by Susan Fox
Reprinted from Maria Legionis April
1998 based on a talk I gave some years before to auxiliary and
active members of the Legion of Mary
Addressed to the Holy Spirit: “I stand
before you as her soldier and her child, and I so declare my entire
dependence on her. She is the mother of my soul. Her heart and mine are one;
and from that single heart she speaks again those words of old: ‘Behold the
Handmaid of the Lord;’ and once again you come by her to do great things...” (Words
of the Legion of Mary Promise)
If I take off my glasses, I can't
see anything at all. If you asked
me to
point to a close family member in the same room with me, I couldn’t do
it. Being nearsighted can make us feel helpless.
 |
| Author Susan Fox wearing her glasses with son, James Fox about 1995 |
With my glasses on, I'm
an extremely confident person. But
encounter me in the swimming pool with my glasses off, and I would
smile
blandly and vaguely in your direction. But I would never say hello even if I
knew you -- because I wouldn't know you
were there.
I used to work for a newspaper in
Southern California, and in
connection
with that job I had to stay a week at a
posh hotel in Newport Beach
with a lot of
bankers. It was a difficult assignment.
But after work, I made
my way to the
swimming pool, and after swimming my
laps I got into the
adjoining hot tub.
As I eased my aching bones into the water, I noticed a swarthy
looking man with a bodyguard standing behind him. Another man with blond hair
was
soaking in the tub. Now I lived in San
Diego, known as the playground
for
organized crime. In my job I sometimes interviewed men in this profession,
so it was not so far fetched
for me to jump to the conclusion that
I was sitting
in a hot tub in Newport
Beach with a crime boss.
That concerned me. But he left shortly after I
arrived, and when I
wondered out
loud what profession that man held, the blond man cracked up
laughing.
He was probably a “plain clothes” American Secret Service also guarding
the swarthy man, but wearing a bathing suit.
When I got out of the hot tub, some of
my banker friends ran up to
me and
asked what it was like being in the hot tub
with the King. And I said,
"King, what
King?" And they said, "Why King Hussein
of Jordan.
You were in the hot tub with
the King!"
 |
| King Hussein of Jordan sadly now deceased |
Now you may wonder how I am going
to jump from King Hussein of
Jordan to Marian
Devotion. True Marian Devotion is my
topic because
Christ-centered Marian
Devotion is the rock on which the army of
the Legion of
Mary is built.
I had a dream that summed it all up. I dreamt that my glasses
were
broken and I had to walk home, but I
was afraid I wouldn't find the way.
So one nice blurry Person gave me the
hand of a nice blurry lady,
and He said she
would lead me home. When I woke I realized the nice blurry
man was Jesus, and the lady He'd
given me was Mary, His mother. I remember in the dream feeling a little
unsure
of myself. I didn't know who
this lady was. I couldn’t see her clearly. But
she
seemed nice -- like a mother or a
grandmother.
 |
| St Louis Marie de Montfort |
Now there was a great and humble priest
who lived in the 18th
century, who basically
summed up all the best thinking of the
Catholic Church
on the Blessed Mother.
And he constantly worried that Jesus was
not known
enough in the world. His Holiness
Pope Clement XI agreed, so he sent
Father
Louis Marie de Montfort back to France with
the title Missionary
Apostolic, and with the mission to make Christ known by spreading True Devotion
to Christ's Mother. For Fr. Louis Marie and Pope Clement knew that
until Mary
is known and understood, we cannot really come to know Jesus. He will always
remain a nice blurry person.
St. Louis Marie De Montfort declares, "It is the
characteristic of Jesus to conduct us surely to
the Eternal Father... Spiritual
persons
should not fall into the false belief that Mary
can be a hindrance to
them in attaining
divine union. Other creatures - however
holy - may be a
hindrance, but such cannot
be said of Mary."
He further states that the reason why so
"few souls come to
the full measure of the
stature of Christ is because Mary is not sufficiently
formed in their hearts. He, who wishes to have the fruit well ripened and well formed,
must have the tree that produces it.
He who wishes to have the fruit of life,
Jesus
Christ, must have the tree of life, which is
Mary."
With his dying breath, Jesus gave us
Mary as our mother, when from
the cross He
said, "Behold your Mother." But our mother can nourish
us only in the
measure that we depend on her, and work
in union with her. All
are invited by the whole of heaven to
be both a child and a soldier
of Mary. This role especially belongs to active and auxiliary members of the
Legion of Mary.
To be a soldier and child of Mary is the wording of the Legion
Promise.
It contains the entire theology of the Legion apostolate, which is based on the
teachings of St. Louis
Marie de Montfort.
A CHILD OF MARY
The first step to enter a child's
relationship with Mary is to know
her. I recommend you read De Montfort's classic work, True Devotion to Mary,
the Scriptures, and say the Rosary fervently.
De Montfort sets up a plan
by which we can try to live out
our
Marian Devotion by giving ourselves, our thoughts, our merits, even
our
misery to Jesus through Mary.
In his famous thirty-three day
preparation for total consecration
to Jesus
through Mary, Fr. Louis Marie leads you through a
series of prayers,
sacrifices, spiritual exercises and readings that help one prepare
to make their
consecration. This culminates in what is basically a renewal of
the baptismal vow.
If you are able to undertake active
membership in the Legion of
Mary, this will help. The Legion of Mary
was created under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in 1921 by a group of
people consecrated to Mary, who wanted a spiritual system that -- if followed
faithfully -- would allow them to live out De Montfort’s total consecration in
their daily lives. Active membership in the Legion
is like having training
wheels on the bicycle of Marian Devotion.
I made my consecration for the first
time in 1980, and renewed it every
year
since. But as you can see from my
dream, God is telling me I have
just begun to
know my mother. She is still just a blur to me as is her Son. I am at the start
of my spiritual journey.
King Hussein is just a man, an earthly king. But Jesus is the real
King of all Nations. If I got into the hot tub with Jesus, would I smile
vaguely in His direction, and never say hello? Afterwards, you would all run to
me, and say, “What was it like being in the hot tub with the King?” And I’d
say, “What King?” And you’d say, “Why Jesus, King of all Nations! Didn’t you
recognize Him?”
And I’d have to say with the disciples on the road to Emmaus that I
did not recognize Him except later in the breaking of the bread. God’s ways are
unexpected and disconcerting. We expected to meet Him at the crossroads, but he
was with us all the way to Emmaus. We thought we were in the hot tub with a
member of the underworld, and it was really the King.
So we need Mary. And even if we are nearsighted and don’t know Mary
very well, we at least can feel the hand of wonderful lady, who will lead us to
Jesus in the hot tub, Jesus at the crossroads and Jesus in every decade of our
Holy Rosary.
With the writer of Psalm 23, we can pray, “Swing back, doors, higher yet; reach higher, immemorial gates,
to let the King enter in triumph! Who is this great King? Who but the
Lord, mighty and strong...” The doors are the
entrances to our hearts. The gatekeeper is Mary. She’ll always open the door to
her Son, Jesus. You can depend on it.
So I thank God I am nearsighted and
helpless. Helplessness is a great gift given to each of us that we might learn
to depend on God and His Mother.
A
SOLDIER OF MARY
But you might look at me and say,
“Susan, I can see how this helplessness leads me to become a child of Mary, but how can you possibly
call me a soldier if I’m walking
around half-blind all the time?”
But that’s what a Catholic evangelist
is called to be – both soldier and child of Mary.
Call that sense of helplessness
humility, and you will see that only the humble dare to be bold. Only by the
royal road of humility can God be found and then subsequently shared with
others. People will close up and refuse to talk to those who come by the road
of pride and arrogance. But send a soul emptied of self, who truly regards the
one visited as standing on sacred ground, and that soul can reach the most
hardened sinner.
And that’s what the solders in the
Legion do: they build up the kingdom of God through prayer and visiting. Only
the humble are truly bold. Only the humble expect miracles and receive them.
And the great things this army accomplishes is nothing less than the return of
the pagan and dechristianized masses to God starting with George, who lives
around the corner, and Gertrude from across the street.
Another humble soul might not be able
to physically visit their neighbor. They may not be free to be active members
of the Legion of Mary. But every Catholic on earth can become an auxiliary or
praying member of the Legion. Send that soul into the trenches in prayer, and
that soul may save thousands instead of hundreds in their lifetime. And that
soul is doubly blind and twice as helpless because he won’t meet the people he
helps through his daily Rosary said for Mary’s intentions.
 |
| Auxiliary Members of the Legion of Mary are armchair warriors for Christ in His Mother's Army. |
That praying legionary is going to
trust Mary twice as hard because he’s going to be sitting in his armchair, or
quietly praying in Church, and he is not going to see the fruit of his labor
until he dies. And when he dies, all kinds of people will come up to him and
say, “Thank you.” And he’ll say, “Do I know you?” They’ll answer, “Yes! I was lying in the
gutter, drunk, and your prayers gave me the strength to rise and give up
drinking." Or another will respond, "Yes, you helped me. I was in despair, and your prayers brought the
Mother of God to comfort me.”
But in the meantime, Satan will try to
tell you the Rosary is just a bunch of words with no effect. He will try to
convince you that you are too busy to finish it. He will tell you that no one
will care or even know if you don’t say it today.
St. Louis Marie de Montfort had great
faith in the Holy Rosary. In the 18th century, history had already
witnessed the Rosary stopping wars, ending heresies and saving whole towns from
barbarian invaders. Today, we have witnessed the power of the Rosary and Marian
consecration in both Poland and the Philippines. The Filipino strong man
Ferdinand Marcos was toppled from power without a single shot being fired.
Television showed the Filipino people walking the streets and saying the
Rosary. In Poland, the Solidarity
Movement, which helped bring down the Berlin Wall, was driven by the principles
of True Devotion to Mary. Polish trade union organizer Lech Walesa, who founded
the Solidarity Movement, had made his consecration to Jesus through Mary, as
had his spiritual advisor, Pope John Paul II. Both Poland and the Philippines
had been officially consecrated to Jesus through Mary.
So you see the invisible work of Mary’s
children and soldiers. When I read about the work of the Legion of Mary in the
world today, I find the same kind of humble soldiering going on. Legionaries in
Barcelona, Spain, are involved in street apostolates to drug users and
prostitutes. Legionaries hand out Catholic literature on Rodeo Drive in the
heart of Beverly Hills, California. In Africa, legionaries are forced sometimes
by violence to hold their weekly meeting in the fields. There the conversions
are taking place by the thousands.
All this is possible because of prayer
and prayer in action. Legion auxiliaries are armchair warriors for Christ in
His Mother’s army, and the active members are the front line troops. They are
the Marines who secure the beach. When they land, they come forward boldly,
knowing there is a Lady holding their hand -- that Lady, who comes forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon,
bright as the sun, and terrible as an army in battle array.
Would you like to become an armchair
warrior for Christ in His Mother’s Army? To become an auxiliary member it is
necessary to undertake to say the Rosary daily for the intentions of Mary, the
Mother of God. There are some additional prayers here: Prayers that accompany the Daily Rosary But you must sign up with the Legion of
Mary itself. Contact your parish and ask for the location of the nearest Legion
of Mary group.
One of the most beautiful
prayers I’ve ever encountered.
Here are the concluding prayers of the Legion of
Mary:
Confer, O Lord, on us, who serve
beneath the standard of Mary, that fullness of faith in You and trust in her, to
which it is given to conquer the world. Grant us a lively faith, animated by
charity, which will enable us to perform all our actions from the motive of
pure love of You, and ever to see You and serve You in our neighbor; a faith,
firm and immovable as a rock, through which we shall rest tranquil and
steadfast amid the crosses, toils and disappointments of life; a courageous
faith which will inspire us to undertake and carry out without hesitation great
things for your glory and for the salvation of souls; a faith which will be our
Legion's Pillar of Fire - to lead us forth united - to kindle everywhere the
fires of divine love - to enlighten those who are in darkness and in the shadow
of death - to inflame those who are lukewarm - to bring back life to those who
are dead in sin; and which will guide our own feet in the way of peace; so that
- the battle of life over - our Legion may reassemble, without the loss of any
one, in the kingdom of Your love and glory. Amen.
If you decide to say the Rosary daily,
you can get a "Two-For." That is you can be an Auxiliary in the Legion of Mary
and also join “The End of Abortion Movement: The Rosary is the Key.” You can
say your daily Rosary both for Mary’s intentions and “for an end of abortion,
contraception and euthanasia.” It’s easy: sign up here: The End of Abortion Movement
