Pope's Intentions
Universal: Immigrants and refugees -- That immigrants and refugees may find welcome and respect in the countries to which they come.
Evangelization: Vocations -- That the personal encounter with Jesus may arouse in many young people the desire to offer their own lives in priesthood or consecrated life.
The memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Commentary of the day
Saint Maximilian Kolbe (1894-1941), Franciscan, martyr
Addresses of the 5/7/1936, 3 & 4/9/1937, 14/5/1936
“Behold your mother ” (Jn 19,27)
Let us strive to love our Lord Jesus with the heart of the Immaculate: to welcome him with her heart, praise him with her own dispositions, atone and give thanks. Even though we have no perception of it, yet this is the reality. It is through her heart, with her dispositions that we give praise to the Lord Jesus. And if in fact it is she who loves, she who glorifies Jesus through us, yet we are her instruments.
She alone teaches us how to love the Lord Jesus, incomparably better than any book or teacher. She teaches us to love him as she herself loves him. And all our striving must aim towards her loving our Lord Jesus with our hearts.
Only the soul possessed by the love of God puts aside all that hinders it. All is centred on God's love. Now which of us loves Jesus poor, crucified, in the crib, more than his Mother most holy! There is no one in the world, not even among the angels, who has loved - and loves - the Lord Jesus as intensely as the Mother of God... The Immaculate one is the flowering of divine love in our souls and the means by which we draw near to Jesus' heart.