Consecration to the Immaculata - Preparation Day 3
Day Three
Refuge of sinners
God is merciful, infinitely merciful, but He is also just,
infinitely just, so that He cannot tolerate even the smallest sin
and must demand its complete reparation. The Dispenser of
the most precious Blood of Jesus, which has infinite value and
that washes away such sins, is God’s mercy embodied in the
Immaculate. With good reason, therefore, we invoke her as
“Refuge of sinners,” of all sinners; even if their sins were most
serious and most numerous, even if those sinners had the impression
they no longer deserved any mercy. Indeed, any purification
of the soul is for her a new confirmation of her title
of “Immaculate Conception,” and the more a soul is plunged
in sin, the more the power of her immaculateness, which makes
a soul as pure as snow, is made manifest.
Explanation:
The title of ‘Refuge of Sinners’ shows plainly who Mary
is for us, but also who we are before God, that is to say
miserable, unworthy sinners. “If thou, O Lord, wilt mark
iniquities: Lord, who shall stand it?” (Psalm 129). Our history,
the history of our souls, is a tragic drama of illusion
and lies. God loves us infinitely and at every moment He
gives us everything out of love, but we hardly ever think of
29
HIM. Worse even than all indifference and negligence are
the thousands of offences that pierce His head and heart
like so many thorns. This is our condition — it is impossible
to look on the Most Holy Face of God who is “light,
and in him there is no darkness”.
But now the mighty Queen before whom millions of
angels kneel in awe stands before us, and it is SHE who
turns to us and opens Her loving arms. Her smile draws
me, a miserable worm, to her like a magnet and I know
that there is hope here: Spes nostra, salve! Hail, our hope!
Spiritual reading:
Chapter: The Campaign of the Knight of the
Immaculata: The Struggle for the Salvation of Souls, p. 53
**********
CHAPTER FIVE
The Campaign of the
Knight of the Immaculata:
the Struggle for the
Salvation of Souls
THE CATHOLIC CAMPAIGN is a mission: the conversion of
sinners, the struggle for the salvation of souls.
Let us ask once more: What does this battle actually consist of?
How is this enemy destroyed?
By making every effort to convert him. This is the missionary plan
of Holy Mother Church, the motive that has sent thousands of missionaries
to the furthest corners of the world: Da animas — cetera tolle!
Lord, give me souls, and take everything else away! This motto hung
over the writing desk of St. John Bosco. And from St. Maximilian
Kolbe we hear the following thought-provoking statement:
I live only for souls; that is my task.1
1 RN 12 (1939), p. 359.
54
God made every human being to know Him, to love Him, to serve
Him, and thus to save his soul, and therein consists his real happiness.
Once a person has recognized that God has created him with infinite
love, that Christ has saved me from everlasting ruin by His bitter death
on the cross, then that person wants to share this happiness with others,
and would like to show everyone the only way that leads to salvation:
Do you know why so many people on earth do not yet
know God, do not know the Immaculata, and therefore
often ask, why they are living in this world in the first place?
They do not know that man’s destination is the Lord God,
that everything on earth is only a means of attaining God
in eternity, in heaven. They do not know that the Mediatrix
of all Graces, the spiritual Mother of mankind, Mary, is the
Immaculata, and that they will draw near to God in the fastest
and easiest possible way if they fly to her and love her.2
This is the task, the vocation of every Christian, and yet for the
Knight of the Immaculata it is the great goal of his life, the deep
longing of his heart, the mainspring of his prayers and sacrifices.
O Immaculata, when will you finally rule in the hearts of
each and every person? When will all the inhabitants of the
earth finally recognize you as their Mother and the Heavenly
Father as their Father?3
2 Letter to Japanese students, dated November 4, 1937.
3 Fragment of an unfinished book about the Immaculata, January 1940.
Błogosławiony Maksymilian Kolbe, Wybór Pism, Warszawa 1973 (henceforth: BMK),
p. 590.
55
The Knight of the Immaculata, therefore, must distinguish clearly
between the error and the one who errs, as St. Augustine says: “Hate
the sin, love the sinner.” Accordingly, he is not indifferent about any
soul, but rather looks with great compassion on the poor souls that
have been misled. St. Maximilian was not afraid to speak even to the
mortal enemies of the Church — Freemasons, Jews, heretics — in
a very friendly and cordial way. Hadn’t the miraculous conversion
of Alphonse Ratisbonne, a Jew, inspired him with the idea for the
M.I.? Every single soul has infinite value, and therefore all the effort
is worth it to win even one soul for the Immaculata. And so in the
year 1930 he founded a City of the Immaculata in Japan, a project that
originated in great suffering, through the cross, with many disappointments
and difficulties, so that on several occasions the friars were
tempted to discouragement. Once he heard a young Japanese man,
who had converted there, say: “If you had not come, then I would still
be a pagan now!” Thereupon he wrote to his Knights:
These words were so full of sincerity and gratitude to the
Immaculata and to us, her instruments, that immediately
such thoughts as these sprang to mind: Even if no one else
converted besides this one man, our efforts to date would
have been worthwhile and we could have sacrificed yet much
more, even if it were only for one soul!4
The Knight does not love of neighbor superficially, however,
because he [the neighbor] is sympathetic, useful, rich,
influential, or just grateful. These motives are too base and
4 Letter to Niepokalanów, February 11, 1933.
56
are unworthy of a Knight of the Immaculata. True love rises
above the creature and is taken up into God. In Him, for
Him and through Him he loves everyone, the good as well
as the bad, his friends but also his enemies. To all he extends
a helping hand, for all of them he prays, for everyone he
suffers, he wishes everyone well, longs for the happiness of all,
because God wills it so!5
The yearning for the salvation of souls is truly without limit:
Let us meditate today upon the image of the authentic
Knight of the Immaculata: he does not narrowly confine
his heart to himself, nor to his family, to his close relations,
friends, and countrymen, but he takes the whole world into
it, each and every person, because all without exception have
been redeemed with the Blood of Jesus Christ, all of them are
our brethren. He wishes all true happiness, enlightenment
through the light of faith, cleansing from sins, and a heart
burning with love for God, an unbounded love. The happiness
of all mankind in God through the Immaculata — that is his
dream.6
When the movement of the Immaculata was in full bloom and the
Knights already numbered in the millions, people often recommended
that the Saint should not expand any more, that he shouldn’t increase
the circulation of his periodicals. To this suggestion he replied that
5 RN 3 (1924), p. 218.
6 RN 4 (1925), pp. 25–26.
57
one should never be content with the progress made thus far, but
rather that they had to keep building every day, “in order to save as
many souls as possible”.
The salvation of souls is also an extremely urgent matter. We must
act as quickly as possible, since the enemy never sleeps. What a fiery
zeal for souls the Saint communicates to his Knights!
To accomplish the goal of the M.I., and to do it as quickly
as possible, namely, to conquer the entire world, and every
single soul that is living now or will exist until the end of the
world, for the Immaculata and through her for the Sacred
Heart of Jesus. To beware that no one snatches the banner
of the Immaculata from any soul, but instead ceaselessly to
deepen the love for the Immaculata in souls, to fasten ever
more tightly the bond of love between souls and her, so that
they become one with her, indeed, become the Immaculata
herself. So that she alone might live and love and work in
them and through them. Just as she belongs entirely to
Jesus and to God, so too will each soul through her and in
her become Christ’s, God’s. … Then those souls will love the
most Sacred Heart of Jesus, as they have never loved Him
before. The love of God will set fire to the world through
Mary and will consume it in flames, and souls will be taken
up to heaven, out of love.7
It is clear that there is no other way of attaining this lofty goal than
through the Immaculata:
7 Memoirs, April 23, 1933.
58
The goal of the M.I. is so difficult to attain, that one
would rightly have to doubt that it could ever be accomplished,
if one were to rely only on natural powers, efforts,
and instruments. Daily experience teaches us, in fact, that the
enemies of the Church have more natural expedients and, in
keeping the Jesus’ words, are wiser than the children of light.
Furthermore, conversion and healing require graces, whereas
our fallen nature in and of itself is inclined to sin. Therefore
one can rely only upon help from above. Yet God has willed
that the easiest and surest help that can be obtained is that
of the Blessed Virgin Mary… Accordingly there is no other
way of attaining the goal of the M.I. than to commend oneself
entirely and forever to the Immaculate Virgin Mary as an
instrument in her immaculate hands, so that she alone might
work in us and through us. There you have the essence of the
M.I.8
But how are we to save souls? By burning and inflaming others,
answers the founder of the M.I.
To shine upon one’s surroundings, to win souls for Mary,
so that the neighbor’s heart might be opened to her, so that
she may reign in all hearts… — that is our ideal!9
To kindle love for the Immaculata, first in one’s own soul,
then to spread this fire around, and with it to inflame all souls
that exist and ever shall be, and to fan this flame of love in
8 RN 1 (1922), p. 102.
9 RN 15 (1936), pp. 226–227.
59
oneself and in the whole world, to stir up this fire more and
more, without limits — that is our goal. Everything else is
only a means to this end.10
Anyone who has come to know the Immaculata, has loved
her and devoted himself to her… anyone whose concern for
her reign over souls makes him long for the day when others
will give themselves to her, and who for his part does all
that he can toward that end, and strives not to neglect any
means, however costly it may be, even if it required sealing
this ideal with his own blood; nay, more: anyone who views
it as his greatest happiness, his loftiest dream, to offer his life
as a holocaust, in order to win all souls for her, and I mean
all, wherever they are, to whatever nation or race they might
belong, and whenever they live, today or in the future — that
person is the perfect Knight of the Immaculata.11
The man who wrote these words lived this devotion in his own
flesh, even unto death for the sake of love of neighbor in the starvation
bunker in Auschwitz.
Love makes a person resourceful. Love for souls constantly alerts
the heart to new possibilities, in order to do good for them. The recently
beatified children of Fatima always found new sacrifices to make so
as to save souls from eternal ruin. The Knight of the Immaculata
likewise will gauge the opportunities that are within his reach, in
order to attain this great goal. It is precisely the trials, humiliations,
10 Fragment of an unfinished book about the Immaculata, January 1940, BMK
p. 602.
11 Ibid., p. 605.
60
sufferings and crosses of life that will be his greatest assist, and even
more than that:
The person who — with a prayer to the Immaculata on
his lips or in the depths of a heart that has been purified by
suffering and is inflamed with the fire of love for God — does
what he can to win as many souls as possible for Him through
the Immaculata, to liberate them from the power of the Evil
One, to make them happy — only that person will win the
victory.12
12 RN 4 (1924), p. 218.
Refuge of sinners
God is merciful, infinitely merciful, but He is also just,
infinitely just, so that He cannot tolerate even the smallest sin
and must demand its complete reparation. The Dispenser of
the most precious Blood of Jesus, which has infinite value and
that washes away such sins, is God’s mercy embodied in the
Immaculate. With good reason, therefore, we invoke her as
“Refuge of sinners,” of all sinners; even if their sins were most
serious and most numerous, even if those sinners had the impression
they no longer deserved any mercy. Indeed, any purification
of the soul is for her a new confirmation of her title
of “Immaculate Conception,” and the more a soul is plunged
in sin, the more the power of her immaculateness, which makes
a soul as pure as snow, is made manifest.
Explanation:
The title of ‘Refuge of Sinners’ shows plainly who Mary
is for us, but also who we are before God, that is to say
miserable, unworthy sinners. “If thou, O Lord, wilt mark
iniquities: Lord, who shall stand it?” (Psalm 129). Our history,
the history of our souls, is a tragic drama of illusion
and lies. God loves us infinitely and at every moment He
gives us everything out of love, but we hardly ever think of
29
HIM. Worse even than all indifference and negligence are
the thousands of offences that pierce His head and heart
like so many thorns. This is our condition — it is impossible
to look on the Most Holy Face of God who is “light,
and in him there is no darkness”.
But now the mighty Queen before whom millions of
angels kneel in awe stands before us, and it is SHE who
turns to us and opens Her loving arms. Her smile draws
me, a miserable worm, to her like a magnet and I know
that there is hope here: Spes nostra, salve! Hail, our hope!
Spiritual reading:
Chapter: The Campaign of the Knight of the
Immaculata: The Struggle for the Salvation of Souls, p. 53
**********
CHAPTER FIVE
The Campaign of the
Knight of the Immaculata:
the Struggle for the
Salvation of Souls
THE CATHOLIC CAMPAIGN is a mission: the conversion of
sinners, the struggle for the salvation of souls.
Let us ask once more: What does this battle actually consist of?
How is this enemy destroyed?
By making every effort to convert him. This is the missionary plan
of Holy Mother Church, the motive that has sent thousands of missionaries
to the furthest corners of the world: Da animas — cetera tolle!
Lord, give me souls, and take everything else away! This motto hung
over the writing desk of St. John Bosco. And from St. Maximilian
Kolbe we hear the following thought-provoking statement:
I live only for souls; that is my task.1
1 RN 12 (1939), p. 359.
54
God made every human being to know Him, to love Him, to serve
Him, and thus to save his soul, and therein consists his real happiness.
Once a person has recognized that God has created him with infinite
love, that Christ has saved me from everlasting ruin by His bitter death
on the cross, then that person wants to share this happiness with others,
and would like to show everyone the only way that leads to salvation:
Do you know why so many people on earth do not yet
know God, do not know the Immaculata, and therefore
often ask, why they are living in this world in the first place?
They do not know that man’s destination is the Lord God,
that everything on earth is only a means of attaining God
in eternity, in heaven. They do not know that the Mediatrix
of all Graces, the spiritual Mother of mankind, Mary, is the
Immaculata, and that they will draw near to God in the fastest
and easiest possible way if they fly to her and love her.2
This is the task, the vocation of every Christian, and yet for the
Knight of the Immaculata it is the great goal of his life, the deep
longing of his heart, the mainspring of his prayers and sacrifices.
O Immaculata, when will you finally rule in the hearts of
each and every person? When will all the inhabitants of the
earth finally recognize you as their Mother and the Heavenly
Father as their Father?3
2 Letter to Japanese students, dated November 4, 1937.
3 Fragment of an unfinished book about the Immaculata, January 1940.
Błogosławiony Maksymilian Kolbe, Wybór Pism, Warszawa 1973 (henceforth: BMK),
p. 590.
55
The Knight of the Immaculata, therefore, must distinguish clearly
between the error and the one who errs, as St. Augustine says: “Hate
the sin, love the sinner.” Accordingly, he is not indifferent about any
soul, but rather looks with great compassion on the poor souls that
have been misled. St. Maximilian was not afraid to speak even to the
mortal enemies of the Church — Freemasons, Jews, heretics — in
a very friendly and cordial way. Hadn’t the miraculous conversion
of Alphonse Ratisbonne, a Jew, inspired him with the idea for the
M.I.? Every single soul has infinite value, and therefore all the effort
is worth it to win even one soul for the Immaculata. And so in the
year 1930 he founded a City of the Immaculata in Japan, a project that
originated in great suffering, through the cross, with many disappointments
and difficulties, so that on several occasions the friars were
tempted to discouragement. Once he heard a young Japanese man,
who had converted there, say: “If you had not come, then I would still
be a pagan now!” Thereupon he wrote to his Knights:
These words were so full of sincerity and gratitude to the
Immaculata and to us, her instruments, that immediately
such thoughts as these sprang to mind: Even if no one else
converted besides this one man, our efforts to date would
have been worthwhile and we could have sacrificed yet much
more, even if it were only for one soul!4
The Knight does not love of neighbor superficially, however,
because he [the neighbor] is sympathetic, useful, rich,
influential, or just grateful. These motives are too base and
4 Letter to Niepokalanów, February 11, 1933.
56
are unworthy of a Knight of the Immaculata. True love rises
above the creature and is taken up into God. In Him, for
Him and through Him he loves everyone, the good as well
as the bad, his friends but also his enemies. To all he extends
a helping hand, for all of them he prays, for everyone he
suffers, he wishes everyone well, longs for the happiness of all,
because God wills it so!5
The yearning for the salvation of souls is truly without limit:
Let us meditate today upon the image of the authentic
Knight of the Immaculata: he does not narrowly confine
his heart to himself, nor to his family, to his close relations,
friends, and countrymen, but he takes the whole world into
it, each and every person, because all without exception have
been redeemed with the Blood of Jesus Christ, all of them are
our brethren. He wishes all true happiness, enlightenment
through the light of faith, cleansing from sins, and a heart
burning with love for God, an unbounded love. The happiness
of all mankind in God through the Immaculata — that is his
dream.6
When the movement of the Immaculata was in full bloom and the
Knights already numbered in the millions, people often recommended
that the Saint should not expand any more, that he shouldn’t increase
the circulation of his periodicals. To this suggestion he replied that
5 RN 3 (1924), p. 218.
6 RN 4 (1925), pp. 25–26.
57
one should never be content with the progress made thus far, but
rather that they had to keep building every day, “in order to save as
many souls as possible”.
The salvation of souls is also an extremely urgent matter. We must
act as quickly as possible, since the enemy never sleeps. What a fiery
zeal for souls the Saint communicates to his Knights!
To accomplish the goal of the M.I., and to do it as quickly
as possible, namely, to conquer the entire world, and every
single soul that is living now or will exist until the end of the
world, for the Immaculata and through her for the Sacred
Heart of Jesus. To beware that no one snatches the banner
of the Immaculata from any soul, but instead ceaselessly to
deepen the love for the Immaculata in souls, to fasten ever
more tightly the bond of love between souls and her, so that
they become one with her, indeed, become the Immaculata
herself. So that she alone might live and love and work in
them and through them. Just as she belongs entirely to
Jesus and to God, so too will each soul through her and in
her become Christ’s, God’s. … Then those souls will love the
most Sacred Heart of Jesus, as they have never loved Him
before. The love of God will set fire to the world through
Mary and will consume it in flames, and souls will be taken
up to heaven, out of love.7
It is clear that there is no other way of attaining this lofty goal than
through the Immaculata:
7 Memoirs, April 23, 1933.
58
The goal of the M.I. is so difficult to attain, that one
would rightly have to doubt that it could ever be accomplished,
if one were to rely only on natural powers, efforts,
and instruments. Daily experience teaches us, in fact, that the
enemies of the Church have more natural expedients and, in
keeping the Jesus’ words, are wiser than the children of light.
Furthermore, conversion and healing require graces, whereas
our fallen nature in and of itself is inclined to sin. Therefore
one can rely only upon help from above. Yet God has willed
that the easiest and surest help that can be obtained is that
of the Blessed Virgin Mary… Accordingly there is no other
way of attaining the goal of the M.I. than to commend oneself
entirely and forever to the Immaculate Virgin Mary as an
instrument in her immaculate hands, so that she alone might
work in us and through us. There you have the essence of the
M.I.8
But how are we to save souls? By burning and inflaming others,
answers the founder of the M.I.
To shine upon one’s surroundings, to win souls for Mary,
so that the neighbor’s heart might be opened to her, so that
she may reign in all hearts… — that is our ideal!9
To kindle love for the Immaculata, first in one’s own soul,
then to spread this fire around, and with it to inflame all souls
that exist and ever shall be, and to fan this flame of love in
8 RN 1 (1922), p. 102.
9 RN 15 (1936), pp. 226–227.
59
oneself and in the whole world, to stir up this fire more and
more, without limits — that is our goal. Everything else is
only a means to this end.10
Anyone who has come to know the Immaculata, has loved
her and devoted himself to her… anyone whose concern for
her reign over souls makes him long for the day when others
will give themselves to her, and who for his part does all
that he can toward that end, and strives not to neglect any
means, however costly it may be, even if it required sealing
this ideal with his own blood; nay, more: anyone who views
it as his greatest happiness, his loftiest dream, to offer his life
as a holocaust, in order to win all souls for her, and I mean
all, wherever they are, to whatever nation or race they might
belong, and whenever they live, today or in the future — that
person is the perfect Knight of the Immaculata.11
The man who wrote these words lived this devotion in his own
flesh, even unto death for the sake of love of neighbor in the starvation
bunker in Auschwitz.
Love makes a person resourceful. Love for souls constantly alerts
the heart to new possibilities, in order to do good for them. The recently
beatified children of Fatima always found new sacrifices to make so
as to save souls from eternal ruin. The Knight of the Immaculata
likewise will gauge the opportunities that are within his reach, in
order to attain this great goal. It is precisely the trials, humiliations,
10 Fragment of an unfinished book about the Immaculata, January 1940, BMK
p. 602.
11 Ibid., p. 605.
60
sufferings and crosses of life that will be his greatest assist, and even
more than that:
The person who — with a prayer to the Immaculata on
his lips or in the depths of a heart that has been purified by
suffering and is inflamed with the fire of love for God — does
what he can to win as many souls as possible for Him through
the Immaculata, to liberate them from the power of the Evil
One, to make them happy — only that person will win the
victory.12
12 RN 4 (1924), p. 218.