By St. Maximilian: From aboard a train, between Nagasaki and Mogi, May 21, 1932.
Maria!
Saturday in the month of May. A “Kyuko” (express train) is taking me to the city of Kobe, where I am supposed to arrive tomorrow morning. Why? To acquire a visa and to buy a ticket to… India. And why am I going? The Most Rev. Fr. Provincial informed me—and, therefore, it is the Immaculate who wants this—that when Fr. Constantine arrives we can start searching for a new City of the Immaculate. He has already arrived with three other brothers from our Polish Niepokalanów; therefore, the time has come.
I have told the brothers today to entrust to the Immaculate the matter of my discerning Her will, and things have clarified. [The prospects for] China and its city of Haimen have dimmed, Vietnam and Saigon have had to wait, and the other ideas have receded to the back burner. India and Ernakulam have clearly presented themselves before our eyes 2. And I still have letters [of permission] from two years ago to [go to] these places, when we were heading out to the Far East for the first time. And so it is India.
But things are not without their worries. It is very hot there. And how will we be received? Here in Nagasaki we have already settled down in our little nest, things have calmed down, it is going well, work is going at a more routine pace. There you have to head out all over again into the unknown, facing uncertainty, unforeseen crosses… And perhaps we will have to come back empty-handed? Or maybe it will be necessary to lay down our lives extenuated by hardships?… But in the end, all this is for the Immaculate. She will lead us, and whatever she does will certainly be what is best.
But you, dear Brothers and readers, will pray, or rather you will accompany me and will help me by your prayers, in order that I might not hinder the Immaculate, won’t you?
I am writing while riding in a train, so my handwriting is shaky. The ship departs on May 31 and reaches Ceylon [Sri Lanka] on June 19, with perhaps another two days of journey by sea and land from there. I am not sure, however, whether the ship is already completely booked, and whether I will be able to get a ticket.
What peace this holy name of “Mary” gives! Let us repeat it often in the depths of our souls. May it become for us the life-breath of our hearts.
Yours,
Br. Maximilian Ma. Kolbe
P.S. The Immaculate has safely brought the entire group to us 3—praise to her for everything. Strengthen your prayer offensive regarding the third City of the Immaculate. Some say [that this will be] the fourth [City], because they believe, and not without good reason, that we already have a City of the Immaculate in Heaven, where the Immaculate is the guardian, and the workers are Fr. Fordon, Fr. Venantius, Fr. Alphonse, Br. Albert 4…