Dear Knights of the Immaculata!

When St. Maximilian founded the Knighthood of the Immaculata, he did not want it to be compared with other pious associations, confraternities, third orders, Marian movements etc. These latter oblige its members to a certain amount of prayers, pious exercises, concrete apostolate. The Militia Immaculatae is both less and more :
Less, because it obliges the knights to almost nothing, just one ejaculatory prayer per day and the wearing of the Miraculous Medal – and even that does not oblige under sin.
More, because it gives the knight a new law of life, a great ideal to follow always and everywhere: the Catholic receives a deeper understanding, who he is exactly or should be: not only a private worshipper, not only an individualist taking care of his own salvation, but a member of the Militant Church, a disciple of Our Lord, who has received a very special task to accomplish in his short life: to work and to fight for the extension of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. And because Jesus Christ appointed his own mother as “commander in chief of the Christian armies”, as the “apocalyptic woman”, who alone stands against the dragon and the beasts and alone has received the promise to “crush his head” and “to vanquish all heresies over the world”, therefore the Catholic can only accomplish his role and task in the militant Church, if he gives himself to Our Lady, enters in Her services, fulfils Her Will, becomes her child, slave, instrument, soldier, apostle, legionary, KNIGHT!

When you wake up in the morning and you ask yourself: “who am I”? The answer should be: Catholic, Knight of the Immaculata! And when you ask “what’s up today”? The answer should be: in all little details of my day I am HER instrument and so I fight today for the honour of Our Lord and for the salvation of many souls. In this way I accomplish the great commandment of my Lord: “Love God above all and one another, as I have loved you! … I have given you an example!” The more this IDEA enters into the depths of your soul, penetrates your intelligence, heart ,will and emotions, penetrates your thoughts, words and actions, influences you from morning till evening, the more you ARE KNIGHT OF THE IMMACULATA!

To become a knight it is sufficient to have the will to accept this great IDEA as a new law of my life (this is the act of consecratio), and at least once a day (if possible) to remember it and at least once a day to do something as Her instrument to help her to save souls, even a small ejaculatory prayer would be sufficient. Then you would have done at least once a day something really valuable, eternal, something that pleases God. At least once a day you would have given your little finger to HER. And our Saint promises that such a little gesture will not be forgotten by Her and often SHE takes this occasion to attract the poor sinner to her loving heart and make him little by little quit his sins and grow in holiness.

However, it is evident that the Immaculata desires to give more to her child and knight. In fact, if I understand more and more my role in this short life as INSTRUMENT in Her immaculate hands, then I will think more and more about it, I will do more and more for her to help her to make men truly happy and get them out of the tyranny of Satan. The IDEA of being HER KNIGHT will become somehow the motor, the motivation of my activities, will wake up possibilities, strengths and talents hidden in my soul and little by little transform my life. After some time the narrow, egoistic, negligent, bored, indifferent Christian changes into a man full of ideals, in his eyes a fire of love, a hunter of souls. This precisely is the history of the Militia Immaculatae and the secret of its marvellous success!
From 1917 till 1974 millions of simple Catholics inspired by this NEW LAW OF LIFE changed completely and became HER fervent soldiers, with more than 100 beatified and canonized Saints, thousands of heroic souls fighting and dying for God’s rights in the atheistic communist countries of Eastern Europe, and innumerable Knights who converted people all over the world to the Catholic Truth.

You will remember this “NEW LAW OF LIFE” by simply meditating about your “new name”: KNIGHT OF THE IMMACULATA! It contains everything!

1. The central word is IMMACULATA: there is no way of being Catholic without Her.
“Who are you , O Immaculata?” One minute meditating on this question will open your horizon infinitely: her first and principal privilege to be the Mother of God, the Mother of Christ, the way by which God came from heaven to earth and by which we return from earth to heaven. Immaculata without stain of sin, most pure, fullness of grace: God’s absolute masterpiece, in comparison to which all creatures are like dust. “Oh Immaculata, Queen of heaven and earth”: the apocalyptic woman, who crushes Satan’s head and whose heart at the end will certainly and totally triumph. And “mother who loves us so much”: our refuge, our way which leads us to God, our hope, our joy! The only thing that really counts on earth: the Immaculate Heart of Mary in which shines forth the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the fire of love penetrating these hearts with the fullness of God: the Holy Spirit! Immaculata, tabernacle of the Most Holy Trinity, and all what God wanted to give us, completely. Everything comes to us through HER.

2. The second word concerns you: Knight! I am a knight. What does that mean?
First of all it is a military word and contains the realities of a fight, of dangerous enemies and remind me that life on earth is a war, between two absolutely opposite forces: Truth and error, light and darkness, Love and hatred, happiness and unhappiness, heaven and hell, true church and false religions, Christ against Satan.
Secondly the knight is more than a simple soldier. His heart is burning for the great cause, for which he fights, ready to give his life, convinced about the good reason of the fight, the first to battle, the last to rest. A knight has a noble heart, a brave heart. He fights for great things, he is not narrow-minded, and certainly not lazy, not a coward. The history of the medieval knights is a good illustration for this.
Thirdly one doesn’t make himself knight, he is dubbed by his superior, often by the King himself. It is an outstanding privilege, and in the medieval times one had to demonstrate by many efforts and proofs that he is worthy of such a title. Therefore the great virtues of a knight are both courage and gratitude, total consecration to his King and being reliable in all situations: totality, integrity, magnanimity, generosity!
What a contrast to me, when I see myself being often lazy, negligent and indifferent, running all over the place without purpose and reason, victim of all kinds of illusions, wild emotions, victim of publicity and public opinion. Wasting my precious time seeking little pleasures and fun experiences, destroying my body and soul and allowing my heart to be devastated by so many false friends.
But also from a different perspective and motivation: what God wants me to be! What he asks me through Mary to become: great, noble, with an eternal destiny, created for heroism.

3. The third word is the synthesis of the two previous: Knight of the Immaculata!
I am from Her: even if I agree to become Her knight, in reality she chose me, she prepared my conversion and my heart to answer to her call.
I am for Her: the noble cause for which I fight is Her honour. She sends me into the world as instrument in Her immaculate hands to rescue her lost children from the prison of error and sin, so that she may deliver them from the chains of the devil and eternal damnation. In this my short life she gives me a task almost without limits. All depends on me, whether I would use the precious time of my remaining days of my life to win an infinite reward and to conquer the world through HER (each immortal soul is even more than the whole material world!).
Her great wishes should become my wishes: “Bring me back my children! Let me bring them the light, and the grace, but I need you as my instrument: you go to them through your little prayers, you prepare their souls through your sacrifices, you approach them giving them my miraculous medal, my words and the words of my faithful servants, you tell them about my miracles and my love. And I will use all these little bridges you build between me and them and come over to convert them and bring them back to my son!”

If Divine Providence allowed the Militia Immaculatae to be established again amongst traditional Catholics, it is to give us a new identity or better to let us recover our identity! Are we not too much confined to ourselves? Are we in danger of not appreciating any more the immense treasure we received? Are the young people not getting bored with religion and getting more and more interested in a world full of pleasure, movies, games and fun? Are we not losing our spiritual strength in fighting all the time with people who praise themselves as ‘resistant’, who in the name of ‘conservation of faith’, worship only their own little personality and originality? Are we not in danger of shutting ourselves up in our little comfortable lives without any other rule than our own inspirations and views? Are we not getting all more or less “independent” , just doing what we want? The result : complete loss of identity!

And here comes the IMMACULATA herself to wake us up : my beloved child, come now and do MY work! You belong to the very little remnant of those, who know yet, who I am, who pray to me, who keep the faith. Only to you I can come and ask to help me to save souls in these worst of all times! So please don’t waste your times on sterile comments and judgements about everything and everybody. Don’t waste your time in reading all the internet-kings’ opinions and statements. Leave the politics to the politicians, leave the discussions with the hierarchy to the superiors, and you – just do YOUR WORK!

Recover your identity, which is to save your immortal soul and which is to help to save many others! As you are my child and I am your mother, only I can give you back the sense of your identity and protect you, so that you would not loose yourself. So come and let me take you to Calvary and your cold heart will beat with more love towards my son, who offered all his blood for you. Come and I will make you meditate about all the marvellous mysteries of the Faith you have received. Come and I will make you my instrument and your life will again become GREAT, and the most banal things of your daily business become important means to do the best you can on earth: gain immortal and eternal treasures! “So many souls go to eternal damnation, because there is nobody who prays or makes sacrifices for them!”
The more you try to be HER KNIGHT, the more you will have peace in your soul, joy in your heart and light in your mind! You will have found your identity: who you are, and what your goal should be !
You see, in giving your little finger to HER, you receive so incredibly much from Her in return. If all faithful would give themselves to HER as knights, then SHE would make them much more faithful and the word of Our Lord would be realized in us: “One thing only is necessary – seek first the kingdom of God, all the rest will be given to you!”

Singapore, 11 September 2015
Fr. Karl Stehlin