Category Archives: Virtue

Recommendation: “From Addiction to Catholicism with Deacon Lou Aaron” on Bear Woznick’s Spirit of Adventure

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This upcoming Monday I will be interviewed by Bear Woznick of Bear’s School of Manliness at Spirit of Adventure Ministries. I’ve listened to his radio show on my local Catholic radio station, but have never viewed the video version. To get into the spirit, I’m spending this weekend catching up and this one from a month or so ago caught my attention:

“From Addiction to Catholicism with Deacon Lou Aaron”

In this heartfelt episode, we sit down with Deacon Lou to explore his personal journey of faith, addiction, and God’s healing power. Raised in the Catholic Church, Deacon Lou shares his struggle with alcoholism, his path to sobriety, and the life-changing moment when he surrendered to God. Through raw and honest storytelling, he opens up about how his faith was rekindled, the power of prayer, and his miraculous recovery from cancer.

Join us as Deacon Lou talks about his call to the diaconate, his deep dive into the writings of the Early Church Fathers, and how his illness became an unexpected blessing, opening doors to new ministry opportunities. His story is a testament to the grace of God and the transformative power of faith. Don’t miss this powerful testimony of hope, healing, and redemption.

It’s really interesting. Deacon Lou is another Sober Catholic (in the sense that he’s a Catholic who’s sober, as far as I know he’s not a reader of this blog) who didn’t need AA. You will have to watch the show to learn more. IT IS REALLY WORTH YOUR TIME!!!!. 

My interview with Bear is about my new book “The Sober Catholic Way.”

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

What I’ve done with my Marian Consecration

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Twenty-two years ago today I made myself the property and posession of the Blessed Virgin Mary when I consecrated myself to her accordng to the method and formula of St. Maximilian Kolbe and so became a member of the Militia of the Immaculata.

This has meant different things to me over the years. For the first decade or so, it was merely a pious devotional act. “I belong to Mary! Yay!” And nothing beyond that. At times, it didn’t mean much of anything and was something on the periphery of my devotional life. 

However, within the past decade it has taken on a more substantive meaning. It had partly to do with the centennial anniversary of the MI in 2017. I became more interested in what it actually meant to be an MI and consecrated to Mary. The sudden availablity of Mary’s Knight,an epic biography of St. Maximilian that I long had my eye on, but had been out of print, helped with that. It is a very comprehensive biography with incredibly detailed information, presented in narrative (it reads like a novel) form. Toss in the Complete Writings of St. Maximilian Kolbe and I was on fire.

This lead to me also consecrate this blog to Mary.

In more recent times my consecration has lead me to try and implement the teachings and life of St. Maximilian Kolbe in my blog and writing as well as to figure out how to work out my consecration in a practical, concrete form. I had written a few posts on ‘Marching Orders from Mary’ which, after a fashion, became fleshed out as a book, ‘Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics.’

BuildingaCivilizationofLoveCover81224-4.1 copy.

(This is the second version of the book, the earlier version “The Catholicpunk Manifesto,” is now unpublished and pulled from circulation; “Building…” is a revised and retitled edition. The Catholic Punk material is still present, but I’ve added several chapters on Our Lady of Guadalupe, Lourdes and Fatima. Why? Read on…)

I really thought that at this time in my life I should have something to show for it. “It” being my life. Or, more precisely, “it” is more like “proof” that Marian Consecration has made a significant impact and difference in my life. I wanted to show some sign that that Marian Consecration impacted my thinking and that I have something important and useful to suggest and share with others. 

Marian Consecration via St. Maximilan’s method contains and outward evangelican dimension. That’s the fundamental difference between it and DeMontfort’s. With St. Maximilian’s, you become a tool of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a “pen” or “paintbrush” in her hands. You take your consecration and do something with it to change the world. And in writing that book, “Bulding a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics,” I had thought to provide some inspiration and motivation to other Catholic creatives. The book is NOT a ‘how to write,’ or ‘how to do a podcast,’ or anything else like that. It is directed at people who are creatives, have done something about it, but may need encouragement and inspiration to ‘get them through’ tough times when they might doubt their efficacy or purpose. It is also directed at people who aren’t ‘working creatives’ but who have the dream of writing or filming and so forth, but like established creatives, might need a ‘manifesto’ to help them ‘get going.’ (Not to mention page after page at the end of “creative prompts” derived from litanies to St. Max Kolbe. The prompts aren’t just for writers…)

One reason why I unpublished the original version is that it was  made known to me that calling it “Catholicpunk Manifesto” may be offputting. But that also inspired me in another way: I had gotten some ideas on expanding it. Hence, the first half is now on Our Lady of Guadalupe, Lourdes and Fatima. Why? Because in studying their messages and lessons I detected some themes that serve as blueprints for a ‘new world order’ (oh, my!) but based upon Catholic social and moral teachings. Mary, in those apparitions, has the answer to today’s slide towards cultural and social moral decadence and decline, plus the antidote to the negative and demeaning identity politics that are rampant today. I used those chapters to exhort Catholic creatives and creative “wannabes” to apply the lessons the Blessed Mother taught us in Mexico, France and Portugal. 

Again, the book is not a how-to on writing, filming or painting. It assumes you know your craft and how to perfect it. What it hopes to accomplish is to inspire you to more effectively connect your Catholic faith to your creativity and change the world.

For information on how to order, visit: ‘Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics” or visit my Amazon Author Page. Direct link to Amazon: Kindle version and paperback version.

Thank you!

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Miraculous 54 Day Rosary Novena to save my parish from closure

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ATTENTION: THIS IS REALLY LONG BUT IT WOULD MEAN A LOT TO ME IF YOU’D READ THE WHOLE POST. I’M NOT ASKING FOR MONEY, JUST ATTENTION FOR SOMETHING PLEEEEEAAASSSE?????

This upcoming Saturday the 22nd of June my wife and I (and numerous others) will be starting a Miraculous 54 Day Rosary Novena to save our parish from closure.

We live in the Diocese of Buffalo and about six dozen parishes are recommended for closure due to the aging priesthood and an insufficient number of men coming into the priesthood. There is also an additional factor: the diocese had to declare bankruptcy to protect its assets from the numerous lawsuits stemming from the sex abuse scandal. The past 2, perhaps 3, Bishops of Buffalo failed to adequately protect young boys and girls from sexual predators in the priesthood. And so now these parishes will also be sold to pay the victims who sued the diocese.

I hope the fires of Hell burn a lot hotter for those unrepentant Catholic priests who couldn’t keep their hands off of boys and girls. Please note that I am NOT wishing Hell on anyone, this is why I said “unrepentant.” Unrepented and unconfessed mortal sins earn the guilty eternal hellfire. God’s mercy will indeed cover those priests who were sincere in repenting and confessing their sins, which I believe to be mortal. Perhaps a few could claim mitigating factors such as mental health problems or addictions, but given the deliberate nature of their actions and their duration, plus the lack of accountability by the Bishops, I think only a small few can be excused in that manner. 

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraph1857:

For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: “Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.”

I find it difficult to believe that priests guilty of sexual crimes against others, especially children, are not covered by all three. 

So anyway, a  hundred thousand or so Catholics in the Diocese of Buffalo will be losing their parishes because vocations were rarely nurtured and priests who were sexual predators. 

Now we come to my parish, St. Bernadette’s. “St. Bernies” is strong, vibrant and growing. Almost every month the bulletin lists dozens and dozens of new parishioners. There are active ministries. There is Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration. The collection pulls in in excess of $20,000 every week. It is not in debt and pays all its bills. Every weekend over 1,000 people attend the three Masses (1 Saturday Vigil and 2 Sunday morning.) This is not common amongst parishes diocese-wide. There is no reason to close it. It is 2 miles from one other parish and about 5 from another, but those are in good condition, too, and hardly need the addition of our parish’s members. Besides, if St. Bernadette’s were to close it would add thousands of people to those two churches and there would still need to be three priests to serve those two, so the point in closing St. Bernadette’s is lost: there wouldn’t be a saving in priestly postings.

Our priest did mention that the diocese might be in error, that the data attributed to our parish might actually belong to a failing parish, but who knows? My brilliant wife is looking over some publicly available data in the Diocesan Directory and she’s found additional numbers that cast serious doubt on the sanity of the decision to recommend closure.

Note that the diocese is only recommending these parishes for closure; the affected parishes can offer a counterproposal to the plan. If accepted, they’re saved, if rejected, they’re not. Our priest and parish staff will be working overtime to work out a counterproposal.

(Incidentally, we love our priest. He looks like Jesus, plus in every homily he fondly mentions his Mom and Rome (or Italy. I’ve never heard so much stuff about Rome in homilies. He puts the ROMAN in Roman Catholic.))

So I thought of (or the Blessed Mother put it in my brain, or perhaps St. Bernadette) saying a Miraculous 54 Day Rosary Novena. I wrote the following and our priest approved it for distribution in the church:

ATTENTION ALL PARISHIONERS

OF ST. BERNADETTE’S:

PLEASE JOIN IN A

“Miraculous 54-Day Rosary Novena to Save St. Bernadette’s.”

***June 22-August 14***

 

We all love St. Bernadette’s and will be distraught over her closing, should that happen. To help prevent this, we are calling upon the powers of Heaven and Our Lady to help keep our parish open, if that be God’s will. Let’s all join together in reciting a Miraculous 54 Day Rosary Novena! We can pray as individuals in ‘spiritual communion’ with each other, or together in groups in the church, our homes or over Zoom/Google Meet, etc.

The Miraculous 54-Day Rosary Novena originated in the late 19th century in Naples, Italy, when a young girl suffering from an illness thought to be incurable prayed to Our Lady for help. Mary appeared to her and promised her healing if she prayed three novenas. The girl did so, and was miraculously healed. In a later apparition, Mary specified that the full prayer should have 3 novenas in petition, and 3 novenas in thanksgiving.

OUR NOVENA TO SAVE OUR PARISH WILL BEGIN ON SATURDAY JUNE 22nd SO AS TO END ON AUGUST 14th, the day before they begin to announce the final decisions on closings. August 14th is important because it’s the feast day of St. Maximilian Kolbe, WHO HAD A GREAT DEVOTION TO ST. BERNADETTE AND OUR LADY OF LOURDES!!!

How to pray the Novena:

The novena consists of five decades of the Rosary (one set of mysteries) each day for twenty-seven consecutive days in petition; then immediately five decades each day for an additional twenty-seven consecutive days in thanksgiving, regardless of whether or not the request has been granted yet.

The first day of the novena always begins with the Joyful Mysteries (regardless of what day of the week the novena is started); the second day, the Sorrowful Mysteries are prayed; and the third day of the novena, the Glorious Mysteries are prayed. The fourth day of the novena starts all over with the Joyful, etc. and continues on in that sequence (Joyful-Sorrowful-Glorious) throughout the 54 days of the novena. The Luminous Mysteries aren’t included only because they did not exist when Our Lady taught this novena to the girl.

There are special additional prayers to begin and conclude it during all the days of petition and thanksgiving, as well as at the end of each decade. Here are two links with the instructions and prayers:

The Miraculous 54 Day Rosary Novena and How to Pray the 54 Day Rosary Novena (NOTE TO MY READERS: on the sheet, the URLs were spelled out. Obviously a link wouldn’t work and I didn’t know how to convert one to a QR code (the instructions are on my phone somewhere but I lacked the time to figure it out. Hence the next sentence:)

OR JUST DO A WEB SEARCH FOR “HOW TO PRAY THE 54 DAY ROSARY NOVENA” it’s essentially the same at any source
.

BACK TO MY READERS: My wife and I already know of several of our online friends who say they’ll join us in saying this Novena, which is awesome as they’ve never even been to western New York much less our parish!

WILL YOU JOIN IN, ALSO? I get  A LOT OF BLOG INSPIRATION while at my Holy Hours in the parish’s Perpetual Adoration Chapel, so you’ll kind of be helping Sober Catholic!

Yes, I know the Diocese of Buffalo isn’t alone in this. There are quite a lot of other diocese in the same position. So, if you refrain from helping out because of that, I’d understand. But still, I’d really appreciate it if you’d rise above rejecting help just because you’re not in this Diocese. I don’t think it would be inappropriate at all for you to add an additional, personal intention to the “Save Paulcoholic’s St. Bernadette Parish” petition! So there could be something in it for you! OH!!!!! If you want, you can email me or post in the comments the personal intentions that you might add; I’ll copy and paste them onto a doc and keep them on my phone and pray about them in front of the Blessed Sacrament at St. Bernie’s Adoration Chapel and before or after Mass.

Thanks!

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

On the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

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Today is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Church rightly teaches that Mary was conceived without the stain of Original Sin, based upon the anticipated merits of the passion, death, and resurrection of her Son, Jesus Christ.

In 1854, Pope Pius XI proclaimed in Ineffabilis Deus the following:

We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.

This makes sense on many different levels.

  • God exists outside of time and is not restricted by the chronological sequence of events that occur within time. 
  • The Holy Spirit could not have ‘overshadowed’ Mary to form Jesus in her womb if she was in the state of Original Sin. Mary’s union with the Holy Spirit is a spousal union. “What God had joined, let none rend asunder.” This is an important point that helped me finally understand more solidly the whole ‘Immaculate Conception’ thing. Her spousal union with the Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s ‘overshadowing’ Mary required her to be sinless. Not just preserved from Original Sin, but also the stain it leaves behind (concupiscence.). Sin blocks grace from the soul; mortal sin is deadly and separates us from God, while venial sin distances us from God. Mary’s spousal union with the Spirit would have been ruptured if she was capable of sinning. Remember: “What God had joined, let none rend asunder.”  If she was in any state of sin, the Holy Spirit could not have joined with her in the first place. 
  • Therefore, how can the Holy Spirit’s spousal union with Mary be maintained at all if she had concupiscence? It couldn’t. Therefore, Mary could not have Original Sin, and by not being subjected to it or having its stain on her soul, she was incapable of committing venial and mortal sins. This is where all other humans differ from Mary. Although by Baptism we’ve had Original Sin removed, its stain remains, and by this concupiscence, we sin. With Mary, since the stain was removed concupiscence was never a part of her being. But while Christians have received the Holy Spirit in Baptism, our union with the Spirit is not to the same degree as Mary’s. Ours is not a spousal union; sin can rupture it. Hence we need the Sacraments to repair the rupture.
  • Since she bore Him in her womb for nine months, she could not even commit venial and mortal sins during this period as this would place Jesus under the domain of Satan, since a fetus is physically a part of the mother. (While not culpable for the mother’s sins, nor capable of sinning itself, a fetus would still be affected by them.) Her sinless behavior obviously would have continued after Jesus’ birth. This is the basis for the teachings of Sts. Lous de Montfort and Maximilian Kolbe when they wrote that Mary’s will was always in conformity with God’s will. Kolbe especially emphasized this. 
  • So, the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception has the effect also of rendering the rubrics of administering the sacraments more meaningful, given the role of the Holy Spirit in everything. The Spirit joined with Mary because she was without sin. We are baptized and Original Sin is removed and then the Holy Spirit enters our soul and later we can receive the remaining sacraments. 
  • Some critics point out that St. Paul said somewhere in his letters that “all have sinned.” Well, this cannot possibly mean ‘all’ as in ‘everyone;’ for would this ‘all’ include Jesus? I think Paul meant  ‘all born of women’ in the normal manner of birthing. If someone is still going to make the point that ‘all’ inherit Original Sin, and then Mary would still need redeeming, then we go back to the original declaration of the dogma of her immaculate conception that she was redeemed by the anticipated merits of Jesus Christ and so was prevented from having the stain of Original Sin in the first place. (please refer to the first bullet for any chronological objections.

    I brought up this point in an older post:

  • “…wouldn’t God, Who knew from all Eternity His plan of Salvation, and decided that His Son would be born of a woman rather than Incarnate as a mighty king and lord fully grown, wouldn’t He have taken great pains to decide upon the formation of she who would bear His Son? If YOU had the opportunity to design your own mother, wouldn’t YOU insist that she the among the most beautiful, intelligent, and talented of all? One of the Ten Commandments holds that we should “Honor our Father and Mother,” well, wouldn’t God also follow that? Even one was to declare that He is not subject to His own Commandments and laws, why wouldn’t He follow that one at least, to provide an example?” An addendum to this point is that if YOU could make your own mother, and could also make her perfectly pure and holy, wouldn’t you?

    In an even older post I said:

  • “…One could argue then that why couldn’t Jesus have been conceived immaculately? He could have, but the difficulty in that would be that He still would be in Mary’s womb, and what would be the barrier between Him and Original Sin? His own sacrifice on the cross, decades later? He is divine and sinless, so His own death was not for Himself, He died for humanity. So Mary, by sharing her body and blood with Jesus in her womb, would benefit from the eventual sacrifice of Jesus. Mary is the physical barrier between Jesus and her ancestral line, caught in Original Sin like the rest of humanity. The physical barrier protecting Mary from her mother’s state of Original Sin was Jesus, operating from the fullness of time, as God dwells in Eternity.”

So, there it is! See how it all connects? Remove Original Sin and the free operation of the Holy Spirit can begin in souls. With Mary, it required her to be preserved from all sin so the Holy Spirit could join her in an eternal spousal union so that Jesus could be formed in her womb (and later so that Mary could participate in the distribution of graces from the Holy Spirit; but that’s a whole ’nother topic.) With us, it required us to be Baptized so the Holy Spirit could join us in a sacramental union so that we could be formed into the Mystical Body of Christ (and receive the graces from which the Holy Spirit is the source. Whoops, ’nother topic!) 

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

The Immaculate Heart and the Little Way

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For this Immaculate Heart Saturday, I’d like to post a thought-piece that’s like a companion to yesterday’s post. This time on the relationship between the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Little Way of St. Therese of Lisieux.

The Immaculate Heart of Mary is the purity of Mary’s love for her children (and we are her chidren; we became so when we were baptised and joined her Son’s Mystical Body) and our refuge from the travails of this valley of tears. Her Immaculate Heart is also the center of Christian contemplative prayer as we read in this passage from Luke 2:19, But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart.

The Devotion to the Immaculate Heart is centered around the Five First Saturdays. These are intended to make reparation for offenses against the Immacuate Heart. (See this post for details.)

As I noted yesterday:

“the Little Way of St. Therese is the act of doing little things with great love. Her Little Way is described as the ‘easy’ path to Heaven. We needn’t worry about doing mighty deeds or being great evangelists and so forth. If we just focus on doing our daily tasks but doing them with love, that may go a great way toward sanctifying ourselves and others. How? By doing ‘little things’ with great love, be it sweeping the floor, picking up something a person dropped, or whatever, we conquer our pride and self-love. These are the great sources of sin.”

We can apply the Little Way to our Immaculate Heart Devotion. In adddition to the Five First Saturdays, we can dedicate specifis ‘little actions’ or ‘tasks’ to repair the offenses of others against Our Lady. Yes, this similar to the Sacred Heart reparations, but  I’ve posted a dozen times on the ‘Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary,’ so actions towards one is like an action for the other.

So, working out the Little Way can augment the Immaculate Heart practices. Like I said yesterday,

“It’s like a devotional ‘two-for,’ two sanctifying or reparative practices in one!”

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

October 13th: the Alliance of the Two Hearts of Jesus and Mary! Part 12

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Today is October 13th, the day we recall the “Miracle of the Sun” event at Fatima in 1917. This was intended to be a warning. Our Lady said at Fatima, ‘War is punishment for sin.” World War I was raging at the time and among her warnings was that a worse war would take place if her warnings went unheeded. They were and it did. What were her warnings? One was that the Pope and all the bishops in union with him would consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart. Although consecrations did take place, they were either too late or improperly done. The consecration request finally was done properly in 1984 with Pope (now Saint) John Paul II. There were other warnings, such as the increasingly offensive fashion styles (conservative and almost modest by today’s standards) and about sexual sin being the chief cause of why souls go to Hell.

Those are also being ignored. You wonder how much longer Heaven will tolerate being ignored. 

As we’ve already seen with several of these “Alliance of the Two Hearts of Jesus and Mary” posts, the Immaculate Heart of Mary is intimately united with the Sacred Heart of Jesus. On this Sacred Heart Friday, I would like to remind readers of this duality and how it can be used to at the personal level, increase your spiritual growth, and at a larger level, help combat evil in the world.

The personal level: recall the Fatima Message of prayer, penance, and especially reparation for sins. Now, combine that with the Sacred Heart devotion which essentially calls for the same thing. We return God’s love for us with prayer and acts of sacrifice in reparation for our and others’ sins. This increases the flow of grace into our souls, helps us beat back the attacks of the Devil and its minions, and sensitizes us to the sufferings of others (a natural side effect of concern for others sinning and the Hellish consequences of that.) We begin to become more aware of the humanity of other people; even those who do us harm. We see them as sick and broken. The wounded harm others when their wounds are not dressed.

The larger level: essentially an extension of the first. We become the change we wish to see in others and in reforming our own lives we can serve as examples for others. They want what we have. There is also the transformation at the spiritual level: our acts of prayer and repentance in some manner affect change in others. It calls grace down from Heaven and Mary distributes it to whom she wills.

So, I suppose one benefit of these “Alliance of the Two Hearts of Jesus and Mary” posts is the reminder to remember the Message of Fatima and the need to live it.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

St. Maximilian Kolbe. August 14, 1941

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St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe was executed in the Nazi German concentration camp at Auschwitz eighty-twoyears ago today for being a Catholic priest.

He was a Conventual Franciscan friar and Guardian (leader, administrator) of Niepokalanow, then the world’s largest friary and a major Catholic media center. It is located some distance west of Warsaw, Poland.

He was canonized a saint by the Church in October 1982.

In late July 1941 a prisoner escaped and as was Nazi policy, ten men from that cell block were randomly selected to be sentenced to a starvation bunker until the escapee was found (dead or alive.) In reality, the ten condemned wouldn’t be released at all, regardless of the escapee’s status.

Death by starvation and dehydration is a very slow and very painful way to die. The ten were stripped naked and placed in a cell that measured three meters by three meters (that’s about 9 feet on a side.)

One of the ten was a Polish Army sergeant by the name of Franciszek Gajowniczek, who, upon being selected, wailed that he was a husband and father and bemoaned the fate of his family. Upon hearing this, Fr. Kolbe stepped out of line, went forward to the commander and offered to take the sergeant’s place.

The Nazi officer was duly astounded. Perhaps taken aback and confused by this act of selfless sacrifice, he accepted Kolbe’s offer and the Gajowniczek was excused. He survived the war.

Over the course of the next few weeks, the ten died, one-by-one. Every day an attendant would go into the cell to retrieve the dead.

Prison guards and camp survivors reported that while there would typically be sounds or rage and anger, of wailing and crying and begging, during the two weeks that Fr. Kolbe was imprisoned in the cell with the others, the sounds were quite different. Hymns were sung. Rosaries said. It was as if Fr. Kolbe had turned the bunker into a chapel. On August 14th, seeing that he was still alive, the Nazis got impatient that he wasn’t dying fast enough and had him injected with carbolic acid.

When he volunteered to take the sergeant’s place, the Nazi asked Fr. Kolbe who he was. His answer?

“I am a Catholic priest.” This was his identity, it was who he was. He died for being a priest; he died being a priest, ministering to his fellow condemned

. Week48IAmACatholicPriest

(Image via MI Canada)

Being a priest was enough to have him targeted by the Nazis; however there was more to him than that. For nearly twenty years he published “Knight of the Immaculata,” a monthly magazine dedicated to being the voice of the Militia of the Immaculata movement he founded in 1917 (more on that, later.) This publishing venture, begun in 1922, gradually expanded over the 1920s and ‘30s to include other periodicals and a daily newspaper. Circulation was amongst the largest in pre-WW2 Poland (and significant amongst global circulations, too.) Fr. Kolbe had already launched a shortwave radio station, although it was limited at first to just being on the Amateur bands. He also had plans for a TV station. Expansion of the radio station to non-amateur broadcasting and the TV enterprise were halted by the Nazi and Soviet invasion of September 1939. Fr. Kolbe also had plans for a motion picture studio.

He was “New Evangelization” before anyone else thought of it. If you wish to get the gist of what he did and also what he planned, what Mother Angelica did in Alabama 50 years later is essentially that.

Here are some links:

Militia of the Immaculata in the USA The global Militia “Niepokalanow” another official Niepokalanow site

NOTE: This is reposted from earlier, older versions.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

St. Maximilian Kolbe and: the Alliance of the Two Hearts of Jesus and Mary! Part 8

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On this Sacred Heart Friday, I remind you that the feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe is coming up this Monday. He is an ideal patron for those of us who are growing in their devotion to the Immaculate and Sacred Hearts of Mary and Jesus. His method of consecration is deeply rooted in the Two Hearts, for he wishes us to lead others through the Heart of Mary to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. By purifying ourselves in the love of Mary by adopting her virtues, we can be more effective in being ‘Christ-bearers’ to others. 

Since becoming a devotee of St. Maximilian over twenty years ago, I, like countless others have felt it most appropriate that he died of the Vigil of the Assumption. That glorious day when the Mother of God was assumed into Heaven and took up her role as Queen of Heaven and Earth is a day which should inspire us to yearn for our true home. We are but transients on the Earth; our destiny lies in Heaven. St. Maximilian’s work was done. He ran the race, kept the Faith and lived it most sincerely. He was ‘another Christ’ to the other inmates at Auschwitz. And not just in his capacity as a Catholic priest, but as one human ministering to others in a place akin to Hell. And then he was called home, welcomed as a good and faithful servant of Our Lord (and Lady.)

While we may not ever be sentenced to a death camp (but not entirely out of the question,) we should take to heart his response to being subjected to such an evil. 

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Introducing Immaculate Heart Saturdays!

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In this post I announced that I’ll be starting a new series of posts, these to be called “Immaculate Heart Saturdays.” Just like their related series, Sacred Heart Fridays, these will focus on Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. There will be a lot on the Five First Saturday Devotions (reminder, today is a First Saturday!) and other things related to the theology and devotional life of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

I figured that I’ve managed to successfully not miss a single Friday for the Sacred Heart Friday posts, perhaps I can ‘kick it up a notch’ and begin this.

Given that this is a blog primarily dedicated to addiction recovery, the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary can play a crucial role in helping keep yourself clean and sober. Particularly for those addicted to lust and porn. I found this older post on that: Immaculate Heart of Mary and Purity.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

33 day Consecration to Mary can begin this Friday!

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You can tell I’ve been reading St. Louis de Montfort.

I discovered that the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary still exists, and still is managed by the Dominicans just like back in the days of St. Dominic and Bl. Alan de la Roche! (Should I have known that?) This association was mentioned quite often in a book by St. Louis de Monfort I read this past week. (I’ll tell you which one at the end. Which “ones” actually.)

Because of this I may start another 33 day Montfortian consecration thingy this Friday April 28th. It’s de Montfort’s feast day. It’ll end just in time for May 31st which is the Feast of the Visitation on the new calendar 1970 calendar; it’s the Feast of the Queenship of Mary on the old 1962 calendar.

My wife and I already did it once before, leading up to our wedding day. We may do it again, together, as a renewal. 

Gabi of the GabiAfterHours YouTube Channel is also doing it beginning this Friday (just found that out.)

You can look into his effort here: Gabi After Hours Community posting on 33 day consecration to Mary.

I bring Gabi up because he’s uploaded several very important videos over the past few months or so.  He posted this one quite recently on several books that are must reads:

This one: 

…and this one:

…started me on saying the entire Rosary daily. Gabi got the idea from one of the de Montfort books he recommends in the first video above. Those are the one’s that I’ve read this week (numbers 1 and 2 on Gabi’s list.) “The Secret of Mary” and “The Secret of the Rosary.” They’re wonderful, inspiring reads. De Montfort writes in a style similar to that of St. Alphonse Liguori. (His “The Glories of Mary” is number 4 on Gabi’s list.)

This is a new one:

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)