The Gift of the Acies - April 2013

By Fr. Bede McGregor, Spiritual Director of Concilium

We could easily think of the Acies as our personal and collective gift to Mary and indeed it is so. But it is first the more profoundly Mary’s gift to us – to each individual legionary and to the whole Legion. When we celebrate the Acies, this great central annual function of the Legion, each of us renews our consecration to Mary with the simple words: ‘I am all yours my Queen and my Mother and all that I have is Yours.’ Those are truly tremendous words. We promise to give ourselves totally to Mary. We give to her all that we are and all that we have or do without any exception whatsoever. Nothing in our lives is withheld from Mary. That is the most basic truth and commitment of the Legion. The Handbook puts it very succinctly and strongly: ‘The essential idea of the Legion, upon which all is built, is that of working in union with and in dependence on Mary, its Queen. The Acies is the solemn expression of that union and dependence, the renewal – individual and collective – of the Legion declaration of fealty. Hence it is manifest that any legionaries who can attend and yet fail to do so, have little or none of the spirit of the Legion in them. The membership of such persons is not an asset to the Legion.’

But it is critical that we remember that the total gift of ourselves to Mary is simply a response to her sublime gift of herself to us. Our consecration to Mary is the very least we can do in response to our enormous debt to her. So we need to meditate often on what we owe to Mary. She gives herself utterly to us holding nothing back and even more importantly she gives us Jesus and in him access to God our Father and the Holy Spirit. She is the Mother of the divine grace within us, our created sharing in the inner life of the Trinity. The Handbook recommends that we prayerfully study the Marian Synthesis, Appendix 11 of the Handbook as a preparation for our celebration of the Acies. Another way of preparing would be to once more make our own Frank Duff’s article: Our Debt to Mary.

The Handbook says the Acies should take place on the Feast of the Annunciation or as near to that date as possible and there are compelling reasons behind this recommendation. The conversation that took place between God and Mary at the Annunciation changed the whole history of mankind. The Incarnation took place in direct response to the words of Mary: ‘Here I am ... the slave girl of the Lord ... let it be done to me according to your word.’ Everything begins from there. Everything begins and must be shaped by the Incarnation and Mary is the privileged instrument and channel of the Incarnation. In God’s plan and by his decree the redemptive Incarnation begins in the womb and heart of Mary. There would be no Jesus without Mary and there would be no Church without her and nor would there be any Legion without her free consent to the will and plan of God. These are some of the thoughts behind Frank Duff’s recommendation that the Acies should take place as close as possible to the feast of the Annunciation.

Occasionally I meet people who feel I exaggerate the place of Mary in the life of the Church and in each one of us. Let me quote Pope Benedict on this point: ‘The Icon of the Annunciation more than any other, helps us to see clearly how everything in the Church goes back to that mystery of Mary’s acceptance of the divine Word, by which, through the action of the Holy Spirit, the covenant between God and humanity was perfectly sealed. Everything in the Church, every institution and ministry, including that of Peter and his Successors, is ‘included’ under the Virgin’s mantle, within the grace filled horizon of her ‘yes’ to God’s will.’

We all know that the discovery of the truth of de Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary was the fundamental turning point in the life of Frank Duff. It must be the radical turning point in the life of every legionary. This is where every renewal of the Legion must begin. Recruitment without this offering of the Secret of Mary is worth very little.

So the lovely celebration of the Acies is the expression of our total devotion to Mary, our Totus Tuus, but it is first an expression of our thanksgiving to Mary for all that she is and has done for us as our Queen and Mother. Mary is first totally ours – our divinely gifted mother and Queen.

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