Among the material gifts offered to the Community we should mention the automobiles which provided “wheels” for the religious to help them meet the demands of the apostolate. Musical instruments were the joy of our musicians, with a synthesizer and organs enhancing the singing at Mass and for religious offices.
Regilded chalices were offered to Sons of Mary priests who would have been unable to procure their own.
In order to help them in their studies or their work, donors have also given computers. “Seek first the Kingdom of God and everything else will be given you besides.” Once again, these words from the Savior are being realized.
Vehicles, musical instruments computers, regilded chalices...
... so many generous gifts received with deepest gratitude.
LAITY AND RELIGIOUS: ONE SINGLE FAMILY
In fact, the laity and religious Sons and Daughters of Mary form but one single family. As Mother Paul-Marie wrote in July 1992:
“With a program for a balanced spiritual life, and in a fidelity docile to the directives of the Fathers of the Church and Vatican II, following their very precise ideas, each one – lay person or religious –, in the struggle to which he is subjected, retains confidence in Mary who gives him strength of soul, the source of peace and love.
“There is no better way to detoxify hearts than by administering them the cure of spiritual oxygen, whereby they learn to live with God, to understand the divine action through the events willed by Him, to love Him in a life of prayer and of activity in contemplation, to spiritualize the passing moment by maintaining contact with God. This deep spiritual breathing stirs up the soul and brings a flood of the supernatural life and God’s tenderness through the reception of the sacraments and its fidelity to the observance of the divine commandments. Thus does it become a witness of God’s grandeur. Thus does it become a bearer of a joyous peace, the sign of God’s presence within it.
“This simple and refreshing spirituality gladdens the heart and fosters a spirit of adoration throughout long hours of work or sickness; it is a sign of spiritual vitality that begets a thirst for heaven.
So it is that the lay people speak of God, their hearts are full of Him and they seek out priests and men and women religious who can give them more of Him.
“Their life in the world has become living contemplation and prayerful activity.
“In each era, God causes to arise forms of the apostolate which meet the needs of the times.
“More than ever, the Army of Mary was necessary in our time for the instilling in hearts of the spirit of adoration and to save them from the ruin that would be wrought by the licentiousness and desacralization in this ending of a decadent century.
“This form of participation in the redemptive action was to be the yeast of religious life in families, giving them vocations and preserving in them the high ideal leading to Christian marriages.
“The campaign against this or that abuse is not really profitable, nor are we going to control or wipe out evil by legalizing it.
“The reign of Christ is brought about through a life lived in conformity with His laws. A solid and enduring apostolic activity comes from the flowering of the divine life in one: ‘The richer the life, the more abundant the fruits.’
“ ‘IF THE RELIGIOUS AUTHORITIES ARE SOLICITOUS FOR THIS WORK, THE CHURCH WILL FLOURISH SPIRITUALLY AND MATERIALLY’: the Lord’s words to the foundress when the Army of Mary was founded (Le Royaume, no. 16, November 1983, p. 3).
“The decline in the practice of religion and the financial difficulties churches are experiencing could cast doubt on this divine affirmation were it not that the Army of Mary – faithful to Christ’s Church and the Pope – has been forbidden entry to the churches (which furthermore, have become too small for its celebrations).
“But let us not abandon hope. This time of rebellion and confusion will end. It is when everything is going badly in the Church and the world that God uses little ones to pass along His messages which, one day or another, have their tomorrows of light and consolation.”
Mother Paul-Marie
(Le Royaume, no. 88, July 1992)
WELCOME
