Legion of Mary Blog

Below is a novena in preaparation for the 100th anniversary of Edel Quinn’s birth. It starts today (Thursday) and continues until September 14. All legionaries and all who are interested are encouraged to participate.

Novena in Preparation for the 100th Birthday of Venerable Edel Quinn

September 14, 2007

Begin the Novena on Thursday, September 6th and end on Friday, September 14th

FORMAT:

Theme of the Day

• Day One: Coincidences or Omens
• Day Two: Taste and See the Goodness of the Lord (Total Devotion to the Eucharist)
• Day Three: The Mystical Home of Nazareth
• Day Four: Man Proposes; God Revises
• Day Five: The Work of God May Be Found Anywhere
• Day Six: True Devotion to Mary
• Day Seven: Challenge, Courage, Confidence
• Day Eight: Mission Impossible: Fact or Fiction?
• Day Nine: The Fifth Dimension of Legion Service (Must Finish the Race)

Opening Prayers of the Legion including One Decade of the Rosary from the Mysteries of the Day

Reading: Excerpt from the life of Edel Quinn (see below)

Intention of the Day: Reflect for at least three minutes on the intention.

1. Day One: To be fearless in following a truly Christian vocation
2. Day Two: To aspire to Praetorian/Adjutorian Membership
3. Day Three: To behave as loving brothers and sisters at each meeting
4. Day Four: To discern the Will of God . . . every day
5. Day Five: To be, in a sense, always on duty
6. Day Six: To give myself away to Mary . . . every day
7. Day Seven: To be willing to perform a different work
8. Day Eight: To weld all together
9. Day Nine: To persevere in my Legion vocation

Prayer for the Beatification of Venerable Edel Quinn

Eternal Father, I thank you for the grace you gave to your servant, Edel Quinn, of striving to live always in the joy of your presence, for the radiant charity infused into her heart by your Holy Spirit, and for the strength she drew from the Bread of Life to labour until death for the glory of your name, in loving dependence on Mary, Mother of the Church.

Confident, O Merciful Father, that her life was pleasing to you, I beg you to grant me, through her intercession, the special favor I now implore, . . . , and to make known by miracles the glory she enjoys in Heaven, so that she may be glorified also by your Church on earth, through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

READINGS

(taken from Edel Quinn by Cardinal Suenens and Woman of Faith by Mary Peffley)

DAY 1:

Edel Quinn was born on the 14th day of September (1907), the day on which the church celebrates the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. It seems certain that the life beginning under that austere sign was to be profoundly marked by the redeeming cross. It is a harsh, sturdy cross, like those old Celtic crosses carved from the granite of the country, a bare cross cut in one piece, almost part of the landscape, so well does it harmonize with it. But Edel will take such pains to hide it; she will accept it with such apparent joy as to succeed in hiding it from all. More than once she will declare the Exaltation of the Cross to be her special feast; it touched deep chords in her.

She was baptized on the 18th day of September. The name of Edel which she received in baptism together with that of Mary, was given to her by accident. Mrs. Quinn wished to name her child after her sister, Adele. The priest understood “Edel,” and thought they had chosen the name of the flower, and that Edel was the diminutive of Edelweiss. This was Edel’s explanation she gave in a letter; the name didn’t please her much. Others may see in it a prophetic symbol. The edelweiss, the immortelle of the snows, is a flower of the heights, which seeks solitude and mountain-peaks, which braves the snow and the gale, and tries to hide from those who would pluck it. Similarly, Edel will be found living on spiritual heights, bearing bravely the assaults of suffering, seeking to evade the gaze of people. Her love of solitude was to equal her disregard of fear. (Cardinal Suenens)

DAY 2:

The big day of her peaceful and happy childhood was that of her First Communion in 1916. We know nothing about that first meeting between Edel and the God of the Eucharist; we know only that it left an indelible mark. At every stage of her life, witnesses remark on her craving for Communion. Devotion to Mass and Holy Communion was her special mark. From the first contact, her faith went to the heart of the Sacrament. Later she would perform feats of mortification and effort in order not to miss Mass. (Cardinal Suenens)

Edel loved Mass and Holy Communion and said that there was always an emptiness in the day when she couldn’t get to Mass and receive Holy Communion.

Her family was never quite clear about where and when she had her meals. She would go to 7:00 Mass and then would go straight to work. Sometimes she put an apple in her pocket. Quite often she sacrificed her lunch hour to visit someone or bring someone to confession. She would get home late, usually after everyone was in bed. During the week she was absorbed in her activities and never to be found.

But on Sunday she would spend practically the whole morning in church. She went to 7:00 or 8:00 Mass, then she would go home for breakfast and then go back to three or four more Masses. She could hardly tear herself away from Mass. (Mary Peffley)

DAY 3:

The discovery of the Legion by Edel has been called a chance one. At a Children of Mary meeting, Edel met Mona Tierney. Years before in the West, Mona had known the Quinn family. So Edel invited Mona to come and to see her people on the following Thursday. Mona replied that she could not come . . . that is the day of my Legion of Mary meeting.

Edel wanted to know what was this meeting, which interfered with her invitation; it had to be explained to her in detail. Edel listened eagerly and finally said: “Do let me assist at the meeting.”

Mona went to Miss Nancy Hogg, president of the praesidium, and thought it her duty to tell her that this new recruit seemed so full of life and gaiety that she would surely be put off by unattractive and regular work such as the Legion might offer her.

At the meeting no one took notice of her; she had nothing to do but watch. She listened attentively. She stood for the Catena. Then she listened to the allocutio.

She heard the assignments given to the members. After the concluding prayer, Edel had recognized the spirit of the Upper Room in Jerusalem and of the first Christians, of whom it was said that “they were persevering with one mind in prayer. With Mary, the Mother of Jesus.” Edel felt that the Acts of the Apostles were continuing there under her eyes. Her mind was made up: She would ask to be admitted to the Legion. (Cardinal Suenens)

DAY 4:

Edel was spending nearly all her evenings doing Legion work and her friends and family grew anxious about this overwork. Meeting Edel at the funeral of a deceased legionary, one of her friends said to her, “If you aren’t careful we’ll be having Mass offered for another dead legionary.”

Edel burst out laughing. “That would be fine,” she replied. She kept on working, never counting the cost, for she was absorbed in what had to be done. But she was still looking forward to the time when she could enter the Poor Clare order, and she was preparing for it. The time was drawing near when her family could spare her. Like St. Clare she was in a hurry to offer to God her joyous youth, her very precious friendships, her tenderly loved home. She prepared to make her round of farewell visits.

At that very moment, God put aside all her arrangements. Edel suddenly fell ill. The doctor discovered that she had tuberculosis in an advanced stage, with little hope of cure. He ordered complete rest in a sanatorium. There was no chance now of entering the convent. It was not for nothing that she was born on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross! She united her suffering to Our Lord’s and accepted this great disappointment. She was taken to Newcastle Sanatorium. (Mary Peffley)

DAY 5:

Edel stayed in Newcastle Sanatorium for eighteen months. There she soon won the affection of the other patients. Anyone in trouble in the sanatorium would at once go to her for help. Always in good humor, she made everyone around her happy. Her illness did not appear to weigh on her; she never spoke of it and never complained. One would have thought she was there on a vacation. Although she suffered greatly from the cold, she would not have a hot water bottle in her bed, nor did she have many bedcovers. She hid her acts of penance as well as she could, but others noticed that she didn’t take a glass of milk in the morning as the others did and that she refused dessert at dinner.

Her best friend in the sanatorium was a young Protestant girl. The matron was a Protestant, too, and Edel was extremely friendly with her. When she left, the matron declared that she was the nicest person who had ever come there. Edel was at everyone’s service; it seemed quite natural to call on her. A patient died suddenly one night. The nurse was seized by panic, but instead of going to the matron or someone else on the staff, she ran to Edel and sought her help. Edel got up immediately and went to her aid.

It was always her visitors who benefited by her joyous spirit and her sympathy. You could not get any information about her state of health. Everything was always “all right” or “very funny.” Those were her favorite phrases. She always saw the bright side of things. (Mary Peffley)

DAY 6:

Edel prayed a long time in the chapel of rue du Bac; her soul was in jubilee. She confided her future to Mary. She did not know what was now God’s Will for her. Her vocation as a Poor Clare had been brought to nothing by the failure of her health. She could not see how to give God her whole life; yet in her heart the gift had never been revoked.

Edel saw the great cross shining over the Pic du Ger and its light reddened the clouds. Her soul opened radiantly to the graces of Lourdes. The next day she knelt at the grotto. She came to the feet of the Virgin of Massabielle to pray, not for herself, but for others. She offered herself for the accomplishment of the Will of God, known to her and unknown. Does not Mary understand better than we what the glory of God requires of us?

With childlike faith, Edel conformed to all the ceremonies of Lourdes. . . . What a joy it must have been for her to breathe that Marian atmosphere, which is veritably a spiritual tonic, to be able to repeat her Rosary all through the day! She forgot everything except Mary and her neighbor. But here, as so often elsewhere, she was caught, so to speak, at her usual game of mortification; her companions found out by chance one evening that she had not yet broken her fast. The holiness of Lourdes saturated her, the bond between herself and Mary grew closer. (Cardinal Suenens)

DAY 7:

Without a second’s hesitation, Edel replied, “With all my heart.”

In a flash Edel recognized that now the Lord had spoken to her. She saw that she was able to realize her ideal of a religious vocation. It would be on another plane, in other surroundings, but offering full scope to her love of God. She would have the opportunity of loving Him and serving Him in the souls of men, not for a few hours after her office work, but without ceasing from morning to night, her life no longer carved into many ill-assorted slices. She would be a Poor Clare in her heart, but her convent would be the roads of Africa, wide open to every wind that might blow. (Cardinal Suenens)

Edel’s last days were spent in farewell visits. She went about them quietly; she hated to attract attention. She treated the whole situation lightly and with good humor. As the time drew near, her family felt more deeply the sorrow of parting. For Edel that was the hard part of her sacrifice. She loved her family deeply. But she was careful not to show her suffering, for fear of increasing their pain. In those last hours, Edel had no thought but for them. What least concerned her was herself. One of her sisters laughingly tells that Edel did her packing barely an hour before leaving and exactly as if she were going off on a picnic!

She knew the adventure was a dangerous one and that her strength might desert her at any point along the road; however, she gave herself up to God so completely there was little room for worrying. In a letter written to a friend she said, “Winnie, don’t you feel more and more that nothing really matters in this world? Even the worst pains, sorrows and disappointments are only for a time. So long as God’s will is done, it matters not where He places us or what He asks us to bear.” (Mary Peffley)

DAY 8:

All these difficulties (racial segregation, religious segregation, hostility of the different tribes) were condensed in one cry that Edel heard constantly: “Ah! You do not know Nairobi.” In 1936, Edel reported to Dublin: “Pessimistic is a mild term to apply to the lot of them. When it comes to organization and asking them to work, everywhere it is the same: ‘You do not know Nairobi’.” As an encouragement to her to accept defeat and leave things as they were, she was even told: “Our Lords’ life was a failure, so why wonder if you have the same fate?” Edel stood up to the prophets of failure. “If it was not the Legion, and if one had not heard the like before, retreat would be the solution.”

It was the only solution that she never contemplated. (Cardinal Suenens)

The Legion teaches that every major impossibility may be divided into a series of minor possibilities, and that one can always attempt the first step. Although it is not possible to reach the top of a mountain in one step, you can always climb the first rock and go from it to the second, and so on. Edel realized that, because of language, the different races could not work together in the same praesidium but Edel hoped they would be able to work together in the curia.

In order not to offend anyone by addressing one group before the other, Edel had her talk on the Legion of Mary announced at the same time in the Goan and European churches. A few people came to hear the talk, mostly out of curiosity. Edel then invited them to an organization meeting. It was a crucial moment. Would they respond to this direct invitation? She waited with beating heart. For the occasion she had learnt almost by heart her opening address. She waited – and was rewarded for her confidence. To the surprise of everyone, twenty-five persons came to the meeting, among them five Goans. She had not yet convinced them, however. She had to plead Our Lady’s cause and answer a multitude of objections and questions. Some said there were already too many organizations. Edel replied that on the first Christmas night Our Lady had been told: “There is no room in the inn.” Somebody else declared that anyway there was no religious work to be done in Nairobi! At this point another woman got up and said she knew of fourteen children who needed religious instruction. This statement struck home and roused some sleeping consciences. (Mary Peffley)

DAY 9:

Edel lived for the Legion. The Legion was her whole life because she saw it as Mary at work. Mary exercising her spiritual motherhood, because the Legion brought Christ to the people of Africa. Yet she was careful never to criticize those who were not interested in the Legion or did not understand it. She didn’t take their attitude for granted but thought of what efforts she had made or could make to interest them in the Legion.

The results were pouring in. One praesidium alone at the end of its first year reported 48 returns to Mass and the Sacraments, 22 marriage validations and 40 converts. But there were always questions for Edel to answer and problems for her to solve. She replied like a mother directing her children. She followed the work of the praesidia, shared their sorrows, their hopes, their joys. To one legionary she wrote:

“Remind your members that it is not legionary work if they do not visit in pairs. Also, the work done should be the work given to them at the meeting. Then they have the merit of obedience as they go out on Our Lady’s work.”

To another she said, “Tell your legionaries to persevere in the work they have taken on. I am sure Our Blessed Mother is pleased with the work they are doing for her. Tell them to be very faithful in saying the catena every day. I shall be looking for the next report.”

In the fall of ’43 she wrote Mr. Duff: “I am so glad to have had these seven years in Africa, though I could wish to have done more in them.”

Edel continued to watch over her praesidia, old and new, and to keep them faithful to the rules. She had to be always on the alert. It often happened that only one or two members of a praesidium were able to write and take notes. But all of them could be trained, and there were always a few willing teachers in the group.

Early in 1944 she made a six weeks’ tour of Tanganyika and afterwards was forced to take another rest. But as soon as she got a little strength, she set out again – to Kisumu, which was an 18-hour train trip from Nairobi. She arrived on March 9 and planned to stay two or three months, visiting praesidia and doing extension work, but by April 11 she had to return to Nairobi, more dead than alive. She could not hide her state of complete exhaustion. She had hardly the strength to drag herself to her bed. The end was at hand. (Mary Peffley)