Allocutio at November Concilium by Fr. Bede McGregor OP
The Weekly Meeting: The Heart of the Legion
Two words frequently associated with the role of Pope Francis are reform and renewal. Of course there is nothing new in this task since it is as old as the Church itself. The well-known Latin dictum sums it up: Ecclesia semper Reformanda est: The Church is always in need of being reformed. This is true both at individual and community level. And of course, it applies to us legionaries and the Legion itself. The 11 Vatican Council was a magnificent gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church to guide her in her internal renewal and to inspire her mission of evangelisation of the modern world. It was also a potential gift of God to the Legion especially because Frank Duff was invited to the Council and immersed himself in the spirit of the Council as actually expressed in its Documents and post-conciliar magisterium.
After more than two decades of studying all the writings of Frank Duff, our Founder, I have come to the conviction that the last 15 years of his life are in many ways the most significant for the future of the Legion. Of course the very first meeting of the Legion and the providential preparation for it by the repeated and profound reading of ‘The True Devotion’ by Louis Marie de Montfort and his years of experience of working among the poorest of the poor through membership of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul are an indispensable means of entering into the true spirit of the Legion of Mary. And indeed, the whole history of the Legion as it developed through the years is a priceless heritage that we neglect at our peril.
However, after the Council, alongside true forms of renewal there are many false interpretations of the Council with disastrous results for many religious orders, congregations, lay associations of the faithful and many local Churches. During those years suggestions and attempts were made to change things that are essential to the specific charism of the Legion. We are all familiar with these dangerous proposals or temptations. But Frank Duff fought hard to keep the Legion intact and in the Handbook and especially in his letters he has left us really precious guidance for our future.. One of his constant and trenchant principles was to say: ‘By all means make whatever changes you like, borrow what you want, but I beg you do not call it the Legion of Mary.’
Obviously, I cannot within the short compass of a single allocution give an adequate account of the years following the Council and how false interpretations of it attempted to change the Legion and how Bro. Duff responded to them. So let me take just one example: the weekly meeting of the praesidium. First let us recall how the Legion sees this weekly meeting in the Handbook: ‘This weekly meeting is the heart of the Legion from which the life-blood flows into all its veins and arteries. It is the power-house from which its light and energy are derived. It is the treasury out of which its own special needs are provided for. It is the great community exercise, where someone sits unseen in the midst of them according to promise; where the peculiar grace of the work is bestowed; and where the members are imbued with the spirit of religious discipline; which looks first to the pleasing of God and personal sanctification; thence to the evangelisation which is best calculated to achieve these ends, and then proceeds to do the work assigned, subordinating private likings.’
The most obvious thing about a Legion meeting is the Legion altar. We place a statue of Our Lady as mediatrix of all graces among us. This lovely sacramental reminds us of her presence among us and we strive to make everything said and done at the meeting, no matter how heated it might sometimes become, to harmonise with her spirit. The Rosary and the Magnificat also emphasise the Marian atmosphere at the meeting. And from sheer dint of repetition especially when it comes from the inside of the legionary gradually leads to the joyful conviction that we have the tremendous privilege of working with and for Mary in bringing Jesus to the world. He is everything to Mary and therefore to the Legion. Mary is the secret of the Legion both in its prayer life and its apostolate.
Next in importance is the reporting on apostolic work done by each legionary. It can happen so easily that we merely talk about the apostolate; we even fantasise about what we could or should be doing in the apostolate, but in the weekly Legion meeting we must report on the apostolic work we have actually done in the previous week.. This method it seems to me is an infallible way of forming an apostolic spirit – a true lay apostle.
Next we have the planning and allocation of apostolic work for the following week. We must at least aspire to some heroic apostolic work by some of the members and we try to meet the real spiritual needs of the parish or the people we are dealing with. The work is determined by the praesidium under the guidance of the Parish Priest or the Spiritual Director. This weekly practice forms the legionary to be always thinking and loving with the Church and for the Church. We don’t seek to simply act according to our own likes or dislikes. We desire to be always at the service of the Mystical Body of Christ.
The weekly meeting of the Legion is utterly unique. It is not simply a prayer group although it is profoundly contemplative and prayer forms a substantial part of the meeting at its beginning, middle and end. Nor is the Legion a purely apostolic group although it provides an impressive apostolic formation and actually engages in weekly apostolic action. The Legion if true to his/her charism must be a contemplative lay apostle and the weekly meeting is the privileged way the Legion forms us to a life of prayer, faith formation, and genuine apostolate. As the saying goes, the Legion is a school for making saints and minting apostles. The meeting is more like the original cenacle experience. After prayer together with Mary they go out at her instigation to evangelise the world, starting from the place and the people among whom they live and work.
The weekly meeting must be held sacrosanct in the Legion; it is always the infallible means of authentic renewal in the Legion. When the meeting is weak or half-hearted the Legion will be too. Let me give the last word to the Handbook: ‘The legionaries shall therefore regard attendance at their weekly praesidium meeting as their first and most sacred duty to the Legion. Nothing else can supply for this; without it their work will be like a body without a soul. Reason tells us, and experience prove, that neglect in regard to this primary duty will be attended by ineffective work, and will soon be followed by defection from the ranks of the Legion.
