Legion of Mary
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Coordinator: Kolly Mars · (816) 807-1319 · kolly.mars@icloud.com
Meetings: Tuesdays, 5:00-6:30 PM @ School Conference Room (Fellowship 5:00 - 5:30, meeting starts promptly at 5:30, and is usually done by 6:30.)
Ministry Description: The object of the Legion of Mary is the glory of God through the holiness of its members developed by prayer and active co-operation, under ecclesiastical guidance, in Mary's and the Church's work of crushing the head of the serpent and advancing the reign of Christ.
The Legion of Mary is the largest apostolic organization of lay people in the Catholic Church, with about 3 million active members in almost every country of the world. The Legion of Mary has been active in the United States (USA) since 1931, has been approved by 7 Popes, and was endorsed by the Second Vatican Council. The main purpose of the Legion of Mary is to give glory to God through the sanctification of its members.
Members of the Legion of Mary become instruments of the Holy Spirit through a balanced program of prayer and service. Our works include door-to-door evangelization, parishioner visitation, visitation of the sick or aged, Catholic education, visiting the newly baptized, and meeting the other spiritual needs of the parish community. Legionaries are under the guidance of a spiritual director named by the pastor.
Members meet weekly for prayer, planning and discussion in a family setting. Then members do two hours of definite work each week in pairs and under the guidance of their spiritual director.
Auxiliary Members of the Legion of Mary are not required to attend the weekly meetings but pray the Rosary and a few additional prayers, known as the Tessera, daily.
An Excerpt from 'The Theology of the Apostolate of the Legion of Mary':
Daily we witness spiritual disasters, spiritual shipwreck. What are we waiting for? The suitable moment? But there are many such. We are waiting to be asked, then? Do we expect the man lying wounded by the roadside to recover consciousness and call out before we stoop to bind up his wounds? Here is the gist of (a letter from a socialist atheist).“I encountered Christ when I was twenty-eight. I think of the years before that meeting as lost years. But am I alone to blame for that loss? Listen: no-one ever asked me to take an interest in Christianity.
I had friends and acquaintances, practicing Christians, fully aware of what religion brings to human life… But not one of them ever talked to me about his faith.
... I was simply one of thousands, one of those millions of young men who are neither good nor bad, with a very vague and erroneous impression of Christianity…
Do you know why I had to wait so long before I found out the truth?
Because most believers are too indifferent, too fond of their comforts, too lazy. They do not bother themselves about their neighbors…”
May God forgive us our sins of omission, our tranquil cowardice, the crime of inadequate love! With a world hungry and thirsty for God -- that unknown God for whom man is groping -- ... every Catholic should cry his message from the roof-tops.
In our world of today, more than ever, the need is for strong, courageous Catholicism, heedful of the tremendous spiritual distress which surrounds us. And so the Legion expresses its Marian devotion in military terms. The Legionary forms an alliance between himself and Mary, the Queen of God’s battles.
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