Ordinary Time: August 14th

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MASS READINGS

August 14, 2023 (Readings on USCCB website)

PROPERS [Show]

Mass Propers for the Memorial of St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe:

Entrance Antiphon, Mt 25:34, 40: Come, you blessed of my Father, says the Lord. Amen, I say to you: Whatever you did for one of the least of my brethren, you did it for me.

Communion Antiphon, Cf. Jn 15:13: Greater love has no one than to lay down his life for his friends, says the Lord.

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Mass Propers for the Vigil of the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary:

This Mass is used on the evening of August 14, either before or after First Vespers (Evening Prayer I) of the Solemnity.

Entrance Antiphon: Glorious things are spoken of you, O Mary, who today were exalted above the choirs of Angels into eternal triumph with Christ.

Alleluia Verse, Lk 11:28: Blessed are they who hear the word of God and observe it.

Preface: The Glory of Mary Assumed into Heaven: It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God, through Christ our Lord.

For today the Virgin Mother of God was assumed into heaven as the beginning and image of your Church’s coming to perfection and a sign of sure hope and comfort to your pilgrim people; rightly you would not allow her to see the corruption of the tomb since from her own body she marvelously brought forth your incarnate Son, the Author of all life.

And so, in company with the choirs of Angels, we praise you, and with joy we proclaim:

Communion Antiphon, Cf. Lk 11:27: Blessed is the womb of the Virgin Mary, which bore the Son of the eternal Father.

COLLECT PRAYER

Memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe: O God, who filled the Priest and Martyr Saint Maximilian Kolbe with a burning love for the Immaculate Virgin Mary and with zeal for souls and love of neighbor, graciously grant, through his intercession, that striving for your glory by eagerly serving others, we may be conformed, even until death, to your Son. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

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Recipes (1)

• Kielbasa Stew

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Activities (2)

• Inform Yourselves as Parents
• What is a Nameday?

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Prayers (2)

• The Immaculate Heart
• Novena Prayer to St. Maximilian Kolbe

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Library (8)

• God Helps and Accompanies Us in Our Difficulties | Pope Benedict XVI
• It Is God, not Grand Promises, Who Changes the World | Pope Benedict XVI
• Maximillian Kolbe, Apostle of Mary | Fr. John A. Hardon S.J.
• May the Living God Never Let This Happen Again | Pope Benedict XVI
• St Edith Stein and St Maximilian Mary Kolbe | Pope Benedict XVI
• St. Maximilian Kolbe and the Immaculate Conception | Dwight P. Campbell
• The Man Who Stepped Out of Line | Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer
• The Significance of Martyrdom | Pope Benedict XVI

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Blog & Podcasts (3)

• 120—Maximilian Kolbe in Japan—Kevin Doak
• Nothing Short of a Miracle: Three New Books
• Reading the Fine Print for the Liturgical Calendar (Part 1)

» Enjoy our Liturgical Seasons series of e-books!

The Memorial of St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe (1894-1941) is universally celebrated by the Church today. St. Maximilian was born in Zdunska Wola, Poland as Raymond Kolbe. He consecrated himself to the Lord in the Franciscan Order. Filled with love for the Virgin, he founded the Militia of the Immaculate Mary and, with his preaching and writing, undertook an intense apostolic mission in Europe and Asia. Imprisoned in Auschwitz during the Second World War, he offered himself in exchange for the father of a large family who was to be executed. He was given a lethal injection when he failed to die fast enough from starvation in the concentration camp and died on August 14, 1941. Pope St. John Paul II proclaimed him the "Patron Saint of Our Difficult Century."

The Vigil Mass for the Assumption is celebrated on the evening of August 14, either before or after First Vespers (Evening Prayer I) of the Solemnity.

St. Maximillian Kolbe
St. Maximilian, born Raymond Kolbe in Poland, Jan. 8, 1894. In 1910, he entered the Conventual Franciscan Order. He was sent to study in Rome where he was ordained a priest in 1918.

Father Maximilian returned to Poland in 1919 and began spreading his Militia of the Immaculata movement of Marian consecration (whose members are also called MIs), which he founded on October 16, 1917. In 1927, he established an evangelization center near Warsaw called Niepokalanow, the "City of the Immaculata." By 1939, the City had expanded from eighteen friars to an incredible 650, making it the largest Catholic religious house in the world.

To better "win the world for the Immaculata," the friars utilized the most modern printing and administrative techniques. This enabled them to publish countless catechetical and devotional tracts, a daily newspaper with a circulation of 230,000 and a monthly magazine with a circulation of over one million. Maximilian started a shortwave radio station and planned to build a motion picture studio—he was a true "apostle of the mass media." He established a City of the Immaculata in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1930, and envisioned missionary centers worldwide.

Maximilian was a ground-breaking theologian. His insights into the Immaculate Conception anticipated the Marian theology of the Second Vatican Council and further developed the Church's understanding of Mary as "Mediatrix" of all the graces of the Trinity, and as "Advocate" for God's people.

In 1941, the Nazis imprisoned Father Maximilian in the Auschwitz death camp. There he offered his life for another prisoner and was condemned to slow death in a starvation bunker. On August 14, 1941, his impatient captors ended his life with a fatal injection. Pope John Paul II canonized Maximilian as a "martyr of charity" in 1982. St. Maximilian Kolbe is considered a patron of journalists, families, prisoners, the pro-life movement and the chemically addicted.
—Militia of the Immaculata

Patronage: Drug addiction; drug addicts; families; imprisoned people; journalists; political prisoners; prisoners; pro-life movement.

Highlights and Things to Do:

• Read from the Catholic Culture library:
  • The Holy Spirit and Mary, an explanation of St. Maximillian's Marian theology
  • Maximillian Kolbe, Apostle of Mary by Fr. John Hardon
  • Pope Benedict XVI's General Audience on St. Maximilian and St. Edith Stein
• Learn more about St. Maximilian:
  • Catholic Ireland
  • CatholicSaints.info
  • Saints Stories for All Ages
  • CNA
  • Auschwitz
• Watch to the Catholic Culture podcast 120—Maximilian Kolbe in Japan—Kevin Doak interviewed by Thomas Mirus
• Try some food ideas from Catholic Cuisine.
• Offer a Mass, say a rosary for those who suffer in the world today from man's inhumanity. Pray for an end to abortion, our nation's own holocaust. Read about Auschwitz and ponder the modern gas chambers in every state of our Union and resolve to do all that you can to end the killing.