August 14, 2026 - St. Maximilian Kolbe - No greater love

 

St. Maximilian Kolbe was born in Poland in 1894, entered the Franciscans at the age of 16, and was ordained 8 years later. In his first years of his priesthood he taught in the seminary in Krakow, the same diocese from which Pope John Paul would be ordained about 30 years later. In January 1922, he founded a monthly religious devotional called “Knight of the Immaculata” and operated a religious publishing press. Between 1930 and 1936, the saint undertook a series of missions to East Asia. In 1938 he would be recalled to Poland by his superiors. A year later, on 19 September 1939 he would be arrested by the Nazi’s for the first time, when the town in which he ministered was captured by the germans. Two years later, he was arrested again, and this time sent to the concentration camp at Auschwitz.

You’ve probably heard the story, how while in Auschwitz, several prisoners managed to escape.  As punishment, 10 men were selected to die.  When a married man with a family was among them, St. Maximilian asked to take his place.  The stunned Nazi officer agreed to the exchange.  St. Maximilian and the other nine men were stripped, locked in a cell, and left to starve to death.  After two weeks, some, including St. Maximilian were still alive.  They were given lethal injections of carbolic acid, and their remains were thrown into an oven.

“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.” St. Maximilian death was not a sudden, last-minute act of heroism. He had cultivated Christ like love for souls throughout his priesthood, throughout his life, just as each of us are called to do. To cultivate love.

“Children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth,” writes St. John.

Every day we are given opportunities to cultivate love, to die to self in order to live for others: to be patient when we are irritated; to forgive when we have been hurt; to give our time when we would rather be left alone; to pray for someone who has wronged us; to notice the lonely, the suffering, and the forgotten; to make sacrifices for our families, our parish, and those entrusted to our care.

Holiness is not granted by God waving the holiness wand over our head. Holiness is formed through daily choices. Every time we choose charity over selfishness, mercy over resentment, generosity over comfort, Christ’s love takes deeper root within us.

Through the intercession of St. Maximilian Kolbe, may God teach us to cultivate that love each day, so that when love demands sacrifice from us, great or small, we will be ready to give ourselves freely for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

 

 

That all members of the Church, laity and clergy, will be committed to self-sacrificial service in their daily lives.

For an end to indifference to God and human dignity in our government institutions, universities, businesses, and personal attitudes.

For an increase in devotion to Our Lady, that through our love for her, the Church may obtain a renewed zeal for souls.

That the love of Christ, the divine physician, may bring healing to the sick and comfort to all the suffering.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased priests and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom. We pray.

O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

 

 

 

4th Week of OT 2018 - Tuesday - Loving your enemies

King David’s behavior, his grief is somewhat confusing. Absalom was a usurper. He killed his brother Amnon. He had stolen the loyalty of David’s army and countrymen. You would think that David would rejoice at the news of Absalom’s death, that he would heap praise upon the soldiers who killed this anti-king.

And yet, we see David cry out with grief, “My son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you.”

Intimations of Christ-like forgiveness are found in this story—Christ who chose to die for us when we were worthy of death.

We are Absalom, guilty of usurpation, seizing what did not belong to us; we are Adam and Eve grasping at the forbidden fruit, as if divinity could be gained through disobedience.  We are Cain, jealous of our brothers favor. We are Israel worshiping false idols even after it is clear that God had intervened in our history.

We made ourselves into the enemies of God by virtue of sin. How absolutely mind-blowing, ego-shattering to consider that God chose to become man to die, not for his friends, but for his enemies. Paul write to Rome, “Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”

So when, Our Lord teaches us that we must not hate, but love our enemies, he’s not just saying that we are simply to refrain from killing them, but that perhaps we would be willing to die for them, like David desired to die for his son Absalom, like Jesus desired to die for us.

This sort of Christ-like love for our enemies makes most of us quite unsettled. And it should, because most of us have a lot of converting still to do. But no doubt, true joy is found in the conversion of our hearts from hardness to Christ-like love.

We do well to ask the Lord to teach us the meaning of love, to give us the desire to love, not simply our friends, but our enemies, for the stranger, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
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That all members of the Church may live out their baptismal call with greater conviction and faithfulness, and turn to the Lord in their sins with sincere contrition.

During this Catholic Schools Week, we continue to pray for all students, for their openness to knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, and for their teachers ability to educate.

For parents, the first teachers of their children, and for a strengthening of all families in faith.  We pray to the Lord.

For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, the underemployed and unemployed, immigrants and refugees, victims of natural disaster, war, and terrorism, for all those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today, for their comfort, and the consolation of their families.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord