When the odds aren’t in your favour…
Today is Feast Day of St. Maximilian Kolbe, one of my all-time favourite Saints, as well as one of the requested members of my welcoming party.
If you’ve never heard of St. Maximilian, he was a priest and martyr during World War II. I’d invite you to click on my link and read the short summary I wrote of his life several years ago.
St. Max was one of the first Saints I really investigated. I was kinda blown-away. I think you’ll find the story of his martyrdom, in particular, incredibly moving and Christ-like.
If that post piques your interest, I’d suggest you check out Fr. Robert Barron’s more extensive article which he recently posted over at his website, Word On Fire…
In addition to Maximilian Kolbe being one of my favorite saints as well (I’m a member of the Knights Under the Cross of the Militia Immaculata on account of my lifelong fibromyalgia), I’ll always have a special place in my heart for how his martyrdom was the inspiration that saved Dr. Viktor Frankl from total despair himself after the loss of his family in Auschwitz. That entire experience led the good doctor to rediscover God and write “Man’s Search For Meaning” (dedicated to Kolbe) upon his liberation and create the pro-spiritual field of Existential Therapy — the field of psychology which I’ve been using to terms with my depression over chronic pain (redemptive suffering only gets one so far when one is called to marriage and trying to bring himself to date).
I didn’t know that 🙂