15 Promises of praying the Rosary (Part 2)

13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire Celestial Court during their life and at the hour of death.
14. All who recite the Rosary are my sons and brothers of my only son Jesus Christ.
15. Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.
-predestination here, means that, by the sign which is present to a person from the action of devoutly praying the Rosary, God has pre-ordained your salvation.

I assure you, if you say your Rosary today, you shall certainly gain the promises of Our Lady

15 Promises of praying the Rosary

OCTOBER 7: Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary

The Rosary is a prayer if said with full meditation wins us favour from God through Our Mother Mary. Earlier, in one of my write-up entitled "The Rosary our weapon", I said that the Rosary is made up of two types of prayer i.e. mental and vocal prayer.
It was in the 16th century that Pope Pius V proclaimed Mary as Our Lady Rosary and since then this title of Our Lady has been invoked in the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Whenever we say the Rosary in the Church,in public, in family group etc., we gain a plenary indulgence and a partial indulgence is granted in other circumstances.
Our Lady revealed to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan de la Roche additional benefits for those who devoutly pray the Rosary. It is as follows:
1. Whosoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary shall receive signal graces.
2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the rosary.
3. The Rosary shall be a powerful armour against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin and defeat heresies. 4. It will cause good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities and will lift them to desire for Eternal Things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.
5. The Souls which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish.
6. Whosoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just he shall remain in the grace of God and become worthy of Eternal life.
7. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church.
8. Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and their death the light of God and the plenitude of His Graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the Merits of the Saints in Paradise.
9. I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.
10. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of Glory in Heaven.
11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by recitation of the Rosary.
12. All those who propagate the Rosary shal be aided by me in their necesities. ...to be continued

What a Perfectly Chosen Name

Chapter 1, titled "Name and Origin".

The Legion of Mary is a society in the Catholic Church which began eighty eight (88) years ago. It precisely began on the 7th of September, 1921,the eve of our Lady's nativity. This society founded by a man called Frank Duff, had a very humble beginning. It started with about 13 people of which were majorly women who met at Myra house,Francis street,Dublin, Ireland at 8pm. The aim of this meeting was to give Our Lady a befitting birthday present. So, around a beautiful altar of Our Lady, these members said the prayers of the Holy Spirit and the rosary to our Lady. They then assigned the work of visitation of hospital to themselves,a sign of their love and devotion to Mary our Mother. A week later, the members returned to give report on how the work was performed. They continued coming to meeting in this manner and this gave rise to this beautiful society.

What is in a name? Perhaps, this question will help in the reflection of the name of the society. The first work ever undertaken by the Legion was visitation of hospital and this hospital was under the care of a group of nun called 'Daughters of Mercy'. This event led to the society first called THE ASSOCIATION OF MERCY. After a while, the name was changed to LEGION OF MARY with the name of the first praesidium as OUR LADY OF MERCY.
Names have a way of affecting a person's whole personality. History has it how great men were successful because they drew strength from the meaning of their names. The Roman Legion from which the Legion of Mary took her name were known for their courage and fighting spirit which gave them victory in any battle they fought. This has tremendously affected the Legion of Mary positively and gained her plenty members all over the world. Little wonder Pope Pius XI said, "The Legion of Mary! What a perfectly chosen name!".

Our Effort in Our Lady's army

Chapter 6, article 4, titled " Intensity of effort in Mary's service"

A soldier in protecting the integrity of his country,puts in his best. So too, a legionary of Mary is to put in his best in our Lady's service. Our work in the apostolate of the Church is not easy i must confess, but it takes self-sacrifice and total dependence on our Lady to succeed. Just as the body needs air to survive, so too do the legionary need to depend on her to make meaningful success in our work. That is not a yardstick not to try our best in the service. Factly speaking, Mary our commander wishes to convert the world to Christ but she needs us to help her in doing so, hence our best is what should be the other of the day. Just as the teacher and the students cooperate to enhance success in impacting knowledge, so does this cooperation relates to Our Lady and the legionary. Let relaxation be far from our service because like Jesus said the harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few. When our Lady sees how we put in our best in her service, she will then complement our effort and together we shall record success. Meanwhile, in putting all our effort, the legionary shouldn't put into his mind when he records success that he was so powerful that conversion was made. That will amount to pride and as we know pride goes before a fall just like it happened to the devil. We are to know that our effort is just like planting the crop, while it is the part of the Holy Spirit to water that crop that we have planted to grow in the minds of our contact.
We are to put up the attitude of St Paul whenever we carry out our assignment, that 'it is no longer I that lives but it is now Christ that lives'. That way, claiming God's glory will not be our portion.

Legionaries must know that they do not work directly for result,but that they are only to make an effort and our Lady will make that little effort to be very mighty. This is not to say that the legionary is to do the work half-hazardly. No. He must try his best, no matter how small it may seem. Remember that it is in the measure that we work that we shall be rewarded.

Allocutio on Legionary service 2

Chapter 4, article 2, titled "Must be 'a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God...not conformed to this world."

The life of a legionary is that of a soldier who is ready at all time to meet the demands of his superior. This he can do well following some major christian principles.
The legionary must realize that the essence of Jesus accepting to come to our sinful world was because of the fact that he loved us so much that he chose to die on the cross like a thief for our redemption.

St. Paul teaches us in Roman 12:1-2, that we are to be a holy sacrifice and acceptable in God's sight and that we are not to be conformed to this world. It follows thus that we as legionaries must embrace these christian keynotes for it is only through it that we can raise our heads high as true soldiers in our Lady's army.
Remember that the battle we fight is against the world and its evil powers, so it is only proper that we do not behave like the world else we shall not be able to conquer the world. To behave like the world is to be a people of sin. We cannot be a people of sin and still proclaim that we are fighting the world of sin.It simply portrays pretense and lip service. It is like fighting against ourselves. No one derives pleasure in putting fire on the roof of his own house. That is what we do when we live in sin and belong to Our Lady's army.
As human beings that we are, we are bound to fall into sin but the Christians' reaction is to quickly go for confession so as to be in tune with God again.
The bible tells us in Romans 3:23 that all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But by the blood of Christ that he shared, he has set us free so that we can easily fine tune our relationship with him when we make a sincere confession. Since Christ has done this sacrifice of his life for us ,is it not appropriate that we surrender ourselves wholly to his service? St. Teresa of Avila puts it in anther form when she says: "To receive so much and to repay so little: O! that is a martyrdom to which i succumb."
Take a look at the life that Mary lived. It was that of chastity and humility. As her soldiers, we are to imitate these virtues of hers which resembles the virtue of her son. In Jesus' infancy, it was Mary who taught him these virtues and he never for once derail from it in his adulthood. Mary is today yearning to teach us these are virtues of holiness and humility to aid us in our work of converting the world to her son.
Do not look at the race as a legionary as a difficult one, all you need do is to be focus on Jesus and imitate all his virtues particularly that of humility. This will surely prove difficult but we are to strife harder because it is our own way of saying 'thank you Jesus for dying fo my sin'.

We are to give everything to the task of converting the world. (Our time, money, talent, knowledge etcetera.)

If you play your part today by living a holy life, others will emulate you and eventually conversion in our contemporary society will record tremendous success.

Conference for Legion of Mary Officers Organized by Annunciata curia, St. Joseph Catholic Church, Benin City, Nigeria held on 19th July, 2009.

Talk entitled ORDER OF THE PRAESIDIUM MEETING by bro. Ezekiel Murphy Ossai.

The Legion of Mary is an Association of Catholics who has formed themselves into a Legion for service in the warfare which is perpetually waged by the Church against the world and its evil power.

The Legion of Mary is open to all Catholics who: faithfully practice their religion; who are animated by the desire to fulfil their role in the Church's apostolate through membership of the legion; and who are prepared to fulfil each and every duty which active membership of the Legion involves

In the definition of who a legionary is, we see that the Legion set themselves for war against the whole world and the forces of evil. And so for an army to defeat their enemy they ought to be disciplined in all aspect; in other words we are gathered to discuss discipline: but like it is said, charity begins at home and so this discipline must begin in our various meeting and it must be uniform as specified by the Legion of Mary handbook.

The handbook tells us that duty means discipline, so that to be on duty is to be disciplined.

In studying this discipline associated in the meeting, we shall focus on the thing that forms the praesidium meeting.

THE OPENING The praesidium meeting normally begins with the invocation and prayers to the Holy Spirit and the five decades of the rosary. The prayer is to be said with all devotion and should not be said too fast or too slow. The leader of the prayer plays a major role in this aspect. He ought to dictate the pace of the prayer and motivate others to participate in the prayer.

Emphasis must all times be made by the praesidium for her members to always be at the opening of the meeting because any praesidium rosary missed will never be replaced.

Let it sink into our sub-conscious that the rosary we say at the meeting is for the Queen of the Legion and so we need to say it with respect and devotion.

THE SPIRITUAL READING This is the next thing that follows the opening prayer. It continues the spiritual formation of the soldier and so great attention must be given to it. It is to last for only 5 minutes and it is to be done by the spiritual director or the president.

During this, no disturbance or distraction should be entertained by any person whatsoever.

The spiritual reading can be taken from any spiritual book but this is on rare occasion since most presidium do not have spiritual directors at their meetings; it is therefore advisable to base our readings from the legion handbook except when a handbook is unavailable, you can then lay your hands on the bible or any other catholic spiritual book/publication. Now in taking our readings from the handbook, we are to read it orderly i.e. from page 5 to 354. If par adventure, a feast day is to be celebrated, we can base our readings from that part of the handbook and in subsequent week; continue with our normal orderly reading.

THE MINUTES The record of the previous meeting is to be read at the meeting and the president/presiding officer to call for correction.

Since, the minutes is business like in nature, the secretary must take pain in preparing it and ensure that he/she reads it before the meeting proper. After correction, the minute is to be adopted and supported by two members. This follows the signing of the minutes by the president and secretary.

Mind you, the presiding officer and the secretary are not to be in the adoption process.

STANDING INSTRUCTION At the first meeting of every praesidium, the four basic rules should not only be read to members but it should also be explained to them for encouragement.

ROLL CALL AND EXPLANATION At meetings, it is the duty of the vice president to mark up attendance. We are not just to report absenteeism and excuses of members but also to furnish members of reasons, that is why the roll call goes with explanation.

RECRUITING NEW ACTIVE MEMBERS This work is for all legionaries, but the officers must continue to hammer this in the ears of the members for them to take this task seriously.

CORRESPONDENCE At this point, all letters or messages from anywhere are to be read and discussed. Also, any letter leaving the praesidium is to be first read in the meeting.

REPORT OF MEMBERS Another important activity in the praesidium is report of members. This is so, because the whole essence of the Legion of Mary is the performance of active work. This conforms to the teaching of St. James that faith without good work is useless. So, in furnishing the praesidium with reports, the legionary must try as much as possible to present the work in the praesidium exactly the way it was done.

At meetings, the president receives the report on behalf the praesidium. He/she must ensure that his/her emotion do not lead him/her to receiving whispered report (it should be said loud enough for everyone to hear). The president should discourage members concealing any part of the report since it is the report that connect the work with the praesidium

.

The president is to encourage members to improve on their good report and shone any

bad report. They should be room for comment after each report.

Meanwhile, it must be noted that it is also the duty of Our Lady under the auspices of the president to assign work at the meeting. He is not to assign petty jobs to himself or to his close friends.

ALLOCUTIO The allocutio is the explanation of the day’s spiritual reading and must not last longer than five or six minutes. You must note that in Roman days, the term allocutio refers to the Roman General’s address to his legion. The spiritual director, the president or any assigned member is to prepare the allocutio before the meeting; possibly, he can write down his allocutio for guide. Serious work should be put in preparing this allocutio because the faith of the legionaries depends on it. If the legionaries do not grow spiritually, it is because you as the president has been lukewarm or have failed in the preparation of the allocutio.

In view of proper preparation, presidents should equip themselves always by reading the bible, catholic literatures and even visiting the internet to read spiritual reflection.

Sometimes, officers take as much as thirty minutes in delivering allocutio. This might be as a result of their epileptic preparation or because they did not arm themselves with time. But sometimes, as a result of trying to teach rather than lecture, it can be permissible to cross to about ten minutes allocutio but we are to try to recover the added time in other activities

MEETING DURATION The praesidium meeting is to last for one and a half hour only. This time is so because the legion fathers have apportioned time in everything in the meeting. So, any praesidium that holds meeting more than this approved time is a sign that the praesidium is nearing to be split or that the activities are unnecessarily over done.

Punctuality plays a great role in the meeting duration. If members and officers come before the appointed time, then things like preparing the meeting environment and setting up the altar will not take part of the meeting time. The matter of punctuality applies to everything in the legion meeting. So, it is advised that a time piece be readily available to help. The bible teaches us in Isaiah 38:1 “…set your house in other…”.

It is only when we apply the principles of punctuality as the sole of business that we can succeed with meeting the demands of the legion constitution.

LEGION PRAYERS The legion prayer is to be regarded as invariable. In the legion of Mary, the prayer includes the invocation and prayers to the Holy Spirit, five decades of the rosary, the catena legionis and the legion concluding prayer. Anything outside this is invalid, as far as the legion is concerned. If par adventure, any other prayer that is not the legion prayer is to be said, we to remove the standard of the legion, i.e. the vexilium, from the altar to show that the meeting has ended.

RESPECT FOR THE MEETING Respect is the thing that connects the meeting with the members; this respect manifests itself in obedience, loyalty and humility. On no account must any officer or member receive calls when the meeting is in session.

ALTAR The altar remains a vital part of the meeting. It is actually the presence of Our

Lady and the Blessed Trinity, so proper care of the altar should be done with time.

From the altar, graces are derived since the altar is full of sacramental and is the presence of Our Lady who is the channel of Graces.

We are to care for the altar as we care for our own homes. A writer once wrote a book

on “journey around my home”. Take a journey around your praesidium altar materials

and from time to time see the ones that need replacement.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, chapter twenty of the handbook titled” The Legion System invariable”, tells us that the members are not at liberty to vary rules and practice as they choose. If we are not ready to choose every part of the legion system, it is better we leave the legion altogether. The legion handbook is aware that some people, who want to claim they know it all, will venture to use their wisdom to change the rules, which is why it states that such person shouldn’t venture setting up the legion at all.

Cardinal Newman also explains the fact that acceptance should be wholehearted and not half-hazard.

If we follow the system of the legion, we shall have no problem whatsoever and eventually raise the standards of this great society.

Thank you

Important Date

July 16- Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

This day is associated to the celebration of the brown scapular of Our Lady that was given to St. Simon Stock. So, on a day like this, it is appropriate to reflect on the brown scapular.

Many of us put on the scapular without investiture by the priest. This is wrong. Before one starts putting on the scapular, he/she must first attend lectures on the scapular after which a ceremony in which the priest himself blesses the scapular and wears it on us for the first time. After this scapular gets bad, we can then dispose of it in the prescribed manner and buy another one. Afterward, take it to any available priest for blessing and you can wear it by yourself.

Of all the graces of wearing the scapular, the one that is sweetest is that anyone who dies wearing the scapular is sure to enjoy eternal salvation.
If you have not done your scapular investiture, it is better you meet your fellow legionary indicating your interest for proper processes to be followed.

Remember Our Lady insists thus "...With the Scapular and rosary, i will save the world"