Tuesday, August 14, 2018

ST. MAXIMILLIAN KOLBE

Hebrews, Chapter 11, Verse 27

By faith he (Moses) left Egypt, not fearing the king’s fury, for he persevered as if seeing the one who is invisible.

Moses was a warrior who was led by faith to serve the one who is invisible. Although as the adopted son of pharaoh he could have had the power of Egypt, yet he chose to follow Him who is. Moses was a righteous man. A righteous man is one who leads a life that is pleasing to God.

I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff comfort me. (Ps. 23:4)

Faith helps a warrior to focus himself and conserve the warrior energy for where it is most effective. Ponder the fact that Christ at any moment could have chosen to fight and the results would have been the defeat of the Romans and the loss of man.

Resting with your Cross[1]

William Johnson a Jesuit writer suggests that we must stay with our painful experiences and summit ourselves to the “Prayer of the Suffering.” He suggests one must simply sit and accept one’s cross, accept it totally, unreservedly whether it is physical, emotional, mental or spiritual. It is the prayer of silent acceptance. The pain is not a distraction but the substance of our prayer. One unites one’s suffering with that of Jesus on the cross: for the salvation of the world or for particular people. The cross may arise from the ache of loneliness, the torment of betrayal, failure, fear of dying or the loss of one’s good name. Whatever the cause; Sit with it, don’t run away; don’t try to escape. Don’t fight. Sit with your cross.

St. Maximillian Kolbe[2]

Born Raymond Kolbe in Poland, Jan. 8, 1894, he entered the Conventual Franciscan Order where he was ordained a priest in 1918. Father Maximilian returned to Poland in 1919 and began spreading his Militia of the Immaculata movement of Marian consecration (whose members are also called MIs), which he founded on October 16, 1917. In 1927, he established an evangelization center near Warsaw called Niepokalanow, the "City of the Immaculata." By 1939, the City had expanded from eighteen friars to an incredible 650, making it the largest Catholic religious house in the world. To better "win the world for the Immaculata," the friars utilized the most modern printing and administrative techniques. This enabled them to publish countless catechetical and devotional tracts, a daily newspaper with a circulation of 230,000 and a monthly magazine with a circulation of over one million. Maximilian started a shortwave radio station and planned to build a motion picture studio--he was a true "apostle of the mass media." He established a City of the Immaculata in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1930, and envisioned missionary centers worldwide. Maximilian was a ground-breaking theologian. His insights into the Immaculate Conception anticipated the Marian theology of the Second Vatican Council and further developed the Church's understanding of Mary as "Mediatrix" of all the graces of the Trinity, and as "Advocate" for God's people. In 1941, the Nazis imprisoned Father Maximilian in the Auschwitz death camp. There he offered his life for another prisoner and was condemned to slow death in a starvation bunker. On August 14, 1941, his impatient captors ended his life with a fatal injection. Pope John Paul II canonized Maximilian as a "martyr of charity" in 1982. St. Maximilian Kolbe is considered a patron of journalists, families, prisoners, the pro-life movement and the chemically addicted.

Militia of the Immaculata

Things to Do:

· From the Catholic Culture library, read The Holy Spirit and Mary, an explanation of St. Maximillian's Marian theology and Maximillian Kolbe, Apostle of Mary by Fr. John Hardon.

· Offer a Mass.

· Say a rosary for those who suffer in the world today from man's inhumanity.

· Pray for an end to abortion, our nation's own holocaust.

· Read about Auschwitz and ponder the modern gas chambers (abortion, euthanasia, public school, cnn) in every state of our Union and resolve to do all that you can to end the killing.

Blessing of Herbs and Fruits[3]

The Church "baptized" an old pre-Christian belief in the great healing power of herbs picked in August by instituting a ritual for the blessing of herbs and fruits on the Feast of the Assumption. Since that time, Christians from both East and West have blessed herbs and fruit on the Feast of the Assumption in the belief that these sacramentals provide protection against harm and danger. But this custom also hearkens back to the Hebrew observance of the harvest, and more importantly, it teaches us something about our Lady's role in the economy of salvation. Eve foolishly used herbs (fig leaves) to hide and aggravate her sin, thereby bringing about a disorder of body and soul (Gen. 3.7). By contrast, Mary, the new Eve whose soul and body are untouched by sin or the decay of death (as we celebrate on this day), foreshadows a healing of our corporeal frailties, a healing represented by herbs. Likewise, fruits are an appropriate symbol for the new Eve because she never ate of the forbidden fruit but brought forth only the fruit of good works and, most importantly, the Fruit of her womb, Jesus Christ. The blessed fruit thus betokens the fruit of a holy and generous life which we are called to enjoy from our Lord through the patronage of His mother. In any case the solemn blessing of herbs and fruits on this day became so popular that in central Europe August 15 was simply called Our Lady's Herb Day. Usually these blessings would take place before Mass and would involve whatever was brought by the congregation to the church. Afterwards the herbs would be kept for medicinal use while the fruit would be served at dinner. The following is one of the special blessings from the Roman ritual that is used for herbs and fruits on Assumption Day:

O God, who by Moses Thy servant didst command the children of Israel to carry their sheaves of new fruits to the priests for a blessing, to take the finest fruits of the orchards, and to make merry before Thee, the Lord their God: Kindly hear our supplications, and pour forth the abundance of Thy blessing upon us and upon these sheaves of new grain, new herbs, and assortment of fruits, which we gratefully present to Thee and which we bless on this feast in Thy name. And grant that men, cattle, sheep, and beasts of burden may find in them a remedy against sickness, pestilence, sores, injuries, spells, the poison of snakes, and the bites of other venomous and nonvenomous creatures. And may they bring protection against diabolical illusions, machinations, and deceptions wherever they are kept or carried, or with whatever arrangement is made of them: that with sheaves of good works and through the merits of the Blessed Virgin Mary whose Feast of the Assumption we celebrate, we may deserve to be lifted up to heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God unto endless ages. Amen.

The blessing of herbs and fruits has also led to the lovely custom of giving and receiving baskets of fruit on the Feast of the Assumption, a custom which was especially popular in Sicily.

The Way[4]

"Read these counsels slowly. Pause to meditate on these thoughts. They are things that I whisper in your ear-confiding them-as a friend, as a brother, as a father. And they are being heard by God. I won't tell you anything new. I will only stir your memory, so that some thought will arise and strike you; and so you will better your life and set out along ways of prayer and of Love. And in the end you will be a more worthy soul."

40. Your manly character — simple and straightforward — is oppressed when you find yourself entangled in gossip and mischievous talk, which you cannot understand and in which you never wished to be involved. Undergo the humiliation that such talk causes you and let the experience teach you greater discretion

Daily Devotions

· Drops of Christ’s Blood

· Offering to the sacred heart of Jesus

· Please Pray for Senator McCain and our country; asking Our Lady of Beauraing to intercede.

· Pray our Democratic leaders confirm the new Supreme Court Judge.

· Peace Through Strength