June Allocutio 2026
Mary united with Jesus for the healing of sins
Fr. Paul Churchill, Concilium Spiritual Director
When we come before Our Lady in prayer we come with one statement about ourselves. Let me quote: “Pray for us sinners” (Hail Mary), “Before you we stand, sinful and sorrowful” (Memorare), “poor banished children of Eve” (Hail Holy Queen). Yes we come as children of Eve, sinners. But our protestations about our sins may not be fully in touch with reality. I say this because of words Our Lord said on the Cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”. It is beyond us to understand how the infinite majesty of God is offended by our sins but there may be more.
Those words are said by Him who is bearing his Passion so as to undo our sins. He alone knows more than anyone the weight of our sins. Oh yes, we all have things we did and said that cause us shame and regret and for which we have genuine sorrow. And some are so burdened by the wrongs they did that they end up depressed, crippled, in psychiatric wards, or even commit suicide.
Our problem is that we do not even see many of our sins nor the damage they do. Perhaps our many negative attitudes, our lack of trust in others, our pride, have also done more damage than we know! You and I may imagine ourselves as okay, not great sinners, just the usual faults. Perhaps something we have a habit of doing, or something we do not see about ourselves, has left greater wounds than we imagine. We pass some misfit and rubbish them in our heart. But they are the way they are because of a lack of love. Someone dabbles in drugs. “Personal, you know, nothing serious, recreational!” But you do not realise that you are part of that world-wide network that has caused the drug-cartels and all the deaths they cause. Some look at porn, “Well just a bit”. But you may be abusing other people in doing so and undermining your own relationship capacities. We do not know. Lord, we do not know. May your grace help us to see better so that we can begin a change.
George Elliot had these words in his work Middlemarch: “For the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistorical acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life and rest in unvisited graves”. Very true! But equally, future generations may suffer because of some harm or wrong we did which left its dark imprint on history and our Purgatory may be to watch in shame and horror as we see the downstream consequence of so many words said, so many attitudes that were negative, so many actions done or undone which left damage. We do not know what we are doing.
But I want now to point out one great remedy for all this—the Mass.
Christ, in his passion, took on all the sins of the world. ALL! His suffering and death was that one moment on history where the total effect of all sin became concentrated onto one person and he absorbed it to its dregs but remained a friend to us and trusted God to the bitter end. “He didn’t say even one bad word”. Reviled, he did not revile in return. That one noble act won conquered sin.Because he carried his sacrifice into eternity, he has made it the one eternal offering for all sin. Einstein’s relativity theories say that time can be bent, telescoped. But Einstein didn’t know the half of it. When we celebrate Mass we are brought to that moment when Christ died on the Cross and carried his sacrifice into eternity and so made it available across all time. And what we do at Mass is connect to that sacrifice and make it our own. That is why we pray in Eucharistic Prayer III “Look, we pray, upon the oblation of your Church, and recognizing the sacrificial Victim by whose death you willed to reconcile us to yourself …” It is also why we ring bells at that time of Mass, and why we kneel, to signal that that eternal sacrifice is now made present on the Altar for us to offer to God in reparation for our sins.
But that is not all. Christ asks us all to unite ourselves, our lives, our work, our actions and thoughts to that sacrifice and enter into it ourselves. He himself said, “Do this in memory of me.” So we must, like him, and with him say, “This Lord is my body, given up for you. This Lord is my blood offered up with you who forgave us our sins. Help me also to forgive”. It is by uniting ourselves to that sacrifice we can overcome our own sins and help change the world for better.
The death of the sinless one, totally offered to God without reserve, undid all our sins. What we have to do is to make contact with that sacrifice and allow its blood flow over us. Legionaries are encouraged to attend daily Mass. We should certainly observe that command that calls us to Mass each Sunday and on other special occasions and enter into its mystery whole-heartedly. Like St. John let us stand close to Mary and with her offer up this sacrifice for our own sins (and the holy souls). By as active a participation from our hearts, uniting ourselves with Christ, let us offer our bodies to his service and let us, with Mary, forgive all those who offend us. And let us hear Christ commend us to each other to look after each other and rid ourselves of every negativity, begging God to help us see better what our sins do so that we can resolve all the more not to sin. And let us there, with St. John, make a place for our Mother Mary in the home of our hearts because she, born conceived without sin, will help us to be healed of all out infirmities, those we know about but also the hidden cancers that can lurk in our souls. “Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you”.
