Mary under her most beautiful title and in her most glorious prerogative: Mother of God. This title and prerogative were solemnly proclaimed by the Council of Ephesus, to oppose the Nestorian heresy. Today the Church congratulates Mary for this supreme dignity, which raises her above all other creatures, even to the threshold of infinity, and makes her Queen, not only of men, but also of angels.
The Church teaches us to invoke Mary as Mediatrix of all graces. This title summarizes what the Blessed Virgin is for us, in our relations with her beloved Son: the Mediatrix of grace, of mercy, the treasurer of all the graces which Jesus merited for us.
As Mediatrix, Mary also leads men to Jesus by teaching them the way to her Son and by showing them how to please Him. We are always poor little children incapable of making presentable gifts to God, but Mary our Mother, with maternal delicacy, arranges and embellishes our gifts, our acts, our prayers and sacrifices, and offers them with her own hands to her divine Son.
Mary stands at the wellspring of grace. Jesus Christ, God’s gift to man, the source of our life, is Mary’s gift also. Over and over in the incidents of the Gospel we are made to understand this law of love of the spiritual life: that Jesus gives Himself through Mary.
In each issue of Knight of the Immaculata we desire simply to show that Our Lady give birth and life to Jesus within us; that it is she who gives us the spirit of Jesus; who makes us know Him in His mysteries and in His sacrifices, and who impels us to imitate Him. Through her we fulfil our Christian vocation: we receive the “adoption of children of God through Jesus Christ” (Eph. 1:5).
With her powerful intercession before her Lord and Spouse, Mother Church seeks to help all those who are still in Purgatory, so that they may soon reach the fellowship of the blessed. A day of the Church’s loving care for the dead. It is a compassionate and active love.
The Church knows that she can help the Poor Souls in Purgatory through her intercession, especially through the sacrifice of the Holy Mass. On the 1st of November the Church allows every priest to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice three times, so that the flood of graces may flow down from the altars in the fullest possible measure and so that as many souls as possible may enter Heaven today. On the 2nd of November, the Church gives the faithful the power to grant an unlimited number of plenary indulgences to the souls in Purgatory.
Those who wear the Scapular have a special right to Our Lady’s assistance in life, at the moment of death and after death.
The Scapular by reason of its history, which has made it for so long a universal means of intimate Marian devotion, is also a marvellous instrument of the Blessed Virgin’s singular protection, and for this reason too it is a distinctive reminder of consecration to her.
Moreover, the Scapular which, worn continually, is a figure of the sweet and light yoke of Christ, and is as a shield in all dangers, especially on the day of death. By recalling constantly the remembrance of Mary, the Scapular nourishes our sense of belonging to her; it makes us realize that our close alliance with her keeps us always under her protection.
Pope Pius XII set the 31st of May as the feast of the Kingdom of Mary. The Holy Father combined the proclamation of the feast of the Kingdom of Mary with the Coronation of the Miraculous painting. Placing the crown on the head of Christ, the Pope prayed: “As with our hands we crown you on earth, so deign to crown us with honour and glory in Heaven”. Crowning Mary’s head with a diadem of twelve stars he said: “As we crown you with our hands, so may we be crowned in Heaven with honour and glory by Jesus, your Son”.
We offer a new issue of the “Knight of the Immaculata”.
Time passes and does not return. God has assigned to each of us a definite time in which to fulfil His divine plan for our souls; we have only this time and shall have no more. Time ill spent is lost forever. Our life is made up of this uninterrupted, continual flow of time, which never returns. In eternity, on the contrary, time will be no more; we shall be established forever in the degree of love which we have reached now, in time.
This issue of Knight of the Immaculata reaches you, dear Knights, in October, the month of the Rosary. In this year, October is special, because we celebrate the 450th Anniversary of one of the famous victories of the Rosary: the Lepanto battle. Please read very carefully the text in this issue of Knight — pages 9–18.
You will learn the power of the Rosary. Father Maximilian and many other saints have written about how great a weapon it is. Many of us have become convinced of the power of the Rosary.
We warmly encourage you to pray the Rosary every day. If you cannot pray the whole Rosary or the five decades, please pray at least one decade, but with faith in Mary’s help and with great fervour, praising her glory. This is very important!
In times of war (and we are in a terrible specific war) it is very difficult to love our neighbours, especially our enemies. However, it is the new commandment of Our Lord, the greatest after the love of God, and if we do not fulfil it, we cannot go to Heaven.
Exactly 80 years ago Father Maximilian Kolbe offered his life for a co-prisoner condemned to death in the hunger bunker of Auschwitz. We want to recall this unique event in this present issue of the “Knight”. The heroic example of our holy founder motivates us to walk in his footsteps and learn from him true love.
The fruits of Knights, who truly love, become more and more visible, and we want also to bring to your attention some of the miracles of conversion Our Lady works in our days with our little army, the Militia Immaculatae of Traditional Observance.
Read carefully – and you will know how to react to the aggressive attitude of all kinds of enemies (Free-masons, communists, charismatics, modernists, LGBT etc.).
Eighty years ago, on the 14th of August 1941, Fr. Maximilian Kolbe was executed. He was murdered in the hunger bunker in Auschwitz, where he had been incarcerated, most probably at the end of July, with 9 other condemned men. He died as a victim of love for two reasons: the first is well known — he asked to replace a fellow prisoner who was the father of a family, and offered himself to suffer and die for him. The second reason — he didn’t want the other prisoners to die miserably and in despair risking, after a bitter death on earth, to be condemned to eternal death in hell: he wanted to share their sufferings and bring them the consolations of Our Lord and Our Lady.
We are all aware, that extraordinary times have arrived. The aim of the current undertakings in the world is to destroy the Church and Christian civilization in order to build on their ruins a New World Order without God and His Law. But this is neither new nor extraordinary, because from the very beginning this was always the ambition of the devil.
Saint Maximilian equally reflected often about such exceptional times. Already since 1938 he foresaw the upcoming Second World War, and he wanted to prepare the Knights for such times of heavy trials.
In these troubled times we should never forget that we are entirely in the hands of Divine Providence. In this newest issue of the “Knight of the Immaculata” we want to introduce you to the rather unknown title of “Our Lady of Divine Providence”. She teaches us to live in the spiritual embrace of the loving Providence of the Most Holy Trinity, especially in such dangerous times.
This issue shows you also that Our Lady doesn’t “sleep” in spite of the many restrictions and lockdowns: She never allows anybody to be “locked down”!
Pray the Rosary every day, especially in this blessed month of the Most Holy Rosary!
This new issue of the Knight of the Immaculata as the expression of my deep conviction that when times get worse, the greater will be the consolation coming from the immense love of Our Heavenly Mother who never abandons her children.
The M.I. is nothing but so to say the ‘extension’ of her presence amongst the poor children of Eve.
More than ever before all her Knights are requested to allow HER to shine forth when darkness grows. In these times the distribution of the Miraculous Medal or flyers about HER are much more efficacious than in any other times.
More than ever before we can help HER to save many souls.
This year we celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the M.I. Traditional Observance. In Warsaw on the first Saturday of May 2000 (May 6th), Fr. Karl Stehlin enrolled the first 50 Knights into the Militia Immaculatæ, renewed according to the principles of St. Maximilian. The first Knights received the “dyplomik” (little diploma), a copy of the one written and signed by St. Maximilian himself.
Wherever the Knights of the Immaculata pray the Rosary regularly, and invite others to pray it, Our Lady blesses them abundantly. For example, consider a chapel with 20 faithful having Holy Mass only once a month. After entering the M.I. they prayed the Rosary together, distributed Rosaries and the flyers, because the people didn’t know anymore how to pray it. After 5 months they are already 60 strong and full of zeal to win many souls for the Immaculata. Before, they never even thought about the importance of doing something to save souls. You see, thanks to the Rosary, the love of God and our neighbour increases — and from indifferent lukewarm Catholics they change into fervent soldiers of Our Lady’s army.
