Legion of Mary Spirituality 

Pope John Paul II.    Address to Italian Legionaries   30th October 1982.

It is a fundamental Legion principle that into every work should be thrown the best that we can give. Simple or
difficult, it must be done in the spirit of Mary. There is another reason which is important. In spiritual enterprises there is no telling how much effort is required. In dealing with a soul, at what point can one say “enough”? And, of course, this applies with particular force to the more difficult works. In the face of these we find ourselves exaggerating the difficulty and whirling around the word “impossible.” Most of the “impossibles” are not impossible at all. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. But we imagine them to be impossible, and then by our attitude we render them so. But sometimes we are faced with works which are really impossible, that is to say, beyond human effort. Obviously, if left to our own devices, we will refrain from what we would regard as useless action in those cases of imagined or real impossibility. Perhaps that might mean that we would leave untouched three-quarters of the more important work which is waiting to be done — which would amount to reducing to a mimic warfare the vast, adventurous Christian campaign. So the Legion formula demands effort in all circumstances and at all costs — effort as a first principle. Both naturally and supernaturally the repudiation of impossibility is the key to the possible. That attitude alone can solve the problems. It can go further, for definitely it is a hearing of the Gospel cry that with God no work shall be impossible. It is the believing response to our Lord’s own call for the faith that casts the mountain into the sea.

“Every impossibility is divisible into thirty-nine steps, of which each step is possible” — declares a legionary slogan with seeming self-contradiction. Yet that idea is supremely sensible. It forms the groundwork of achievement. It summarises the philosophy of success. For if the mind is stunned by the contemplation of the apparently impossible, the body will relax into a sympathetic inactivity. In such circumstances every difficulty is plainly an impossibility. When faced with such — says that wise slogan — divide it up; divide and conquer. You cannot at one bound ascend to the top of a house, but you can get there by the stairway — a step at a time. Similarly, in the teeth of your difficulty, take one step. There is no need yet to worry about the next step; so concentrate on that first one. When taken, a second step will immediately or soon suggest itself. Take it and a third will show — and then another. And after a series of them — perhaps not the full thirty-nine steps of the slogan, which only has in mind the play of that name — one finds that one has passed through the portals of the impossible and entered into very promising land.

"You are the only organization in the world today that ever anticipated the Vatican Council. The only one! You just go through your works and see how far ahead you are of the Council and with the Church. You are Pre-Council, Pro-Council, and Post-Council.

First you are a lay organization devoted to the apostolate, though the apostolate was reserved for the clergy.  So you swept back about 20 centuries.  Read over the list at the close of the Epistle to the Romans, members of the Legion of Mary, so that you will see that you have brought up to date the apostolate of the early Church.  Also, in the Acts of the Apostles, it is in the third Act whereby the Church becomes established in a certain house; first a catechist works among the group and finally the Church itself. That is the first way you anticipated the Vatican Council.

The second and more important still is that you belong to the out-ministry.  We priests belong to the in-ministry. That's not what God intended, but that's what happened. We wait for people to come to us and we build bigger rectories. We are failing because we are an in-ministry, waiting. You were from the beginning an out-ministry, commissioned to do the same sort of thing as Our Blessed Lord did -walking up and down alleys.

Third, you anticipated it even in relation to the Blessed Mother. This may seem strange but it's true. Your service is dedicated to building up the Church.  It's not just merely the devotion to Our Lady, it's a devotion to Our Lady as the Mother of the Church. At the Council, we voted on the question of whether or not to give a new title to Our Lady. Our Lady has many as you know. It was decided not to give her another title.  Two weeks later Pope Paul read his Encyclical Letter on the Blessed Mother as the "Mother of the Church". We gave her a new title.  That's the Mother you love and who is your patroness.

You are a small group -- you have to be. Remember this! The Holy Spirit never works with the majority, only with minorities. You are the only present effective apostolate that we have in the world.

My good legionaries, this is what you are.  From what I have told you, you know how much esteem and affection I have for you. I say you have anticipated the Vatican Council -- the future apostolate of the Church, and you are only at the beginning, just the beginning. Pray often to the Holy Spirit that your zeal will spread and that others will have the courage to do it. I consider it an honor, really an honor, to be in the midst of you. Just as sometimes oil gets outside of a bottle by osmosis, so too, by being near you, I hope to get some of your spirit".