"Who is she that comes forth as the morning rising,
fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in battle array?" - Song of Songs 6:10
Chapter 5: The Devotional Outlook of the Legion, Part 7- Bringing Mary to the World (pg 24)
Earlier last week, when I started to prepare the allocutio, my eyes stopped at the very first sentence. If devotion to Mary will work such wonders….
“What kind of wonders?” I asked myself. This thought made me re-read the previous sections of the handbook more thoroughly. I then realized that indeed, we will be surprised that devotion will bring grace and cause transformation in our souls. This devotion to Mary will produce incredible efficacy for the salvation of men, and for the coming of the kingdom of Christ. Understanding these, I cannot help but to ask further questions of myself, “Am I devoted to Mary to the point I can see such wonders?” “Do I truly devote my life, especially my daily life to Mary and her Son so that I can have an adequate transforming of my soul”? These questions remained imbedded in my mind for the rest of the weeks.
Now if I ask you this question, “are you willing to bring Mary to the world?” I think there’s no doubt we all would say “yes.” And we all want to utilize and put forth effort together to fulfill this purpose. But in order to do so, according to the handbook, we are all required to act in perfect harmony of loyalty and discipline. Without proper loyalty and discipline, no way we can say “yes”, no way we can bring Mary to the world, And no way we can transform ourselves for a proper devotion to the hand of authority to compass the world, and which Mary will deign to use the Legion of Mary as an agency to accomplish her maternal work for souls, and to carry on her perpetual mission of crushing the head of the serpent.
St. Paul said in 1st Corinthians, “Everything is lawful, but not everything builds up… And no one should seek his own advantage, but that of his neighbors.”
If we devote ourselves to Mary for our own benefit or advantage and build ourselves up, resulting in the benefit of others, then that would be great. However, what Paul refers to were the lawful things that do not build. In other words, they cannot build us up, neither can they build the others. Therefore, regardless of how much knowledge we have, how hard we work, and how right and lawful we are… we can only attach to something else instead of God and Christ who Mary brings us to. With this kind of attachment and devotion, how could the Legion of Mary be truly build up and how can we devote ourselves to Mary for the wonders of her work?
My dear brothers and sisters, Jesus says: “whoever does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother.” Let us do the will of God. That is, to be a loyal and disciplined legionaries so that we and others may benefit. Let us not be attached to anything else but bring Mary to the world so that we can truly see the wonders of her work, bringing us to God and Christ.