July Allocutio 2026
Holiness
Fr. Paul Churchill, Concilium Spiritual Director
The object of the Legion of Mary is the glory of God through the holiness of its members. Our chief focus must be to open ourselves to true holiness. We cannot by ourselves become holy. God alone is holy so if we are to be holy, we must make ourselves available to him to form us in that holiness that He alone knows.
The word Holy is not unrelated to wholesomeness. It is about getting all the balances in your life right. St. Benedict, seeking to learn about holiness and seeking to have a relationship with God, finally came to the view that we were born for community but in that community living we have to find time for God and prayer, for work and for recreation. Our modern frenetic world expects us to have no time for God and to survive without enough sleep and recreation. True holiness helps us find a balance in all our relationships: with God, with others and with ourselves.
Holiness is not about finding a way of coping with our anxieties even if that is one of its fruits. It is certainly not about seeking to be noticed. Heaven will surprise us when we some great saints no one recognized down here! Holiness is not necessarily about doing good works for others. I know some people in long term dependent care who exercise a holiness of acceptance of their condition and giving gratitude for those who mind them.
The one underlying virtue for being holy is humility. It is, if you like the primer. No matter how good or long the prayers, no matter how brilliant a theologian, no matter what penances, no matter what acts of charity, if humility is absent then the job is not going to go right.
Our reading earlier made clear that there can be no holiness without humility. Humility was the great virtue of Mary. Humility is being grounded about yourself, being in touch with your own truth. On the one hand you are made of dust, you are person with limited capacities and understanding, made worse by the infection of sin. On the other hand you are someone who is capable of doing great things, provided you know your place and depend on God.
The fact that the world divides up roles for us reflects the limitations. As St Paul said we cannot have all the skills. One is a teacher, another a doctor, another a sailor, another a plumber etc. And no matter what area you focus on, even be you an “expert”, in that area of life we can make mistakes, misjudge, carry family and tribal prejudices. And that is in matters of this world.
How much more are we limited before God. We fancy we can know and understand God and his ways. Alas! How well Jesus said that no one can know the Father unless the son reveals something of his Father to him. And through Jesus God blows our minds, embracing sinners but chiding the good who thought they knew it all, allowing his Son suffer a most horrible death before giving him the Glory of the Resurrection, of choosing the lowest place.
There it is again: humility. The lowest place. Jesus calls us to put ourselves as low as we can and have no trust in anything about ourselves. Why? Because, apart from being sinners, as he often said, “the one who humbles himself will be exalted”. I ask you all to keep looking in your own life, at what that virtue of humility has to mean, and embrace every moment when you are shown up to be a fool and sinner, because the truth is being opened up to you. But then turn to God and allow him to form you and make you anew and the God of surprises will use you and do mighty things by you.
In this area of humility comes another virtue that can be so hard to swallow and live: obedience. You think you know it all, that you have the answer, that your plan will win. The Handbook calls for an obedience to authority all the time, be it at praesidium, curia, and through all ascending authorities to Concilium and to higher ecclesiastical authority (Handbook, Chapter 29). That chapter makes clear that obedience requires great heroism at times. Many religious who take vows of chastity, poverty and obedience say that obedience is the hardest. Jesus, God, shows us its importance by submitting himself to the humble virgin of Nazareth!
To obey is to submit your will to another. It is a great act of humility because you are accepting that that higher authority knows and sees better than you. By accepting a request of authority that you find hard to swallow you are living in a real way that you do not know everything and that your view may be limited. Besides, every army has to work as a team and those higher up often have a fuller view of a situation than you do.
The Legion of Mary accepts that the highest authority in the Church lies in the College of Bishops and the Pope. Frank Duff always made sure that he had the backing of the highest authorities, attended Vatican II and supported the decrees of Vatican II and the Handbook is peppered with references to that Council. The Legion stands totally loyal and obedient to the Pope and the Church.
But let me go back to those words we read earlier: “ … there can be no union with Mary without some likeness to her, and there can be no likeness to her in default of her special virtue of humility. If union with Mary is the indispensable condition … of all legionary action, then the soil on which these roots depend is humility”.
Let us pray to her asking that great grace of true humility.
