Our Only Motive

“Love toward the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is the only motive that spurs us to bind as many as possible, as closely as possible, to Him through the Immaculata” (KW 1094).

Since the beginning of the journey of the MI, the young Fr. Maximilian emphasized that the love of God, of which the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is the symbol par excellence, is the ultimate goal of the life and activity of the new Marian association.

The fundamental dimension of the MI spirituality is indeed total consecration to the Immaculata, but Fr. Maximilian highlighted always that Mary is wholly relative to God, to Christ, and her maternal action is completely directed toward leading hearts to Jesus. Love for Him and the pursuit of His Kingdom, therefore, represent the drive and the ultimate purpose of every MI member’s commitment.

Fr. Kolbe constantly pondered and explained how devotion and consecration to Our Lady are the means for reaching the end of all: “As she is the most perfect instrument in the hand of God, in the hand of divine mercy, the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, so we are instruments in her hand. Thus through her we are the instruments of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, that is, of God’s mercy. Thus our watchword is ‘Through the Immaculata to the Heart of Jesus’” (cf. KW 339).

In order to expel every doubt he states: “Precisely because we have consecrated ourselves to the Immaculata without limits, with much greater courage, despite our wickedness, we come closer to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. In reality, therefore, we are fully, completely and exclusively consecrated to the Immaculata with all of our actions, and in her and through her, we are again fully, completely and exclusively consecrated to Jesus Christ” (KW 643). Therefore, he stresses the need to draw closer to Our Lady through total consecration: “To be more and more of the Immaculata, to belong to her more profoundly, and so let fly more and more the wings of love, especially toward the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the manifestations of His love” (KW 1284).

With similar expressions, St. Maximilian elucidates how authentic devotion to Mary leads to a deeper love for Jesus, in fact to love Him with the Immaculata’s Heart, while making us participate in her maternal mission: “Thus the divine life, the life of the Most Holy Trinity flows from the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, into our wretched hearts, but often also through other created hearts” (KW 503).

St. Maximilian introduces us to a marvelous stance: We are members of the Mystical Body of Christ and members one of another (Cf. Eph 4:25), called to be “neighbors” to one another (cf. Lk 10:25-37), to become instruments of good, channels of grace, of divine life for one another. Like Mary! This is the crucial mission of the MI: to sow Mary into all hearts so that she, the Mother, may lead them to the knowledge of her Son and kindle in them the fire of love toward His Sacred Heart. May this life-giving fire spread everywhere…!

Our Ideal

The rapid spread of the MI in Poland and in many other nations was a reason for Fr. Maximilian’s ongoing gratitude. His missionary zeal, however, moved him to dream of winning the whole world and each soul for God through Mary Immaculate.

In the June 24, 1936, issue of the Mały Dziennik newspaper, he published an article that would also appear in the Knight of the Immaculata magazine. It seems as if he felt the urgency to stop and ponder: “Why have we come all the way to the ‘country of the blooming cherry trees,’ and why do our aspirations embrace the entire globe? What are we aiming at? What is our ideal?… I shall sincerely affirm that it is not easy to understand our ideal and it is even more difficult to examine it in depth; or, rather, we can always delve deeper into it and know it in a way that is ever more explicit, but we shall not be able to get to the bottom of its sublime depth. For what reason? Because in this case it has to do with the Mother of God…. From the Divine Maternity flow all the graces bestowed upon the Most Holy Virgin Mary, and the first of these graces is the Immaculate Conception. This privilege must be particularly dear to her if, at Lourdes, this is how she herself wanted to be called: ‘I am the Immaculate Conception.’ We too desire to call her with this name which is so dear to the heart. The Immaculata: here is our ideal” (KW 1210).

Suddenly Maximilian seemed to tear the veil, so to speak, to allow his readers to understand the ideal at the heart of the MI life and mission: “To approach her, become like her, permit her to take possession of our heart and all our self, that she may live and act in and through us, that she may love God with our heart, that we may belong to her without any restriction: this is our ideal. To radiate in the surroundings, conquer souls for her in a way that, before her, the hearts of our neighbors may be opened so that she may extend her dominion in the hearts of all those who live in any corner of the earth, without regard for racial, national, linguistic differences, and similarly in the hearts of all those who will live in any moment of history till the end of the world: this is our ideal” (ibid.).

Fr. Maximilian did not hesitate to point to the high ideal: “Besides, may her life be ever more rooted in us from day to day, from one hour to another, from one moment to another, and this without any limitation: this is our ideal. Again, may her life develop in the same way in every soul that exists and will exist in any time: this is our cherished ideal” (ibid.).

Printed as a small poster, this article would be posted in the friars’ cells and workshops in Niepokalanów, as an invitation never to lose sight of the Ideal, to penetrate the heart of the Immaculata, the Mother of Jesus our Brother, the Mother of our supernatural life, so that each daily action, small or great, may be a continual letting oneself be led by the Holy Spirit to the ultimate goal: holiness, the high measure of Christian life whose luminous sign is Mary herself.

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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