Fr. Kolbe Missionaries Visit Campus: Story and Slideshow

As part of a recent series of on-campus vocations visits, Jillian Cooke (’04), an alumna and a consecrated member of the Fr. Kolbe Missionaries of the Immaculata, returned to campus last week to talk with students. Emphasizing the unique characteristics of secular institutes and the special charism of the Fr. Kolbe Missionaries, Miss Cooke invited students to participate with their questions and comments.

“This world that God gave us is good, so let’s go in and sanctify it,” she said, illustrating the special calling of the secular institute: to evangelize while remaining in the world. The Fr. Kolbe Missionaries’ particular charism has two parts, she added: evangelization and total consecration to Mary. When a student asked about the Missionaries’ approach to modern communications, Miss Cooke described St. Maximilian Kolbe’s devotion to the use of mass media for evangelization and the Missionaries’ attempts to follow in his footsteps.

As the gathering concluded, Miss Cooke passed around prayer cards. One contained one of her favorite quotes from St. Maximilian Kolbe: “When the fire of love is ignited in oneself, it cannot find room in the limits of the heart, but blazes outward and enflames, devours, absorbs other hearts.”