Legion of
Mary
Melbourne Senatus
Prayer with Action
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Legion of
Mary
Melbourne Senatus Prayer with Action |
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Annual Mass 2008
Most Rev. Peter J. Elliott, STD Auxiliary Bishop, Melbourne
Frank Duff was born on June 7th, 1889, in Dublin. But history has strange twists and turns. Just over a month earlier, Adolf Hitler was born, in Braunau, Austria. What a contrast we see in the lives of these two Catholics. One man rose up to lead a glorious legion of light and life, the other man descended to the depths and led a doomed legion of darkness and death. One responded to the vocation of his baptism and used the gift of faith to the fullest. The other rejected that divine call and abandoned his Catholic faith. Here, in the lives of two men of history, we touch upon the great mystery of free will and grace and how the choices in one man’s life can resonate for many years. Frank Duff lived a long life, 91 years, returning to the Father on November 7th, 1980. I wish to select some features that marked his life and I invite you to reflect on specific qualities that make a Catholic leader and lay apostle. The early influence in his life as a young man was his commitment to the Society of St Vincent de Paul in Dublin, work which left him with an abiding love of the poor and a perceptive sense of the need to evangelise and catechise. Like the Servant of God Pope John Paul II, Frank Duff was deeply influenced by the Marian spirituality of St Louis Marie de Montfort. He read True Devotion to Mary in 1917, but he took that spirituality in a concrete and corporate direction when he founded the Legion of Mary on September 7th 1921. With Mary in our Gospel reading he conformed himself and the Legion to the will of God: “Let it be done to me according to your word.” Frank Duff had a deep understanding of the mystery of the Church as the Body of Christ. In his lifetime, guided by the Holy Spirit, our Church underwent a self-examination: what does it mean to be the Church? That process began in the years when the Legion was very young, when Pope Pius XI set up Catholic Action, our response to the challenge of the atheistic pseudo-religions of totalitarian ideologies. But Frank knew that authentic Catholic Action must be animated by strong spirituality, Marian spirituality. He eagerly responded to the teachings of that giant of a Pope, Pius XII, who recalled us to a deeper understanding of the teachings of St Paul, that the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, that we all have different roles as active cells in this living body. Then came the Second Vatican Council. Frank was invited to assist at the Council as a Lay Observer. He rejoiced at the approval of the magnificent dogmatic constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, which emphasised not only the Mystical Body but the pilgrim Church, the People of God moving forward in time. The Legion already had a sense of the dynamic pilgrimage and mission of the Church, so the Council only deepened and focused what was already there. With a keen Irish missionary zeal, Frank had promoted the rapid growth of the Legion in many developing countries where the Council has been interpreted in a positive way, that is, in continuity with the past, not as a break with the past. This hermeneutic of continuity is promoted strongly by Pope Benedict XVI. However there was one central truth of the Second Vatican Council that Frank Duff had anticipated many years before - the universal call to holiness. Let us never forget that his first little publication was entitled Can we be Saints? That booklet was written four years before he founded the Legion of Mary. The title Can we be Saints? puts the universal call to holiness in a nutshell. Like the founder of Opus Dei, St Josemaria Escriva, Frank insisted that holiness was for everyone, not just for clergy and religious. In this perspective, we understand why Frank Duff was a man of prayer, who devoted four hours each day to personal prayer. He thus understood only too well the need for spiritual discipline in Christian life. Hence he was able to expect much of others and inspire others to become truly spiritual Legionaries, soldiers of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, enrolled in the army of Mary. He chose the vivid symbolism of the army of imperial Rome, and spiritualised it, so that it became the army of the new Rome, the city no longer of emperors but of the Popes, successors of Peter the Fisherman of Galilee. I wish therefore to recall all Legionaries to what Frank Duff always required, an obedient and joyful commitment to serve the Supreme Pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI. This service surely begins by learning in the Holy Father’s school of divine wisdom, by studying his penetrating encyclicals on love and hope, by learning from his crystal clear allocutions at the Wednesday audiences on the Fathers of the Church, by being open to that New Liturgical Movement he promotes, that is, a rediscovery of beauty in worship, of reverence, mystery and the holy traditions of our Roman Rite. All this enriches us and equips us to be effective agents of the great movement launched by the Servant of God, Pope John Paul II, the New Evangelization. The Legion can play a key role in that work of mission among our people and among the drifting unchurched masses in our own secularised “post-modern” society. Frank Duff saw the Mystical Body, which is the People of God, as engaged in a battle for souls under the banner of the Immaculate Virgin, the unfurled banner of love. His vision remains valid today, because the mission inherent in that vision is even more urgent. As never before, the Legion of Mary is needed – you are needed. Therefore, for all the great work that has been accomplished in your ranks and even greater work ahead, on behalf of so many bishops and priests, I say “thank you!” I wish to take this opportunity to put on record my own happy memories of the Legion in the parishes of Lilydale and East Malvern. Thirty years ago, when I was assistant priest to the legendary Father Tricarico at St Patrick’s, Lilydale, we set about re-founding the Legion in the parish. Mary Rafter came out to encourage and guide us and soon a strong group was at work. I must admit that we adjusted the rules, at least as they stood in those days, and various retired Mercy Sisters joined the team as “honorary Legionaries”, helping the Lilydale praesdium with their immense pastoral experience. I recall well the prayerful commitment of a holy and dedicated Irish nun, Sister Martina Cotter, RSM. In my last parish, St Mary’s East Malvern, the small but valiant Legion struggled on, finding prayer and some visiting to be the only service that ageing Legionaries can offer. This raises the phenomenon of small ageing groups in the Legion, a problem and a challenge that I know you are confronting. But there are great signs of hope in this land. World Youth Day 2008 is speaking to all the apostolates and spiritual movements in the Church in this land. The message of the extraordinary events in Sydney is clear and loud. Yes, a new generation of young Catholics is emerging in our midst and they are not “cafeteria Catholics” but Pope’s Catholics. Yes, it is imperative that we re-evangelise Australia, proclaiming Jesus Christ without compromise. Yes, we can do this! The resounding “yes” of World Youth Day is the “yes” of the Holy Virgin of Nazareth and through her consent the Son of God took flesh to redeem us all; “Let it be done to me according to your word”. Today we honour Frank Duff with the title ”Servant of God”, that is, a candidate for being named “Venerable”, the last step that should lead to his beatification. Let us pray that the happy days of his beatification and eventual canonisation will come soon, not forgetting the cause of Edel Quinn, a valiant woman who lived the Legion rule and Marian spirituality so fully. We thank God for these great ones who have gone before us “marked with the sign of faith”. We see these Catholic Christians responding to the universal call to holiness. May they encourage and inspire us to respond to that same call, the call of the Church, the call of Jesus Christ himself, a call to holiness and mission.
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God our
Father has gathered us here today under the mantle of Mary Immaculate, to offer
the sublime and eternal Sacrifice of his Son, to hear the Word of the Lord, to
be nourished by his Body and Blood. In this Mass of Our Lady we are also
celebrating the life of a great man who has gone before us, the saintly founder
of the Legion of Mary.
