The Gift of the Rosary
Concilium Allocutio October 2010
By Fr. Bede McGregor O.P.
Spiritual Director to the Legion of Mary
The Gift of the Rosary
As all legionaries probably know, some years before the foundation of the Legion of Mary, Frank Duff wrote a pamphlet entitled ‘Can we be Saints?’ He argued with great conviction that God calls everyone without exception to be saints and He provides all the necessary means to that end. Apart from one letter where he gives permission to translate the pamphlet into Polish he never refers to this little work again. The reason for this is probably because the central theme of the pamphlet has become the central theme of the handbook and the aim of every legionary. The Legion is a call and a practical way of becoming a saint. The primary objective of the legion is the holiness of its members. But there is one profound difference between the pamphlet and the Handbook. When he wrote ‘Can we be Saints?’ he had not yet undergone the deep religious experience mediated by St. Louis Marie de Montfort and his ‘True Devotion to Mary’ nor had he read the book ‘The Knowledge of Mary’ by De Concilio which enabled him to grasp the work of De Montfort.
The overwhelming experience of the True Devotion to Mary radically changed his life. He was given a profound insight into the place of Mary in God’s plan for the salvation of the world. She was essential to this plan because that was the way God willed it. No matter which mystery of Our Lord that we reflect on we find that Mary has an indispensable role to play in it. So, if we begin with God taking His place in the womb of Mary we are faced with a staggering truth: Jesus living in Mary, making Himself totally dependent on her for his human reality. It is not just a biological maternity but a bond of the most unimaginable intimacy between the Mother and her divine Child. Being baptised into the life of Christ we are invited to share in his relationship to His Mother and her relationship with Him. Then on Calvary at the end of his life the Gospel of John makes some tremendous statements. We read: “By the Cross of Jesus stood his Mother”. Mary is inextricably involved in the passion and death of Jesus, her Son. Then we hear the cry of Our Lord in the most dramatic moment of his life: “Behold your Mother”. During the course of his life Our Lord taught us to say Our Father and on the Cross He teaches us to say Our Mother. Frank Duff spent a long life trying to unpack the full meaning of Mary’s motherhood of Jesus and his mystical Body, the Church. He knew with absolute certainty that one could never be a saint without the help of Mary or without an all pervading relationship with her.
It is only in the context of all the mysteries of the life of Christ that we can fathom the riches of the Rosary as Mary’s great gift to the Church. Pope Paul the sixth said the Rosary was a compendium of the whole Gospel. Others have said the Rosary is the Gospel on its knees. It certainly immerses us in the whole history of salvation. It opens us to the special grace of each of the mysteries of the life of Christ. It plunges us into the mystery of Jesus. Most mothers remember all the significant events and words of their children but Mary never forgot anything Jesus said or did. She kept pondering on everything in her heart. She was the loving keeper of the whole Gospel in her heart so that it could never be eradicated. In the Rosary Mary shares with us her memories of Jesus. John Paul II was fond of saying: ‘In the Rosary we contemplate Jesus and his mysteries with the eyes and heart of Mary.’ We can learn a great deal about true devotion to Mary from books, lectures and workshops but when we pray the Rosary we actually live the heart of this devotion which is to go to Jesus through Mary. The basic reason why Our Lady incessantly asks us to pray the Rosary is simply because it puts us mind and heart in contact with Jesus. This meeting between Jesus and ourselves in prayer is an infallible way of bringing joy to the maternal heart of Mary.
It is probably self evident that the Rosary is crucial to the Legion. The Handbook says: ‘what breathing is to the human body, the Rosary is to the Legion meetings’. This is even truer of the individual Legionary. The Rosary is an essential part of the interior life of every Legionary because it puts Jesus at the centre of our lives.
Shortly before he died Frank Duff, our Founder, attended Mass celebrated with the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II and afterwards they had breakfast together and an extended meeting. The meeting gave immense joy to Frank because he met a twin soul so to speak. The Pope’s motto ‘Totus Tuus’ emphasised how important De Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary was to his spiritual life and could also sum up the life of Brother Duff and the Legion. Also, what the Pope wrote about the Rosary could have been written by our Founder when he wrote: ‘The Rosary is my favourite prayer. A marvellous prayer! Marvellous in its simplicity and in its depth ... The Rosary itself is a contemplative prayer and is also a powerful form of intercession: indeed whoever recites it is united with Mary in the various situations of life and history.’
