Legion of Mary as a Pastoral Tool

LEGION OF MARY AS A PASTORAL TOOL

A Spiritual Director Speaks to His Fellow Priests By Rev. Francis Peffley

In these challenging days of the "New Evangelization" called for by Pope John Paul II, there is much discussion about what methods are appropriate, a searching for the ideal tool the Church can use to reach the great multitude of unchurched souls, to reclaim those alienated from their Catholic home and to secure the faith and devotion of those within it. Many fine movements exist and presumably there are more to come. The need is vast.

In its eighty years of apostolic history the Legion of Mary has proven to be one of the most efficient and successful instruments pastors can use to effect conversions to the Church and returns to faith and sacraments, as well as invigorating the faith and devotion of ordinary practicing Catholics.

One can open any issue of Maria Legionis, the official magazine of the Legion of Mary, to find countless concrete examples of effective worldwide evangelization. I can personally attest to this so called 'miracle of these modern times' having used it continuously to full advantage in my eleven years of priesthood. To share more fully my experience with this pastoral tool I have separated 8 ideas by using the letters in the word "pastoral."

The first letter, "P" stands for the Legion as the priest's mystical body, a theme found in Frank Duff's book, Mary Shall Reign. He says the priest must have members, the priest must have his own 'mystical body' that he can rely on, in imitation of the Lord. Christ hand-picked his apostles, formed them and sent them out in His name. What did He do next? He welcomed them back and listened to their reports. As the apostles and disciples told Him how they had cast out demons and healed the sick, he listened.

We see the pattern for every priest in Christ the High Priest. He chose His own apostles, and formed them as His mystical body. Christ was the Head, the head of members of a body.

Frank Duff says that every priest should have his own mystical body. It could be 6, 12, 100 souls. He forms them and sends them out in His name. Our Lord could have done it all by Himself, but He chose not to do that. He chose to have others participate in the salvation of souls. As a Legion spiritual director, I believe that we priests should recruit people, hand-pick disciples ourselves. Oftentimes it is left up to other legionaries to do the work of extension and recruiting, but I have found that priests have a special grace when it comes to recruiting new members. If the pastor or the priest asks a lay person to do something, the person is usually ready and willing to say, "yes." I have found that if someone 'is coming for personal spiritual direction they are usually open to a suggestion to visit a Legion meeting to learn more about this beautiful organization.

Those who have recently gone through the RCIA program, recent converts, make some of the best legionaries. Those who have recently returned to the sacraments, or those who have just had their marriages blessed also make dedicated legionaries because they are filled with fervor for their Catholic Faith. It appears that it is converts who are renewing the Church. You hear names like Scott Hahn, Steve Wood, Marcus Grodi, Protestant converts seen on EWTN, who explain how in the past several years nearly 200 other Protestant ministers have come into the Catholic Faith. People such as these are really the lifeblood of the Legion. If someone comes to me for Confession, particularly face to face, I give them a little holy card or a pamphlet on some aspect of the Faith as well as literature on the Legion and encourage them to consider finding out more. The priest choosing souls and forming them around him is building up a mystical body, an extension of his personal priesthood.

As Our Lord sent out His apostles and disciples in pairs so too do we send out our own apostles and then they come back and report to us.

I remember when my sister Edel and I went to Europe with the video tapes of Frank Duff to be translated into other languages, we met a priest from Lisbon who had 9 praesidia in his parish! He said that Wednesday was his Legion of Mary day - three met in the morning, three in the afternoon, and three in the evening. He would attend part of those meetings and listen to reports and give an allocutio. He had about 120 active apostles that he was forming and sending out. Those couple of hours that he spent with his praesidia multiplied his influence one hundred fold. I love what Father Robert Bradshaw said: "A priest should do a hundred men's work, but use 100 men to do It." For a priest to do all of this work by himself would have dire consequences for his health and time management, but if he can multiply himself how much more influence can he exert over souls? So just as the apostles were the hands and feet of Our Lord so our apostles are our hands and feet. As the handbook says, when a priest gathers apostles to himself and forms them, enlightens them, educates them, and sends them out he then can hear and see everything, and can influence a large number of souls. One of my good priest friends once told me, "1 don't now how priests who don't have the Legion in their parishes sleep at night." You know why he says that? Because of Canon Law. In the 1983 Code of Canon Law, numbers 528 and 529 say that a pastor has an awesome responsibility; he will be called to render an account of everyone within his parish boundaries. Just as the Pope will have to render an account of the whole world, priests will have to account for what they did to bring the Faith to all those in their parish boundaries.

Canon Law says that we should do all can to reach out to those who do not possess the true Faith or have fallen away. How can a priest sleep at night unless he has numerous apostles going door to door, reaching out to the unchurched and to those who have left the Faith?

I have found that the 'Legion can survive without a priest but it will not thrive without a priest. It can endure, but it cannot flourish. I have found that with a priest's involvement the Legion will spread, and grow abundantly. Without a priest it can go on for many years because it is a hardy living thing with the prayers, the meeting, the solid system, the Handbook and dedicated legionarIes.

So the Legion is an extension of our priesthood, allowing the laity to bring souls to us who are in need of our sacramental gifts. It is important that the Priest follow up those cases that our legionaries uncover. It can be frustrating to them if they do all this work and have someone on the brink of, coming into the Faith and then nothing happens. It does require us to do the sacramental work - RCIA, blessing of marriages, etc. and this shows how well the priest and legionaries can work together: the head and members beautifully coordinated to reap the harvest.

The next letter in pastoral is "A" and for me it stands for apostolic formation. That is what the Legion does, par excellence. It forms apostles. The Legion, I believe, is the finest organization we have to form evangelizers. Time and time again it transforms ordinary Catholics into well-formed, well-educated and unintimidated apostles. I love the passage in the handbook where the bishops are asking Pope St. Pius X about how to save society. More clergy? No. More schools? No. More churches? No. What is needed, he said, is that in every parish there are laity who are virtuous, enlightened, determined and truly apostolic. According to the Holy Father what is needed are wellformed, well-trained, holy apostles who will take the Good News into the work place to transform and sanctify the world. One of the things I love most about the Legion is that it transforms average souls into active apostles. The Legion, in only a couple hours a week, can transform parishioners into evangelizers who are on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As Legion spiritual director for the past eleven years I have found that there are often more conversions, more .. returns to the sacraments by the legionaries off duty than on their assignments! The assignments are only a couple of hours a week but the legionaries begin to work 'off duty,' influencing family, neighbors and coworkers. Once you transform an ordinary Catholic into an active apostle HE OR she is going to be on duty 24/7, and not just a couple of hours a week.

In the Legion we are forming a legionary mind, a legionary attitude, which is a genuine evangelizing one. One example is a lady from my last parish who is a hairdresser. In addition to her regular weekly Legion assignment she was on duty in her hair salon: it's amazing how many people she would bring to me from her work as a hairdresser! (I must admit that it might have helped her to have a 'pair of sharp scissors threateningly nearby!) Before she joined the Legion she was just an ordinary Catholic but with Legion membership she developed the mind of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is always desiring to bring souls to Christ.

I believe the Legion is what Vatican II is all about - mobilizing the laity to bring Christ to the world. As Frank Duff said, the Legion of Mary is Vatican II in action. This council in its decree on the laity made an act of faith in the Legion. How else would the laity become involved in the apostolate if not for some dependable, apostolic organization?

People generally will not evangelize on their own; they need incentives, organizations, groups. Look at AA. How many people can give up alcohol all by themselves? With the support of a group they can make progress. As for the Legion, it is waking up the sleeping giant of the laity so they can go out to conquer the world.

The formation the legionaries receive comes primarily from the Legion meeting, which is a powerhouse of grace. As the handbook says, the greatest heat is where all the coals burn together. The meeting is that magnifying glass focusing the light of the sun into intense heat that will eventually catch fire. At the praesidium meeting the laity are gathered together, formed, and set on fire, willing to be sent out at the priest's command.

Another way the lay people receive apostolic formation is through the Master/Apprentice system. It is brilliant. Just as in hospitals, interns work with doctors in the practice of medicine and in restaurants waiters train others to perform flawlessly, so in the Legion, without lectures, experienced legionaries expose new recruits to the apostolic work so that in two to three weeks, for example, there appear seasoned workers in door to door evangelization! Within a few weeks these new recruits have become experienced legionaries themselves and take their turn at training others.

It is my experience that Catholics who do not spread their Faith often lose it. Father Faber, the great convert to Catholicism, once said that if you don't try to convert the world, the world will convert you. There is a positive danger that unless you are actively trying to convert the world to Christ, the world will convert you away from Christ. That's what has happened to so many of our families, ordinary families, who have succumbed to the deceptive ways of the world and society. There are so many distractions and temptations that wear away family values and destroy the Faith. The way to solve this is to turn ordinary families into apostolic families, ordinary fathers into apostolic fathers, ordinary mothers into apostolic mothers. The Handbook tells us that when we form our legionaries we form them into living miraculous medals. Sacramentals set up channels through which God's grace will flow--explaining rosaries, miraculous medals, brown scapulars - will set up channels of God's grace to assist a person to return to the sacraments and to the practice of the Faith.

So our legionaries can be said to be living, breathing, walking instruments of grace, sacramentaIs through which God's grace will flow.

When we give the Legion to our laity we are doing them a great favor because we are making them fruitful. It is evident from Scripture that Jesus will ask us to render an account of our fruitfulness. Look at the fig tree. It got cursed and it wasn't even the season for figs! (Frank Sheed said that there were only two times that Jesus worked a miracle of destruction - the figs and the pigs!) The fig tree was not bearing any fruit so Jesus cursed it. Now through the Legion our lay people will be able to bear fruit - they will be able to bring people back to the sacraments, back to Church and parish life. When the legionaries come before God, they will be able to offer to God the fruit of their apostolic labors, made possible by the understanding priest.

The third letter in pastoral is "S", the Legion as a school of spirituality. Frank Duff once said that the Legion makes saints and makes them by the bushel! We have already seen this with the Chinese martyrs and with saintly people like Frank Duff, Edel Quinn, and Alfie Lambe, and others, who hopefully will be beatified or canonized in our lifetime. It's amazing that, being only 80 years old this organization already has 3 lay people up for canonization! It is still in its infant stages, and Frank Duff was praying before he died that the Legion would become fully adult so as to face the more "perilous time to come."

I believe it was Pope Paul VI who said that the establishment of the Legion of Mary was the greatest event in Church history since the establishment of the great mendicant orders, the Franciscans and the Dominicans.

It is something entirely new to the church. So we have the Legion as a school to produce saints. What I see the Legion doing in the lives of my legionaries is developing a spirit of self-discipline, self sacrifice, courage, generosity, obedience, faith, hope and charity and even punctuality! I remember Bishop Paces of the Philippines once said that since the Legion was established in his country there was no more "Filipino time," when everything would start a half hour late! He said that it was the Legion's discipline that influenced his people in such a profound way.

At the heart of Legion spirituality is St. Louis de Montfort's True Devotion to Jesus through Mary. A devotion by which legionaries consecrate themselves and then live in union with our Blessed Mother.

The True Devotion has been the spine of the spirituality of Frank Duff, Edel Quinn, Alfie Lambe, Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa, St. Maximilian Kolbe, Matt Talbot and many others. I believe the book, True Devotion to Mary, has helped to produce more saints since its writing than any other book in recent Church history. We are so blessed to have it as the heart and soul of Legion spirituality. So our spirituality is a Christcentered, Marian spirituality and our Legion membership enables us to radiate that holiness to other people. I myself have been edified and inspired by the holiness that I have seen in legionaries. On PPC projects you might have 80 and 90 year old people knocking on doors in a town miles from home; these are very holy people, the fruit of de Montfort's True Devotion. When I attend a praesidium meeting, I as a priest also receive continual spiritual formation through the Handbook reading, the discussion, the reports of work done.

There is the story of the priest (whose praesidium had only four little old ladies) to whom someone had expressed disappointment in his feeble Legion membership. "What do you mean? I have four saints around my table!" retorted the priest.

The letter "T" stands for the Legion as a "theological resource," a theological reservoir for our members. The Handbook is filled with orthodoxy concerning such topics as the Trinity, the Incarnation, Mary's relationship to the Holy Spirit, and to the Father and the Son, Mary's mediation of grace, Angels, patron saints, the Eucharist, the mystery of suffering. I counted 173 quotations from Sacred Scripture in the handbook. There are 47 quotes from papal documents; references to 62 saints. The Legion offers solid Christology, Mariology, and ecclesiology. Father Aedan McGrath once said that if only one book survived in a fire, and it was the Legion Handbook, you could rebuild the Faith! The doctrines are all there, especially the teaching on the Mystical Body and Mary's motherhood of souls. St. Thomas Aquinas says that the central teaching of our Faith is the Mystical Body of Christ and this is central to Legion spirituality.

O in pastoral stands for the Legion as an "outreach program" We hear much about this in our day and age. I believe the Legion offers a proven method for outreach to the fallen away Catholics and to those outside the Church. You have heard about the three "C's" of Legion work: conversion, conservation, consolation. What is unique about Legion of Mary outreach is that is Marian - The Blessed Mother working through legionaries.

So the Legion is a local presence of Mary. It is not just another organization doing apostolic work, but it could be said to be Our Lady's 'own mystical body.' The Legion is Our Lady's presence, it is her motherhood of souls that it participates in. People call priests "Father," but where is the Mother? It is my opinion that the Legion is the presence of Mary in the parish, and a parish without the Legion is a "single parent" parish, with a 'father', but no mother!

The priest working with the Legion can be both parents to the whole flock, the spiritual sons and daughters. The priest teaming up with the Legion can bring many souls back to Christ. The time a priest invests at a praesidium meeting is an excellent investment. The average membership of my praesidia is about 12 members, all of whom do 2 hours of apostolic work each week under my direction. The result? It's as if I went out and did these 20 to 30 hours of apostolic work! Even if I am on vacation, all of this work goes on, accomplished by the senior and junior praesidia. Multiply these hours of apostolic work by 52 weeks a year and you can see that thousands of hours of aposotlic work is done yearly! The legionaries will promote whatever it is that I feel is important at the time - a mission, the Miraculous Medal Novena, Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration, the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart, the Pilgrim Virgin Statue.

Pastoral has to do with tending the sheep of the laity and priests are called to be good shepherds. I like to kid the legionaries calling them my "sheepdogs." What does a sheepdog do? It fights off enemies and keeps the sheep in the flock. Also the sheepdog might go out and round up the sheep that have wandered away. Legionaries go out and bring back to the fold of the Church those who have fallen away, those who have left the right path. Through praesidium meetings we priests take the pulse of the parish and are able to be in contact with people that we might not ordinarily meet. Jesus says that we are called to know our sheep by name; by listening to the reports we are able to do just that!

The next letter is 'R' and it stands for the Legion offering the laity a rule of life through Active membership: weekly spiritual direction, weekly spiritual formation, a rule of life. The daily prayer of the Catena, the weekly apostolic work, a rule of life.

I think Legion spiritual directors should encourage Praetorian membership; perhaps two or three times a year an Allocutio could be given on it. This membership gets legionaries into the habit of daily Mass and daily recitation of the Divine Office. I have often thought that Frank Duff was very clever by only requiring the obligation of a minute or two of prayer (the Catena) for Active membership. If the rosary had been made an obligation some people would have had an excuse for not joining . The Blessed Mother pulls on that "chain" of the Catena and encourages her children to daily Mass, daily rosary, daily Divine Office - a rule of spiritual life. Legionaries will undertake regular Confession, ask for spiritual direction and for good spiritual reading.

The seventh letter is "A": adult education system. What I have found is that there is a crisis in adult catechesis. Catholics simply do not know their Faith as well as they should and will not be able to pass on the Faith to their children and grandchildren. This is probably one of the greatest problems of the Church today, but the Legion is equipped to solve this problem. The meeting, particularly the handbook discussion, provides in-depth education in the Faith. I want to mention three ways that we can increase adult education through the Legion. One, the Allocutio, provides an invaluable opportunity for us to form the Faith of our legionaries. What I recommend is that the Allocutio last about 5-6 minutes on some definite Legion topic, preferably the spiritual reading from the handbook that the legionaries have just read and studied. The Allocutio is a great opportunity to form and educate souls. Priests shouldn't fall into the trap of rehashing the Sunday homily (which the members have probably already heard). If we have two groups that happen to meet at the same time, then try to attend half of each meeting. The presidents should let us know what the handbook reading is for that week so we can prepare ahead of time; even if we have to come in late for some reason we can at least give an Allocutio based on what they have just read. The second way to increase adult education in the Legion is what the Handbook calls the work of study, the study of the Faith. I think we have lost that great opportunity at the end of the meeting to do a study of the Faith. What I have often done is work through papal encyclicals, documents, the Church Fathers. I made sure everyone had a copy of the designated book or pamphlet, a few pages of which would be read during the week. At the end of the meeting, l had each member say a few ideas based on what they read. In this way you can cover great Catholic literature in the final moments of the praesidium meeting. The third way is the Patricians, a phenomenal system. If I had known how great the Patricians truly is I would have started it eleven years ago instead of only last year when some parishioners wanted to discuss apologetics. The system is described in the Handbook, and I recommend a studied reading. A lay person gives a short talk on a chosen topic and there is a disciplined system of discussion. We have covered topics such as, What do Catholics Believe about Mary? What do Catholics Believe about the Eucharist? Purgatory, the Papacy, Indulgences, Confession to a Priest, Limbo, What must I do to be Saved? Is the Bible Alone all I Need? How did the Reformation Happen? How to Keep your Kids Catholic! This last is a good one to get the Patricians started. This is a great system for getting other people involved. The Legion runs the project and I always have Legion literature available. I tell my legionaries to circulate during refreshments and recruit for the Legion or for other important functions going on at the parish, for example Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration. There is also Junior Patricians for kids under eighteen. One comment about the Junior Legion. I get to see a large number of homeschooled children in our diocese and these make excellent legionaries. We now have a Junior Curia made up almost entirely of homeschooled children. The parents are very committed and dedicated, and religion is a priority. They are extremely interested in passing the Faith on to the kids as well as having them involved in sports and all of the other activities. Perhaps the future of the Juniors lies with these home-schooling families?

The last letter is "L" and this stands for the Legion as a "lay vocation," as a true way of life. The Legion is one of the greatest gifts we can give to a lay person. It is not just an organization, but a way of life. It is a true expression of the Catholic vocation, translating the ideals of Religious Life into the lives of lay people, a blend of the active and contemplative.

We should remind our legionaries time and time again that the life of the Church has known Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits and yes, Legionaries of Mary. I also think that the Legion is a vocation within a vocation for priests. To be a Legion priest, not just attending or encouraging and promoting the Legion, but to be legionary members as priests. We can also be members of the Legion. Remember what Frank Duff exhorted: "Live and die a legionary." When I was a Junior legionary Frank Duff sent me a little note and at the bottom of it he wrote, "Hold on to the Legion." Hopefully that is what all of us priests will do, even as we move from parish assignment to parish assignment. If we have never gone on a PPC, we should go. If we have never made the Legionary promise, we should make it, so as to edify our members. We can enroll ourselves as Praetorian members.

I also like to think of the Legion as the priest's expression of our devotion to Mary. If the Legion is somehow Mary's real presence, then the devotion we have to the Legion, its system, its handbook, its members is an expression of our love for the Blessed Mother. Our patron saint, as the handbook says, is St. John the Evangelist, Mary's priest. He gave her Holy Communion and said Mass for her. The handbook says that every priest should look upon the Legion as St. John looked upon the Blessed Mother. We should look upon the Legion as her presence and upon our membership as a way to love, honor and serve her. I have found that in the Legion I get much more than I give. I have more people praying for me, more support, encouragement and edification from the laity, good Catholic friendships (out of which comes lots of chocolate chip cookies!) There are so many benefits in being a Legion spiritual director. My own spiritual life has been greatly influenced by my Legion membership; it has rounded out my vocation, and has given my priesthood a special, safe-guarding, fulfilling Marian touch. I whole-heartedly repeat what Fr. Bradshaw, who died a Legion priest in Siberia, proclaimed: "As a priest my life is full of joy, but as a Legion priest, my joy is indescribable."

Maria Legionis - Special North American Edition , 20