Your Children Are the Future of the Church

The mission of the JMI program is to help youth to learn, live and love the Catholic faith. This program consists of a balance of prayer, studies, sports, and outings, as well as needed chores.

We are confident that your children, with their cooperation, will have a deeper knowledge and appreciation of their Catholic faith when they complete the program. They will have a better understanding of the Blessed Virgin Mary's role in their life, and hopefully they will join others in making a voluntary consecration to Mary Immaculate at the conclusion of the program.

The J.M.I. Summer Camp is from June 29th to July 19th. We are asking for a donation of $375 per youth to cover the cost of providing the camp.

On the left are links for the packing list and application (including a permission form and a medical form). The application needs to be filled out and mailed to us at the above address. Also included is a brief history and overview of the summer camps and our community. Please discuss the program with your youth and explain to him the necessity of his cooperation to make this camp a beneficial and happy experience for all.

The inspiration for the JMI Program

The history of the JMI summer camps is rooted in the life of ST. MAXIMILIAN KOLBE. Much is known about this holy and renowned Franciscan. He was born in 1897 in Poland and died in that same country at Auschwitz Concentration Camp in 1942. Put in a poorly ventilated cellblock, he was starved and then injected with poison in place of another prisoner whose life he saved by volunteering for this painful and excruciating death.

His life, however, and not merely his death, is our focus of attention - for St. Maximilian lived a life of heroic virtue and tireless apostolic activity in evangelizing enemies of the Church, fallen-away Catholics and Christians, freemasons, heretics, and especially lost youth. In 1917, while still a student in Rome, he founded the Militia Immaculatae or the Militia of the Immaculate. He founded Niepokolanow - the City of the Immaculate - near Warsaw, trusting in Divine Providence alone. This "Marytown" (the largest Marytown in the world at the time) would be the nucleus of his evangelization techniques. His aim was to bring the Catholic faith to the whole world for CHRIST through the IMMACULATE, or the Immaculate Virgin Mary, God's most perfect and efficient instrument. His efforts bore so much fruit that almost immediately after the Nazi's victory over and occupation of Poland, they arrested St. Maximilian and many of his brothers. His activities did not cease even while imprisoned at Auschwitz. His courage, patience, love, forgiveness, and Christian joy was a light which penetrated the desperate pall of the inhuman darkness at Auschwitz. These heroic efforts were accomplished despite the physical infirmities which he suffered since his youth. His strength he attributed to the devotion and love he had for the Mother of God, his companion during his earthly pilgrimage to God.

The spiritual mission of the JMI Program

As in all religious communities, OFMI's first objective is to reform self and convert the inner man by striving for Christian perfection through the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience. The method in which this is done is Kolbean, and therefore, Marian. The entire community - everyone in it and everything in it - is dedicated to serving Mary, thus serving God most perfectly through her designs. In other words, we are giving everything first to Mary, who in turn presents this to God in her role as Co-Redemptrix and Mediatrix of all Graces. When we give to Mary, we relax and let her present these things to God in our name. Being most pleased with her, since she is His most perfect creature, He will then be most pleased and glorified.

Finally, O.F.M.I. (Ordo Franciscanorum Mariae Immaculatae(, the initials of the Franciscan Friars of Mary Immaculate, renders service in various forms, translating the goals of St. Maximilian in a multiplicity of ways: preaching, teaching, publishing, youth work, contemplative prayer, and many others. The community is based on the four pillars of devotion to our Eucharistic Lord, devotion to Mary Immaculate, loyalty to the Holy Father and fidelity to the charism of St. Francis.

The Franciscan Friars of Mary Immaculate are hosting their twentieth annual JMI summer camp for boys ages ten to seventeen. The summer camp is referred to as "JMI" camp which is an acronym for the Latin words Juvenes Mariae Immaculatae meaning "Youth for Mary Immaculate." This title conveys the Marian devotion fostered in the youth attending the camps.