Laying Down One's Life For Others

When he was a young boy (10 or 12), Maximilian Kolbe was blessed with a vision from Mary who offered him two crowns, a white one for purity, and a red one for martyrdom; he accepted both, He became a Franciscan and worked hard to spread devotion to Mary in Poland and as a missionary in Japan.  Because of ill health, he returned to Poland, wrote and spoke extensively against Nazism, for which he was arrested and sent to Auschwitz.  There he offered to replace a young husband and father who had been selected for the starvation chamber.  Maximilian outlived the others in the bunker, and was finally put to death by lethal injection.  The man he saved was present at his canonization.
St. Maximilian stands as an example of one who not only accepted to be a "martyr of charity" but of one, who accepted, as did Mary, a life of total service to God and the well-being of others, without counting the cost to himself. When we feel "blah" or have grown lukewarm in our prayer or Mass attendance, let St Maximilian come to mind to give us incentive and perspective. Because of his great love of God and Mary, he found the motivation and power to do the extraordinary.  He invites us to do the same.
Bro. Rene