From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   August 14th - St. Maximilian Kolbe   
      
   (1894-1941)   
      
   The Knight of the Immaculate Virgin was born in Poland in 1894, and was a   
   mischievous little boy. One day his mother, no longer knowing what to do   
   with him, said to him: "My child, what will become of you?" He was suddenly   
   afraid and went to pray before a statue of His heavenly Mother - for this   
   was an exceptionally pious family, all of whose living members became   
   religious, including, eventually, the parents. He was transformed that day   
   into a new person, having asked Her to help him correct his faults.   
      
   When his parents separated to enter religion, he, too, entered a Franciscan   
   novitiate, and was ordained in 1918 on April 28th, feast of the Marian   
   apostle, Saint Louis Mary de Montfort. Already the great all-embracing idea   
   of his life had come to him, a year earlier - a militia in honor of the   
   Virgin destined to crush the head of the ancient serpent, master of pride   
   and revolt. There should be an army at Her disposition, he was certain, and   
   then She Herself could do all through its well-disciplined ranks. He found   
   willing collaborators - a small group at first - ready to consecrate   
   themselves to Her forever, for the fulfillment of Her desires.   
      
   They founded a magazine, invoking the special assistance of Saint Thérèse of   
   Lisieux also, and the prodigious growth of this enterprise left those who   
   could not understand its heavenly Sources mystified and sometimes very much   
   contradicted. Soon the walls were cracking, so to speak, by the arrival of   
   printing presses and, above all, religious vocations. The group of   
   volunteers for the project had to leave, and Our Lady procured for them a   
   terrain, without charge. As a result, "The City of the Immaculate" was   
   organized, where some 50 low buildings were set up and mobilized for the   
   various facets not only of publishing, but of the Franciscan life of prayer.   
      
   Father Kolbe, despite a health which was never other than precarious - for   
   he was undermined by tuberculosis for long years, and virtually abandoned at   
   one time as incurable - traveled both to Japan and to India to extend the   
   militia to other lands where the Mother of God was sorely needed. Always She   
   revealed Her protective Presence, accompanied by abundant blessings. The   
   Founder of these holy residences said, "The more souls there will be,   
   totally given to the guidance of the Immaculate, the more Saints there will   
   be, and very great Saints. Sanctity is not a luxury, but a simple duty,   
   since Our Lord said, 'Be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.'" He   
   gave them as a formula, "w=W" - signifying the human will perfectly united   
   and equivalent, through Her, to the Will of God. He said to them, "Our   
   sanctification is Her affair and Her specialty, since we belong   
   unconditionally to Her."   
      
   The martyrdom of Father Kolbe in the "hunger bunker" of Auschwitz is well   
   known. The City of the Immaculate was closed after the Nazis invaded Poland   
   in 1939, and he was placed successively in two concentration camps, where   
   the most cruel treatment could not alter his calm. He brought light to the   
   despairing and renewed the faith of all with whom he came into contact. He   
   was the last to die of the ten men condemned to the "bunker" to pay for the   
   escape of an inmate of their dormitory. A guard found him alone still alive,   
   on August 14, 1941 after fourteen days, seated in a corner in total   
   deprivation, still praying. He stretched out his fleshless arm to the   
   jailers who had come to finish him off with a hypodermic syringe. His   
   expression in death was described as ecstatic; he was gazing upward, as if   
   to welcome the One he saw coming for his soul.   
      
   Reflection: Saint Maximilian said: "On earth, we can only work with one   
   hand, since with the other we have to hold fast to the hand railing, in   
   order not to fall. But in heaven it will be different! No danger of slipping   
   or falling, and we will work far more, using both hands!"   
      
   Source: Magnificat magazine (Magnificat: St. Jovite) Vol. XXVI, Aug.-Sept.   
   1991.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   God overthrows the thrones of those who are disobedient to His law. My   
   political views are those of the Our Father.   
   -St. Avitus of Vienna   
      
   Bible Quote   
   2. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he was   
   hungry. 3. And the tempter coming said to him: If thou be the Son of God,   
   command that these stones be made bread. 4. Who answered and said: It is   
   written, Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth   
   from the mouth of God.  (Matthew 4:2-4)   
      
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   An act of conformity to the Will of God:   
      
   Behold me here, O Lord;   
   do with me what Thou wilt.   
   May Thy Will be ever done;   
   I only desire what Thou wilt.   
   I desire to suffer what Thou willest;   
   I desire to die when Thou willest.   
   Into Thy hands I commend my body,   
   my soul, my life, and my death.   
   I love Thee, O my God,   
   whether it pleaseth Thee to send me   
   consolations or afflictions,   
   and I desire to love Thee always.   
   Eternal Father, I unite my death to that of Jesus Christ,   
   and I offer it to Thee in order to please Thee.   
   Will of my God, Thou art my love.   
   Good pleasure of my God,   
   I devote myself entirely to Thee.  Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)