Day 15: God Alone – With, In and through Mary – 33 Days to Total Consecration

Action:
1.
Resolve to pray a complete set of mysteries of the Rosary every day –
as an act of love to God and in fulfillment of Mary’s requests to us.

So, therefore, PRAY the Joyful mysteries of the Rosary today and every
day – see day 8 for instructions/ guidance on how to fit this into your day.
2.
Skim through the accompanying pictures and the extraordinary wisdom of
St. Louis and St. Maximilian Kolbe, and read through as much (below) as
possible. 

3. Continue to choose to enter more deeply into the daily prayer program (below) at least in this way: 

Ponder
and pray the Our Father today and the accompanying Scripture texts as
you meditate and pray the Joyful Mysteries  – while praying for the
grace to listen, to hear and respond to God as Mary does.
 Praying also the 5th Luminous Mystery: The Institution of the Eucharist as we pray for the grace to surrender whatever is keeping us from responding fully 
– in and through and with Mary’s love and help. 

Today we ponder the Eucharist – the Heartbeat of God – and the LOVE of God poured out for us in the Mass as we contemplate the 5th Luminous Mystery: The Institution of the Eucharist!
In this teaching I share a profound miracle I received. It was an awareness of God’s heart beating and becoming ONE with mine in Holy Communion. (I share this toward the end).
Imagine the Power and Love and Grace and Goodness and Strength and Healing of the HOLY TRINITY pouring into our hearts in Communion! Imagine!
That is the REALITY for each of us who receive Him in faith and love!
Each one of us is called and chosen to receive this DIVINE LOVE pouring and filling us so deeply and fully that we can become HIS love for others, as St. Maximilian Kolbe’s life so beautifully testifies.
It is a REALITY that is easier to receive when we go to HIM in and through the Heart of Mary, for it is then that she is able to live and love and act through us.
May we LIVE ONLY FOR THE EUCHARIST and may our hearts beat only and always for God as His heart beats for us!

See more about my experience of the Heartbeat of God here: https://priestlyconsecration.com/2016/09/the-heartbeat-of-god.html
Today’s readings (below) are beautiful and profound. Please take time to read through them and absorb them as well as this excerpt  regarding St. Teresa’s darkness from: 

Day 15 of 33 DAYS TO MORNING GLORY by Michael Gaitley:

“After a conversation with a holy priest, she realized that her painful longing was actually a share in the thirst of Jesus:
“For the first time in this 11 years — I have come to love the
darkness. — For I believe now that it is a part, a very, very small part
of Jesus’ darkness and pain on earth.” Teresa’s experience of
darkness and painful longing continued to the end of her life. She found
the strength to persevere because, as her spiritual director put it,
she realized that the darkness was actually a “mysterious link” that united her to the Heart of Jesus.

What about us? Do we yet realize the mysterious link between the
darkness we sometimes experience in our own lives and that of the
Lord’s suffering? Let us ponder Mother Teresa’s words on
suffering that come from her own experience and so, like her, become
better lovers of the Heart of Jesus:
“Suffering has to come because if you look at the cross, he has
got his head bending down — he wants to kiss you — and he has both hands
open wide — he wants to embrace you. He has his heart opened wide to
receive you. Then when you feel miserable inside, look at the cross and you will know what is happening. Suffering,
pain, sorrow, humiliation, feelings of loneliness, are nothing but the
kiss of Jesus, a sign that you have come so close that he can kiss you.
Do you understand, brothers, sisters, or whoever you may be? Suffering,
pain, humiliation — this is the kiss of Jesus. At times you come so
close to Jesus on the cross that he can kiss you. I once told this to a
lady who was suffering very much. She answered, “Tell Jesus not to kiss
me — to stop kissing me.” That suffering has to come that came in the
life of Our Lady, that came in the life of Jesus — it has to come in our
life also. Only never put on a long face. Suffering is a gift from God. It is between you and Jesus alone inside.” 

Daily Prayer Program for these 33 Days:

PART 2: Holiness Amid Evil: Day 7 in the Preparation for Total Consecration According to St. Maximilian Kolbe

St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe wrote about the saints and sanctity quite often. His first rule of life was  
“I must become a saint, and a great saint.” …
As we might expect, St. Maximilian tells us that to become holy is our duty to God. It is not an option…”
https://saintmaximiliankolbe.com/saints-and-sanctity-part-1/
In
an article he wrote in “The Knight of the Immaculata” in 1922, he
likened sainthood to secular success – noting that being successful,
whether in the world or for heaven, is similar in many ways. For both
secular genius and sanctity require:
extraordinary single-heartedness, 
undeterred
focus on achieving seemingly impossible goals regardless of the
obstacles or setbacks – even when opposed by both those closest to them
(those in whom one expects to be supportive) as well as enemies.
Both
saints and the great achievers are often seen as different from most
people, and they attract attention and/or disdain as they steadfastly
pursue their dream – never quitting despite many failures – until,
eventually, their success becomes a source of inspiration for those who
aspire to be like them.
However alike their outward characteristics are, their inner dispositions and motivations are very dissimilar: 
one is concerned about earthly greatness, while the other is concerned about heavenly glory; 
the
secular man often seeks this glory at the expense of what is most
important – such as love and family; while the saint incorporates Divine
Love into all that he thinks, says and does;
the worldly man achieves only momentary happiness or it’s counterfeit, while the saint 

“achieves
the greatest happiness possible in this life and perfect happiness in
the next. For the great man of the world, the Cross is a burden to be
dragged or thrown off in disgust. For the saint, the Cross is the easy
yoke and light burden of Sweet Jesus who desires to give us rest (cf. Mt
11:30). The beatitudes, that is, the blessings of God by which we
become happy, are summarized by the words: Blessed are they that suffer
persecution for justice’s sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Mt
5:10). St. Maximilian called this “suffering willed out of love.”
It is the destiny of the saint: perfect holiness and happiness. The
secular man, no matter how great, cannot understand this. For the saint,
no matter what life brings, good or ill, the opportunity to serve God
is always present.”https://saintmaximiliankolbe.com/saints-and-sanctity-part-1/

It
was this single-hearted devotion to the Will of God and the love of the
Immaculata that would be a source of life for Maximilian in the death
camp, never forgetting that he was engaged in a battle for souls:

“In 1924, St. Maximilian Kolbe wrote an article entitled “Our
Tactics” for his magazine. …His premise
was that even though in the spiritual life we are not engaged in a
conflict with flesh and blood, waging war with guns and ammunition, we
are still fighting a real war. Success in this conflict requires that we
have a battle plan.
The spiritual life is a battle because the eternal destiny of our
souls hangs in the balance. God wants us to go to heaven and the devil
wants us to go to hell. The battle is over our hearts, to which we alone
hold the key. Everything hangs on the choice that we make, and the
determination at the end of our lives is absolute, final and
irrevocable. We are either totally victorious or totally destroyed.
St. Maximilian’s simple formula for victory in this fight is prayer, mortification and charity. … Prayer, of
course, is more important than anything else because while, on the one
hand, the Holy Spirit tells us “without Me you can do nothing,” on the other, He says “all things are possible with God”
(Jn 15:5; Lk 1:37). Our destiny then, is wholly beyond our natural
strength, but nonetheless, God desires to empower us to attain what is
above and beyond us. That is the definition of supernatural:
“above and beyond nature.” So grace is the fuel for the engines of our
war. It is the life of our soul and can only be obtained through
recognition of our need and by an attitude of humility. Prayer gains
everything 
and nothing is gained without it.
Of course, St. Maximilian would remind us that the most effective
prayer is that which is offered through the hands of the Immaculate. She
is our conduit to heaven. She is our Advocate who brings our prayers to
heaven, and our Mediatrix who dispenses God’s grace to us. The second
requisite, mortification, is necessary because in order for us to live
forever, that is, in order for us to survive the battle and be crowned
victors, our old self must die. Our Lord says: “He who saves his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for my sake will find it”
(Mt 10:39, 16:25; Mk 8:35; Lk 9:24, 17:33; Jn 12:25). The paradox of
the Christian life is that in order to live we must die, like Christ. In
the end, we all pass through the veil of death into eternity, but while
we live, we must choose to die.
St. Bonaventure says: “‘My soul rather chooseth hanging and my bones death.’ He who chooses this death can see God because this is indubitably true: ‘Man shall not see me and live’ ” (Itinerarium Mentis in Deum,
7:6, quoting Job 7:15 and Ex 33:20). Thus, mortification is our daily,
even hourly choice to impose death on all that is offensive to God, and
even on that which is not convenient to our eternal salvation, such as
inordinately seeking the attention of others and talking too much.
In particular, St. Maximilian reminds us, contrary to the Protestant
understanding of justification, that our mortification, done in
cooperation with God’s grace, in fact wins for us an increase of grace.
Grace is always first, but we must cooperate and our cooperation is
efficacious.
Finally, charity, the third requisite in this battle plan, is a
necessary tactic because salvation and victory over our enemy is a
matter of God’s everlasting love for us. If it is true that we are only
saved by grace, and that God hears our prayers and gives us what we
need, then it is for us a lesson in the fundamental importance of
charity. It tells us that we, too, must have the generosity and
selflessness of Christ. In fact, we are all united in Him as members of
the same family and, ultimately, our victory is a triumph over that
isolation which is pride and selfishness. Satan desires to bring about
our destruction through the debilitating plague of inordinate self-love:
charity foils his plan.
Furthermore, grace has truly united us as members of the same family
and we can never be severed from the communion of Saints, except by sin.
“No man is saved alone,” as the saying goes. Either we are a cohesive
army, or we are a defeated army.
Prayer, mortification and charity: a simple strategy, but an
unbeatable one. Not even the Prince of this World can withstand it. In
union with Our Queen, and under Her banner, we are assured of victory if
only we follow Her instructions and commands. https://saintmaximiliankolbe.com/st-maximilians-tactics-for-total-victory/

These marks of Prayer, Mortification and Charity that imbued
Maximilian’s life in and through Mary, would carry him through the
terrible battle against evil that faced him in Auschwitz:  
“On
February 17, 1941, Father Maximilian was arrested by the Nazis for a
second time. Only hours before the Gestapo arrived, he completed his
final and most comprehensive, theological essay on the Virgin Mary’s
identity as one who is perfectly united to the Holy Spirit by a bond of
love. Soon after, in the concentration camp, Father Maximilian would
translate his theological and spiritual insights into practical words
and actions for his fellow inmates, by tangibly showing that there is
God, and therefore, love and hope exist even in the midst of horrific
genocide in the camps of Auschwitz.
Only a saint can stand firm, with
constancy and unwavering hope, throughout life’s many difficulties and
sufferings.  Only a saint can influence others to do the same, because
only a saint knows that true and perfect peace is found in God alone.
For the saint, trials don’t weaken, they fortify. Serenity and calmness
amidst atrocities are not a sign of defeat but of victory, for love is
greater than hatred!” https://saintmaximiliankolbe.com/biography/
“After
a brief internment in a notorious Polish prison, Kolbe was sent to
Auschwitz concentration camp and branded prisoner #16670”. While there,
he was sent to the work camp, which involved carrying blocks of heavy
stone used to build the crematorium wall. The work camp was overseen by a
brutal, vicious man: the ‘Bloody Krott’ who singled out Maximilian for
particularly cruel treatment. On one occasion Krott forced Maximilian to
“carry the heaviest planks until he collapsed; he then beat
Kolbe savagely, leaving him for dead in the mud. But fellow prisoners
secretly moved him to the camp prison, where he was able to recover.”
Prisoners reported that Kolbe faced appalling mistreatment with “calm
… deep faith and dignity”, as he “remained selfless and often shared
his
meager rations with others”. 
On June 15, he was able to send a letter to his mother.

“Dear
Mama, At the end of the month of May I was transferred to the camp of
Auschwitz. Everything is well in my regard. Be tranquil about me and
about my health, because the good God is everywhere and provides for
everything with love. It would be well that you do not write to me until
you will have received other news from me, because I do not know how
long I will stay here. Cordial greetings and kisses, affectionately.
Raymond.” https://www.biographyonline.net/spiritual/maximilian-kolbe.html

“In
the harshness of the slaughterhouse Father Kolbe maintained the
gentleness of Christ. At night he seldom would lie down to rest. He
moved from bunk to bunk, saying: ‘I am a Catholic priest. Can I do anything for you?’
A
prisoner later recalled how he and several others often crawled across
the floor at night to be near the bed of Father Kolbe, to make their
confessions and ask for consolation. Father Kolbe pleaded with his
fellow prisoners to forgive their persecutors and to overcome evil with
good. When he was beaten by the guards, he never cried out. Instead, he
prayed for his tormentors.
A Protestant doctor who treated the
patients in Block 12 later recalled how Father Kolbe waited until all
the others had been treated before asking for help. He constantly
sacrificed himself for the others.”http://www.auschwitz.dk/kolbe.htm


“In July 1941, three
prisoners appeared to have escaped from the camp; as a result, the
Deputy Commander of Auschwitz ordered 10 men to be chosen to be starved
to death in an underground bunker.
When one of the selected men
Franciszek Gajowniczek heard he was selected, he cried out “My wife! My
children!” At this point, Kolbe volunteered to take his place.
The Nazi commander replied, “What does this Polish pig want?”
Father
Kolbe pointed with his hand to the condemned Franciszek Gajowniczek and
repeated: “I am a Catholic priest from Poland; I would like to take his
place because he has a wife and children.”
Rather surprised, the commander accepted Kolbe in place of Gajowniczek. Gajowniczek later said:

“I
could only thank him with my eyes. I was stunned and could hardly grasp
what was going on. The immensity of it: I, the condemned, am to live
and someone else willingly and voluntarily offers his life for me – a
stranger. Is this some dream?
I was put back into my place without
having had time to say anything to Maximilian Kolbe. I was saved. And I
owe to him the fact that I could tell you all this. The news quickly
spread all round the camp. It was the first and the last time that such
an incident happened in the whole history of Auschwitz.” https://www.biographyonline.net/spiritual/maximilian-kolbe.html

“A
personal testimony about the way Maximilian Kolbe met death is given by
Bruno Borgowiec, one of the few Poles who were assigned to render
service to the starvation bunker. He told it to his parish priest before
he died in 1947:

‘The
ten condemned to death went through terrible days. From the underground
cell in which they were shut up there continually arose the echo of
prayers and canticles. The man in-charge of emptying the buckets of
urine found them always empty. Thirst drove the prisoners to drink the
contents. Since they had grown very weak, prayers were now only
whispered. At every inspection, when almost all the others were now
lying on the floor, Father Kolbe was seen kneeling or standing in the
centre as he looked cheerfully in the face of the SS men.
Father
Kolbe never asked for anything and did not complain, rather he
encouraged the others, saying that the fugitive might be found and then
they would all be freed. One of the SS guards remarked: this priest is
really a great man. We have never seen anyone like him ..
Two weeks
passed in this way. Meanwhile one after another they died, until only
Father Kolbe was left. This the authorities felt was too long. The cell
was needed for new victims. So one day they brought in the head of the
sick-quarters, a German named Bock, who gave Father Kolbe an injection
of carbolic acid in the vein of his left arm. Father Kolbe, with a
prayer on his lips, himself gave his arm to the executioner. Unable to
watch this I left under the pretext of work to be done. Immediately
after the SS men had left I returned to the cell, where I found Father
Kolbe leaning in a sitting position against the back wall with his eyes
open and his head drooping sideways. His face was calm and radiant ..’ http://www.auschwitz.dk/kolbe.htm

Father
Maximilian Kolbe was executed on 14 August, 1941 at 12:30. He was
forty-seven years old. His body was disposed of in the crematorium,”like
hundreds of thousands who had gone before him, and hundreds of
thousands more who would follow.
The heroism of Father Kolbe went
echoing through Auschwitz. In that desert of hatred he had sown love. A
survivor Jozef Stemler later recalled: 
‘In
the midst of a brutalization of thought, feeling and words such as had
never before been known, man indeed became a ravening wolf in his
relations with other men. And into this state of affairs came the heroic
self-sacrifice of Father Kolbe.’ Another survivor Jerzy Bielecki declared that Father Kolbe’s death was ‘a shock filled with hope, bringing new life and strength … It was like a powerful shaft of light in the darkness of the camp.’” http://www.auschwitz.dk/kolbe.htm

Cell here Kolbe was executed

“The cell where Father Kolbe died is now a shrine. 
Maximilian Kolbe was beatified as Confessor by Paul VI in 1970, and canonized as Martyr by Pope John Paul II in 1981″ http://www.auschwitz.dk/kolbe.htm, saying: “Maximilian did not die but gave his life … for his brother.” 

Franciszek Gajowniczek

“Franciszek Gajowniczek would miraculously survive Auschwitz, and would later be present at Kolbe’s canonisation in 1971.
“He
died on March 13, 1995, at Brzeg in Poland, 95 years old – and 53 years
after Kolbe had saved him. But he was never to forget the ragged monk.
After his release from Auschwitz, Gajowniczek made his way back to his
hometown, with the dream of seeing his family again. He found his wife
but his two sons had been killed during the war.
Every year on
August 14 he went back to Auschwitz. He spent the next five decades
paying homage to Father Kolbe, honoring the man who died on his
behalf.” 
http://www.auschwitz.dk/kolbe.htm
 
From the Writings of St. Maximilian Kolbe (KW 1065)
“Let all also embrace their brothers with charitable hearts, enduring suffering and difficulties for God’s sake. Let them do good to everyone, including their enemies, only for the love of God and not in order to be praised or thanked by men. Then they shall realize what it means to have a foretaste of heaven and find peace and happiness even in poverty, in suffering, in disgrace, in sickness. Such foretaste of paradise is also a sure harbinger of eternal bliss.
Indeed, it is not easy to exert self-control in the manner described above to achieve this happiness, but remember that those who ask it of the Immaculata with humility and perseverance will certainly achieve it, because she is unable to deny us anything, nor is the Lord God able to deny her anything. Anyway, we shall shortly know exactly what it will be like in heaven. Surely in a hundred years none of us will still be walking on this earth. But what are a hundred years in the face of what we have been through?… And who will have to wait as many more years?… Soon, therefore, provided we are well prepared, under the protection of the Immaculata.”
Reading
and rereading about the greatness of St. Maximilian’s holiness amid
such evil and darkness is the best way to prepare today… 
May we do so, asking:
St.
Maximilian, be with us and help us to pray, to sacrifice ourselves and
to choose to always love in this great battle for our souls and the
souls of all God’s children – even in the midst of evil and darkness.
Intercede for us to become great saints in and through Mary, our great advocate, as we pray today the mysteries of the rosary and wear the miraculous medal in preparation for our Total Consecration, praying:

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.

PART 3: Day 15 Readings and Prayers for St. Louis de Montfort’s 33 Day of Consecration to Jesus through Mary – An Online Guide