When asked about the difference between the Legion and other groups, I think it comes down to our spirituality: and as it comes from the name, it is Marian. What does a Marian spirituality consist of? The Church has, over the decades, developed and reformed various different Marian devotions, teachings and dogmas. From the Holy Rosary, Novenas and the Brown Scapular, to the various feast days honoring our Blessed Mother, such as the Immaculate Conception this coming Friday; Holy Mother Church provides such a vast treasury for us to live out a Marian Spirituality and to become devoted to our Blessed Mother. These beautiful devotions and observances are very much good things and meritorious, but is this all that there is to live out a Marian spirituality?
Today’s reading talks about St. Louis de Montfort, a holy saint and patron of the Legion, and daresay one of the most influential writers of Marian devotion and spirituality, so much so that the Legion invokes him in our opening prayers. Frank Duff said: ‘The Legion of Mary owes, you might say, everything to de Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary.’ And in the Handbook he writes: ‘It can be safely asserted that no Saint has played a greater part in the development of the Legion than he.’ The Handbook is full of his spirit. As the reading mentioned, his influential work of True Devotion to Mary has been of the most important books about Mary and the Catholic view of her, and if you look at Chapter 6: on the duty of Legionaries towards Mary, point 5 mentions about the importance of undertaking his True Devotion.
St Louis Marie de Montfort
That Devotion requires the formal entry into a compact with Mary, whereby one gives to her one’s whole self, with all its thoughts and deeds and possessions, both spiritual and temporal, past, present, and future, without the reservation of the smallest part or slightest little thing. In a word, the giver places himself in a condition equivalent to that of a slave possessing nothing of his own, and wholly dependent on, and utterly at the disposal of Mary.
Now, some people may be uncomfortable about this. Shouldn’t these things only be said to the Lord? Isn’t this what the Protestants accuse us of ‘worshiping’ Mary? Well, we must understand that Authentic and True Devotion to our Lady is absolutely Christocentric, and must not be isolated from the mystery of the Holy Trinity. As our Lord mentioned, He is the Alpha and the Omega, and as such, all of our devotions to our Blessed Mother ultimately starts with and must end with the Lord. Anything that does not or distances us from our Lord, is ultimately a false and dangerous devotion. “Only God!” is one of St. Louis’ key formulas. For him, everything comes from the Father and everything returns to the Father. Mary is at the heart of this and rightly so: “When someone has once found Mary, and through Mary, Jesus and through Jesus, God the Father, he has found all that is good...all of God’s grace and friendship, all truth against lies, all ease and victory against lies, all ease and victory against difficulties of salvation, all sweetness and all joy in the bitterness of life”.
It is precisely why Marian devotion is so powerful, because where Mary is, the Lord is also, so beautifully enshrined in the words ‘To Jesus Through Mary’. She is the Daughter of the Father, the Mother of the Son and the Spouse of the Holy Spirit. Her ultimate purpose is to point us to her Son, and any and all glory given to her is pointed directly back to the Son. Think of it in the context of the Genesis story of Jacob and Esau. Jacob’s mother clothes him in the fur and scent of Esau so that he may receive the blessing from his Father,
Isaac. St Louis de Montfort gives the analogy of the present being presented by the peasant to the king, but the queen mother intercedes and cleans up the offering making it more pleasing to the Lord. We entrust it all to Mary and become truly poor- in every sense. But why? It is so that we may give ourselves more faithfully to Jesus. Above all, de Montfort and the Legion see the essential relationship between the Holy Spirit and Mary in the mystery of the Incarnation. The Word becomes flesh through the power of the Holy Spirit and the total and humble cooperation of Mary. That principle remains true for all times and places, for every individual person and community: Jesus comes into our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit and the cooperation of Mary. That is the secret of the Legion apostolate and its spirituality.
In a sense, true devotion to Mary and authentic Marian spirituality must represent not just an act but a state of living. A state of total conformation to God’s will by entrusting ourselves to our Lady’s hands. St Louis presents us with 5 characteristics of True Devotion: it must be interior, tender, holy, constant and disinterested. He also warns us of false devotions: the critical, the scrupulous, the external, the presumptuous, the inconstant, the hypocritical and the interested devotees. Today, let us reflect on these characteristics of true devotion to our Lady.
We owe St. Louis Marie de Montfort a great debt of gratitude for the gift of his teaching and life. So we pray: St. Louis Marie intercede for the Legion of Mary and all those among whom the Legion lives and works. May we also live our duties as Legionaries well, embracing the motto of St. John Paul II, ‘Totus tuus ego sum, et omnia mea tua sunt.” I am all yours, and all that I have is yours.
Allocated Work: Share and reflect with someone on the tenets of True Devotion to Mary/Invite someone to go for the Mass of the Immaculate Conception.
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