The Secret of Frank Duff in the Society of St. Vincent de Paul

Concilium Allocutio February 2011

By Fr. Bede McGregor O.P.

Spiritual Director to the Legion of Mary

The Secret of Frank Duff in the Society of St. Vincent de Paul

Last month we spoke about the important changes that took place in the life of Frank Duff when he joined the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in 1913 at the age of twenty-four. He says that he always felt it was a privilege to visit the families who were forced to live in the degrading slums of Dublin of that time. Despite his own social background and education and work as a gifted civil servant he felt no sense of superiority. In fact he saw himself as an honoured guest and the friendships he made on these continuous visits lasted a lifetime. He maintained this presence in the life of the poor of Dublin through his daily presence and commitment to the Morning Star Hostel for men who were crushed by poverty and many other social ills and in the Regina Coeli Hostel for Women and their families who would probably not have survived very well outside the Hostel. He records that this habitual home visitation was blessed by many graces of return to the faith and reception of the sacraments. And all that our Founder learnt from this immense apostolic experience he translated into the handbook of the Legion of Mary and it became a source of the spirit of the Legion.

But the question arises: what was the secret or deepest motive of Frank Duff in his work for the St. Vincent de Paul and the early years of the Legion of Mary? In answer let me quote his own words: ‘When I joined the Vincent de Paul Society, a phrase began to come into my philosophy which was important because it was one of the key ideas of the work of that Society, and that is, we went to the unfortunate and we relieved their necessities, and the text to which I refer was the one from the 25th Chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew: “I was hungry and you gave Me to eat, thirsty and you gave Me to drink, in prison and you visited Me” and so forth. And I found that a very appealing ideal, and one that was terribly helpful in one’s work, especially when applied to less pleasant situations.’

‘For instance, people who were suffering from diseases of some kind that were difficult to go near; very, very dirty surroundings, and that sort of circumstance. And that text had a great value in such conditions. You would think over it and thus you were encouraged to go forward, the idea being that Our Lord was so passionately fond of all these afflicted ones that He is prepared to take as if done to Himself what is done to them. And of course that idea was aided by the fact that it was only the unfortunate classes that were specified, and therefore it seemed to one to be a case of His mercy; He loved them because they were in such need and He would take as done to Himself what we did unto them. And that was the only significance that I imparted to that text, and later then when I began to have a look at the Mystical Body it would only represent a widening of that idea namely that the Mystical Body was not restricted to the suffering classes but was much wider; it embraced all the people of the Church.’

Our Founder frequently points out the significant fact: ‘the doctrine of the Mystical Body was explained to Legionaries on the very first night of their life as Legionaries, and it was always the idea of the Legion. They always worked on that doctrine; tending the Body of Christ with his Mother. But the stating of that doctrine with some degree of minuteness was not attempted until one of the revisions of the Handbook.’ So the very first allocutio given at the very first meeting of the Legion on the evening of the September 7th 1921 was on the Mystical Body of Christ. So clearly, the fundamental dimension of the charism of Frank Duff and the Legion of Mary is to live as fully as possible the doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ in union with Mary the Mother of Christ and all his members.

However, we must note most carefully, that in 1934 while reading the book on the Mystical Body of Christ by Ernest Mura and more specifically the preface by Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange he felt he understood this doctrine properly for the first time. He said with regard to this book: ‘A worthy book. Well, I took it up in any case on this particular day, and sometimes it happens that we skip a Preface, and in this case the Preface was the grandest part, and that is not taking in any way from the magnificent contents of the book which had its own merit of a special kind, as I will in due course try to point out. But I started off on Garrigou Lagrange. It was a fairly lengthy Preface – as I recall it now it would have been 10 pages, and as I went I began to get my electric quivers! And at some point along the line of reading I said to myself: Heavens, the thing is a reality, it is not a quasi or an “as if” or a sentiment or mystical in the common but completely incorrect sense of the word. It is a reality. He is telling us that the Mystical Body is an absolute reality; as real as substance itself; more real.

I was really quite – I would go so far as to say that I was overwhelmed by this.’

In the coming months we will have to dwell on the doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ because it is one of the most decisive elements in the charism of our Founder and of the Legion itself. We must treat each other not as if Christ were present in us but because he really and truly is present in us. What we do to the least of the brethren we do in fact do to Jesus. There is no separation between Christ and the Church, he really lives and acts in the Church, that is through you and me.