Allocutio at August 2015 Concilium Meeting by Fr. Bede McGregor OP

Mary: Mother of Mercy

As we continue to prepare for the great Jubilee of Mercy, the Legion instinctively turns to Mary the Mother of Mercy. She is the God given guide and companion to all of us into the heart of divine mercy made incarnate in her Divine Son. Without her we would miss many of the most tender and beautiful fruits of the great Jubilee of Mercy.

Today I would like to reflect on the place of mercy in the mystery of Mary and her mission in the world as manifested in the Legion prayers found in the Tessera.

In the Salve Regina we greet Mary as ‘Hail holy Queen of Mercy’ because she is the mother of God, who is the source of all mercy and so she is totally immersed in God’s mercy and becomes the sublime instrument of God’s mercy and so the mediatrix of all graces. Then we pray: ‘Turn then most gracious Advocate your eyes of mercy towards us.’ That sentence underlines a basic dimension of all our prayer to Mary.

So we move to the Sub Tuum, the oldest recorded prayer to Mary in the history of Christian devotion to her. Cardinal Schonborn along with many other scholars points out that the oldest manuscripts and versions of this prayer begin: ‘We fly to your mercy O Holy Mother of God’ and not ‘We fly to your patronage O Holy Mother of God.’ Certainly mercy reflects the spirit of Christian prayer to Mary more than that of the later theme of patronage.

Of course, we must point to the Hail Mary, the most popular and universal prayer to Mary in the Church. In many ways this prayer has shaped the very heart of the Church and of the Legion. It is the first way we all learn to speak to Our Lady and it would be difficult to find a more beautiful way. Because of her deep love and understanding of Mary as Mother of Mercy it is not surprising that in the 15th Century the Church added a second part of the Hail Mary: ‘Holy Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Those words surely express the deepest sentiments of every legionary heart and indeed of every true Christian.

Reflection on the Hail Mary leads us on to the Rosary which Frank Duff our Founder considered irreplaceable in the spirituality of the Legion. And the Rosary is nothing else but a dwelling with mind and heart on the Person of Our Lord from His birth to His passion, His Resurrection and Ascension and finally the giving of the Holy Spirit to the Church. In other words, the Rosary opens to us the whole history of salvation and the graces of the mysteries of Christ and our redemption. And the History of salvation is the history of God’s mercy to mankind. The mercy of God provides the deepest ambience for the praying of the Rosary.

Now we come to the Magnificat that St. John Paul 11 calls ‘Mary’s hymn to the divine mercy.’ We call it the Catena, the precious link that binds all legionaries to Mary and each other in a joyful and grace-filled family. We take great delight, both active and auxiliary members, in praying Mary’s hymn every day.

Mary begins her song by telling us that her spirit, what is deepest in her, rejoices in God her Saviour. In other words she acknowledges that everything about her, both in nature and grace is a gift of God’s mercy. She knows that she has been redeemed in a unique and special way. The Immaculate Conception is the sublime manifestation of God’s redemptive mercy, not only for Mary but for the whole world. Mary is God’s absolute gratuitous gift of mercy to the world. In her very conception, and indeed through her whole life, Mary is a sign that sin does not have the last word and that ultimately God’s mercy will infallibly triumph. It is no wonder that Mary sings; ‘The Almighty works marvels for me, Holy is his name. His mercy is from age to age to those who fear him.’ Yes indeed, the mercy of God is infinitely greater than our sinfulness. It is boundless and timeless; that is the message of the Immaculate Conception, the feast that is so dear to the Legion since its very inception. Mary concludes her hymn to God’s mercy by reminding us that mercy is at the source of all salvation history. She sings: ‘He protects Israel, his servant, remembering his mercy, the mercy promised to our fathers, to Abraham and his sons forever.’

The last prayer of the Tessera also centers us on God’s mercy. Whatever the ups and downs of our life with its quota of grace and sin we confidently entrust our departed legionaries and all the faithful departed to the mercy of God. We are called as legionaries along with all the faithful to trust absolutely in God’s mercy knowing that it is impossible for that trust to be misplaced. And moreover, as legionaries we have entrusted ourselves in a special way to Mary, the Mother of Mercy all our lives so we can be certain that she will be there at the end to lead us to the heart of God.

Let me conclude with a quotation from a German theologian who was praised by Pope Francis for what he had to say on Divine Mercy. It sums up much of what I was trying to read into the prayers of the Tessera. He writes: ‘Mary says to us and shows us: the Good News of God’s mercy in Jesus Christ is the best thing that can ever be said to us and the best thing we can ever hear. At the same time, it is the most beautiful thing there can be because it can transform us and our world by means of God’s glory, expressed in His gracious mercy. This mercy is God’s gift and, simultaneously, our task as Christians. We are supposed to enact mercy. We should live it in word and deed and give witness to it. In this way, our often dark and cold world can become somewhat warmer, lighter, more endearing, and more worth living because of a ray of mercy. Mercy is the reflection of God’s glory in this world and the epitome of the message of Jesus Christ, which was given to us as a gift and which we are called to bestow on others.”

*****************************************