Mense Maio

On April 29^, 1965, Pope Paul VI issued an encyclical on the Month of May encouraging special prayers for peace in the world. He opens the encyclical thus:

The month of May is almost here, a month which the piety of the faithful has long dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God. Our heart rejoices at the thought of the moving tribute of faith and love which will soon be paid to the Queen of Heaven in every corner of the earth. For this is the month during which Christians, in their churches and their homes, offer the Virgin Mother more fervent and loving acts of homage and veneration; and it is the month in which a greater abundance of God's merciful gifts comes down to us from our Mother's throne.

We are delighted and consoled by this pious custom associated with the month of May, which pays honor to the Blessed Virgin and brings such rich benefits to the Christian people. Since Mary is rightly to be regarded as the way by which we are led to Christ, the person who encounters Mary cannot help but encounter Christ likewise. For what other reason do we continually turn to Mary except to seek the Christ in her arms, to seek our Savior in her, through her, and with her? To Him men are to turn amid the anxieties and perils of this world, urged on by duty and driven by the compelling needs of their heart, to find a haven of salvation, a transcendent fountain of life.

I find the May devotion very beautiful – May is the month when summer begins in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s the beginning of summer holidays here, it is the month of flowers and it is the month of Mothers’ Day.

There is something sweet and noble in Marian devotion itself – C.S. Lewis puts it across beautifully:

“The Roman Catholic beliefs on [the Blessed Virgin Mary] are held not only with the ordinary fervour that attaches to all sincere religious belief, but (very naturally) with the peculiar and, as it were, chivalrous sensibility that a man feels when the honour of his mother or his beloved is at stake.”

To a Catholic, refusing to honour Mary not only appears heretical, but also displays a lack of decency. So Marian devotion in Catholic culture is something much more than a theory – it comes right from the heart.

You get a sense of this from the hymns that we have – they are so full of love: simple and heartfelt. And that’s how our own relationship with Mary should be. She’s our “Mother and a friend” as one hymn puts it. And I think that when we begin to really see Mary as a Mother, such devotion would also permeate the rest of our spiritual life – we will develop more and more that child-like trust in the Father, that personal relationship with our Lord and we will seek the constant companionship of the Holy Spirit.  

St. Josemaria Escriva talks about May devotions thus:

How does a normal son or daughter treat his mother? In different ways, of course, but always affectionately and confidently, never coldly. In an intimate way, through small, commonplace customs. And a mother feels hurt if we omit them: a kiss or an embrace when leaving or coming home, a little extra attention, a few warm words.

In our relationship with our mother in heaven, we should act in very much the same way. Many Christians have the custom of wearing the scapular; or they have acquired the habit of greeting those pictures — a glance is enough — which are found in every Christian home and in many public places; or they recall the central events in Christ's life by saying the rosary, never getting tired of repeating its words, just like people in love; or they mark out a day of the week for her — Saturday, which is today — doing some special little thing for her and thinking particularly about her motherhood.

Christ is Passing By, 142

Mary adds a beautiful touch of sweetness to our Christian lives. Amidst the troubles, the bad news, the scandals, the wars, the suffering, she brings a breath of fresh air (while not allowing us to forget those who are suffering). Pope Benedict in his address on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (2009) said:

“Every day, in the newspapers, television and radio, evil is told to us, said again, amplified, so that we get used to the most horrible things, and become desensitised. In a certain way, it poisons us, because the negative is never fully cleansed out of our system but accumulates day after day. The heart hardens and thoughts become gloomy. For this reason, the city needs Mary, whose presence speaks of God, reminds us of Grace’s victory over sin and makes us hope even in the humanly most difficult situations.”

Mary thus provides this world with an injection of beauty, sweetness, gentleness, love, hope and grace.

The Holy Father continues:

“We often complain about air pollution, that in some parts of the city the air is unbreathable. That is true. Everyone must do his or her part to make the city a cleaner place. However, there is another kind of pollution, which the senses cannot easily perceive, but which is equally dangerous. It is the pollution of the spirit, which makes us smile less, makes us gloomier, less likely to greet one another or look into each other face... The city has many faces, but sadly, collective factors lead us to forget what is behind them. All we see is the surface. People become bodies, and these bodies lose their soul, become faceless objects that can be exchanged and consumed.

Mary Immaculate helps us rediscover and defend what is inside people, because in her there is perfect transparency of soul and body. She is purity in person in the sense that the spirit, soul and body are fully coherent in her and with God’s will. Our Lady teaches us to open up to God’s action and to look at others as he does, starting with the heart, to look upon them with mercy, love, infinite tenderness, especially those who are lonely, scorned or exploited. “[W]here sins increased, grace overflows all the more.”

I think you can tell by the elegance with which he writes that the Holy Father has a deep love and devotion to the Blessed Mother.

So the month of Mary is an opportunity to learn from Her and try to serve others better. Carry out an apostolate of Marian sweetness – help other feel happier, more loved; help others carry their crosses. This apostolate can – and should – also extend beyond those around us – pray fervently for those around the world who are suffering either physically and mentally; pray that our Mother’s gentle care would ease their difficulties.  Pope Paul in the encyclical I mentioned earlier says

“May she who experienced the cares and hardships of earthly life, the weariness of daily toil, the hardships and trials of poverty, and the sorrows of Calvary, come to aid the needs of the Church and the human race. May she graciously lend an ear to the devout pleas of those all over the world who beg her for peace.”

Let us try to be Mary’s instruments for this peace.

Holidays are a time when we must be extra watchful not to let out prayer lives falter and suffer because of a change in routine. I think the May devotion would help here too. We could decide on something to offer Mother Mary this month – something concrete – and stick to this. This will add zeal to the rest of our prayer life too.

We could offer some extra prayers to Mother Mary every day; we could pray the Regina Coeli with greater devotion these last couple of weeks of Easter Season; we could plan to go on a small pilgrimage to a Marian church; we could do some works of mercy – and offer it to Mary, and do it in Her spirit; we could read up more about Her; we could pick some of Her qualities and try to emulate them as best we can.

For example, the Handbook says – and we are all very familiar with this –

“The spirit of the Legion of Mary is that of Mary herself. Especially does the Legion aspire after her profound humility, her perfect obedience, her angelical sweetness, her continual prayer, her universal mortification, her altogether spotless purity, her heroic patience, her heavenly wisdom, her self-sacrificing courageous love of God, and above all her faith, that virtue which has in her alone been found in its utmost extent and never equalled.”

One day we could practice humility: we could pray about this virtue, and we could try to live it during the day, seeking out opportunities to put it into action; another day we could practice sweetness; yet another day could be dedicated to offering something extra by way of prayer.

This would be wonderful training for us as Legionaries, as apostles, and could do wonders for our spiritual life. The Second Vatican Council says

"Perfect model of this apostolic spiritual life is the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Apostles. While on earth her life was like that of any other, filled with labours and the cares of the home; always, however, she remained intimately united to her Son and cooperated in an entirely unique way in the Saviour's work . . . Everyone should have a genuine devotion to her and entrust his life to her motherly care." (Apostolicam Actuositatem 4)

The month of May should also be a time to carry out an apostolate of Mary – spread her devotion to as many people as possible, make her loved by more of her children. Let’s make an effort to give out more Miraculous Medals. We also should be trying to bring more visitors to our meetings – not just because we want members but because of what Mary, and service in an organization of Mary’s, can do for our friends.

Let us end with a prayer to our dear Mother, written by Pope Benedict:

Holy Mary, Mother of God,
you have given the world its true light,
Jesus, your Son – the Son of God.
You abandoned yourself completely
to God's call
and thus became a wellspring
of the goodness which flows forth from him.
Show us Jesus. Lead us to him.
Teach us to know and love him,
so that we too can become
capable of true love
and be fountains of living water
in the midst of a thirsting world.

Amen.






L'Innocence by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

Allocutio by Fr. Marin on the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary (October 6, 2009)

***Paraphrased version only***

Many people don't like praying the rosary. Some people say it is only boring, vain repetition. Consider this: when you like a new song and you want to remember it, you usually repeat it again and again. And even the songs that you sing probably repeat the same things again and again. Are these vain repetitions? The rosary is a very beautiful prayer. In it, we repeat the words of an angel and a saint. And in the end is added a very beautiful and interesting request, "Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death." Every word of the Hail Mary is filled with so much meaning. And although it may seem that we are giving too much attention to Mary, by repeating the Ave Maria more times than the Lord's Prayer and the Glory Be, we mention the Most Holy Name of Jesus just as often, if not more. For at the center of each Ave Maria is Jesus. When the mystery of each decade is announced, it is not just a phrase that we announce. It leads us to a meditation on the life of Our Lord like Mary, who kept the words of Jesus in her heart and contemplated on them.

Now, it is true that we sometimes find difficulty in praying the rosary. Oftentimes, we get distracted. We start praying the first decade and before we know it, we've reached the fourth decade, and realize that in between, we have spaced out. Our minds had fluttered to other things again. But we should not despair. St. Therese used to confess in her letters that she prayed the rosary so badly. She would always be distracted or feel sleepy. But still, she tried to pray it well everyday. I'm sure that Our Lady is not standing beside you, criticizing you everytime you pray the rosary distractedly. Of course, we should give it our best effort and say it as lovingly as we can. But I'm sure the effort you put in praying the rosary, although you may get distracted, will make Our Lady very happy.

In this month of the Rosary, it would be good for us if we can say the rosary daily. Not only do we make Our Lady happy, we also attain many graces for ourselves. We should also encourage our family and friends to pray this prayer. The Rosary is a prayer that has been loved by all the saints, endorsed by the Church for hundreds of years, and endorsed by Mary herself in the apparitions approved by the Church. What more recommendations do we need?

"Blessed be that monotony of Hail Marys which purifies the monotony of your sins!"

- St. Josemaria Escriva

The Legion Picture

- From an allocutio by the Very Rev. Francis J. Canon Ripley taken from Talks to Legionaries

The Legion picture is meant to be an inspiration and to teach all who study it the Legion’s devotional outlook.

The general design reproduces the outline of the Vexilium or Standard. Then the picture depicts the Legion prayers. The invocation and collect of the Holy Spirit and the Rosary are pictured by the dove overshadowing Mary and filling her with supernatural light and divine fire. In this way we are reminded of that moment toward which all time before it moved and from which all time after it has fallen. It lied at the centre of time, the moment when a young maiden at Nazareth consented that the infinite God should take flesh within her and so became the mother of God and the channel of his grace to all men. Active and auxiliary Legionaries everywhere are bound to this glorious mother by her Rosary. They try to render effective the words of Pope Pius IX: "I could conquer the world if I had an army to say the Rosary."

The presence of the Holy Spirit on our picture reminds us of His visible coming on Mary and the Apostles. It was, we might say, the Church’s Confirmation and can we doubt that Mary was the channel of it, that it was brought about through Mary’s prayers? On that day the Church was born. The Holy Spirit filled it with the apostolic fire which was to renew the face of the earth. As Pope Pius XII wrote: “"It was her most powerful intercession that obtained for the new-born Church that prodigious outpouring of the Spirit of the divine redeemer" As it was then, so it is now. The task of the Church is to enkindle that fire in the hearts of men. The lighting of it is a grace and like every other it comes through Mary’s prayers.

Look at the border of the picture and you see a representation of the Catena for the letters of the Latin texts are each in the links of the chain. Now look at the portrait of Mary herself. She is depicted as he antiphon of the Catena proclaims her, as “She that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in battle array.” She is the Morning Star, heralding the dawn of the Sun of Justice. So the artist has adorned her brow in the picture with a brilliant.

The principal item in our Catena is Mary’s own canticle, the song of the triumph of her humility, so the first verse of the Magnificat is inscribed over Mary’s head. Was not this a thought which was ever present in her mind? Was not her spirit always raised to the praising of God? But do not overlook that the letters are letters of fire. The zeal of Mary’s followers must be as a burning fire, consuming every obstacle to the apostolate. All the time it must be saturated with the spirit of Mary’s humility. Otherwise it will radiate self instead of Christ God wills still to depend on His humble Mother for His conquests. He continues to accomplish great things for His glory by the agency of those who are united with her.

The Versicle and Response of the Catena are those of the Immaculate Conception, which is one of the primary devotions of the Legion. The words set in the chain border also refer to it. They come from God’s promise of redemption to the serpent in the third chapter of the Book of Genesis: “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head.” In the picture we see this warfare. Between Christ and Satan enmity is complete. Likewise it is complete between Mary and Satan. All those who are consecrated to her share in this enmity. So the picture shows the conflict between the Legion and the powers of evil which are falling back scattered in defeat.

Glance at the picture again and you will see the significance of its arrangement. Between the Holy Ghost at the top and the globe below (which is surrounded by the good and bad who are embraced in the world of souls) is the bond of Mary, the Channel of all Graces, who is depicted as aflame with charity. Those who love her most will be most enriched. Typical of them is the Beloved Disciple who rests on the heart of Christ and lovingly accepted Mary as his mother. That is why, in the chain border, are included Our Lord’s words from the Cross: “Woman, behold thy son: behold thy Mother.”

Every line of the picture mirrors our concluding prayers. See the Legion there advancing in battle array, led by its Queen, bearing her standard, “the Crucifix in their right hand, the Rosary in their left, the Sacred names of Jesus and Mary in their hearts and the modest and mortification of Jesus Christ in their behaviour. “ (St. Louis-Marie de Montfort). We pray that our faith will be our Legion’s Pillar of Fire and so it is represented in the picture, as the fire which melts all Legionary hearts into one and guides them on to victory. St. Elizabeth proclaimed that Mary was blessed because she believed; the words of that proclamation are also in the border: “Blessed art thou that hast believed.” The pillar is Mary who saved the world by her faith. Through encircling gloom she still leads on without a possibility of error all those who call her blessed.

At the end of our prayer is a reminder of eternity: “So that the battle of life over, our Legion may reassemble without the loss of anyone in the Kingdom of Thy love and glory.” What a wonderful roll call that will be, when the faithful Legionaries will muster shoulder to shoulder to receive the incorruptible crown of their membership.

As we say our Rosary we might as well gaze upon out picture, which is also reproduced on the Tessera. In Roman times, the Tessera was like a tally or token which was divided amongst friends so that they and their descendants might always recognize each other. The Roman Legion understood by the Tessera a square tablet on which their watchwords was written and circulated to all.

These ideas are followed by Mary’s Legion. Every member should have a Tessera. It contains the watchword, our prayers. It is the bond of unity and brotherhood between all Legionaries anywhere in the world.

Obedience- the antidote to Relativism (allocutio by Sr. Carina, June 23, 2009)

Matthew 7

"Enter through the narrow gate;for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction,and those who enter through it are many.How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life.And those who find it are few."

Obedience- the antidote to Relativism

These days, you will frequently hear people say that everything is relative. In some cases, this may be true, such as when a person falls in love with another person. He or she may find qualities in the other person that nobody else can see, and that is for him to cherish. But modern man would extend this even further as to say that “There is no objective right or objective wrong.” After all, if there is no absolute truth, no absolute morality, anything goes. This is exactly the antithesis of what the Catholic Church teaches. As the Holy Father once said, “Truth cannot be decided by a majority vote.” Morality is not decided by numbers.

This is why the Church is consistently mocked and derided today. For her steadfastness to the truth, the Church is showered with ridicule. When the Holy Father affirmed that condoms can never the solve the AIDS problem in Africa, he was pronouncing the truth that the Church has always maintained, and the truth which science can verify. But relativists do not believe this. For them, the Church is just a backward institution that is behind the times. However, the fruits of relativism clearly show that it is gravely flawed. Because of it, we have mothers legally killing their children, and children legally killing their parents. The line that draws what is morally right from what is morally wrong is always being shifted around, for the convenience of personal opinion.

This week, we celebrate the lives of great saints who firmly believed that truth is not up for a vote. St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More, two great English Martyrs, refused to budge as so many of their fellow countrymen did, when King Henry VIII of England sought to divorce his wife, Queen Catherine of Aragon. You see, he was besotted with the Queen’s maid, Anne Boleyn. Anne, who refused to be just another one of the King’s mistresses, refused the King until he offers her a betrothal ring. Moreover, Queen Catherine, while she bore him a daughter, had still not given Henry a boy to be the heir to the throne. So the King wanted to divorce his wife. But Rome spoke, and Rome said no. Jesus had said, “What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.” Failing to acquire a divorce or an annulment, King Henry VIII finally broke away from Rome, divorced Queen Catherine, married Anne Boleyn, and declared himself the Supreme Head of the Church of England. But St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More would have none of it. When they refused to acknowledge the King’s authority over spiritual matters, they were accused of high treason and were sentenced to die by beheading. They remained steadfast to the Faith and they paid dearly for it. Those who were one of the few men to keep their heads were the first ones to lose it.

These two men, faithful to the Church, show us Legionaries the way to fight back against relativism. That is with perfect obedience to the Church, perfect obedience to the One God. For obedience implies that there is an ideal that we all aspire to. We know that there is Him and only Him. Obedience presupposes that we are obeying Someone, and that this Someone has set firmly the line that marks what is right and what is wrong. There is an absolute standard. Our standard is Jesus Christ—The Way, The Truth, and The Life. The Legion handbook says that the Legionary is measured not by the greatness of his works or by the vastness of his knowledge, but by his obedience to the Legion system—nothing more and nothing less. We are called to this heroic docility, to die to our own pride.

Let us go back to the Story of the Fall. What was the original sin? Disobedience. Adam and Eve, seduced by Satan, disobeyed God’s command. By that, they were taken out of God’s presence, and would pass on this original sin to us all. But when Jesus came, he reversed everything that Adam did and became the New Adam. As Adam was born of the virgin earth, Jesus was born of a Virgin mother. Jesus also went through all stages of life, so that whatever was fallen in our natures because of Adam’s sin, was made new in Christ. Mary also reversed what Eve did—while Eve was seduced by the serpent, Mary was seduced by the Words of the Angel. Eve’s No to God was countered with Mary’s Yes. There’s a tradition in the Church that the tree from which the cross of Jesus was made, came from the seed of the Tree of Life in the Garden Eden. When Adam lay dying, he begged his son Seth to go to the Archangel Michael and beg for a seed from the Tree of Life. As he died, the seed was placed in Adam's mouth and was buried with him. The seed grew into a tree and emerged from his mouth. Tradition also holds that the place where Jesus was crucified, Golgotha, the Place of the Skull, was the burial place of Adam and Eve. Out of disobedience, Adam and Eve plucked the apple from the tree and Man fell. But out of obedience, perfect and complete obedience, Jesus hung himself onto a cross, and Man was redeemed.

Let us be reminded of this when our courage seems to fail us and we find it hard to do our allocated works and duties. St. Thomas Aquinas said, “Obedience unites us so closely to God that in a way transforms us into Him, so that we have no other will but His. If obedience is lacking, even prayer cannot be pleasing to God.”

Let us pray then that we may always model our lives according to Our Lord and Our Lady, that we may always be obedient to God, to the promptings of His Holy Spirit, so that we may have all the courage we need to resist the temptations from the devil.

“The Devil doesn’t fear austerity but holy obedience.” – St. Francis de Sales

DREAM WITH MARY

by Canon F. J. Ripley

Frank Duff had less than two weeks to live when he issued a simple challenge to every legionary. It was this: "Can we induce ever legionary in the world to indulge in dreaming with Mary about souls, praying with her for a minute a day over a map of the world?" If we could do that it would afford an opening for the motherly operations of Mary. It is part of her office as mother to seize on any such opportunity. Nothing is more certain than that something would happen. Dreaming with Mary is the most solid of actions, for she adds in the substance. The one mistake which we can make is to dream on too low a level where faith is low and thin and poor and feeble.

So, the last challenge from Frank Duff to every member of the Legion he founded was that they should think in terms of the apparently impossible, the conquest of the world for souls. He fervently believed that Mary would make the dream come true.

After all, had he not every right to believe that? He thought of that day in 1921 when some simple people came together to discuss Mary's place in God's plan for the salvation of the world. It never occurred to them to doubt. They asked questions, seeking for information and at the end of the meeting they were satisfied: They were glad to know that Our Lady was so great; so much more than they had thought. They wanted to establish a new relationship with her. Seventeen days later those same people came together in another room in the same building. They asked, how does One put into an apostolic society the suppliant omnipotence of Mary? There was no talk of constituting Mary the patron of what they wanted to do. They knew she was too big for that. In their previous meeting they had discussed her as the Arbiter of the salvation of the world, the Mother of God and of men, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, Mediatrix of graces. So they said to her ever so simply, "Lead us". She did. The Legion of Mary was born. Frank Duff had seen its amazing growth: It was evangelization at its best, the Church at work on that for which Christ founded it.

Fifty years or so after those momentous beginnings, Pope Paul declared that that which had been born on September 7th, 1921 was the most important development in, the Church since the uprise of the great Religious Orders. He added that what he liked best about it was that it knew how to utilize the little people of the world ..

Just before that, Pope John said something which was one of the most precious of all Frank Duffs memories; namely that the Legion of Mary presents the true face of the Catholic Church. Frank said that that phrase touches final heights and no more need be said, except to insist that Mary is the reason for all that has been achieved.

"Conquest comes through Mary", says the present Holy Father. Every Legionary should try to dream every day of the conquest for souls. As the whole Legion looks out over the whole world, wondering how it is going to set the mother influence of Mary flowing over every continent, so, each individual Legionary looks over his or her field of apostolate and wonders the same thing: How is it to be brought beneath the mother influence of Mary?

In that last talk of his, Frank Duff asked those present to imagine a meeting of Our Lady, St. Peter and the Apostles, as they planned the conversion of the world Their task was to give Christ to every Soul. Their vision of the world was far more limited than ours. The places they knew something about would have to come first. But as the world opened up, the new would be attended to.

The Legion today must do what Our lady and the Apostles did in the first days of the life of the infant Church; Now we are faced with immense questions. Frank Duff stated them in that last address of his. How is the Catholic faith to be given to five thousand million people who have not got it; while at the same time stirring up the nine hundred million who have it but should have it better? A sceptic would think it madness even to think about such a problem. What can anybody do about it? Frank said the scoffer would be wrong," Much can be done about it: because the divine infinitude can be arrayed against that apparently unsolvable problem. Ideas germinate, are discussed, referred to Jesus and Mary, and then put into operation. Souls are touched and begin to expand. The evangelization of more places begins; Catholic life is on its way in. Those places would be playing valuable parts in future days in giving the faith to others; Here are Frank Duff's own words,

"If we make our fervent act of faith in Jesus and Mary and then, consign the problem to the Legion system, it is almost like putting it on a conveyor belt. It is on its way. On its way to where? Inevitably to an, immensity not to be measured by our poor contribution but by the might and love Of heaven; The perspectives are unending if we are hand-in hand with Mary. There will be no notice standing in our path: 'Thus far and no farther shall you go:'"

So that, is, why his last wish was that every Legionary should dream dreams, dreams about the conquest of souls for Christ through Mary. Should we not have another dream too? It would be of the whole Church with priests in every parish in every diocese in every country becoming enthused by the ideals of Frank Duff and trying to put them into action in all their undiluted fullness. Surely, if that were to happen, it would be the best possible response to the appeal of the Vicar of Christ for a decade of true evangelization.

Read more articles here

Renewal - Allocutio by Bro. Dominic, May 28 2009

I think these holidays are the perfect time to pause and examine our praesidium. The coming matriculation fair will be a crucial one, and so will the new semester. It would be good if we could spend these few months, in preparation, trying to find specific areas to improve. Hopefully we can devise concrete steps on how we can better live out Legionary duties as a Praesidium.

In today’s allocutio I’ll touch very briefly on a few broad ideas of Legionary service which might be useful to ponder upon with regard to our own Praesidium.

Some weeks ago, Ferdinand talked about Marian devotion, I’ll touch on the topic a bit too.

Our Praesidium is like Her body. Our duty is to provide Her with a foothold to act in the world, a channel through which She can distribute the graces the Lord has entrusted to Her.

We know that we must never approach any work or any person except through and with Our Blessed Mother. How do we live that in reality? It must be something conscious, at the forefront of our thoughts when we carry out our apostolic work. It’s not just a theory at the back of our mind, something to feel good about. She must be at the top of our minds, always on our lips, and never leave our hearts, because it is through Her that we bring Jesus Christ to the world and the world to Jesus Christ.

Our priorities must be in line with our Queens. “She was consumed with love for Her Son in Himself, in His Church, in His earthly Vicar, in His priests, in all His members. The centre of Her life after His ascension was surely in the Blessed Sacrament.” (Jubilee Talks, 61). This must the the case for each of us too.

This brings us to a second theme: that of our interior life.

Our apostolate, and indeed our entire lives must revolve around Holy Mass. Do we go regularly for weekday Mass, and invite other Catholics to join us too? We can offer our apostolic efforts to God during Mass and ask Him to make them fruitful.

We must also never forget the Holy Spirit, Whose Spouse Mary is. Fr Marin told us at our retreat to be open to the Holy Spirit, to be generous – do whatever He prompts us to do.

It is to the Holy Spirit that our Legion is dedicated and it is to Him that we promise our faithful service. He’s also the Giver of Life, the dynamic power of God. He gets things done!

At yesterday’s Legion meeting, Daniel reminded us of the theme chosen for last year’s WYD: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses ” (Acts 1:8).

Prayer and the apostolate are extremely interconnected. Each depends on the other and each makes the other more fruitful. A healthy prayer life is the vital energy behind our apostolate. It is through prayer that we realise how to improve on our apostolic efforts. Likewise, a vigorous apostolate provides much material to take to our prayer – our contacts, our methods of reaching out, our own demeanour and actions all can be taken to our Lord in prayer.

Related to this, I think we should be very concerned about our auxiliaries. They are like the interior life of our praesidium.

We must also pray earnestly and seriously for out Praesidium and the Legion worldwide.

In addition to a strong interior life, we also must be filled with zeal for the Legion apostolate. Do we realise that the cause we are fighting for is worth our efforts; that we are on a mission that is greater than our own whims and feelings? Or is the Legion just a way to do a bit of good work, so that we can feel satisfied with ourselves? Is it one of many projects? Or is it something more? Are we on Legionary duty all the time?

We must be on fire! Look how enthusiastic the forces of the world are! See how active the devil is in today’s world! Can we afford to be lukewarm?

A zealous spirit encourages our fellow Legionaries and attracts Catholics to the Legion. A zeal for the Legion perhaps especially includes a zeal for doing work through the Legion. The purpose of the Legion is to weld its members together into one body (Handbook, 74). This should be reflected in our reports. Are we too often involved only in our own personal contacts? Do we do enough work as a praesidium? This is another feature that could affect our ability to recruit. If all we do is of a personal nature, a non-Legionary might come to the conclusion that he can do similar work on his own. He would see no need to join the Legion and attend its meetings. The idea of doing heroic work as a group – work that an individual cannot do on his own – is attractive.

One sure way to keep our zeal high is to read the Handbook. Read the Maria Legionis. The Maria Legionis is not meant as a piece of leisure reading. Francis Canon Ripley (Jubilee Talks) says it should be a source of inspiration, a source of ideas for work done and the subject of our allocutios.

Officers: keep us informed about what’s going on in Curia, in other Praesidia in Singapore and in the Legion worldwide. That way we can realise that we’re fighting a worldwide battle. It also should help us keep in mind something Ferdinand mentioned last week: that our efforts might bear fruit, not in our own praesidium, but in some other praesidium, in another part of the world, at some other time.

Also conversely, when we are lukewarm, lacking zeal, the entire Legion suffers.

“The Legion will be what the sum total of the efforts of the individual members make it. Each individual has an irreplaceable part to play. At the Praesidium level this means that the ordinary members should be treated as precious people, as other Marys, other Christs. Everybody should be courageous enough to initiate frank discussion in all charity to promote zeal, enterprise, enthusiasm and a true Marian spirit.” (Jubilee Talks, 38)

This zeal requires a spirit of sacrifice from the Legionaries. You don’t lose anything when you work for Christ and His kingdom: “Just as the Paschal Candle suffers no loss when the other lights are taken from it, so our Christ-likeness gives itself to the world without suffering any loss in the process.” (Jubilee Talks, 33).

It’s worth remembering here the words of our Holy Father during his Inauguration Mass:

“And so, today, with great strength and great conviction, on the basis of long personal experience of life, I say to you, dear young people: Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything. When we give ourselves to him, we receive a hundredfold in return.”

Human virtues

Last Thursday I attended a meditation at Opus Dei. Fr Lebano mentioned the need to cultivate of human perfections and human virtues. He said that the current Prelate of Opus Dei, Bishop Javier Echevarria, is very keen on increasing the number of vocations to Opus Dei. When someone asked him what more they should do to achieve this , he replied that one thing they must do is to be more attractive. Each of us Legionaries, and the Praesidium as a whole too, must strive to be more attractive. To be Christ-like is to be cheerful, caring, peaceful, loving. Sometimes we tend to underestimate the power of a simple “how are you?” or a message of encouragement. It is this love that draws members to the Praesidium.

Of course “charity begins at home.” “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:35). We shouldn’t only be cheerful and polite to contacts. Let this praesidium be a true family brimming with love and friendship.

Fr Lebano gave our dear Pope as an example of being Christ-like through little gestures. Upon being elected to the See of Peter as he was leaving his former residences in Rome, he took the time to go to each of his neighours to bid them farewell (and tell them that they could now find him a short distance away, at the Apostolic Palace :))

I find this passage from St Paul’s Letter to the Romans (12: 9-12) very beautiful:

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with brotherly affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Never flag in zeal, be aglow with the Spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Finally I’ll touch a bit on the perils of routine and the idea of renewal. I quote a passage from Canon Ripley’s allocutios. I think it’s useful that we think about this especially when we plan our work for next semester:

Has your Council of Praesidium settled down into a happy routine, doing the same works,, visiting the same people in the same way, reporting always in the identical, matter-of-fact fashion? Have you, personally, tried to infuse new ideas, stimulate the Praesidium to tackle new works, vary its approach or really face up to the problems which confront it?

If the Legion in its Councils, Praesidia or members is not working to the maximum capacity, the mother-love of Mary is being frustrated. She wants to reach out to multitudes of souls through Her Legion, but Her Legionaries are too set in their ways, fail to recruit new members, refuse to widen their horizons or shy at the prospect of heroic work.

We must realise that the aim of the Legion of Mary is to mobilize the whole community to apostleship. At the moment I doubt if the Legion is working to one tenth of its capacity in some of the places where it exists.

We have a duty to try to bring everybody into the ranks of active membership. Do not object that we cannot include non-practicing Catholics or those outside the Church. We cannot include them in their present state: BUT WE MUST TRY TO CHANGE THAT STATE. We are not even making enough effort to recruit Mass-going Catholics into the Legion. The death knell of the Legion has sounded in any place in which the Legionaries are regarded as super-Catholics, an exclusive company of selected souls amongst whom more ordinary people are not welcome. Such an idea is contrary to the spirit and the constitution of the Legion of Mary. Read your Handbook: THE LEGION OF MARY IS OPEN TO ALL CATHOLICS WHO, LEAD EDIFYING LIVES, ARE ANIMATED BY THE SPIRIT OF THE LEGION (OR AT LEASR DESIRE TO FOSTER THAT SPIRIT IN THEMSELVES) AND ARE PREPARED TO FULFULL EACH AND EVERY DUTY WHICH MEMBERSHIP IN THE LEGION INVOLVES. If people think they are being excluded from the Legion, they will develop antagonism to it...

Recruiting is a first Legionary principle. Perhaps one of the reasons why our recruiting figure is so low or why certain admittedly weak Praesidia fail to grow, is that the work has settled down to routine...

The important thing about our work is to be quite definite about the end-product. What are we aiming at? Are we taking all possible means to that end? Can we not enlarge our productive capacity?...There is no limit to what could be done – and it is easy to see that if it were being done, all dominated by the spirit of Mary, new members would come to the Legion, new interest would be created by the varied reports and immense good would result in the Church.”

(Jubilee Talks, 48-50)

Finally, let us be hopeful, and let us expect miracles. Since we trust that we are fighting God’s battle, with Mary as our General, we should be confident – because God does not lose battles.

Let us ask our dear Mother to always protect our Praesidium and make it fruitful.

May the love you bore your Son teach us to love God with all our heart, strength and soul. May the Almighty show us his mercy, strengthen us with his power, and fill us with every good thing (cf. Lk 1:46-56). Amen

(Pope Benedict XVI, Address at Caritas Baby Hospital in Bethlehem, May 13, 2009.)