From The Knight of the Immaculata | May 2026 (Issue 115)
Source: Militia of the Immaculata, USA — militiaoftheimmaculata.com
stcathlaboure.org · 110 Bray Avenue, Middletown, NJ 07748 · Diocese of Trenton
Mary, Spouse of the Holy Spirit — Pentecost and Our
Lady’s Unique Bond with the Third Person of the Trinity
Category: Faith & Spirituality · Marian Devotion · Pentecost
Pentecost is the great feast that closes the Easter season — fifty days after the Resurrection, ten
days after the Ascension, the moment when the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles in
Jerusalem as tongues of fire and the Church’s mission to the world began. This year, Pentecost
falls on May 24th.
But who was in that Upper Room when the Spirit came? Scripture tells us clearly: “the Mother of
Jesus” was there, praying with the Apostles (Acts 1:14). Mary wasn’t a bystander at Pentecost
any more than she was a bystander at the Annunciation. She had already been “overshadowed”
by the Holy Spirit once before — and she was perfectly at home in His presence.
This is why the Church — and St. Maximilian Kolbe in a particular way — honors Our Lady with
the title Spouse of the Holy Spirit. It was St. Francis of Assisi who first gave her this name,
recognizing her unique, intimate union with the Third Person of the Trinity. Kolbe took this
theology even further, describing Mary as the “Quasi-Incarnation of the Holy Spirit” — so
perfectly united to Him that she acts as His human manifestation and the channel through
which He forms Christ in souls.
Kolbe put it this way: “The Holy Spirit, the Divine Spouse of the Immaculata, acts solely in her
and through her, communicates supernatural life, the life of grace, divine life, the partaking of
the love of God, of divinity.” (KW 1326)
For those consecrated to Mary, Pentecost is an invitation to renew that consecration with fresh
eyes. Just as Mary opened herself totally to the Holy Spirit at the Annunciation and never
wavered, we are called to ask for her intercession — that we might be open to the gifts and
graces of her Beloved Spouse, given to us at Baptism and strengthened at Confirmation, given
not just for ourselves but to build up the Church and bring souls to Christ.
In preparation for Pentecost, the faithful are encouraged to pray the Pentecost Novena — the
oldest of all novenas, beginning the Friday after Ascension Thursday and running through to
Pentecost Sunday on May 24th.
At St. Catherine’s:
May is Our Lady’s month, and what a beautiful time to come to the Miraculous Medal
Novena — celebrated every Monday evening at the 7:00 PM Mass. The Miraculous Medal is
a gift from the Holy Spirit’s Spouse to the world, and wearing it is a daily reminder of whose
we are. Come pray with us as we prepare our hearts for Pentecost.
— Michael D. Wick, MI National Vice President
References: Acts 1:14; Lk 1:35; KW 1326
Loving with Our Mother’s Heart — Pope Leo XIV at the
Shrine of “Mamã Muxima” in Angola
Category: Faith & Spirituality · Papal Teaching · The Rosary
During his apostolic journey to Africa, Pope Leo XIV prayed the Rosary at the Shrine of Our
Lady of Muxima in Angola on April 19, 2026 — a sanctuary where, as the Holy Father noted, “for
centuries, many men and women have prayed in times of joy and also in moments of sorrow and
great suffering.” The faithful there have affectionately renamed the shrine the Shrine of the
“Mother of the Heart” — Mamã Muxima — Mary, Mother of the Heart. The Pope embraced
that beautiful name and let it shape his entire reflection.
The heart of Mary, he said, holds a multitude of hearts: yours, and those of the many people who
love, pray, celebrate, and weep — and sometimes, when they cannot come in person, entrust
their petitions to letters and messages. She welcomes everyone. She listens to everyone. She
prays for everyone.
The Rosary, Pope Leo XIV reminded the faithful, is not merely a pious exercise — it is a
commitment. When we pray it, we meditate on the life of Jesus through the eyes of His Mother,
allowing her to lead us deeper into the mysteries of His love. And that meditation commits us to
something very concrete: loving every person with a mother’s heart. A mother loves all her
children with her whole heart, even though each one is different. The Pope invited the faithful to
make that same promise before Our Lady — to strive without measure so that no one may lack
love.
He gave that love a very practical shape: that the hungry may have enough to eat, that the sick
receive care, that children have a proper education, that the elderly live their final years in
peace. “A mother thinks of all these things,” he said. “Indeed, Mary thinks of all these things —
and she also invites us to share in her maternal concern.” It is love, not war, that must triumph.
This is what the heart of Mary — the Mother of all — teaches us.
At St. Catherine’s:
May is the perfect month to pick up or deepen a daily Rosary practice. And if you’re looking
for a way to love your neighbor with Mary’s heart, our parish Food Pantry is a beautiful,
concrete place to start. Ask at the parish office about how to get involved.
— Pope Leo XIV, Address at the “Mother of the Heart” Shrine, Muxima, Angola, April 19, 2026
References: Lk 2:19, 51; St. John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 1, 11
“He Descended into Hell” — A Catechetical Moment for
the Easter Season
Category: Faith & Spirituality · Catechesis · Easter
Every time we pray the Apostles’ Creed, we say it: “He descended into hell.” It’s one of those
lines that can go by quickly — but it contains a profound and consoling truth worth slowing
down for.
Scripture sometimes uses the word “hell” to translate the Hebrew Sheol and the Greek Hades —
not the place of eternal punishment, but the ancient place of the dead: a waiting place for all
who had died before Christ opened the gates of heaven. From the moment of Adam and Eve’s
sin, the gates of heaven were closed. No one could enter until Jesus won that victory on the
Cross. The Church’s tradition holds that after His death, Christ descended to those waiting souls
— the just, the patriarchs, the prophets — and led them home at last.
This month’s issue of The Knight of the Immaculata includes a moving poem on this mystery by
Sister Mary Ada, OSJ, that brings the moment alive with quiet tenderness. She imagines the
ancient souls in the darkness sensing something shifting — a breath of spring, a light growing —
Moses calling for a welcome song, the souls remembering flowers and birds and the smell of rain
on green hills. And then Christ appears, radiant, bearing the five wounds He never had before.
The last lines belong to old Joseph, who simply draws close and asks the question on every
heart: “How is Your Mother, Son?”
It’s a poem worth finding and sitting with. You can read the full text in the April 19, 2026
bulletin of Ave Maria Parish in Ave Maria, Florida.
At St. Catherine’s:
The mystery of Christ descending to the dead is a reminder that His love reaches everywhere
— even to those who seem most beyond reach. If you know someone who has drifted from
the faith, keep praying. Our Lady of Perpetual Help hears those prayers every Saturday
morning at the 8:00 AM Mass.
— “He Descended into Hell” by Sister Mary Ada, OSJ; reprinted from the April 19, 2026 bulletin of Ave
Maria Parish, Ave Maria, Florida
St. Maximilian Teaches — The Soul’s Longing for God,
and the Path Through the Immaculata
Category: Faith & Spirituality · St. Maximilian Kolbe
Every human heart is restless. We want to be wise, to be happy, to love and be loved. And yet no
happiness in this world satisfies us entirely. As soon as we reach something we thought we
wanted, we sense its limits — and the longing begins again. “If only those limits could be
removed,” we say.
St. Maximilian Kolbe doesn’t dismiss that longing. He follows it all the way to its source. That
boundless happiness the soul craves? Its name is God. The infinite source of all happiness. And
the soul that recognizes this is already on the right path — because God, in His love, has not left
us without a way to reach Him.
He became man. The Son of God took flesh, offered the example of His own life, and showed us
the path — not through force, but through love. To draw us to Himself, Christ revealed His
burning heart: ascending the Cross, remaining with us in the Eucharist, and giving us His own
Mother as our Mother. The more a soul imitates Him, the more it becomes like Him — and the
holier it becomes.
And here Kolbe arrives at his deepest insight: the soul is not reborn in Christ by any other way
than through the love of God toward the Immaculata, and in the Immaculata. She is not an
obstacle between us and God. She is the very path by which God came to us — and the path by
which we return to Him. As Kolbe writes: “No word becomes flesh, no perfection or virtue is
embodied or realized in anyone, except through the love that God has toward the
Immaculata.” (KW 1296)
This is the heart of Marian consecration. Not devotion for its own sake, but surrender to the
path God Himself chose. The Holy Spirit shapes souls, Kolbe says, “in the Immaculata and
through the Immaculata, in the likeness of the firstborn, the God-Man.” She is the mold. Christ
is the form. And we are the material offered into her hands so that He can take shape in us.
At St. Catherine’s:
If your heart has been restless lately — if something in you keeps reaching for more — that
longing is a grace. Bring it to Our Lady. Spend some time before the Blessed Sacrament at
Eucharistic Adoration on Mondays, 11:00 AM–7:00 PM. Let her lead you where your heart
is already trying to go.
— St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe
References: KW 1296; KW 1326