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LEGION OF MARY

APPENDIX 11

A MARIAN SYNTHESIS: PRESENTING IN BRIEFEST POSSIBLE COMPASS THE STUPENDOUS ROLE OF COOPERATION GIVEN TO MARY IN THE TOTAL SCHEME OF SALVATION. IF DESIRED, IT MAY BE USED AT THE ACIES AS THE COLLECTIVE ACT OF CONSECRATION, OR (WITH THE FIRST PARAGRAPH OMITTED) ON OTHER OCCASIONS

Our Queen, our Mother,
The momentary pause before your standard gave time only for the briefest formula of love. Now we are more free to let our hearts reveal themselves and to enlarge that little act of consecration into a fuller profession of our faith in you.

We realise the immensity of our obligation to you. You gave us Jesus who is the source of all our good. But for you, we would still be in the darkness of the lost world, still under the ancient sentence of death. From that extreme of misery, Divine Providence willed to rescue us. It was pleased to utilise you in that merciful design, assigning to you a part which could not be more noble. Though utterly dependent on the Redeemer, you were decreed his helpmate, brought as near to him as a creature could be, made indispensable to him.

From all eternity you were with him in the intention of the Most Holy Trinity, sharing his destiny: Proclaimed with him in the original prophecy as the Woman of whom he would be born: Joined with him in the prayers of those who awaited his coming: Made one with him in grace by the Immaculate Conception which wondrously redeemed you: United to him in all the mysteries of his earthly career from the angel’s message to the cross: Established in glory with him by your Assumption: Seated beside him on his throne and administering with him the realm of grace.

Of all mankind, you alone were pure enough and strong enough in faith and spirit to become the New Eve who, with the New Adam, would reverse the Fall. Your prayer, already full of the Holy Spirit, drew Jesus down to earth. Your will and flesh conceived him. Your milk nourished him. Your surpassing love enveloped him and enabled him to grow in age and strength and wisdom. In a real way you moulded him who had made you. Then when the hour ordained for the offering was come, you freely gave the divine Lamb to his mission and to his sacrificial death on Calvary, enduring with him a plenitude of suffering like unto his own - such that you would have died along with him but that you were detained to nurse the infant Church.

Having thus been his inseparable helper throughout the accomplishing of Redemption, you have been no less with him, no less necessary to him, in the Christian dispensation. Your maternity expanded to receive all those for whom he died. You mother mankind as you mothered him, because we are in him. Each soul remains committed to your patient care until at last you give it birth to life eternal.

As it was willed for the completeness of the plan of salvation that you should be instrumental in every part of it, so was it required that you be included in our worship. We must appreciate what you have done, and through our faith, our love, our service, attempt an adequate acknowledgement.

Having thus declared the vast extent and sweetness of our debt to you, what more is there to say but to repeat with all our hearts: “We are all yours, our Queen, our Mother, and all that we have is yours”.

"This is the first time that an Ecumenical Council has presented so vast a unification of the Catholic doctrine on the place which Mary most holy occupies in the Mystery of Christ and the Church. But such is in conformity with the purpose, which the Council had proposed to itself, of manifesting the face of Holy Church. For Mary is joined to the Church in the very closest way. As has been magnificently declared: 'She is its grandest part, its best part, its special part, its choicest part.' (Rupert de Apoc.)
In truth the reality of the Church does not consist solely in its hierarchical structure, its liturgy, its sacraments, its judicial pronouncements. Its deeper essence, the primary source of its efficacious power to sanctify, are to be sought in its mystical union with Christ. This union cannot be regarded as something apart from her who is the Mother of the Word Incarnate, and whom Jesus Christ willed to unite so intimately to himself for the accomplishing of our salvation. This explains why it is that into that survey of the Church must properly be inserted the loving contemplation of the wonders which God has wrought in his holy Mother. The knowledge of the correct Catholic doctrine on Mary will always constitute a key to the exact comprehension of the Mystery of Christ and the Church.
And so it is that we proclaim the most holy Mary to be the Mother of the Church, that is to say of all the people of God, of the faithful and their pastors." (Pope Paul VI: Discourse during Vatican Council II)
[This quotation does not form part of the Synthesis.]

Part of an address delivered by the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II to the Legion of Mary

Yours is an eminently Marian spirituality, not only because the Legion glories in carrying Mary's name as its unfurled banner, but above all because it bases its method of spirituality and apostolate on the dynamic principle of union with Mary, on the truth of the intimate participation of the Virgin Mary in the plan of salvation.

In other words, you intend to render your service to every person, who is the image of Christ, with the spirit and the solicitude of Mary.

If our one and only Mediator is the man Jesus Christ, as the Council states, "Mary's motherly role towards men in no way dims or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ: on the contrary, it demonstrates it efficacy" (Lumin Gentium 60). So the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Auxiliatrix, Perpetual Help, Mediatrix, Mother of the Church.

For its birth and growth, apostolic work looks to her who gave birth to Christ, conceived by the Holy Spirit. Where the Mother is, there too is the Son. When one moves away from the Mother, sooner or later he ends up keeping distant from the Son as well. It is no wonder that today, in various sectors of secularized society, we note a widespread crisis of faith in God, preceded by a drop in devotion to the Virgin Mother.

Your Legion forms a part of those movements that feel personally committed to the spread or the birth of that faith through the spread or the revival of devotion to Mary. It therefore will always be able to do its utmost that, through love for the Mother, the Son, Who is the way, the truth and the life of every person, will be more known and loved.

In this perspective of faith and love I impart the Apostolic Blessing to you from my heart.

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