Week 34 – Ashes to Ashes
75th Anniversary of the Martyrdom of St. Maximilian Kolbe
Week 34
Ashes to Ashes…….
Years ago Maximilian said, “I would like to be ground to dust for the Immaculate Virgin and have
this dust be blown away by the wind all over the world.”
Maximilian received his wish.
On August 15, the day after Maximilian died, his body was carried to the crematorium.
Along with the other prisoners who died with him, Maximilian’s body was cremated and the
ashes were spread across the farmlands and into the nearby ponds as were the ashes of
millions of other prisoners.
Every Ash Wednesday we are reminded that we are dust, and unto dust, we shall return.
For most people, this is simply a yearly ritual, but for Maximilian and millions of others in
Auschwitz it was a reality.
Long before Maximilian’s body was consumed by the fire of the crematorium, his heart and soul
was consumed by the fire of God’s love.
This is why Maximilian was so eager to step out of line and go into the starvation bunker and
eventually, have his body cremated.
His heart and soul had already been consumed by the fire of God’s Love.
All that was left was to offer his body.
If like St. Maximilian we allow our hearts and souls to be consumed by the love of God, then
when our bodies become ashes and dust, we will not care for our souls will soar!
Prayer: May the power of Your Love O Lord, firery and sweet as honey, draw my heart away
from all that is under heaven, so that I may die for love of Your Love, You Who were so good as
to die for love of my love. (The Absorbeat of St. Francis of Assisi)
Questions and Meditations :
1. What desires consume my body?
2. What desires consume my soul?
3. Where will I be 100 years from now?