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Legion HANDBOOK D10944_1 26/02/2014 15:53 Page 26

26 THE DUTY OF LEGIONARIES TOWARDS MARY CHAPTER 6
complete that even the closest of earthly unions — the
mother and the babe unborn—is inadequate to describe its
intimacy. Other natural processes can help to make real to the
mind this place of Mary in the operations of grace. The blood
is not distributed except by the heart, the eyes are the
necessary link with the world of vision, and the bird—despite
the beating of its wings — cannot lift itself without the
support of the air. So the soul, according to the divinely estab -
lish ed order, cannot without Mary lift itself to God or do
God’s work.
Not being a creation either of the reason or of the emotions
but a Divine arrangement, this dependence on Mary exists
even though it is not adverted to. But it can be, and should
be, immeasurably strengthened by a deliberate participation
in it. In intensity of union with her, who is (as St.
Bonaventure says) the dispenser of our Lord’s Blood, lie
marvels of sanctification and an incredible source of power
over the souls of others. Those whom the plain gold of the
apostolate could not ransom from the captivity of sin are
freed — everyone — when Mary studs that gold with the
jewels of the Precious Blood which she has in her gift.
So, beginning with a fervent Consecration, frequently
renewed in some phrase embodying it (for instance: “I am all
yours, my Queen, my Mother, and all that I have is yours”),
this thought of the ever-present influence of Mary in the soul
should be reduced to such methodical and vivid practice that
the soul may be said to “breathe Mary as the body breathes
air.” (St. Louis-Marie de Montfort)
In the Holy Mass, Holy Communion, Adoration of the
Blessed Sacrament, the Rosary, the Stations of the Cross, and
other Devotions, the legionary soul must seek, as it were, to
identify itself with Mary, and to meditate on the mysteries of
the Redemption through that supremely faithful soul which
lived them with the Saviour, and in them played an
indispens able part.
And so, imitating her, thanking her tenderly, rejoicing and
sorrowing with her, giving her what Dante calls ‘the long
study and the great love,’ bringing some thought of her into
every prayer and work and act of the spiritual life, forgetting
itself and its own resources to depend on her; the soul of the
legionary becomes so filled with the image and thought of