I
love Saint Maximilian Kolbe for all of what he did and who he was and is, but beyond that I love him for
the special gift he gave me in the Fall of 2006. To explain how
amazing this gift was I need to give a little bit of background context.
At
the end of my freshman year of college I was very blessed to make my
total consecration to Jesus through Mary according to the method of
Saint Louis Marie de Montfort. This act changed my life forever and
over the course of that following summer I delved into everything I could
get my hands on concerning our Lady and I began the daily recitation of
the Holy Rosary. When I returned in the Fall for classes I was all on
fire with love and devotion for our Lord and our Lady and I wanted to do
everything I could to spread this love I had in my heart to others.
But
I found that nearly all of my fellows who had made the consecration to Mary
had sadly lost their first fervor, and the only other one who hadn’t had
graduated. I assisted in the founding of a small group of Catholics at
the University who went to pray the rosary in front of an abortion
clinic every Saturday morning, and I took control of the weekly Rosary
said before Holy Mass in the Chapel for the Catholic Campus Ministry on
Thursday evenings. But as time went on I couldn't find anyone else who felt as
I did and even those who expressed interest in learning more or praying
the rosary together with me never actually did. Even my two best
friends at the time did not understand though they tried to support me
with their words and care for me but I still felt very alone.
In
the spring my friend who had put the group together to do the
consecration to Mary the year before gathered another group to do the
consecration and the two of us made our first re-consecration, and
during this short time I was buoyed up, but this did not last long and
at the end of that year my best friend graduated after which we completely lost touch with one another. This was a tough time for me and over the summer I became
more and more dissatisfied with how things were going and the resistance
of the administration of the Catholic Campus Ministry to the fostering
of Marian devotion, or least the lack of any support, as it seemed to me.
Then
on the Feast of Saint Maximilian 2006 I happened upon a Catholic radio show that was
talking about Saint Maximilian Kolbe who I had never heard of before.
After listening for a short time I immediately fell in love with this
holy saint. I sought out all the information I could about him and
began reading up on him and his Militia of the Immaculata which I would
join and make my Kolbian Consecration to Mary on the Feast of the
Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary just a few weeks later on September 8th (which was also the 116th anniversary of Saint Therese making her final vows as a Carmelite).
On
the Octave day of this wonderful Marian Feast is the Feast of the Seven
Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary (September 15th), to which the entire month of
September is devoted and most fittingly follows upon the Feast the
previous day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, I found myself in the
basement of the CCM Chapel preparing for their yearly Fall retreat. I
had just days before acquired a copy of Kolbe: Saint of the Immaculata,
which I was very excited about and so I was showing it to one of my
friends who had a particular devotion to Mary. It was at this point
that a freshman I had never met leaned in and asked about what book I
was showing my friend. I showed it to him and explained a little about
Saint Maximilian, consecration to Mary, and the M.I. to which he
responded that he too knew of the Saint and had done both the Montfort
Consecration as well as the Kolbian and had joined the M.I.. I was
blown away by this revelation as I had never met anyone who had done
either consecration apart from the people I had done it with myself. My
immediate reaction was to think: “this guy is awesome!” and deep down
even then I think it was something like “best friends at first sight”
for me, and most definitely an answered prayer and a special gift of
Saint Maximilian to me.
I
got to know my new best friend a bit over the course of the retreat and
afterwards we became thick as thieves and spent a large portion of our
free time together. It was during this time that he introduced me to
the “Traditionalist” movement in the Catholic Church that sought to
restore authentic Catholic teaching and worship to the Mystical Body of Christ.
Of course a large part of this movement, and indeed the focal point of
this movement was the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered according to the Roman Missal of 1962.
I had actually attended the Mass in this form many times as a child because my Grandparents attended a special parish in Richmond Virginia, which they helped to found, that exclusively offered the traditional rite of Mass, but I had never understood what it was or the difference from the Mass I went to at home other than it being in Latin.
My best friend helped me to begin in my understanding of these differences and after some months we finally resolved to trek into Washington DC and into Chinatown to Saint Mary Mother of God Parish, where a Low Mass was to be offered for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This was his first Latin Mass ever and my first since the funeral of my Grandfather, and this was a decisive turning point in my life and has completely altered the course of my life and is still profoundly doing so at this very moment. And I think that Saint Maximilian must have been there again because it was under this very title of the Immaculate Conception that he focused his devotion to our Lady and always called her: the Immaculata.
I had actually attended the Mass in this form many times as a child because my Grandparents attended a special parish in Richmond Virginia, which they helped to found, that exclusively offered the traditional rite of Mass, but I had never understood what it was or the difference from the Mass I went to at home other than it being in Latin.
My best friend helped me to begin in my understanding of these differences and after some months we finally resolved to trek into Washington DC and into Chinatown to Saint Mary Mother of God Parish, where a Low Mass was to be offered for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This was his first Latin Mass ever and my first since the funeral of my Grandfather, and this was a decisive turning point in my life and has completely altered the course of my life and is still profoundly doing so at this very moment. And I think that Saint Maximilian must have been there again because it was under this very title of the Immaculate Conception that he focused his devotion to our Lady and always called her: the Immaculata.
I
don’t think any Saint has ever come into my consciousness and won my
heart in such a short amount of time and I think this was a gift from
our Lady and as a reward for my immediate outpouring of love and
devotion to Saint Maximilian he worked this miracle for me that is still impacting me deeply today.
The consequences of this gift of meeting my best friend has shaped my life in ways I could never have imagined and provided me vast riches of grace, a great increase of my knowledge of the faith, more importantly a much closer relationship with Mary and her Son Jesus, and finally it has left me with a small family of friends who love our Lord and our Lady as much, if not more than, I do.
The consequences of this gift of meeting my best friend has shaped my life in ways I could never have imagined and provided me vast riches of grace, a great increase of my knowledge of the faith, more importantly a much closer relationship with Mary and her Son Jesus, and finally it has left me with a small family of friends who love our Lord and our Lady as much, if not more than, I do.
What
else can I say but that I love Jesus, I love Mary, and I love Saint
Maximilian Mary Kolbe and I am forever in their debt. Have mercy on me
and pray for me my Lord, my Mother, and my dear friend.
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| Pope Benedict XVI praying in the cell were Saint Maximilian Kolbe died in 2006. |
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| This picture hangs on the wall of my personal home chapel. |
