The day-long event aims to empower greater discipleship in the calling of the Great Commission through the Blessed Mother
By Jay Sorgi
for the Register
God calls us not just to live the minimum sacramental commitment through Mass every week. He calls us to a deep, integrated life of faith that affects, molds and turns our souls always to Him.
The Legion of Mary, a fixture in the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln since 1957, is regularly moving nearly 1,000 Catholics in the region to that deeper life through a powerful commitment through our Blessed Mother.
The Legion will host a Marian Congress Saturday, Aug. 22, at St. Michael Church in Lincoln. It will begin with Mass at 8:15 a.m. and deliver spiritual fruit from speakers, fellowship, discussion and prayer until 3 p.m. as they inform and empower attendees about a life of greater calling in Christ and His mother.
Legion of Mary Diocese of Lincoln President Joy Martin believes the work of the Legion connects each member to the Virgin Mary’s greater mission in her Son.
“The Blessed Mother received this apostolic mission from the Father—to be an associate of Christ in crushing the head of the serpent,” Martin said in a recent Southern Nebraska Register column. “She lives her mission through her ongoing participation in Jesus’ ultimate rescue mission to bring salvation to the world and us back into loving intimacy with the Father.”
Father Luke Fleck, who serves as pastor of St. Joseph Church in Colon and teaches at Bishop Neumann Jr./Sr. High School in Wahoo, acts as the Legion of Mary’s co-chaplain. He said the entire focus of the Legion, founded in 1921 in Ireland by Servant of God Frank Duff, is to build the body of Christ following the Great Commission in the gospel of St. Matthew.
“Oftentimes you’ll hear the title, Legio Mariae, Legion of Mary, in the sense of being soldiers for the Blessed Mother, to go out and to do the work of the Lord in helping to share the Gospel and to work for the conversion of souls, and allow for the building up of the Kingdom of God here and into eternal life as well,” Father Fleck said. “The whole purpose (fits) within the context of the Church’s mission, to go and make disciples, and to do it here under the patronage of the Blessed Mother, under this title of the Legion.”
Father Fleck’s co-chaplain, Msgr. Daniel Seiker of the Cathedral of the Risen Christ in Lincoln, said the Legion’s first goal is to help sanctify its own members through prayer and active work of evangelization.
“It’s like our Lord called the disciples to be with Him and to go out. That reflects itself in this apostolic lay organization,” Msgr. Seiker said.
The work within the Legion includes attending weekly local praesidium meetings for spiritual formation, and to do two hours of active work within the Legion’s guidelines, focusing on person-to-person discipleship.
“Meetings become a focal point,” Father Fleck said. “I love how (Servant of God Duff) describes it. He said, ‘As the burning lens is to the rays of the sun, so is the meeting to the members. The focus collects them, begets the fire, and kindles everything that comes near it. It is the meeting that makes the Legion.’”
“All the lay faithful, all the baptized are called to holiness, not just a few,” Msgr. Seiker added. “That’s a recognition that holiness comes in part through obedience to the Lord and to the guidelines, the way of operating of the Legion of Mary.”
Msgr. Seiker said a person doesn’t have to be recognized by everyone as a saint to do good work in the Legion of Mary.
“They’re striving for holiness, and they’re willing to live according to the goals of the Legion of Mary, then they will be able to do much good,” he said.
Father Fleck saw those works of holiness firsthand as a child, witnessing his grandmother act as the Legion’s president. He saw works of holiness like members bringing a statue of Our Lady to different houses, leading families to pray the Rosary around it each day.
Msgr. Seiker also saw the Legion in action around the time of his ordination in 1987 with the late Bishop Glennon Flavin.
“He would have us to his house once a month for what – among the junior clergy – came to be known as the ‘donut meetings,’ because he would serve donuts at the end on Friday evenings once a month,” he said.
“We would go over the Legion of Mary, and he was encouraging us to promote and make use of the Legion of Mary as priests.”
That promotion is meant to beget promotion of the life of the Catholic faith, the centerpiece of outward activity as members reach out to individuals to foster their spiritual journey.
“There’s any number of people that have come back to the practice of their faith because the Legion of Mary knocked on their door or encountered them in their work and said, ‘Are there any Catholics in this household?’ They lead them to come back to the practice of their faith, or marriages that are convalidated, or people that are led to a deeper practice of their faith, even if they’re already practicing,” Msgr. Seiker said.
“In all of the apostolates, it’s just kind of the daily bread of the Legion to assist people to come to a deeper faith.”
See more information on the Marian Congress at lincolndiocese.org/mariancongress.
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