Saturday, August 14, 2021

 The "Kolbe Thing"


Baptized as Raymund Kolbe, he was a normal child. Yet there is this one stunning exception. One night in Kolbe's childhood, Our Lady appeared to him in a dream holding a white crown and a red crown. He later related, "She asked 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." So, yes, St. Maximillian had a normal childhood, but with one tremendous difference that was to define the course of his life. He always wanted to be a soldier.

In the year 1917, unbeknownst to Kolbe, one part of the world saw leftist revolutionaries led by Bolshevik Party leader Vladimir Lenin launch a nearly bloodless coup d'état against the Duma's provisional government. In another part of the world - again, without Kolbe's knowledge - Our Lady was appearing in Fatima, Portugal. It was this same year that Kolbe, who had a soldier's heart, knew in his spirit that the time was now to wage spiritual warfare. Along with several friends, a new type of army was founded, the Militia Immaculatae, an army to convert sinners and bring all to love Mary Immaculate. More information about the Militia Immaculata (MI) can be found HERE.

St. Maximilian Kolbe was a master of the new media. Yes, long before Facebook, there was this great saint using every means at his disposal to push out the truth to counter the lies. Kolbe had his friars' making use of the most modern printing technology and distribution strategies for their materials - their arsenal in the Militia's spiritual war. They had started a radio station and Fr. Kolbe even had plans for a movie studio. These were the years that witnessed the rise of communism followed by the rise of the Nazi regime. The level of propaganda and indoctrination was historic, and Fr. Kolbe was determined to keep truth alive.

I've always had a heart for St. Maximillian Kolbe. We look back in utter horror of the times in which he lived, with millions of souls lost through the rise of communism and the Nazi regime. And how, for far too many, the overwhelming indoctrination led most to accept their blood-filled times as something "normal." Kolbe would have nothing of that. Evil would not be normalized under his watch. Truth and a heavy reliance on the power of the intercessory prayers of Our Lady were the weapons of spiritual warfare for this holy saint. And so, he embraced the best of new media and formed an army rosary praying warriors.

Fast-forward to our times. Not millions of souls, but 1.7 billion children worldwide since 1973 have been murdered under our watch, while the vast majority have been indoctrinated into believing this is simply "normal." Where is the worldwide horror?! It has been quelled by the sweet sounding narratives of evil people. The world has been indoctrinated.

IT'S TIME TO DO THE "KOLBE THING!"

We simply must to rid ourselves of our "fear of new media," and do everything we can to embrace it at every level. Pushing out the truth to counter the lies must be our passion, as it was for Fr. Kolbe. And, let's embrace what Pope St. Pius V embraced in the Battle of Lepanto, and what Fr. Kolbe embraced during the rise of Communism and Naziism. Let's form a great army of supernatural rosary praying warriors!!
 

WE'RE GOING IN!!  AUGUST 15 - OCTOBER 7

"When people say the Rosary together, it is far more formidable to the devil, than one said privately. Because in this public prayer, it is an army that is attacking him. He can often overcome the prayer of an individual, but if this prayer is joined to other Christians, the devil has much more trouble in getting the best of it." -St Louis de Montfort.

We are calling all "believing" Catholics to join in a powerful campaign of spiritual warfare, entitled, "Novena for Our Nation" (August 15 to October 7). The United States Grace Force has grown to nearly 77,000 Special Forces Prayer Warriors, and we want to get larger and stronger!!

Cardinal Burke has joined in calling us all to get in the fight ...
"There is no question that we are living in the most troubled times. Fundamental truths about human life about marriage and the family and about the conscience are being called into question by threatening the lives of individuals and of our society. But we are full of courage because we know that our Lord is with us. He's called us to be His soldiers on the ground, working with Him for the salvation of the world.
 
There is a 54 day Novena beginning on the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary which will be completed on October 7. Your prayer would be even more efficacious if you would also take part in that 54 day Novena."
We have witnessed a multitude of miracles (private and public) since this "77,000 strong" United States Grace Force began praying together in 2016 (see HERE).
 

PRAYER AND TRAINING!

This prayer campaign is also a Basic Training in Holiness. Each day, along with praying your rosary, holiness trainees will be provided with a 1-2 minute reflection on the qualities of excellence. The first 27 days, trainees will read from passages in scripture, quotes from saints and the catechism on one of the following: Theological Virtues, Cardinal Virtues, Gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the Fruits of the Holy Spirit. The second 27 days will be excerpts from the book entitled, Church Militant Field Manual: Special Forces Training for the Life in Christ.

The daily reflections for this prayer and training campaign can be found in multiple places.

1) You can sign up to receive the 54 Day Rosary prayers with daily reflection in your email. Click Here to Sign Up.

2) You can join the United State Grace Force Facebook group HERE, to receive the reflections each day.

I'm Going In!

ENLIST IN THE UNITED STATES GRACE FORCE
(Please recruit family and friends to enlist!)
Click on the medallion (just below) 

                                                                



ST. MAXIMILLIAN KOLBE

 

1 Maccabees, Chapter 3, Verse 25

Then Judas and his brothers began to be feared, and dread fell upon the Gentiles about them.


The Battle of Beth Horon was fought in 166 BC between Jewish forces led by Judas Maccabaeus and an army of the Seleucid Empire under the command of Seron. The rebel army led by Judas Maccabeus was growing in strength. They had just inflicted a crushing defeat upon the Seleucid General Apollonius and now they faced the forces of the Syrian Governor Seron, who was widely overconfident. With Maccabeus' superior knowledge of the terrain, he prepared his forces to ambush the larger Seleucid force. Seron had anticipated this and spread out his force, but the Maccabees exhibited superior tactical skill by decimating the general's leading unit and killing Seron himself. With their leader dead, the shocked and disconcerted remnants of the Seleucid army took to the hills and ran. The stubborn Seleucids refused to give up their slow phalanx-based tactics when compared to the lightweight and quick Maccabean militia thus always creating problems for them on the battlefield. Another force was soon sent against Maccabaeus, which led to the Battle of Emmaus.[1]

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, Uncle JOE/Fancy Nancy) in every state of our Union and resolve to do all that you can to end the killing.

Blessing of Herbs and Fruits[3] for the Feast of the Assumption

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.

Blessing of Nature[4]

 

August 15th is the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and just as Mary's assumption into heaven signifies her purity of body and soul, so too does it remind us of her freedom from the curses of the Fall, such as having to live by the sweat of one's brow on a land that yields only thorns and thistles (Gen. 3.18,19). It is perhaps for this reason that the Feast or the Octave of the Assumption was a favorite time for blessing the scene of man's labors, especially those related to the production of food. In Western Europe, for example, fields would often be blessed by the parish priest, while in America and Latin countries Assumption Day is traditionally the occasion for blessing the fishing fleets of coastal towns. Also tying into this theme of nature is the German and Austrian time Mary is invoked for assistance or thanked for the autumn harvest of grains. This period lasts from Assumption Day until September 15, the Feast of the Seven custom of Our Lady's Thirty Days (Frauendreissiger), during which Sorrow of the Blessed Virgin. Legend states that nature is particularly benign during this time: snakes do not bite, wild animals do not attack, and food picked within the thirty days is especially wholesome. Finally, parts of England and Ireland observe Our Lady's Health Bathing, where bathing in rivers, lakes, the ocean, or any natural body of water is considered particularly good for one's health.

 

Daily Devotions

·         Saturday Litany of the Hours Invoking the Aid of Mother Mary     

·         Offering to the sacred heart of Jesus

·         Drops of Christ’s Blood

·         Iceman’s 40 devotion

·         Universal Man Plan

·         Rosary


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