Consecration to the Immaculata - Preparation Day 10
Day Ten
Let me be a fit instrument in your immaculate and merciful
hands for introducing and increasing your glory to the
maximum in all the many strayed and indifferent souls
On earth, we see so many unhappy, misguided souls
who do not even know the purpose of their life, who love
many short-lived goods instead of the only good, God. Many
of them are even indifferent to the most sublime love. We
want to introduce and increase to the maximum the glory of
the Immaculate in these souls and we beseech her to make
us useful tools in her immaculate and merciful hands, not
to let us hamper her; to drive us even by force in case we
were to refuse to obey her.
Explanation:
Here true devotion is defined even more precisely.
Here lies the difference with other forms of true devotion
(among others, the one according to St. Louis de Montfort).
This devotion aims at our neighbour, at the lapsed and
lukewarm souls, at the “heretics, schismatics, unbelievers,
Jews, especially the freemasons”. It is love of neighbour
that wishes these men only happiness and thus the turning
away from the wide path that leads down the eternal abyss.
44
In order for us to avoid being useless instruments
that are more likely to rot than to serve, SHE has to “do
it”: YOU do it, Immaculata! You know your naughty, disobedient
child. You know that I get everything wrong
as soon as I forget that I should let you guide me in everything.
Force me, I beg you. Hold my hand even tighter
when I want to tear myself away at my peril.
Spiritual reading:
Chapter: The Secret of Sure Victory: Being Subject to
Our Lady, p. 162
**********
The Secret of Sure Victory:
Being Subject to Our Lady
DOES THE KNIGHT OF THE IMMACULATA have any
guarantee that he will actually attain his great goal? Is there some firm
foundation upon which he can build without hesitation, without fear
of making a mistake? After all, man is so unreliable, his understanding
so darkened! How often we lull ourselves with illusions! How often
we think that something has gone completely wrong in our Christian
life, but years later it turns out that that time of apparent futility was
in fact the most important and most fruitful. And conversely, how
often we are happy and proud about a successful project, about a deed
that has been accomplished, and we celebrate our success. But years
later it becomes apparent that what we had reckoned as a success was
a deception of the devil, in order to blind us, to make us careless and
thus to muddy the waters. Where is certainty to be found?
There is only one real certainty, which the Knight finds in faith
alone: Man’s purpose is the honor and love of God, which consists in
doing His will. When man knows the will of God and acts according
to it, then he raises himself above the inconstancy and dubiousness of
163
all earthly things and is firmly anchored in the un-changeable, infinite
and eternal Divine Wisdom.
The one who can do the most for the cause of the
Immaculata is the one who perfectly — indeed, most perfectly
— does the will of God in everything. Nay, more: someone
who perfectly does God’s will can rightly say that he does
so much that the almighty, infinite God could not do more.
Therefore he who does God’s will as perfectly as he possibly
can does an infinite amount of good for souls. This is, after all,
the way that Jesus himself, our Redeemer, showed us. If there
were another, more perfect way, He would have chosen it. But
for thirty years He was obedient to His most holy Mother
and to St. Joseph, and in doing so He unceasingly fulfilled
the will of the Father. No particular training and no sort of
special preparation is needed for this. Everyone can make
a maximum contribution to the cause of the Immaculata by
conscientiously doing his part as one of the many “wheels”
that together make up the big “machine”: Niepokalan.w --
the City of the Immaculata!1
In what way does God reveal to us what He wants of us? What is the
plan that He devised for our lives from all eternity in our best interests?
Here a principle that runs through all of creation applies: God, the First
Cause, usually employs a whole series of secondary causes, which are
“transparencies”, so to speak, which reflect Him, or channels through
which He communicates His grace, His light, His will.
1 Conference, April 18, 1937.
164
The Lord God in His [external] activity always wants
to make use of instruments, and these instruments in turn
make use of other instruments, so that they all form a precise,
beautiful, harmonious whole. We are these instruments
of the Immaculata. God gave us a free will, but He wants
these instruments to serve Him, to subject their will to His,
just as the Mother of God had said: “Behold the handmaid
of the Lord. Be it done to me according to Thy word.” The
words “be it done to me” must always be on our lips, for there
must always be complete harmony between the will of the
Immaculata and our will. What do we have to do, then? Let
ourselves be guided by Mary and not be afraid. When I say
“the will of the Immaculata”, I give God greater honor, because
in this way I acknowledge that the Most Blessed Virgin is
God’s most perfect creature. So let us be guided by her in our
interior and exterior life, and let us will as she wills.2
You can safely use the following expression: “I want to do
the will of the Immaculata,” for she always wills only what
Jesus wills, and His will is one with the Father’s will. Accordingly
her will is no different from the will of the Son and
the Father. Furthermore, when you cite her will, then you
acknowledge, besides your love of God’s will, an additional
truth: the fact that her will is so perfect that it is no different
from God’s will, and thus you give God honor — Father and
Son — that He created such a perfect creature and made it fit
to become His mother.3
2 Conference, June 13, 1933.
3 Fragment of a book about the Immaculata.
165
The Knight of the Immaculata, who does the will of his Lady and
Queen, has chosen the best part. There is no greater perfection, no more
magnificent deed than to forget one’s own ego completely and to do
the infinitely perfect will of God, which is reflected in the will of the
Immaculata. But how is this will revealed concretely in our everyday
life? First, through the Commandments, the revealed truths of our faith,
and the holy rules of life given to us by the Church. Especially, though,
through obedience to those who represent God for us.
Often we come to know Mary’s wishes through inner
promptings, but we can almost never be sure whether these
come from her or from our self-love or even from the devil.
Satan in the form of an angel of light is sometimes able to
deceive us with the holiest things, which could perhaps be
good for someone else, but which God does not want of us.
Even if we were to have a vision and thought that the Mother
of God was appearing to us and assigning to us the most
exalted task, how do we know for sure that it is really she
and not a deception or a devilish snare? … The best test is
obedience to one’s superiors.4
There are various sorts of obedience: one can be subordinate to
someone else out of compulsion, or for natural reasons, for example,
so as to gain some advantage for oneself, in order to be secure or
successful. One can also be obedient simply because one wants peace
of mind. All of these variations have nothing to do with the longing to
be devoted to the Immaculata. This obedience is a lofty act of love --
4 Manuscript Militia Immaculatæ.
166
the love of a child for its mother, a servant for his Lord, a creature for
its Creator. In other words, it is supernatural obedience.
One carries out a command not because it is pleasant,
reason-able, wise, or holy in itself (for example, a command
to pray), but rather because the command is the will of the
superior and accordingly the will of the Immaculata, and
therefore ultimately God’s will. Without this attitude one is
not an instrument in the hand of the Immaculata, but rather --
I declare it openly — an instrument in Satan’s hand, however
many spiritual books one may read, however many Rosaries
one may pray, however many great deeds one accomplishes.5
In supernatural obedience one demonstrates whether one really
loves God. Love consists, after all, in an act of will, which in obedience
is conformed to God’s will and subjects itself to it, as the Immaculata
did. Indeed, the Mother of God pleased God so much because she was
never unfaithful to God’s will, even in the slightest thing.
The living M.I., the Knighthood of the Immaculata in
practice, consists of this holy obedience.6
This faithful, joyful and instantaneous hearkening to God’s will
through the voice of His instruments, through the voice of the human
authority that He has set over us, is quite important to St. Maximilian,
as we can see not only from the frequency with which he speaks
5 Letter to Fr. Florian Koziura, May 30, 1931.
6 Letter to Br. X, April 18, 1934.
167
about it, but also from his example. He often told the story of that
memorable occasion when he, as a young novice, was selected to
continue his studies in Rome. At first he declared to his superior that
he was not suited for the assignment because of his poor health. Later
on, however, after he had thought about the matter, he went back to
his superior and asked him to make the decision according to his (the
superior’s) will, without taking into ac-count at all the reasons that he
(the novice) had mentioned.
And what would have happened, if the Father Superior
had listened to my reasoning and acted accordingly? Would
the M.I. have come into being? Would Niepokalan.w exist
today? Would we all be here today? Do you see what great
importance obedience has in God’s sight?7
One should not imagine, however, that obedience consists in some
sort of spiritual laziness, in a listless and thoughtless fulfillment of
duties.
A saint is not an absent-minded old fogy who has to be
egged on constantly if he is to accomplish anything. A saint
must be enterprising, dynamic, full of initiative. That does
not mean that he has to overwork himself until he pants like
a dog. He just has to be like an automobile, for instance, with
all its devices and features. An auto is steered by the driver,
but it has to drive by itself; the driver only turns the steering
wheel, changes gears, gives it gas, brakes, etc. The auto will
7 Conference on obedience, “Zagroda Niepokalanej” 1 (1932), p. 64.
168
be at its best if it runs as the driver wants it to: slow, when it
should be slow, fast when it has to be fast, to the left when he
steers to the left, etc. Every one of us should let himself be
guided in this way, but each one has to proceed on his own,
like the automobile. No one pushes the automobile from
behind; it runs by itself. When the Immaculata calls upon us
to work here, then we must put all of our energy, our zeal,
our abilities into it; when she tells us to rest, then we rest.
When she sends us to recreation, then we go to recreation.
A soul like that, which does all that perfectly, does much for
the cause of the Immaculata.8
Our initiative consists of using, according to the certificate of the
M.I., all the means at our disposal in order to save souls, according to
our talents and abilities, which the Lord has instilled within us.
Therefore we can, indeed we must freely mention to our
superiors the thoughts, wishes and ideas that we have in
our hearts, as well as present our opinion without fear. Only
we should do so in such a way that we are inwardly quite
free and obediently accept the decision of authority with
equanimity!9
Finally the Saint warns us about a false understanding of obedience.
Supernatural obedience is always subjection to God’s will. Basically
we are always obedient to God, directly or indirectly, when we obey
8 Conference, June 16, 1937.
9 Letter to his brother, January 14, 1927.
169
our superior, inasmuch as he takes God’s place and shares in God’s
authority. But the superior, too, is limited.
It can happen that the superior demands something that,
no doubt whatsoever, would be a sin, albeit a very little one.
In this case the superior would not be God’s representative
and we would not be his subjects.10
If the earthly authority orders something that is even to the
slightest extent contrary to the faith or morality, then the subject must
“obey God rather than men” and do what the inviolable and unchangeable
teaching of the Church commands. In this case the subject is
only apparently disobedient; in reality he turns against the serious
disobedience of his superior and practices the virtue of obedience
in a perfect way: even unjust persecution and attempts to ruin his
reputation do not keep him from being obedient to God.
10 Letter to his brother, April 21, 1919.
Let me be a fit instrument in your immaculate and merciful
hands for introducing and increasing your glory to the
maximum in all the many strayed and indifferent souls
On earth, we see so many unhappy, misguided souls
who do not even know the purpose of their life, who love
many short-lived goods instead of the only good, God. Many
of them are even indifferent to the most sublime love. We
want to introduce and increase to the maximum the glory of
the Immaculate in these souls and we beseech her to make
us useful tools in her immaculate and merciful hands, not
to let us hamper her; to drive us even by force in case we
were to refuse to obey her.
Explanation:
Here true devotion is defined even more precisely.
Here lies the difference with other forms of true devotion
(among others, the one according to St. Louis de Montfort).
This devotion aims at our neighbour, at the lapsed and
lukewarm souls, at the “heretics, schismatics, unbelievers,
Jews, especially the freemasons”. It is love of neighbour
that wishes these men only happiness and thus the turning
away from the wide path that leads down the eternal abyss.
44
In order for us to avoid being useless instruments
that are more likely to rot than to serve, SHE has to “do
it”: YOU do it, Immaculata! You know your naughty, disobedient
child. You know that I get everything wrong
as soon as I forget that I should let you guide me in everything.
Force me, I beg you. Hold my hand even tighter
when I want to tear myself away at my peril.
Spiritual reading:
Chapter: The Secret of Sure Victory: Being Subject to
Our Lady, p. 162
**********
The Secret of Sure Victory:
Being Subject to Our Lady
DOES THE KNIGHT OF THE IMMACULATA have any
guarantee that he will actually attain his great goal? Is there some firm
foundation upon which he can build without hesitation, without fear
of making a mistake? After all, man is so unreliable, his understanding
so darkened! How often we lull ourselves with illusions! How often
we think that something has gone completely wrong in our Christian
life, but years later it turns out that that time of apparent futility was
in fact the most important and most fruitful. And conversely, how
often we are happy and proud about a successful project, about a deed
that has been accomplished, and we celebrate our success. But years
later it becomes apparent that what we had reckoned as a success was
a deception of the devil, in order to blind us, to make us careless and
thus to muddy the waters. Where is certainty to be found?
There is only one real certainty, which the Knight finds in faith
alone: Man’s purpose is the honor and love of God, which consists in
doing His will. When man knows the will of God and acts according
to it, then he raises himself above the inconstancy and dubiousness of
163
all earthly things and is firmly anchored in the un-changeable, infinite
and eternal Divine Wisdom.
The one who can do the most for the cause of the
Immaculata is the one who perfectly — indeed, most perfectly
— does the will of God in everything. Nay, more: someone
who perfectly does God’s will can rightly say that he does
so much that the almighty, infinite God could not do more.
Therefore he who does God’s will as perfectly as he possibly
can does an infinite amount of good for souls. This is, after all,
the way that Jesus himself, our Redeemer, showed us. If there
were another, more perfect way, He would have chosen it. But
for thirty years He was obedient to His most holy Mother
and to St. Joseph, and in doing so He unceasingly fulfilled
the will of the Father. No particular training and no sort of
special preparation is needed for this. Everyone can make
a maximum contribution to the cause of the Immaculata by
conscientiously doing his part as one of the many “wheels”
that together make up the big “machine”: Niepokalan.w --
the City of the Immaculata!1
In what way does God reveal to us what He wants of us? What is the
plan that He devised for our lives from all eternity in our best interests?
Here a principle that runs through all of creation applies: God, the First
Cause, usually employs a whole series of secondary causes, which are
“transparencies”, so to speak, which reflect Him, or channels through
which He communicates His grace, His light, His will.
1 Conference, April 18, 1937.
164
The Lord God in His [external] activity always wants
to make use of instruments, and these instruments in turn
make use of other instruments, so that they all form a precise,
beautiful, harmonious whole. We are these instruments
of the Immaculata. God gave us a free will, but He wants
these instruments to serve Him, to subject their will to His,
just as the Mother of God had said: “Behold the handmaid
of the Lord. Be it done to me according to Thy word.” The
words “be it done to me” must always be on our lips, for there
must always be complete harmony between the will of the
Immaculata and our will. What do we have to do, then? Let
ourselves be guided by Mary and not be afraid. When I say
“the will of the Immaculata”, I give God greater honor, because
in this way I acknowledge that the Most Blessed Virgin is
God’s most perfect creature. So let us be guided by her in our
interior and exterior life, and let us will as she wills.2
You can safely use the following expression: “I want to do
the will of the Immaculata,” for she always wills only what
Jesus wills, and His will is one with the Father’s will. Accordingly
her will is no different from the will of the Son and
the Father. Furthermore, when you cite her will, then you
acknowledge, besides your love of God’s will, an additional
truth: the fact that her will is so perfect that it is no different
from God’s will, and thus you give God honor — Father and
Son — that He created such a perfect creature and made it fit
to become His mother.3
2 Conference, June 13, 1933.
3 Fragment of a book about the Immaculata.
165
The Knight of the Immaculata, who does the will of his Lady and
Queen, has chosen the best part. There is no greater perfection, no more
magnificent deed than to forget one’s own ego completely and to do
the infinitely perfect will of God, which is reflected in the will of the
Immaculata. But how is this will revealed concretely in our everyday
life? First, through the Commandments, the revealed truths of our faith,
and the holy rules of life given to us by the Church. Especially, though,
through obedience to those who represent God for us.
Often we come to know Mary’s wishes through inner
promptings, but we can almost never be sure whether these
come from her or from our self-love or even from the devil.
Satan in the form of an angel of light is sometimes able to
deceive us with the holiest things, which could perhaps be
good for someone else, but which God does not want of us.
Even if we were to have a vision and thought that the Mother
of God was appearing to us and assigning to us the most
exalted task, how do we know for sure that it is really she
and not a deception or a devilish snare? … The best test is
obedience to one’s superiors.4
There are various sorts of obedience: one can be subordinate to
someone else out of compulsion, or for natural reasons, for example,
so as to gain some advantage for oneself, in order to be secure or
successful. One can also be obedient simply because one wants peace
of mind. All of these variations have nothing to do with the longing to
be devoted to the Immaculata. This obedience is a lofty act of love --
4 Manuscript Militia Immaculatæ.
166
the love of a child for its mother, a servant for his Lord, a creature for
its Creator. In other words, it is supernatural obedience.
One carries out a command not because it is pleasant,
reason-able, wise, or holy in itself (for example, a command
to pray), but rather because the command is the will of the
superior and accordingly the will of the Immaculata, and
therefore ultimately God’s will. Without this attitude one is
not an instrument in the hand of the Immaculata, but rather --
I declare it openly — an instrument in Satan’s hand, however
many spiritual books one may read, however many Rosaries
one may pray, however many great deeds one accomplishes.5
In supernatural obedience one demonstrates whether one really
loves God. Love consists, after all, in an act of will, which in obedience
is conformed to God’s will and subjects itself to it, as the Immaculata
did. Indeed, the Mother of God pleased God so much because she was
never unfaithful to God’s will, even in the slightest thing.
The living M.I., the Knighthood of the Immaculata in
practice, consists of this holy obedience.6
This faithful, joyful and instantaneous hearkening to God’s will
through the voice of His instruments, through the voice of the human
authority that He has set over us, is quite important to St. Maximilian,
as we can see not only from the frequency with which he speaks
5 Letter to Fr. Florian Koziura, May 30, 1931.
6 Letter to Br. X, April 18, 1934.
167
about it, but also from his example. He often told the story of that
memorable occasion when he, as a young novice, was selected to
continue his studies in Rome. At first he declared to his superior that
he was not suited for the assignment because of his poor health. Later
on, however, after he had thought about the matter, he went back to
his superior and asked him to make the decision according to his (the
superior’s) will, without taking into ac-count at all the reasons that he
(the novice) had mentioned.
And what would have happened, if the Father Superior
had listened to my reasoning and acted accordingly? Would
the M.I. have come into being? Would Niepokalan.w exist
today? Would we all be here today? Do you see what great
importance obedience has in God’s sight?7
One should not imagine, however, that obedience consists in some
sort of spiritual laziness, in a listless and thoughtless fulfillment of
duties.
A saint is not an absent-minded old fogy who has to be
egged on constantly if he is to accomplish anything. A saint
must be enterprising, dynamic, full of initiative. That does
not mean that he has to overwork himself until he pants like
a dog. He just has to be like an automobile, for instance, with
all its devices and features. An auto is steered by the driver,
but it has to drive by itself; the driver only turns the steering
wheel, changes gears, gives it gas, brakes, etc. The auto will
7 Conference on obedience, “Zagroda Niepokalanej” 1 (1932), p. 64.
168
be at its best if it runs as the driver wants it to: slow, when it
should be slow, fast when it has to be fast, to the left when he
steers to the left, etc. Every one of us should let himself be
guided in this way, but each one has to proceed on his own,
like the automobile. No one pushes the automobile from
behind; it runs by itself. When the Immaculata calls upon us
to work here, then we must put all of our energy, our zeal,
our abilities into it; when she tells us to rest, then we rest.
When she sends us to recreation, then we go to recreation.
A soul like that, which does all that perfectly, does much for
the cause of the Immaculata.8
Our initiative consists of using, according to the certificate of the
M.I., all the means at our disposal in order to save souls, according to
our talents and abilities, which the Lord has instilled within us.
Therefore we can, indeed we must freely mention to our
superiors the thoughts, wishes and ideas that we have in
our hearts, as well as present our opinion without fear. Only
we should do so in such a way that we are inwardly quite
free and obediently accept the decision of authority with
equanimity!9
Finally the Saint warns us about a false understanding of obedience.
Supernatural obedience is always subjection to God’s will. Basically
we are always obedient to God, directly or indirectly, when we obey
8 Conference, June 16, 1937.
9 Letter to his brother, January 14, 1927.
169
our superior, inasmuch as he takes God’s place and shares in God’s
authority. But the superior, too, is limited.
It can happen that the superior demands something that,
no doubt whatsoever, would be a sin, albeit a very little one.
In this case the superior would not be God’s representative
and we would not be his subjects.10
If the earthly authority orders something that is even to the
slightest extent contrary to the faith or morality, then the subject must
“obey God rather than men” and do what the inviolable and unchangeable
teaching of the Church commands. In this case the subject is
only apparently disobedient; in reality he turns against the serious
disobedience of his superior and practices the virtue of obedience
in a perfect way: even unjust persecution and attempts to ruin his
reputation do not keep him from being obedient to God.
10 Letter to his brother, April 21, 1919.