Allocutio at August 2016 Concilium Meeting by Fr. Bede McGregor, OP

The Mysteries of Mary in the Life of the Legion
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One of the loveliest gifts that come with the Catholic Faith is special relationship with Mary, the Mother of God and our Mother. The Legion cherishes this gift and does everything within its power to foster and sustain this relationship in the heart of every legionary. Every praesidium and Legion Council seeks to be explicitly a School of Mary that creates a special bond with Mary that becomes central to the inner life of the legionary. Some words of the Legion promise sum up this fundamental Legion spirituality: ‘She is the Mother of my soul. Her heart and mine are one. And from that single heart she speaks again those words of old: Behold the handmaid of the Lord and again you come by her to do great things.’

One of the most effective means the Legion uses to achieve this special union of friendship with Mary is the attentive celebration of the great feasts of Mary in the Liturgy of the Church. We start with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Here we proclaim that Mary is immersed in God’s grace from the first moment of her existence and not only for her benefit but for the eternal blessing of every human being. We rejoice that a new era of grace begins with Mary and the fulfilment of the prophecy of Genesis 3:15 is set in motion: ‘I will put enmity between you and the Woman, between her seed and yours and she will crush your head.’ Mary is to proclaim hope in the world. The vesicle that binds all legionaries together is of course: ‘O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.’

Then we celebrate the Nativity of Mary. The Legion shares this birthday with Mary and never ceases to learn from it. We know from faith and experience that nothing worthwhile in the order of grace can begin without some reference to Mary. She is inseparable from Jesus in time and eternity in the mind of God. Without her every apostolate will ultimately fail, for without Mary there is no Jesus and therefore no way to grace and salvation.

Next we have the tremendous feast of the Annunciation, the moment when Mary becomes the Mother of God and the Mother of the Church and indeed of every human being. We are introduced into the spirituality of her ‘fiat’, the primacy of the will of God for Mary and every disciple of Jesus. The will of God is the salvation of all mankind. Mary totally identifies with the salvific will of God and so does the Legion in imitation of Mary. The Legion primarily seeks to be an instrument in the hands of Mary for the salvation of souls. In other words the Legion understands her existence and mission in the context of the universal spiritual maternity of Mary.

Immediately following the Annunciation and Incarnation we have the feast the Visitation. This mystery provides us with the paradigm for every Legion Apostolate, especially the treasured apostolate of the visitation of homes. We reflect on the thoughtfulness, the sense of urgency, the courtesy, the helpfulness, the kindness, the joy and sheer friendliness of Mary when she visits us and her spirit of visitation must be at the heart of everything the Legion stands for.

Then we celebrate the Birth of Jesus. We can never exhaust the joy and hope and the sheer grace of this mystery. Here we are given the deepest definition of Mary and her divinely decreed mission in the world. It is so simply really but it says everything: Mary is the Mother of God and her mission was and is and will always be to give Jesus to the world. As the classic line puts it: ‘To Jesus through Mary’. Everything about the Legion revolves around this mystery of our faith.

There are of course many other feasts of Mary in the Liturgical calendar and each brings us closer to Mary in its own way. But I can only touch on a few of them and then only briefly in a relatively short Allocutio. So I move to Our Lady at the foot of the Cross. She is never absent from the Crucified Christ and whenever we think of the Passion of Christ we instinctively think of the compassion of Mary. With Mary at the foot of the Cross the Legion learns the place of suffering in the life and mission of the legionary. But above all, as we look at Mary at the foot of the Cross we have embedded in our soul the sublime role of cooperation that she plays in the salvation of the world and our own personal salvation.

Now we come to the final mystery of Mary in her earthly pilgrimage through life: the Feast of Pentecost. Here we see a most fundamental dimension of the interior life of Mary: her relationship with the Holy Spirit. We picture her in the Cenacle in the midst of the infant Church teaching them how to be open to the Holy Spirit in their own interior lives and in their future apostolates. This is one of the great works of Mary in the Legion: She leads the Legion to total consecration to the Holy Spirit and openness to all his many gifts. Every meeting in the Legion seeks to relive that basic Cenacle experience and so must always begin with prayer to the Holy Spirit.

Finally, we contemplate Mary as she exists now in her glorious state. The Assumption of Mary keeps us focussed on our ultimate destiny in heaven and provides us with strong motives for out apostolic outreach. The Legion is primarily in the business of helping people into heaven. Every soul without exception is infinitely precious to Mary and therefore to the Legion too. Everything we learn about Mary in and through her earthly journey is fulfilled in an unimaginable degree and extent in her Assumption into heaven. Just a few examples: she no longer lives by faith but now by the beatific vision; so she sees each one of us in every detail in the heart of God and reflects His love for us especially the infinite tenderness of His Mercy. Her spiritual maternity is magnificently transformed. The glorious body of Mary is no longer subject to the limitations of time and space and so she is given a special created sharing in the omnipotence of God. In a real sense, the Assumption of Mary is the feast of her most intimate closeness to each and every one of us.

St. Augustine explains very beautifully how when the Son of God became incarnate He did not leave the side of the Eternal Father and when He returned to the Father at the Ascension He did not leave the side of mankind. He remains in the very midst of his Church as its vital and sustaining principle. Something, with all due proportion, can be said of Mary. At her Assumption into heaven she does not leave the side of mankind but draws even closer to us as Mother of the Church and of all mankind in a new and more intimate way. This is a sublime blessing for the Church and the Legion.

I began this reflection on the feasts of Mary in the life of the Legion by moving rapidly through the great Marian feasts in the Liturgy of the Church. We do the same thing, day in, day out, through the humble gift of the Rosary. Let us become more and more aware of the reasons why our founder Bro. Duff said that the Rosary is irreplaceable in the Legion. It helps us to cherish the mysteries of Mary and Jesus in the life of the Legion. Amen.

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