Day 39 & 40 of Lent 2023 ✡️✝️ Saint Maximilian Kolbe & The Pectoral Cross of Pope Francis
Here is our final piece of the 40 Day Lenten Series of Saints. The Jewish Holiday of Passover is concluding and the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus begins on Easter Sunday. We're presenting Saint Maximilian Kolbe and the Pectoral Cross of Pope Francisas our final posts of the series.
We will offer a "Recap" within the next few days and also begin pre-orders of our Marcel Proust Centenary Celebration Picture Book, "Listening is Glistening," on Monday.
Happy Easter, Everyone! Thanks for all of the thoughtful comments about Our Lenten Series of Saints, 2023.
Maximillian Kolbe was the Child of Franciscan Tertiaries living in Poland. During World War II he was imprisoned in Auschwitz as prisoner #16670. In 1941, when some Nazis chose 10 prisoners to be murdered, Maximillian surrendered and offered his life so a father with young children could live.
Pray to Saint Maximillian Kolbe, arguably the patron of love and compassion for the Jewish Faith, and Holocaust remembrance. Saint Maximilian helps us to understand the human embodiment of the ultimate personal sacrifice, as Jesus shows us also as we begin to celebrate of his Resurrection.
Pope Francis’s Pectoral Cross is very different from those of the Popes that came before him. Instead of adorning himself with an ornate golden cross covered with diamonds, gems and other jewels, Pope Francis has chosen to wear a simple silver cross—the same one he wore when he was Archbishop and Cardinal of Argentina. The cross features a design of a shepherd and his flock of sheep, symbolizing Pope Francis’s role as caretaker of the faithful people of the world, his “flock.” Pope Francis’s simple, decidedly undecorated Pectoral Cross reminds us of his humble character and kindness and shows us that all that glitters is not gold.
