On the eve of the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, we have the feast of our founder who served Our Lady devoutly and with ardour his whole life.  We find in his writings and his life, a testimony to that devotion. 

St Maximilian was so consumed by his passion to lead all people to the Sacred Heart through the Immaculate, that he was in fact granted this at the end of his life.  He was so consumed by this love that in fact, we have no relicts of this great saint.  His body was destroyed in the ovens of Auschwitz-Birkenau.  It is a testimony to his love for the Immaculate and the Sacred Heart that even his body was destroyed and nothing was to remain of him in the world.  He said, “Make yourself disappear”, and so to we can and should so that all that remains is the love of God shining through us and in us.

His life has been a great influenced on those of his day, his Order, and ordinary Catholics today, realize that the life to come, eternal life is so very important.  Our life here is but a preparation for that life in eternity and so should be spent,should be consumed as his was, with evangelizing those around us: “to gain the whole world for her, so that the reign of sin will cease” (St Maximilian Kolbe). 

We need to be like St Maximilian and spend our days on this earth reaching out to the fallen world around us in all the apostolates possible to increase the Kingdom of God.  It is all the more urgent to prepare others through their consecration to Our Lady.  If we offer every day to her, every action and suffering through her hands, we can increase the kingdom and save souls; “to lead all men and every individual through Mary to the most Sacred Heart of Jesus” (St Maxmilian Kolbe:Motto of the MI).

We should use the feast day of our founder as an opportunity to bring ever more people into the fold and pray at this Mass for conversions, including our own.  The sacrifice of the Mass is central to our prayer as Catholics, and was indeed the foundation of the life of St Maximilian Kolbe. 

We must become more and more the instruments needed by Our Lady “without any limits” (St Maximilian Kolbe) and in this way become part of the work of the salvation of the world.  Our prayer on this feast day should be as our daily prayer states: to renew our consecration to Our Lady and to be of use to the coming of the Kingdom; and to pray for the conversion of the world and especially the enemies of the Church.