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Legion HANDBOOK D10944_1 26/02/2014 15:53 Page 279

CHAPTER 39 CARDINAL POINTS OF THE LEGION APOSTOLATE 279
which I am to offer to her?” Others will go further and their
objection will present itself as follows: “Would I not turn away
from God were I to direct my prayers to her?”
All these grades of doubt proceed from applying earthly
ideas to heavenly things. Such persons are thinking of the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and of Mary and the
saints, as if they were so many statues, so that to turn to one
they must necessarily turn away from others. Various
examples might be utilised to help towards a better
understanding of the true position. But, strange to say, the
simplest and at the same time the holiest solution of such
difficulties lies in the recommendation: “You must, indeed,
give all to God, but give it all with Mary.” It will be found
that this apparently extreme devotion to her is free from the
perplexities which measur ing and moderation bring.

Every action should endorse her Fiat. — The justification
of this method is to be found in the Annunciation itself. In
that moment all mankind were joined with Mary, their
representative. Her words included their words, and in a sense
she included them. God viewed them through her. Now, the
daily life of a Christian is nothing else than the formation of
our Lord in that member of his Mystical Body. This formation
does not take place without Mary. It is an outpouring and a
part of the original Incarnation, so that Mary is really the
Mother of the Christian just as she is of Christ. Her consent
and her maternal care are just as necessary to the daily growth
of Christ in the individual soul as they were to his original
taking of flesh. What does all this involve for the Christian? It
involves many important things of which this is one: he must
deliberately and whole-heartedly acknowledge Mary’s position
as his representative in the sacrificial offering, begun at the
Annunciation and completed on the cross, which earned
Redemption. He must ratify the things she then did on his
behalf, so that he can enjoy, without shame and in their
fulness, the infinite benefits thereby brought to him. And that
ratification: of what nature is it to be? Would a once-repeated
act suffice? Work out the answer to this question in the light
of the fact that it was through Mary that every act of one’s life
has become the act of a Christian. Is it not reasonable and
proper that likewise every act should bear some impress of