Laying Down One's Life

It is no surprise that when Fr. Maximilian Kolbe heard that 10 prisoners were to be executed because one had tried to escape from Auschwitz, that he offered to take the place of a young husband and father, for all his life his strong devotion to Mary had prepared him for the ultimate self-sacrifice. He had encouraged devotion to Mary by founding a Marian Movement known as The Immaculata Movement even before he was ordained, and then spread the Movement through a magazine he also founded, The Knight of the Immaculata. He founded monasteries in Japan and India for communities of men seeking to base their lives on Mary's. Her FIAT was his guiding light, and as she gave of herself that Jesus might be born and complete his mission, so did Fr. Kolbe. He died on July 21, 1941 of starvation, thirst and neglect, the last of the 10. The young man survived the next four years and was liberated in 1945. He was present at the canonization of St. Maximilian in 1982. This saint serves as a 20th century model of devotion to Mary and to the ultimate end that such devotion can lead. In our everyday life,there are moments when we are given the opportunity to "lay down our life", our wills, our plans, our time for another. May St. Maximilian help us to respond as generously as he did. Bro. Rene