Advent and True Devotion to Mary

Advent is a good time to reflect on the place that Mary has in our lives. Advent is a time of preparation for the coming of Jesus. It is a time for giving a heartfelt welcome and hospitality to our Lord in our heart and soul. It is a time to renew and deepen our friendship with Jesus. No one can help us to do this better than Mary. As St. Augustine said so long ago, Mary carried Our Lord not only in her womb but first and foremost and more importantly in her heart. She longed to see the face of her child and her God. Union with Mary will lead us to the true spirit of Advent: a longing for Jesus.

This Advent I want to begin a little series of reflections on the True Devotion to Mary according to the spirit of St. Louis Marie de Montfort and the Legion Handbook. I would love to give a stimulus to the promotion of True Devotion to Mary throughout the world, first among our legionaries on all five continents and then beyond her boundaries to everyone the Legion contacts in her many different apostolates, but above all to our non-Catholic brothers and sisters. We cannot over estimate the influence that the TDM had on the interior life of Frank Duff and in the foundation of the Legion. The Legion is always at its best where the TDM is known and lived. The opposite is also true: neglect or decline in True Devotion to Mary and inevitably we get a caricature of the true Legion spirit. We all need to habitually go back to our spiritual roots in order, not only to survive but, to thrive.

Let me begin with an excerpt from one of Frank Duff’s letters. He writes: “The real thing in the practice of True Devotion is the creation in oneself of a spirit of union with Our Blessed Lady. If that is there, it is everything. One could apply to it the celebrated saying of St. John the Evangelist in regard to love, i.e., that by itself it covers everything.

I think that the important basic idea is the reflection that everything in our soul is subject to the maternal influences of Mary whether we realise it or not, and even whether we know her or not. Her role is that of the mother to her immature child who is dependent on her for all things. Therefore it is no fanciful business to enter into that compact of total dependence, which is advocated by St. Louis Marie. That dependence already exists and our consecration is really no more than the acknowledgement of it.” So the key words are union with and total dependence on Mary.

Our Lord Himself is the perfect model of True Devotion to Mary and this is particularly evident during the Advent and Christmas season. During the nine months of pregnancy God wills to be dependent on Mary in a special way. He shares her blood and his heart beats with the same beat as her heart. But once more we must emphasise that God was not content simply to make his earthly home in her womb but he freely wills to entrust himself totally to her maternal heart and tender love. He had already willed to allow Himself to depend on Mary for her ‘yes’ to the Incarnation and the whole work of redemption. Mary in God’s plan is the pivotal point of all contact between heaven and earth. And it is the heart that is central to the role of Mary in the eternal plan of God for each one of us.

Let me quote again from a letter of our founder: ‘You indulge in some thinking on the subject of Our Lady’s mediation. As an example of the way in which this works, you point to the neck of the human body. That is the example, which St. Bernard rejoiced in using. If you look at the Legion Handbook, you will find that it rather inclines towards the image of the heart. The latter is subordinate to the head but is utilised by the head to feed the whole body through the arterial system.’ The heart of Mary is the key image in the practice of True Devotion to Mary. Like our Lord Himself we entrust ourselves utterly and completely to the heart of Mary in every aspect of our lives without exception. We unite ourselves to her in our work whatever it may be, in our family life, in our sickness and health, in our recreation and in all our relationships. It is a lifelong project that we habitually try to live with the help of God’s grace and Mary’s intercession. The heart of Mary is above all a maternal heart as Frank Duff writes: ‘Because Mary is above and before anything else a mother, it is not enough to call her Immaculate and to declare that she is the greatest of women. All these things come after the fact that she is the mother, first of Our Lord and then of all mankind.’ True Devotion to Mary means taking with the utmost seriousness both in theory and practice, Our Lord’s invitational command ‘Behold your Mother.’

In this allocutio we have taken only the first step in unpacking what is involved in True Devotion to Mary. As we progress through the coming liturgical year, we will talk about other aspects of this approach to Mary. A right relationship to Mary is imperative for the Legion. If that is in place in the heart of every legionary, everything else will follow in terms of holiness and apostolate. Look carefully this Advent and Christmas at the role of Mary in the life of Our Lord. See his union with the dependence on Mary. Let us follow His example. Amen.