate Mother, the vows of my Baptism. I renounce forever Satan, his pomps and his works, and I give myself entirely to Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Wisdom, to carry my cross after Him all the days of my life and to be more faithful to Him than I have ever been before. In the presence of all the heavenly court I choose you this day, for my Mother and Mistress. I deliver and consecrate to you, as your slave, my body and soul, my goods, both interior and exterior, and even the value of all my good actions, past, present and future—leaving to your the entire and full right of disposing of me, and all that belongs to me, without exception, according to your good pleasure, for the greater glory of God, in time and in eternity. Amen.
By the time my next CatholiCity Message arrives, those kids'll be back in school (or homeschool!), high school, and college. Moms, I can hear your sighs. Dads? Smile interiorly with me. I remembered all of you at Mass today, and I will every day. Please pray for the Mary Foundation's finances. We remain yours...
With Saint Maximilian,
Bud Macfarlane, MI
