Allocutio at May 2016 Concilium Meeting by Fr. Liam O’Cuiv

The Holy Spirit Source of New Life

At Pentecost we celebrate the birth of the Church – and how the Father sent the Spirit on his Apostles giving those who we see in the Gospel of John to be enclosed and afraid, new power and new life.

The Holy Spirit always brings about fruitfulness when he acts in our lives. At the Annunciation, the Angel Gabriel tells Virgin Mary who wonders how is it that she is to conceive and bear a son. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow.” The Holy Spirit is uniquely the source of Mary’s fruitfulness, the secret of her virginal conception.

When we read St. Luke’s account of the promise of the Holy Spirit in Acts, Jesus tell the disciples that the power of the Holy Spirit will come on them too. The same power that gave birth to the Son of God gives birth to the Church, His Body at Pentecost. The same promise is made to the Church at its very beginning.

In our desire to be renewed by God, individually and collectively as legionaries, we can find ourselves asking our own “How will this be?” How can our hopes and God’s promise of new life become reality for us? For us legionaries, the promise of the Holy Spirit is both a source of our inspiration and a call to have courage in whatever situation in which we find ourselves. The Holy Spirit gives us power to announce the Word of God, and produces life in all who hear the word. The Handbook speaks of the Holy Spirit using Mary as the channel to the world of his life-giving influences, and as having taken possession of the Legion.

Frank Duff spoke and wrote frequently about the Holy Spirit and the Blessed Virgin Mary in the plan of Redemption. The Handbook (p.8) refers to his profound insights on this relationship. He clearly understood the unique place of Mary in God’s plan of salvation. He writes: “As Mary is the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, full of His grace, His inseparable partner in his external mission, it follows that she has become like unto him to the ultimate extent that a creature can be…From this we can go on to say that she furnishes the most complete human expression of Him.” (The Woman of Genesis p.274). In the same article he writes that the term ‘Spouse’ does not mean that the Holy Spirit is either the husband of Mary or the Father of Jesus Christ. He is neither of these, but the agency and power through which the Father produces His Son in Mary.

From the above this Servant of God has been able to affirm that ‘Devotion to the Blessed Virgin is incomparably the best devotion to the Holy Spirit’ (cf. Victory through Mary p. 431ff). And I might add that we already know that our devotion to Mary is always to the glory of God whose creature she is. So our praise of Mary itself leads us to worship God for his greatness, echoing her own words, “The almighty has done great things for me, Holy is His name.”

At the beginning of his ministry Pope Francis wrote in Evangelii Gaudium: ‘How I long to find the right words to stir up enthusiasm for a new chapter of evangelization full of fervour, joy, generosity, courage, boundless love and attraction! Yet I realize that no words of encouragement will be enough unless the fire of the Holy Spirit burns in our hearts. A spirit-filled evangelization is one guided by the Holy Spirit, for he is the soul of the Church called to proclaim the Gospel (E.G. 261).

In a special way we share this desire and we too wish to be part of God’s response to the prayer of Pope Francis for today’s many challenges. For us every day can be a new Pentecost. In the life of the Legion of Mary we have seen many outpourings of the Holy Spirit, as it were many Pentecosts, from its very foundation and earliest days in this city, recounted by Frank Duff in his book, Miracles on Tap, to the reports we have heard today and hear in our meetings. Moreover, through the Holy Spirit, today the Legion of Mary speaks all languages.

Let us therefore invoke the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in calling on the Holy Spirit of whom she is the Spouse. Let this be the hour of the Holy Spirit. Like the Apostles let us put aside all fear, all division, and rivalry, all that might impede the Holy Spirit of love, who alone can renew the whole world; may he act in us.

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