August 14, 2026 // Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr

Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: Ezekiel 16:1-15, 60, 63

Reflect on the Word // 

My friend’s words that day were like a vanguard ushering in grace and goodness into the arid and frightened parts of my heart. Although I felt relief during our brief conversation as I listened to  the truth he was offering, it wasn’t until I brought it to prayer that I could truly see how I had been liberated from a lie. As I considered the great gift of freedom, I thought of the harrowing stories of the Saints of Poland, and how Saint Maximillian Kolbe is perhaps one of the clearest testimonies to the power of freedom in Christ. 

Saint Maximilian famously chose both the crown of heroic purity and the crown of martyrdom that our Lady offered him as a young boy (source), and he perseveringly received them throughout his life. Meditating on the First Reading, I contemplated how his many trials and misunderstandings in beginning his missions paled in comparison to his final trials at Auschwitz. My heart felt that steadying yet overwhelming joy only the Lord gives when He speaks to our deepest places: "Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you when you were a girl, and I will set up an everlasting covenant with you,  [. . .] when I pardon you for all you have done, says the Lord GOD" (Ezekiel 16:60, 63). 

I was moved to the prayer of Saint Faustina, another Polish Saint: "Today all mankind calls out from the abyss of its misery to Your mercy— to Your compassion, O God" (Diary, 1570). Saint Maximilian felt his own misery, knew the crushing weight of sinful humanity's misery, and stood steady amid some of the most horrific trials ever inflicted by man. In my own small trial, the Lord helped me to emerge victorious as He reestablished the authority of His love to conquer death and the enemy's lies.

We are each held in that same mercy—the mercy that frees us, restores us, and brings us to covenanted love in Him. Whatever weight we carry today, He is ready to set to work reestablishing. This is our joy: He came to bring us home to Him.

Relate to the Lord // Ask the Holy Spirit what lie you’ve been believing. Ask for Him to set you free.