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Friday, August 14, 2009

Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr

In the Roman Church, today commemorates the victory of Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish Franciscan imprisoned by the Nazis. Fr. Kolbe gave up his life so that another prisoner, a man with a wife and children, could live.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, another martyr of the Nazi yoke, wrote, "When Christ calls a man, he calls him to die."

This theme of the Christian life as necessarily involving self-sacrifice and asketic struggle has come up in several places lately. Here are three:

Second Terrace: "When History Passes You By"

OrthoCuban: "On Wounds Borne For Us"

Anselm's Godblog: "Sacrifice"

and, the struggle on the cosmic level, within the human heart:

Glory to God for all Things: "The Last Battle"

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