Franciscan saints & blesseds: August 2010 Archives

August is truly a Marian month with the recollection and liturgical observances of such feasts Our Lady of the Angels (Aug. 2), the Assumption (Aug. 15) and Our Lady of Czestochowa (Aug. 26). Why does this matter today? Because Saint Maximillian Mary Kolbe was devoted to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and he tirelessly worked to make the Mother of God known to the world. Two of Kolbe's sentiment are important for us today:

St Maximilian Kolbe3.jpg
1. Let us totally consecrate ourselves to the Immaculate, in order that she may deign to use us as instruments to save and sanctify souls. Let us conquer hearts for her, because wherever she enters, there also penetrates divine grace and from this follows salvation and sanctification (SK, 164).

2. Be calm, love one another, bearing with one another's defects, so that your interior serenity may draw the souls of the pagans [unbelievers] to the Immaculate. In fact, with the help of the Immaculate, not only can we do all things, but we can also endure all things (SK, 678).

No Christian can claim to be such without following Mary's lead to Christ!

Saint Maximillian learned from the school of Mary how to be integrated human being, a better priest and to be as Pope John Paul said of him, a martyr of charity.

Raymond Kolbe was born January 8, 1894. In 1910, called by the Holy Spirit, he gained entrance to the Conventual Franciscans where he took the religious name "Maximillian"; besides formation in Poland, he studied in Rome and was ordained priest in 1918. Under the Nazi ideology Kolbe was sent to Auschwitz where he eventually gave up his life for a fellow prisoner on August 14, 1941.

Father Maxmillian's advanced the Kingdom of God by centering his work around a devotion to the Virgin Mother of God and evangelization projects. In 1917, a year prior to his ordination, he established a Marian movement whose members consecrate themselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The movement continues today known as the Militia of the Immaculate. By 1927, Kolbe founded the City of the Immaculata, a center of evangelization near Warsaw, where contemporary instruments of communication were utilized to produce and distribute catechetical and devotional materials; the friars had a daily newspaper with a circulation of 230,000 and a radio program. Records show that in 1939 center numbered 650 friars working to share the gospel with the world.

Historians of theology say that Saint Maximillian Kolbe's Marian theology pre-dated the Vatican II teachings on the Blessed Virgin, namely, he spoke of Mary as a mediatrix and advocate of all the graces that the Most Holy Trinity uses for our salvation.
 
The post from 2008 can be read here.

Saint Clare of Assisi

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St Clare of Assisi3.jpg... for at the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary, O Father, You mystically espoused Your Son to Your servant Clare, whom Blessed Francis had inspired with the desire of a higher life; You raised her to the summit of seraphic perfection, and chose her to become the mother of a family of virgins ... (Franciscan Preface, feast of St Clare)

O Light from Light, all splendor's Source, Whose clear beams shine with heaven's joy, We give you thanks for Mother Clare, And ev'ry form of praise employ.

Enticed by Francis' preaching sweet, Christ Crucified became her spouse; She gathered sisters to her side Where poverty would grace their house.

She left behind all earthly gain
That riches true might be her all;
In poverty, obedience,
And chastity she heard Christ's call.

As mother to her flock, she lived
And modeled Christ to ev'ryone;
In loving service spent herself
In toil from dawn to setting sun.

As she has shown us, Lord, your way,
So give us grace like her to be,
That we may turn from self to you
And in your way be truly free.

Most high, omnipotent, good God,
O Father, Son, and Spirit blest,
With Mother Clare and all your saints
Bring us, your Church, to endless rest.

J. Michael Thompson
Copyright © 2009, World Library Publications
LM; CREATOR ALME SIDERUM, BRESLAU, O WALY WALY

About the author

Paul A. Zalonski is from New Haven, CT. He is a member of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, a Catholic ecclesial movement and an Oblate of Saint Benedict. Contact Paul at paulzalonski[at]yahoo.com.

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This page is a archive of entries in the Franciscan saints & blesseds category from August 2010.

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