Acies for Legion of Mary, St Joseph’s Church, Tinryland, 27 March 2022
I am honoured to join you for the Acies Ceremony, held every year around 25th March. The Feast of the Annunciation and this year the special day dedicated to the Consecration of Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I thank you as Legionaries for the quite apostolate you faithfully carry out every week of the year and for many of you, for many years.
Frank Duff was born on June 7th 1889 – we share the same birthday years apart! He founded the Legion of Mary on September 7th, 1921, dying on November 7th 1980. And we gather for the Acies on March 27th! In a prophetic letter to Fr. Aedan McGrath in 1948 he held the firm viewpoint that where the laity did not fulfil its role, the Church would fail. He wrote: “an inert laity is only two generations removed from non-practice. Non-practice is only two generations away from non-belief”[1].
The challenge facing all legionaries, auxiliaries and friends this day in Carlow at your Acies is how you and all of us as church synodally engage with those who no longer practice and those who no longer believe? The Acies is the moment of recommitment and I appreciate for some there is fear and no little anxiety as we emerge out of a global pandemic that still remains highly infectious and transmittable. Our question is how can we transmit our faith and the message of the Legion?
Your recommitment is in many ways like the great St. Pope John Paul’s motto “totus tuus”. On Mother’s Day, many of Legionaries are women and mothers. I take this opportunity to encourage you in your apostolate. You are working to promote the Mother of our Church. The pandemic necessitated us not being in a position to mark the Centenary of the Legion last September. For an organization founded in Ireland 100 years ago, which now has 100 million members worldwide your Centenary deserved more acknowledgement than it got last year.
In the very raw and understandably emotive narrative around Mother and Baby Homes it is often missed that the Regina Coeli Hostel, founded by Frank Duff on North Brunswick Street was a very different home to others. Duff wanted to ensure that single mothers could raise their own children all the way to adulthood. The mothers went out to work to earn their keep, supporting themselves and their children. He established a praesidium to reach out and befriend the homosexual community. He reached out to travellers and strove to develop deeper understanding between Christian traditions. In other words in his day Duff went where few others dared to venture.
That’s our challenge on this Acies Day, what are the needs today that are missed by Church and society? Where do we need to place our priorities as we recommit ourselves and our apostolate? The greatest gift the Legion can offer today’s world is that of being present. If you don’t visit, who will? If you don’t bring the Statue on visitation, who will? If you don’t knock on the door, who will?
Finola Kennedy, tells the story well of Frank being asked around the time of his First Communion what he intended to be when he grew up. Like many other boys, Frank said “a priest”. How times have changed. The fear I would have is that if Frank Duff were around today, demonstrating all the charisms and gifts he did then, given the scarcity of vocations, he would be encouraged to enter the seminary and be a priest – it might not be part of God’s plan.
The church needs articulate lay people who love their faith and express it in the way they live their lives. The church needs committed lay people who will reach out to those on the margins of society today. The church needs courageous lay people who take seriously their baptismal calling of following Christ. Even if our seminaries were overflowing with vocations, the particular contribution of lay people imbued with the spirit of Frank Duff, Edel Quinn and Alfie Lambe, and actively immersed in every detail of church life, is an essential element in witnessing to Gospel values in today’s society on this Laetare Sunday.
Frank Duff, Servant of God, pray for us …
Alfie Lambe, Servant of God, pray for us …
Venerable Edel Quinn, pray for us …
Our Lady of the Immaculate Heart, pray for us …
Our Lady, Untier of Knots, pray for us …
St. Joseph, pray for us …
[1] Letter of Frank Duff to Fr. Aedan McGrath: 13.03.48