Consecration to the Immaculata - Preparation Day 6
Day Six
I, an unworthy sinner
At that point, we recognize that we are not immaculate
as she is, but sinners. Especially since none of us could possibly
claim to have lived up to the present day without committing
a sin, but feels guilty of many infidelities. We also say
“unworthy” because, in truth, between an unsullied Being and
one disfigured by sin there is, in a certain way, an unfathomable
difference. Therefore, in all truth we recognize ourselves
unworthy to turn to her, to appeal to her, to fall at her feet
and entreat her not to let us become similar to proud Lucifer.
For that reason, we also say:
I cast myself at your feet, humbly imploring you to take me
with all that I am and have, wholly to yourself as your possession
and property.
With these words we pray, implore the Immaculate that
she deign to welcome us, and we give ourselves up to her completely
and in all respects as her children, her slaves of love,
her servants, her instruments, in every respect, under any
name that any person at any time could possibly still devise.
And all that as a possession and property at her full disposal,
that she may make use of us and exploit us until we are fully
consumed.
35
Explanation:
After profound contemplation of the Immaculata, her
privileges and her relationship with us, we are now in a position
to perform the important act of the will which defines
the essence of true devotion. I cannot devote myself to
someone I do not know and whose relations to me are not
clear. Hence the preceding meditations.
But now the onus is on me. I know how right and crucial
it is for my salvation that I should freely admit who
SHE is according to God's plan from the beginning of
time: my mistress, my mother, my queen. But we often
hear that 'I am not yet capable of such devotion. I am completely
unworthy, surely I cannot consecrate myself to someone
to whom I always cause grief and whom I offend so
often. May she therefore choose better soldiers to be in her
service than such a weakling and traitor as myself.
This is exactly the reason why St. Maximilian uses the
phrase 'I, N.N., an unworthy sinner!' The wonderful thing
about our Mother is precisely that SHE wishes to take
me into her service with the full knowledge of my infinite
weakness and my constant failings. She longs so much
for the salvation of her children that she makes do with
any instrument. After all, she can paint the most beautiful
works of art with a broom and build palaces with a dustpan,
i.e. the sanctuary of the soul washed in the blood of
36
Christ. So there are no more excuses: 'I, unworthy sinner!'
This also means that I should never forget that left to my
own devices I will only suffer failure and defeat, but being
united to the Immaculata's I makes a gale force 10 — a gale
that thoroughly shakes souls up in order to save them from
eternal hell fire.
Spiritual reading:
Chapter: Being a Knight, p. 61
**********
CHAPTER SIX
Being a Knight
WE HAVE SPOKEN about a battle and about the necessity for
it, who the enemies are and what this battle looks like. Let us take
another look at the combatants themselves, who should not be
hirelings, mercenaries, and not ordinary soldiers, either, but Knights
of the Immaculata. With this expression the founder suggests both the
external activity and also the interior attitude that he demands from
those who want to consecrate themselves entirely to the Immaculata.
The Knight is inspired by a high ideal. He is not content with half
measures, with penultimate things; he wants everything! The world
is too small for him.
The socialist’s field of vision does not extend further than
his coffin; it does not go beyond the purely material world.
Immured in matter, he sees his only happiness in a bestial
enjoyment of the world. But all that is too small for the man
whose thoughts struggle through the atmosphere, the stars
and the universe, whose understanding, which constantly
looks for causes, strains to reach the first cause and the final
end of all things. His heart, however, longing for happiness
62
and glory, senses and understands that the more it has
attained, the greater its longing becomes, and that nothing
limited, not even the greatest of all finite things, can satisfy it.
It longs for the good, for the infinite good.1
“Our heart is restless until it rests in Thee, O God!”
St. Augustine acknowledged after long years of seeking
happiness in vain apart from God. We sense all of this
through our own experience, that nothing finite is capable of
satisfying us. Only God can be our goal. We want to know,
love and possess him, to unite ourselves with Him, to become
divinized in Him.2
The Knight knows about the mission which he has received from
his Lord.
God has bestowed a particular mission on earth upon
every human being, and already as He was creating the
universe, He arranged the initial causes in such a way that
an uninterrupted chain of causes and effects created the
conditions and circumstances needed to fulfill the mission
of each person in an appropriate way. Every human being is
born with talents that are suited to the mission assigned to
him, and during his whole life situations and circumstances
combine in such a way as to make it possible and easy for
him to attain his goal. Now the perfection of the individual
human being consists precisely in reaching this goal. The
1 RN 4 (1923), p. 18.
2 Manuscript, The Immaculate Mother of God.
63
more faithfully he fulfills his mission, the more he accomplishes
his task, the higher he is in God’s eyes, the holier he is.3
Yet the Lord has ordained that we should come to know and love
the Immaculata and accept the mission of being her Knights. The
awareness of this task should not fade for an instant from the Knight’s
mind. This means that he will not lead a double life, but rather strive
always and everywhere to put into practice the ideal to which he has
consecrated himself and to fulfill the pledge that he has made to his
Lady and Queen.
The Knight is furthermore loyal; he imposes no conditions on his
Lady. He resolves to sacrifice even his last “yes, but…”.
This total and unconditional devotion, with no “ifs, ands
or buts”, is the prerequisite for the complete unfolding of the
life of grace. If even a small hindrance is present, the soul
will not soar, because she does not yet have the free wings
of a dove… God, however, wants to lift the soul higher
and higher. Therefore it is necessary for us to give the Lord
everything, so that the slightest objection does not remain
in us. Every reservation and every disordered inclination is
a barrier and is unworthy of a Knight.4
“Deus vult — God wills it!” This was the song and the battle-cry of the
medieval crusaders: “Have courage, crusaders, defend Christendom!
Though hell may assail us, fear not and attack. The Lord will be with
3 RN 1 (1922), p. 114.
4 Conference, February 2, 1941.
64
you, rely on Him, He Himself wills it so!” The Knight knows that he
is able to do nothing of himself.
There are two ways: one’s own strength or God’s strength.
Everything depends on which way we go. When the cause
is nothing (namely, relying on our own strength), then the
effect will be nothing, too. Will we rely on ourselves or on
God? Only when we do not depend on ourselves, are we able
and bound to attain the goal. This is the most basic principle,
which applies to the effectiveness of all our actions: Everything
with God, nothing without Him!5
Often one hears the objection: I am too weak, too unreliable.
“I would like to, but I cannot!” — Believe me, nothing more
is needed than willingness. That is the first step. “I will,” means
that I use all the means that are at my disposal! “I would like
to,” means that I am reluctant to use all the means, because
some of them are too costly for self-love. Such a soul still has
too much selfishness in it, self-love. In order to become holy,
one must will it. St. Augustine was a very bad man, but he
said to himself: “Those men and others were able to become
Saints, and therefore so can you, Augustine!” And he became
a saint, because he willed it. If someone tells himself that he
must become holy, then he will indeed. One day St. Benedict’s
sister, Scholastica, asked him what one must do in order to
become holy. He answered in a word: “Will it.”6
5 Conference, July 5, 1937.
6 Conference, May 2, 1937.
65
The Knight of the Immaculata is the one who also wants to become
holy!
Finally, the Knight distinguishes himself through perseverance,
which does not allow itself to be put off by the consequences of the
battle — and he will not be spared, either. Defeats, wounds, lying
prostrate in the dirt, all these things strengthen his conviction, that he
can do nothing without grace.
Dear children, we now have beautiful spring days; the sun
with its warm rays awakens everything to new life, the grass
sprouts from the earth, the flowers bloom in beautiful colors,
and all of this inspires a person. It should be just like this in
our life; it has to be springtime in our soul. The sun, which
represents God, must cause its warmth to penetrate our souls
through its rays, and this beam of rays is Mary. And so our
soul grows and the flowers of the virtues bloom. It would
be a terrible thing if the life of divine grace were to die away
within us, that life which fills a person and inflames him with
love for his Creator and his Mother.7
7 S. Jurkowski, Notizen aus dem Leben des hl. Maximilian Kolbe.
I, an unworthy sinner
At that point, we recognize that we are not immaculate
as she is, but sinners. Especially since none of us could possibly
claim to have lived up to the present day without committing
a sin, but feels guilty of many infidelities. We also say
“unworthy” because, in truth, between an unsullied Being and
one disfigured by sin there is, in a certain way, an unfathomable
difference. Therefore, in all truth we recognize ourselves
unworthy to turn to her, to appeal to her, to fall at her feet
and entreat her not to let us become similar to proud Lucifer.
For that reason, we also say:
I cast myself at your feet, humbly imploring you to take me
with all that I am and have, wholly to yourself as your possession
and property.
With these words we pray, implore the Immaculate that
she deign to welcome us, and we give ourselves up to her completely
and in all respects as her children, her slaves of love,
her servants, her instruments, in every respect, under any
name that any person at any time could possibly still devise.
And all that as a possession and property at her full disposal,
that she may make use of us and exploit us until we are fully
consumed.
35
Explanation:
After profound contemplation of the Immaculata, her
privileges and her relationship with us, we are now in a position
to perform the important act of the will which defines
the essence of true devotion. I cannot devote myself to
someone I do not know and whose relations to me are not
clear. Hence the preceding meditations.
But now the onus is on me. I know how right and crucial
it is for my salvation that I should freely admit who
SHE is according to God's plan from the beginning of
time: my mistress, my mother, my queen. But we often
hear that 'I am not yet capable of such devotion. I am completely
unworthy, surely I cannot consecrate myself to someone
to whom I always cause grief and whom I offend so
often. May she therefore choose better soldiers to be in her
service than such a weakling and traitor as myself.
This is exactly the reason why St. Maximilian uses the
phrase 'I, N.N., an unworthy sinner!' The wonderful thing
about our Mother is precisely that SHE wishes to take
me into her service with the full knowledge of my infinite
weakness and my constant failings. She longs so much
for the salvation of her children that she makes do with
any instrument. After all, she can paint the most beautiful
works of art with a broom and build palaces with a dustpan,
i.e. the sanctuary of the soul washed in the blood of
36
Christ. So there are no more excuses: 'I, unworthy sinner!'
This also means that I should never forget that left to my
own devices I will only suffer failure and defeat, but being
united to the Immaculata's I makes a gale force 10 — a gale
that thoroughly shakes souls up in order to save them from
eternal hell fire.
Spiritual reading:
Chapter: Being a Knight, p. 61
**********
CHAPTER SIX
Being a Knight
WE HAVE SPOKEN about a battle and about the necessity for
it, who the enemies are and what this battle looks like. Let us take
another look at the combatants themselves, who should not be
hirelings, mercenaries, and not ordinary soldiers, either, but Knights
of the Immaculata. With this expression the founder suggests both the
external activity and also the interior attitude that he demands from
those who want to consecrate themselves entirely to the Immaculata.
The Knight is inspired by a high ideal. He is not content with half
measures, with penultimate things; he wants everything! The world
is too small for him.
The socialist’s field of vision does not extend further than
his coffin; it does not go beyond the purely material world.
Immured in matter, he sees his only happiness in a bestial
enjoyment of the world. But all that is too small for the man
whose thoughts struggle through the atmosphere, the stars
and the universe, whose understanding, which constantly
looks for causes, strains to reach the first cause and the final
end of all things. His heart, however, longing for happiness
62
and glory, senses and understands that the more it has
attained, the greater its longing becomes, and that nothing
limited, not even the greatest of all finite things, can satisfy it.
It longs for the good, for the infinite good.1
“Our heart is restless until it rests in Thee, O God!”
St. Augustine acknowledged after long years of seeking
happiness in vain apart from God. We sense all of this
through our own experience, that nothing finite is capable of
satisfying us. Only God can be our goal. We want to know,
love and possess him, to unite ourselves with Him, to become
divinized in Him.2
The Knight knows about the mission which he has received from
his Lord.
God has bestowed a particular mission on earth upon
every human being, and already as He was creating the
universe, He arranged the initial causes in such a way that
an uninterrupted chain of causes and effects created the
conditions and circumstances needed to fulfill the mission
of each person in an appropriate way. Every human being is
born with talents that are suited to the mission assigned to
him, and during his whole life situations and circumstances
combine in such a way as to make it possible and easy for
him to attain his goal. Now the perfection of the individual
human being consists precisely in reaching this goal. The
1 RN 4 (1923), p. 18.
2 Manuscript, The Immaculate Mother of God.
63
more faithfully he fulfills his mission, the more he accomplishes
his task, the higher he is in God’s eyes, the holier he is.3
Yet the Lord has ordained that we should come to know and love
the Immaculata and accept the mission of being her Knights. The
awareness of this task should not fade for an instant from the Knight’s
mind. This means that he will not lead a double life, but rather strive
always and everywhere to put into practice the ideal to which he has
consecrated himself and to fulfill the pledge that he has made to his
Lady and Queen.
The Knight is furthermore loyal; he imposes no conditions on his
Lady. He resolves to sacrifice even his last “yes, but…”.
This total and unconditional devotion, with no “ifs, ands
or buts”, is the prerequisite for the complete unfolding of the
life of grace. If even a small hindrance is present, the soul
will not soar, because she does not yet have the free wings
of a dove… God, however, wants to lift the soul higher
and higher. Therefore it is necessary for us to give the Lord
everything, so that the slightest objection does not remain
in us. Every reservation and every disordered inclination is
a barrier and is unworthy of a Knight.4
“Deus vult — God wills it!” This was the song and the battle-cry of the
medieval crusaders: “Have courage, crusaders, defend Christendom!
Though hell may assail us, fear not and attack. The Lord will be with
3 RN 1 (1922), p. 114.
4 Conference, February 2, 1941.
64
you, rely on Him, He Himself wills it so!” The Knight knows that he
is able to do nothing of himself.
There are two ways: one’s own strength or God’s strength.
Everything depends on which way we go. When the cause
is nothing (namely, relying on our own strength), then the
effect will be nothing, too. Will we rely on ourselves or on
God? Only when we do not depend on ourselves, are we able
and bound to attain the goal. This is the most basic principle,
which applies to the effectiveness of all our actions: Everything
with God, nothing without Him!5
Often one hears the objection: I am too weak, too unreliable.
“I would like to, but I cannot!” — Believe me, nothing more
is needed than willingness. That is the first step. “I will,” means
that I use all the means that are at my disposal! “I would like
to,” means that I am reluctant to use all the means, because
some of them are too costly for self-love. Such a soul still has
too much selfishness in it, self-love. In order to become holy,
one must will it. St. Augustine was a very bad man, but he
said to himself: “Those men and others were able to become
Saints, and therefore so can you, Augustine!” And he became
a saint, because he willed it. If someone tells himself that he
must become holy, then he will indeed. One day St. Benedict’s
sister, Scholastica, asked him what one must do in order to
become holy. He answered in a word: “Will it.”6
5 Conference, July 5, 1937.
6 Conference, May 2, 1937.
65
The Knight of the Immaculata is the one who also wants to become
holy!
Finally, the Knight distinguishes himself through perseverance,
which does not allow itself to be put off by the consequences of the
battle — and he will not be spared, either. Defeats, wounds, lying
prostrate in the dirt, all these things strengthen his conviction, that he
can do nothing without grace.
Dear children, we now have beautiful spring days; the sun
with its warm rays awakens everything to new life, the grass
sprouts from the earth, the flowers bloom in beautiful colors,
and all of this inspires a person. It should be just like this in
our life; it has to be springtime in our soul. The sun, which
represents God, must cause its warmth to penetrate our souls
through its rays, and this beam of rays is Mary. And so our
soul grows and the flowers of the virtues bloom. It would
be a terrible thing if the life of divine grace were to die away
within us, that life which fills a person and inflames him with
love for his Creator and his Mother.7
7 S. Jurkowski, Notizen aus dem Leben des hl. Maximilian Kolbe.