Week 12 Martyrdom of Disunity
75th Anniversary of the Martyrdom of St. Maximilian Kolbe
Week 12. October 30 – November 6
Martyrdom of Disunity
Surprisingly not every friar agreed with St. Maximilian and his ideal of Total and Absolute Consecration to the Immaculata. Even having a Saint and an example such as Maximilian did not always bring about unity and harmony.
In the friary in Nagasaki there were friars who were respectable and pious but who failed to take the ideal of Niepekalanow to heart and did not show the slightest desire to be infused with it. Others wanted to return to Poland and still others wanted to leave religious life altogether.
Total Consecration of one’s whole “life, death and eternity’ is not easy and many did not understand it while others did not live it fully, while still others put their hand to the plow and looked back! All this in the very presence of St. Maximilian himself!
For a man of such Total Consecration and Self Sacrifice, this disunity and lack of common ideal and vision was a difficult cross for Maximilian to carry. But it did not discourage him nor deter him from living his Consecration Totally.
Following in his footsteps is not easy.
This is why renewing one’s consecration daily is so important. There are so many temptations that try and distract one and draw one away from living one’s Consecration TOTALLY!
Prayer :
O Immaculata, I consecrate my whole life death and eternity to you with every second, every moment and every breath of my life. Not what I want but may I only want you want today and forever.
Meditations and Questions :
1. How does another’s failure to live out their consecration Totally affect me?
2. How does my failure to live out my consecration Totally affect others?
3. What divides us as members of the MI?
4. What unites us as members of the MI?
5. How can I be an instrument of unity in the MI?
6. How do I handle division and disunity?