Day 5: Apostolic mission to souls

The fifth day attends to Saint Maximilian's missionary apostolate, which carried the Marian message from Poland to Japan and across Catholic Europe.

Apostolic zeal

Saint Maximilian's mission to Nagasaki, Japan (1930-1936) is one of the most striking Catholic missionary witnesses of the twentieth century. He built a Marian friary, Mugenzai no Sono ("Garden of the Immaculata"), on a hillside outside the city. When the atomic bomb fell on Nagasaki in 1945, the friary was sheltered from the blast by the surrounding hills, while most of the city was destroyed; the Japanese Catholic survivors interpreted this as Marian protection.

Prayer

Saint Maximilian, you who carried the Catholic faith to Japan and to every Catholic publication of your age, kindle in me the zeal for the salvation of souls. Make me a witness to my own family, friends, and neighbors of the Catholic faith I have received. Amen.

Conclude with one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be.