Ave Maria! FORGET NOT LOVE August 2012 A NEWSLETTER OF THE Sisters Minor of Mary Immaculate Conserve order and order will conserve you. St When the time was drawing near for Him to give up his Maximilian’s eighth Rule of Life is to Conserve order and order life for our redemption, Jesus, during the Last Supper, wanted will conserve you. It seems unimportant, but how much time do to give one more proof of His love and His profound humility. In we lose trying to find something we failed to put in the right accordance with a Jewish custom, the Lord Himself took a place? For example, we may return from a mission and be tired basin of water and washed his disciples’ feet, wiping them with and put the money and notes aside and not return to finish it for a towel which He had fastened round His waist. When He had several days. We then do not remember and we spend time finished, He sat down again at the table and said to them: “You trying to catch up. If we keep order, it allows many more things call me Teacher and Lord; you are right, for so I am. If I, then, to be done. It costs less to put things in order. We must make your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought an effort to conserve order. Rev. Fr. Elia M. Bruson, OFM Conv. 7/22/93 to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.” (JN 13, 13-15) Mary explains transformation into Jesus Contemplate The fundamental basis of our faith is humility; Christ teaches Jesus, preferably in the Gospels. Listen to His Word, observe this to us by his own example. “Calls” From the Message of Fatima, His action. But do not stop at the exterior. Penetrate into His Sister Lucia soul and discover behind His words and actions what He really thought and felt and willed. See, above all, how with Him each word, each action proceeds from love. Jesus is more than a teacher uttering words of wisdom. He is the God of love. You have not yet understood His teaching if you have not discovered its source: the infinite love of His Heart. Jesus Christ the Teacher: One of our Sisters prayed While contemplating Jesus and comparing your conduct with fervently asking that Jesus Christ the Teacher teach her first His, speak to Him. Speak to Him directly, without any set grade religious education class. On the day of class, a little girl, formula of prayer. Tell Him in all simplicity what you are Jennifer came into the classroom and said, “O Sister, I have a thinking, what you are feeling, and what you desire, just as you little bag of very special items that I would like to show to the speak about it to a brother or an intimate friend. class today. May I?” Sister said, “Let me see them, Jennifer.” Do not seek to multiply thoughts or reasoning’s. Just believe, Jennifer showed Sister an icon of Jesus Christ the Teacher, love and pray. Believe! If Jesus said such or such a thing, the various statues and holy items, and her special rosary, all matter is settled. You need not look for other proofs. He said it, neatly piled in a little brown bag. Then a little boy named therefore, it is true, infallibly true. Only believe! Richard came into the room and went over to Sister and said, Men about you may affirm the contrary, at least by their “Sister, I have something I would like to show the class today.” conduct. What does it matter? Jesus has said it; believe it! She answered, “What is it, Richard?” Richard put an identical Men will pass away, but the Truth of Our Lord will remain icon of Jesus Christ the Teacher into her hands. She said, forever. “You can go first Richard.” When class began, Richard showed Your feelings will incline you to side with men, or at least to each student personally his small pocket size icon of Jesus remain indifferent to the teachings of Jesus. What does it Christ the Teacher. Each child expressed great admiration. matter? The question is not one of feeling but of believing. Then Jennifer took her turn. She passed her icon of Jesus Jesus has said so! You must believe Him! Christ the Teacher around, then her various sacramentals. The Multiply your acts of faith. Multiply them in order to make last item that Jennifer pulled out of her little brown bag was the Divine Truth penetrate to the depths of your soul, and to bring holy rosary. She said to the children, “This is the favorite of all its practical consequences home to you clearly. my belongings, because my grandmother gave it to me. I hang Love! Love the Truth, because Jesus loved it; love it because it on the wall over my bed.” It was a blue plastic rosary. The it was only out of love that He taught it to men. Above all love children sat eye level with their little teacher and were Jesus and learn to love Him more and more. As you love Him expressing their delight and awe at all she was saying. It was more, you will imitate all the dispositions of His soul more as if they had never seen any item like it before. So the lesson perfectly, even without explicitly trying to do so. Unite yourself for the first graders from Jesus Christ the Teacher was a lesson to [His Mother] and you will believe with purer and firmer faith. for the teacher as well. Jesus Christ was the Teacher for the My Ideal Jesus Son of Mary Fr. Emil Neubert, S.M. pp 48-51 children through the children. “DO NOT LET YOUR HEARTS BE TROUBLED. YOU TRUST IN GOD, TRUST ALSO IN ME. IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE THERE ARE MANY PLACES TO LIVE IN; OTHERWISE I WOULD HAVE TOLD YOU. I AM GOING NOW TO PREPARE A PLACE FOR YOU, AND AFTER I HAVE GONE AND PREPARED YOU A PLACE, I SHALL RETURN TO TAKE YOU TO MYSELF, SO THAT YOU MAY BE WITH ME WHERE I AM. YOU KNOW THE WAY TO THE PLACE WHERE I AM GOING. THOMAS SAID, 'LORD, WE DO NOT KNOW WHERE YOU ARE GOING, SO HOW CAN WE KNOW THE WAY?' JESUS SAID: I AM THE WAY; THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE. NO ONE CAN COME TO THE FATHER BUT THROUGH ME. IF YOU KNOW ME, YOU WILL KNOW MY FATHER TOO. FROM THIS MOMENT YOU KNOW HIM AND HAVE SEEN HIM. PHILIP SAID, 'LORD, SHOW US THE FATHER AND THEN WE SHALL BE SATISFIED.' JESUS SAID TO HIM, 'HAVE I BEEN WITH YOU ALL THIS TIME, PHILIP, AND YOU STILL DO NOT KNOW ME? 'ANYONE WHO HAS SEEN ME HAS SEEN THE FATHER, SO HOW CAN YOU SAY, "SHOW US THE FATHER"? DO YOU NOT BELIEVE THAT I AM IN THE FATHER AND THE FATHER IS IN ME? WHAT I SAY TO YOU I DO NOT SPEAK OF MY OWN ACCORD: IT IS THE FATHER, LIVING IN ME, WHO IS DOING HIS WORKS. YOU MUST BELIEVE ME WHEN I SAY THAT I AM IN THE FATHER AND THE FATHER IS IN ME; OR AT LEAST BELIEVE IT ON THE EVIDENCE OF THESE WORKS. IN ALL TRUTH I TELL YOU, WHOEVER BELIEVES IN ME WILL PERFORM THE SAME WORKS AS I DO MYSELF, AND WILL PERFORM EVEN GREATER WORKS, BECAUSE I AM GOING TO THE FATHER. WHATEVER YOU ASK IN MY NAME I WILL DO, SO THAT THE FATHER MAY BE GLORIFIED IN THE SON. IF YOU ASK ME ANYTHING IN MY NAME, I WILL DO IT. IF YOU LOVE ME YOU WILL KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS.” John 14:1-15 The Mystery of the Two Crowns In Poland, more than a hundred years ago, Mary, the Mother of God, offered young, Raymond Kolbe two crowns which he accepted- one white, for a life of purity, and one red, for the gift of Martyrdom. Because of a dramatic change in his conduct, his mother suspected something unusual, and managed to get the story, reluctantly, from her son. Mrs. Kolbe revealed the story only after his death. How often our Blessed Mother has given her most important messages to children. Because we don’t take seriously what children say, she confirms her message with a miracle or unquestionable signs. At Lourdes, she verified the truth of St. Bernadette’s story with a miraculous spring of water. At Fatima, she proved her involvement by the incontestable miracle of the sun. The proof that St. Maximilian received two crowns in childhood was left to the Church who officially conferred on him the white and red crowns by his Beatification and Canonization. Father Maximilian Kolbe, a Conventual Franciscan, was beatified as a “Confessor of the Faith.” Pope Paul VI who celebrated the Beatification Mass wore the usual white vestments for a confessor. Eleven years later, Pope John Paul II at the request of the Polish and German Bishops, and attentive to the “voice of the people,” Pope Paul VI Beatification proclaimed Sr. Maximilian, a Martyr of Charity. He wore the red vestments for a martyr at the of St. Maximilian Kolbe Canonization Mass. (Never before has there been a change of category between the steps of Canonization.) More than ever, we need to ponder the significance of those two crowns for us.