Identified with Mary’s charity

The third attitude of Mary, the Virgin Mother, that Maximilian was able to translate into his life is love-charity: love that becomes self-gift, that becomes hands, feet, arms, eyes placed at the service of others with the simplicity and genuineness of a mother. This evangelical love was first of all addressed to his confreres, in the reality of everyday life. It was a love that involved listening, acceptance, involvement, participation, appreciation of the other. An example: in a letter dated 1936 (written after his return to Poland from the Japanese mission) Maximilian, guardian of the city-friary of Niepokalanów, tells us that in his daily program he has reserved the morning for listening to the confreres who need to consult with him, and then the afternoon (and often the night) to go visit each person in his workplace. Even during the periods of increased activity, he found time to pay particular attention to the sick and those who were experiencing suffering.

However, toward those who caused him grief and difficulties of various kinds he tried to have concrete attitudes of understanding, patience and forgiveness. His gracious efforts extended literally to every person he met, without distinction (believers and non-believers, Jews, Buddhists, fellow detainees or Nazi guards...). Any situation or circumstance was always providential in his eyes: on the train or in the sanatorium, during missionary travels in his country or abroad, in a customs office where he was waiting for the paperwork processing or through the newspaper’s pages, in the confessional, or in the middle of the camp barracks.

Finally, the most difficult step of this interior assimilation of the missionary manner of Mary, the Virgin presenting offerings, was the willingness to offer day by day his life for others, for God, the willingness to experience suffering out of love. Daily contemplation of the active participation of Mary in the Mystery of the Cross made him ready to embrace suffering and pain (physical, spiritual and emotional) as a valuable and effective means for collaborating with Christ in the salvation of the world.

“Let us remember that love lives and is nourished by sacrifices. ... When love to her, to the goodness of God in her, to the love of the Divine Heart which is personified in her, when that love has seized us and penetrated us, then sacrifices will become a necessity for the soul. “Love of the Immaculata consists not only in an act of consecration, even if it is recited with great fervor, but in suffering many hardships and working for her unceasingly. Yet everything if, when, how and to the extent she herself wants.”

Closing Prayer

Hail Mary… 

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you, and for all those who do not have recourse to you, especially the enemies of Holy Church and all those recommended to you.

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