Sunday Reflections, 3rd Sunday of Lent, Year A, 8 March 2026

 

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well

Guercino [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand)

Readings (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, Scotland, India)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel John 4:5-42 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

[For the shorter form (4:5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42) omit the text in brackets.]

At that time: Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’ (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?’ (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.’

[Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come here.’ The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, “I have no husband”; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.’] The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’ The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming — he who is called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am he.’

[Just then his disciples came back. They marvelled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, ‘What do you seek?’ or, ‘Why are you talking with her?’ So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, ‘Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?’ They went out of the town and were coming to him.

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, ‘Rabbi, eat.’ But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ So the disciples said to one another, ‘Has anyone brought him something to eat?’ Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, “There are yet four months, then comes the harvest”? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps.” I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.’]

Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me all that I ever did.’ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.’

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Servant of God Alphonsus 'Alfie' Lambe

24 June 1932 – 21 January 1968

Alfie Lambe was born in Tullamore, Ireland, joined the Irish Christian Brothers but was advised to leave because of his poor health. He joined the Legion of Mary where he showed outstanding qualities and was appointed to South America as a Legion envoy, with the mission of helping the Legion grow there. With Seamus Grace, another Irish legionary, he left for Bogotá, Columbia on the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel 16 July 1953. He was only 21.Until his early death in Buenos Aires, he was to serve in Columbia, Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay and Brazil. He acquired the Spanish nickname El Corderito, 'the little lamb'. The Archdiocese of Buenos Aires initiated the cause for his beatification in 1978.

Noel Lynch, who went to South America as a Legion envoy around the time of Alfie's death, wrote about Alfie. One story he tells parallels today's gospel.

One of the ideas of the Legion Handbook is that a legionary most always be on duty. Alfie taught by example. One day Alfie met a young man in a railway station. With a smile he asked him would he like to do something for Our Lady. The young man answered that he would but that he did not go frequently to Sunday Mass. Alfie replied; 'I did not ask you about Mass but would you be willing to work for Our Lady?' That same week he attended his first Legion meeting. Within a few weeks he was an officer of that Praesidium and soon after became officer of his Curia. Within a few years he went for the priesthood and today is rector of the diocesan seminary.

The Praesidium is the basic unit of the Legion of Mary and meets weekly while the Curia consists of the officers of a group of praesidia in a particular area and meets monthly.

In today's gospel Jesus asks for help: Give me a drink. He asks a stranger, a Samaritan woman, which astonished his disciples. Alfie approached a stranger while waiting for a train and asked him if he would like to do something for Our Lady.

The question of Jesus to the Samaritan woman led her to become a missionary that very day to the people in her own town. Alfie's question to the young man in the railway station led him to become a missionary in his own diocese as a priest.

Jesus was aware of the background of the woman. Alfie didn't know anything about the young man he approached but wasn't put off when the latter indicated that he didn't attend Sunday Mass regularly. Alfie replied, I did not ask you about Sunday Mass but would you be willing to work for Our Lady?

The gospel has these striking words: Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, 'He told me all that I ever did.' Clearly the woman was not filled with fear or shame like someone whose sins have been publicly revealed. She wanted to share the good news that she had found the Messiah. 

Her words echo those of Psalm 139 (138): O Lord, you search me and you know me . . . you discern my purpose from afar . . . For it was you who created my being, knit me together in my mother's womb. I thank you for the wonder of my being . . . O search me, God, and know my heart. O test me and know my thoughts. See that I follow not the wrong path and lead me in the path of life eternal.

The woman at the well experienced the truth of the words : O Lord, you search me and you know me . . . you discern my purpose from afar.  Jesus called her to be her real self, to be the person God wanted her to be. The young man approached by Alfie Lambe discovered who God wanted him to be through the gentle invitation to work for Our Lady.

Because of the Samaritan woman's missionary work among her own people they came out to meet Jesus and many more believed because of his word. And the final words of the gospel tell us that a missionary's work is to bring people to meet Jesus: It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world. 

That too was the whole purpose of Alfie Lambe's work in South America: accompanying Our Lady knowing that her mission is to bring us all to know her Son.

That too is the mission of the Legion of Mary: The object of the Legion of Mary is the glory of God through the holiness of its members developed by prayer and active co-operation, under ecclesiastical guidance, in Mary’s and the Church’s work of crushing the head of the serpent and advancing the reign of Christ (Handbook, page 11).

The special Preface used when the Gospel of the Samaritan woman is read has these beautiful words:

For when [Jesus] asked the Samaritan woman for water to drink, 

he had already created the gift of faith within her

and so ardently did he thirst for her faith, 

that he kindled in her the fire of divine love.

The last line of the quotation from that Preface is a reference to an ancient prayer to the Holy Spirit with which every Legion of Mary meeting begins, leading to the Rosary.

Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Your love.

v. Send forth Your Spirit, O Lord, and they shall be created.

R. And You shall renew the face of the earth.

Let us pray.

God our Father, pour out the gifts of Your Holy Spirit on the world. You sent the Spirit on Your Church to begin the teaching of the gospel: now let the Spirit continue to work in the world through the hearts of all who believe. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jesus kindled in the Samaritan woman the fire of divine love. Through the  Legion of Mary he kindled in Alfie Lambe the fire of divine love. Through Alfie he kindled in the young man at the railway station the firs of divine love.

Through the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation Jesus has kindled in each of us the fire of divine love.

Ave Regina Caelorum

This ancient Latin hymn to Our Lady is traditionally sung or recited at the end of Compline (Night Prayer) from the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, 2 February, through Wednesday of Holy Week.

Hail, Queen of heaven; hail, Mistress of the Angels; hail, root of Jesse; hail, the gate through which the Light rose over the earth.

Rejoice , Virgin most renowned and of unsurpassed beauty. Farewell, Lady most comely. Prevail upon Christ to pity us.

Traditional Latin Mass

Third Sunday in Lent

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 03-15-2026 if necessary).

Epistle: Ephesians 5:1-9. Gospel: Luke 11:14-28.

Christ Carrying the Cross

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it! (Luke 11:28; today's Gospel)

 

 

           

 

 

 

'She had faith that did not shake.' Sunday Reflections, Ascension, Year B

The Venerable Edel Quinn

14 September 1907 - 12 May 1944 [photo]

Solemnity of the Ascension

The Ascension is celebrated on Ascension Thursday, 9 May, in England & Wales, Scotland. In the USA it is celebrated on Ascension Thursday in the Ecclesiastical Provinces of Boston, Hartford, New York, Omaha, Philadelphia. In all of these places Ascension Thursday is a Holyday of Obligation.

The Ascension is observed on Sunday, 12 May, in Aotearoa-New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Philippines, USA (apart from the jurisdictions mentioned above).

Ascension, Year B 

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel  Mark 16:15-20  (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

Jesus said to his disciples:

“Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.

Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year B

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel  John 17:11b-19  (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said:

Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Servant of God Frank Duff

7 June 1889 - 7 November 1980 [photo]

In her biography of her godfather Frank Duff, founder of the Legion of Mary, Finola Kennedy has a chapter with the heading Edel, Fr Aedan, Alfie. Under the title is a quotation from today's First Reading: You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Edel, Fr Aedan and Alfie were the Venerable Edel Quinn, Columban Fr Aedan McGrath and Servant of God Alfie Lambe.

This Sunday, 12 May, is the 80th anniversary of the death of Edel Quinn in Nairobi, Kenya.

Both Edel and Alfie Lambe felt called to religious life. Because of her tubercolosis (TB) Edel could not enter the Poor Clares. Alfie spent some time in the novitiate of the Irish Christian Brothers, known officially as the Congregation of Christian Brothers whose ministry is teaching, but had to leave for health reasons. Both became witnesses . . . to the ends of the earth, Edel in East and Central Africa and Alfie in South America. Both died young, Edel at the age of 36 and Alfie at the age of 26. Alfie is buried in the vault of the Irish Christian Brothers in Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires, a touch of what I call 'the thoughtfulness of God', something I first became aware of after my mother's sudden death in 1970.

Edel left for Africa in December 1936. Some in the leadership of the Legion of Mary thought it was a bad idea to send a young woman in poor health on such a difficult mission. After seven years of intense work involving long journeys on poor roads, an intense spiritual life focused above all on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and our Blessed Mother's central role in God's plan of salvation for all of us, Edel's TB caught up on her and she died on 12 May 1944 where she is buried in the Missionaries' Cemetery.

The cause for her beatification began in 1957 and in 1994 Pope St John Paul II declared her Venerable. The cause for her beatification continues.

Frank Duff said of Edel Quinn: She had a faith that did not shake. Without that foundation you would not have that special characteristic of devotion to Our Lady, whose faith is singled out for praise in the Gospel . . . Things like fear would naturally assert themselves in her. Why did they not carry her away as they do with most people? I suggest that in her case the ground was so drenched with the Holy Ghost that the sparks of temptation did not start a conflagration.

Servant of God Alfie Lambe

24 June 1932 - 21 January 1958 [photo]

Alfie went to South America in July 1953 and served in Colombia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina. Because of his family name and short stature he acquired the nickname El Corderito, 'The Little Lamb'. The Archdiocese of Buenos Aires introduced the cause of his beatification in 1978.

Fr Aedan McGrath with Pope St John Paul II

Fr Aedan McGrath was born in Dublin on 22 January 1906 and died suddenly at a family gathering on Christmas Day 2000. He spent two years and eight months in solitary confinement in China for his work with the Legion of Mary. I remember his return to Ireland in 1954 after being expelled from China. He was met at Dublin Airport by the President, the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition and thousands of others. He told me that when he saw the large crowd when the plane landed he said to himself 'There must be somebody important on board'.

Father Aedan spent the rest of his life promoting the Legion of Mary. Based in Manila from 1979 he visited many countries in the Pacific Rim. His story was one of the reasons I became a Columban missionary priest and I was graced to have come to know him very well as a friend during my years in the Philippines and as an inspiring brother Columban priest.

These three missionaries took to heart the words of Jesus in the gospel for the Ascension: Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. The 80th anniversary of the death of Edel Quinn reminds us of this and of what we are all called to be, proclaimers of the gospel by the way we follow Jesus in our daily lives.

You can find quite a bit of material on these three great missionaries by googling their names.

Fr Aedan tells the story of the bird that befriended him in prison

I saw two extraordinary things at Father Aedan's funeral in our cemetery here. During the prayers of commendation before the coffin was lowered a robin redbreast was hovering all the time over it. Then as it was being lowered into the ground a flight of birds in V formation approached from the southwest. Just before they passed over our cemetery one of the birds flew into the middle turning the 'V' into 'A'. You can learn more about this in A Heavenly Farewell, a video I made while still in the Philippines.

Traditional Latin Mass

Ascension Thursday

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 05-09-2024 if necessary).

Lesson: Acts 1:1-11. Gospel: Mark 16:14-20.

Ascension

Lorenzo Ghiberti [Web Gallery of Art]

Sunday after the Ascension

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 05-12-2024 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Peter 4:7-11. Gospel: John 15:26 - 16:4.

 

Postscript on the Samaritan woman at the well

 

Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well

Johann Zick [Web Gallery of Art]

At Mass yesterday I was struck by these beautiful words in the special Preface used when the Gospel of the Samaritan woman is read. The Preface is always addressed by the priest to God the Father.

For when [Jesus] asked the Samaritan woman for water to drink, 

he had already created the gift of faith within her

and so ardently did he thirst for her faith, 

that he kindled in her the fire of divine love.

In Sunday Reflections for yesterday I highlighted the Servant of God Alfie Lambe, a Legion of Mary envoy to South America. The last line of the quotation from yesterday's Preface above is a reference to an ancient prayer to the Holy Spirit with which every Legion of Mary meeting begins, leading to the Rosary.

Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Your love.

v. Send forth Your Spirit, O Lord, and they shall be created.

R. And You shall renew the face of the earth.

Let us pray.

God our Father, pour out the gifts of Your Holy Spirit on the world. You sent the Spirit on Your Church to begin the teaching of the gospel: now let the Spirit continue to work in the world through the hearts of all who believe. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The versicle and response above are taken from Psalm 104 [103]:30.

Pentecost

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

Send forth Your Spirit, O Lord, and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth (Psalm 104[103]:30).

'Would you be willing to work for Our Lady?' Sunday Reflections, 3rd Sunday of Lent, Year A

 

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well

Guercino [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel John 4:5-42 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)  

[For the shorter form (4:3-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42, omit the text in brackets.]

Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink’, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

 ^[Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” ]  The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

^[Just then his disciples came back. They marvelled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the town and were coming to him.

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’  I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.”]

Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.”

Léachtaí i nGaeilge 

Servant of God Alphonsus 'Alfie' Lambe

24 June 1932 – 21 January 1968

Alfie Lambe was born in Tullamore, Ireland, joined the Irish Christian Brothers but was advised to leave because of his poor health. He joined the Legion of Mary where he showed outstanding qualities and was appointed to South America as a Legion envoy, with the mission of helping the Legion grow there. With Seamus Grace, another Irish legionary, he left for Bogota, Columbia on the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel 16th July 1953. He was only 21.Until his early death in Buenos Aires, he was to serve in Columbia, Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay and Brazil. He acquired the Spanish nickname El Corderito, 'the little lamb'. The Archdiocese of Buenos Aires initiated the cause for his beatification in 1978.

Noel Lynch, who went to South America as a Legion envoy around the time of Alfie's death, wrote about Alfie. One story he tells parallels today's gospel.

One of the ideas of the Legion Handbook is that a legionary most always be on duty. Alfie taught by example. One day Alfie met a young man in a railway station. With a smile he asked him would he like to do something for Our Lady. The young man answered that he would but that he did not go frequently to Sunday Mass. Alfie replied; 'I did not ask you about Mass but would you be willing to work for Our Lady?' That same week he attended his first Legion meeting. Within a few weeks he was an officer of that Praesidium and soon after became officer of his Curia. Within a few years he went for the priesthood and today is rector of the diocesan seminary.

The Praesidium is the basic unit of the Legion of Mary and meets weekly while the Curia consists of the officers of a group of praesidia in a particular area and meets monthly.

In today's gospel Jesus asks for help: Give me a drink. He asks a stranger, a Samaritan woman, which astonished his disciples. Alfie approached a stranger while waiting for a train and asked him if he would like to do something for Our Lady.

The question of Jesus to the Samaritan woman led her to become a missionary that very day to the people in her own town. Alfie's question to the young man in the railway station led him to become a missionary in his own diocese as a priest.

Jesus was aware of the background of the woman. Alfie didn't know anything about the young man he approached but wasn't put off when the latter indicated that he didn't attend Sunday Mass regularly. Alfie replied, I did not ask you about Sunday 

Mass but would you be willing to work for Our Lady?

The gospel has these striking words: Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, 'He told me all that I ever did.' Clearly the woman was not filled with fear or shame like someone whose sins have been publicly revealed. She wanted to share the good news that she had found the Messiah. 

Her words echo those of Psalm 139 (138): O Lord, you search me and you know me . . . you discern my purpose from afar . . . For it was you who created my being, knit me together in my mother's womb. I thank you for the wonder of my being . . . O search me, God, and know my heart. O test me and know my thoughts. See that I follow not the wrong path and lead me in the path of life eternal.

The woman at the well experienced the truth of the words : O Lord, you search me and you know me . . . you discern my purpose from afar.  Jesus called her to be her real self, to be the person God wanted her to me. The young man approached by Alfie Lambe discovered who God wanted him to be through the gentle invitation to work for Our Lady.

Because of the Samaritan woman's missionary work among her own people they came out to meet Jesus and many more believed because of his word. And the final words of the gospel tell us that a missionary's work is to bring people to meet Jesus: It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world. 

That too was the whole purpose of Alfie Lambe's work in South America: accompanying Our Lady knowing that her mission is to bring us all to know her son.

That too is the mission of the Legion of Mary: The object of the Legion of Mary is the glory of God through the holiness of its members developed by prayer and active co-operation, under ecclesiastical guidance, in Mary’s and the Church’s work of crushing the head of the serpent and advancing the reign of Christ (Handbook, page 11).

Ave Regina Caelorum

This ancient Latin hymn to Our Lady is traditionally sung or recited at the end of Compline (Night Prayer) from the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, 2 February, through Wednesday of Holy Week.

Hail, Queen of heaven; hail, Mistress of the Angels; hail, root of Jesse; hail, the gate through which the Light rose over the earth.

Rejoice , Virgin most renowned and of unsurpassed beauty. Farewell, Lady most comely. Prevail upon Christ to pity us.

Daffodils emerging, St Columban's Dalgan Park

10 March 2023

I thank you for the wonder of my being, 

for the wonders of all your creation (Psalm 139 [138]).

Traditional Latin Mass

Third Sunday in Lent

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 03-12-2023 if necessary).

Epistle: Ephesians 5:1-9. Gospel: Luke 11:14-28.

Christ Carrying the Cross

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it! (Luke 11:28; today's Gospel)

Centennial of the Legion of Mary, 7 September 2021

 

Legion of Mary altar

At the very first meeting of the Legion of Mary an altar just like that in the photo, except for the words 'Legio Mariae' and the Vexillum, the standard of the Legion, was used. Every meeting since then, at whatever level, has such an altar, with the Vexillum included.

The Legion of Mary held its first meeting on the evening of 7 September 1921 in Myra House, St Nicholas of Myra Parish, Francis Street, Dublin, under the name of the Association of Our Lady of Mercy that became the Legion of Mary in 1925. Present at that first meeting were Fr Michael Toher, Frank Duff, a 32-year-old civil servant, and a group of women, all young except for 64-year-old Mrs Elizabeth Kirwan, a widowed New Zealander and a nurse. She was appointed president of the group.

The website of the Legion of Mary states: The object of the Legion of Mary is the glory of God through the holiness of its members developed by prayer and active co-operation in Mary’s and the Church’s work. The unit of the Legion of Mary is called a praesidium, which holds a weekly meeting, where prayer is intermingled with reports and discussion. Persons who wish to join the Legion must apply for membership in a Praesidium. The Legion sees as its priority the spiritual and social welfare of each individual. The members participate in the life of the parish through visitation of families, the sick, both in their homes and in hospitals and through collaboration in every apostolic and missionary undertaking sponsored by the parish. Every legionary is required to carry out a weekly apostolic work in the spirit of faith and in union with Mary.

The Legion of Mary has an estimated ten million or more members worldwide between active and auxiliary (praying) Legionaries. Its headquarters are in Dublin and it is supported entirely by its members through the 'secret bag' collection at every meeting. The Legion has no employees. From the beginning it has been 'classless', with members from every social background. To emphasise that Legionaries are living out their baptism, which makes us sons and daughters of God the Father and brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ and of one another, members address each other as 'Brother' and 'Sister' at meetings, though not outside of that.

The formation of members is based on the 'master and apprentice' system, with new legionaries working with an experienced member. Legionaries work in pairs and each gives a report of work done at the weekly meeting. Adult members are required to do two hours of apostolic work each week. (Junior members do one hour.) I know many who do much more. If one of a pair doesn't turn up the work cannot be done. So personal accountability is central to the whole system.

I joined the Legion of Mary when I was 13 and in First Year in secondary school. Our praesidium met in the school, though not during school hours. One of the things that impressed me was that meetings began and ended on time. There are no open-ended meetings. A praesidium meeting may not last longer than 90 minutes nor shorter than an hour.

Servant of God Frank Duff

(7 June 1889 - 7 November 1980)

The process for the canonisation of three Legionaries, Frank Duff, Edel Quinn and Alfie Lambe, is well on its way. The Legion website notes: [Frank Duff's] profound insights into the role of the Blessed Virgin in the plan of Redemption, as also into the role of the lay faithful in the mission of the Church, are reflected in the Legion Handbook which is almost entirely his composition.

The Venerable Edel Quinn

(14 September 1907 - 12 May 1944)

Edel Quinn went from Ireland as an envoy of the Legion of Mary to East Africa at the age of 29 and suffering from tubercolosis. She did heroic work there until her death in 1944. The Legion website notes: Edel died in Nairobi on May 12, 1944. In 1957 the Archbishop of Nairobi initiated the process for her Beatification and many witnesses were examined, monoly in Africa and Ireland. Their evidence, published by the Holy See, points not only to outstanding holiness but to holiness in its most attractive form. The words love, joy, peace appear in almost every testimony. The Vicar General of Mauritius was speaking for many when he said 'I want to lay special emphasis on her constant joy; she was always smiling; she never complained; she was always at people’s disposal, never stinting her time'.

Servant of God Alfie Lambe

(24 June 1932 - 21 January 1959)

Alfie Lambe went to South America in 1952, aged only 21, as a Legion of Mary envoy. Like Edel Quinn, he was in poor health. Yet Frank Duff saw his potential as a lay missionary as he had seen that in Edel Quinn, overcoming opposition in both cases when sending these two young people on difficult missions.

Alfie (Alphonsus) was born on the feast of the Birthday of St John the Baptist in Tullamore, Ireland, during the International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin. He acquired the nickname El Corderito, 'The Little Lamb', in Latin America. The Legion website tells us: For almost six years he worked ceaselessly in promoting the Legion of Mary in Columbia, Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay and Brazil. After a short but grave illness he died in Buenos Aires on the feast of St. Agnes, 21st January 1959 . . . He is buried in the vault of the Irish Christian Brothers, in the Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires.

I see two examples of what I call the 'thoughtfulness' of God and of his Blessed Mother here. Every year on the feast of St Agnes of Rome the pope blesses two lambs whose wool will later be used in making palliums, the special stole that metropolitan archbishops wear. This tradition is because of the similarity between the name Agnes and the Latin for lamb: agnus, used in so many references to Jesus as the Lamb of God. So the death of El Corderito on the feast of St Agnes has a fittingness about it.

The other example of the 'thoughtfulness' of God and of his Blessed Mother that I see is that Alfie is buried in the vault of the Irish Christian Brothers in Buenos Aires. Alfie had spent some time in the novitiate of the Brothers in Dublin but had to leave because of his poor health, something that initially broke his heart.

Magnificat

Sung by Harpa Dei

Subtitles in Spanish and English

A prayer that is central to Legionaries is Mary's own prayer, the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55). This is prayed as part of the Catena (chain) in the middle of every Legion meeting and prayed by Legionaries every day. The singers here are German-born siblings living in Ecuador, one of the countries where Alfie Lambe worked.

The prayer of gratitude of every Legionary of Mary today is expressed in Mary's prayer: My soul glorifies the Lord. 

Centennial of the Legion of Mary

Bishop Fintan Monahan of Killaloe, Ireland speaks about this moment in the history of the Legion of Mary.

[I came across this video after posting on my blog about the centenial.]