LETTER OF FATHER DIRECTOR N13
Dear Knights of the Immaculata,
Allow me to send you this MI - letter No 13,
approved by Our General Superior who wishes its wide
circulation. Therefore please forward this letter to your
friends and acquaintances.
Please note the new email address of the MI
headquarters: info@militia-immaculatae.org
Please have also a look into the new site of the MI
library: https://militia-immaculatae. org/english/
Yours in the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary
Fr. Karl Stehlin
Father
Director’s letter No 13
VOCATIONS
THROUGH THE IMMACULATA
Dear
Knights of the Immaculata!
We belong
to the Immaculata, we want to do her will, to do everything
possible so that
her desires can be fulfilled. But what are Our Heavenly Mother's
deepest
desires? To give as much glory as possible to her Son (St.
Maximilian Kolbe
said: "ad maximam Dei gloriam - for the greatest glory of God"),
to
save as many souls as possible from the fire of hell and to lead
them to heaven
(see his urgent appeals in Lourdes, La Salette, Fatima etc.).
However,
there is only one way to give the maximum glory to God, it is
through the very
sacrifice of Our Lord on the Cross, renewed every day on the
altar. Here only
through Christ, with Christ and in Christ is given to the Most
Holy Trinity all
honour and glory. Likewise, there is only one possibility of
redeeming souls
and giving them back the life of God, it is through the Blood of
Our Lord which
flows into souls through the channels of the sacraments, to
deliver them from
the prison of original sin, to cleanse them from all filth, to
purify them and
heal them of their spiritual leprosy, to fill them with light
and all the
divine treasures.
According
to the will of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who alone is able to
accomplish on earth
the work of redemption, to continue to give God all glory and to
shed the Blood
of Christ into souls? The priest. Consequently, what most
preoccupies the
Immaculate Heart of the Virgin, so eager for the salvation of
her poor lost
children, is the priesthood. Our Queen's deepest desire is
to give to her Son
continuers of His work of salvation, so that through these
instruments,
intimately united with her Son through the priestly character,
the flame of His
Sacred Heart may burn everywhere on earth: the Way, the Truth
and the Life.
We know
well that every Christian is already called by the sacrament of
Confirmation
and the commandment of love for the neighbour to help Our Lord
for the
salvation of souls and the extension of His Kingdom on earth.
And we also know
that this can only be done if we submit ourselves to Our Lady as
an instrument
in her immaculate hands so that she - Mediatrix of all graces -
can pour into
souls graces of conversion and sanctification. And since she
usually can only
give her graces to souls with the help of her instruments, she
desires so much
to have as many as possible.
However,
Saint Maximilian said that the difference between a good lay
Catholic and a
priest is the same as between heaven and earth. For if the laity
can be an
instrument of actual graces, especially graces that prepare and
dispose souls
to the Truth and Life, it is only the priest who can give and
restore to souls
the sanctifying grace, the Life of God, the eternal Light, the
Christ himself.
How great,
then, must be the desire of the Blessed Virgin that everywhere
these dispensers
of divine graces, Christ’s instruments "par excellence", may
multiply.
For it is through them above all that she can fulfill her
mission to give Jesus
to the world, to sanctify souls and to transform them into
other Christs. Without
them, those souls for whom she prayed so much and suffered so
much and
sacrificed her Son, those souls, her beloved children, would
risk being
eternally separated from their Mother, eternally damned.
This is why
she wants to perform her office of Mediatrix of all graces,
especially among
generous souls, in whom she raises up the vocation, calls them
to a higher life
with graces of light and strength to overcome hesitations and
obstacles, also numberless
graces of direct preparation to the priesthood, until the
blessed moment when she
can present the ordinand to her Son who, through the hands of
the Bishop,
really makes him another Himself. Truly, "If the Virgin, Mother
of God,
loves all souls with an ardent love, she has a predilection for
priests who are
the living image of Jesus Christ" (Pius XI).
The essence
of the Knight of the Immaculate is to make every effort to help
her to convert
and sanctify souls. All conversion and sanctification passes
through the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass and the sacraments that only the priest
can give. What,
then, will be the noblest help that we, her instruments, can
bring to Our
Queen? To be her instruments to awaken and then preserve
vocations!
In Fatima she
explains why so many souls go to hell: because they have no one
to pray and
sacrifice for them, because Our Lady finds no one through the
prayers and
sacrifices of whom she can give the graces of conversion.
Analogically we can
ask ourselves: Why are there so few priests
and religious, and even fewer holy
priests and religious? Because the Immaculata finds no one
through the prayers
and sacrifices of whom she can awaken and then preserve
vocations!
This is why
Saint Maximilian repeatedly insisted that the Knights pray a lot
for priestly
and religious vocations, explaining that through these
consecrated souls the
Blessed Virgin can pour countless graces over the whole world.
Let us
therefore make our own the urgent call upon our Mother that
Saint Grignion so
wonderfully expressed in his “ardent prayer”, to beg the Holy
Trinity, so that
she may give to the world in danger, true and numerous "Apostles
of Jesus
and Mary". I think that one cannot give more delight to the
Immaculata
than to do everything possible for vocations! It is moreover the
express will
of our Superior General, the supreme authority of the MI of
traditional
observance, that all the Knights strive to pray with fervour and
constancy to
obtain good and holy priestly and religious vocations through
the Immaculate.
For the
year 2019 the resolution was proposed to live our consecration
to the
Immaculate, thus to be more fervent and more constant
instruments in her
service. Today we are learning that we cannot be a better
instrument in her
hands than to help her to bear and shape other Christs on earth,
good and holy
priests. It should be a real prayerstorm accompanied by
sacrifices that each Knight
should give to his Queen as a token of gratitude for so many
graces received -
and did we not receive all these graces precisely through the
priest?
Of course,
we cannot force you
to do this,
because apart from the daily ejaculatory prayer you are not obliged to do anything. But please
hear through this
letter, the Immaculate herself who invites you
(always speaking to us through the way of superiors as Saint
Maximilian so
often repeated) to do great things for her, even the greatest!
So we
propose to all the Knights to repeat throughout this year at
least three times
a day the invocations: "Lord, grant us priests! Lord, grant us
holy
priests! Lord, grant us many holy priests! Lord, grant us many
holy religious
vocations! BY MARY!"
To the
Knights who wish to do more for her, we propose to recite a
decade of the
rosary or even a whole rosary for these intentions, and this
throughout the
year. We can also offer to our Queen the months of May and
October in a special
capacity, with the prayers and sacrifices we will make in her
honour,
especially for this intention.
And since
we are in Lent, why not add to our Lenten resolutions this great
resolution by
which certainly the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary will
be deeply
touched and consoled! This is how we prepare more effectively
for her triumph
and the achievement of Our Lord's eternal victory.
Wishing you
a Blessed and Holy time of Lent
And blessing
you with all my heart
Fr. Karl
Stehlin
Bajerze, 13
March 2019
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