Sodality of Our Lady

FOLLOWING THE CRUCIFIED KING

Bearing His Likeness

THE second thing which St. Ignatius perceived from the very beginning was the burning realization that they alone can claim the victory in this battle who want to distinguish themselves in the service of Christ the King. To do this they must imitate Christ in the way He chose, which is victory by means of the Cross.

When in the Exercises Ignatius has Christ the King say: "It is My will to conquer the whole world and all My enemies, and thus to enter into the glory of My Father", then Ignatius' immediate yet amazing conclusion is this: "Those who wish to give greater proof of their love, and to distinguish themselves in the service of their eternal King and Lord of all...will act against their sensuality and carnal and worldly love."

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CONQUERING THE WORLD

True Zeal Born of Generosity

ALMOST automatically the third insight stems from the first and second. The soul that has denied itself even to the measure of selfless service, even to the desired identification with the Crucified, takes its place among those who are no longer deaf but "prompt" and "loving". This is to say that always and without reservation they are at the disposal of their King and those words of the First Week are ever on their lips: "What ought I to do for Christ?" Here we find that readiness for apostolic action born of an interior life characterized by a Christ-loving self-denial, an entirely new receptiveness for world-wide co-operation in the redemptive work of Christ in the battle against the standard of Satan.

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HUMBLE SERVICE IN THE VISIBLE CHURCH

At One with the Hierarchy

WHAT we have thus far said still requires further clarification. The Exercises conclude with the rules "to foster the true attitude of mind which we ought to have in the Church militant (= serving Church)". This is no accident. If it is to be and to remain authentic, this passion for a limitless love of Christ must be given direction, controlled, so to speak, by God's salvific will visible in His Church.

The more of the willingness to serve and the readiness for greater things must be tested. Obedience to the hierarchical Church and humble, ordinary service in the visible Church constitute the infallible test.

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MARY'S ROLE IN THE SODALITY

LET us say one more word about the place of devotion to Mary in the Sodality. By design we have throughout our paper put the Marian element in last place. Our reason was this. We desired to trace the inner structure of the Sodality back to its source, that is, the fundamental truths of the Spiritual Exercises. We were anxious to define first the theological and then the psychological background against which devotion to Mary assumes great importance and a new significance. Through this approach we found it more easy to avoid the pitfalls into which very recent writers on the Sodality have sometimes fallen, namely the controversy concerning what place devotion to Mary should hold, which can so readily become a pseudo-problem.

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CONCLUSION

In this sketchy outline wherein we have attempted to derive from the Spiritual Exercises the spiritual significance of the Sodality we might further show, and with profit, how a reconsideration of the Sodality's origins can provide a constantly new revitalization of any Sodality. Wherever a Sodality has returned to its first beginnings (its first spirit), an amazing new life appears. Just as the Exercises moulded men in the Society of Jesus who have experienced through the discernment of spirits a titanic battle between Christ and Satan; men who have understood through their identification with the crucified Christ that victory in this battle belongs only to those who follow Jesus in a spirit of prayer and total self-denial; men who come from their retreat

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Sodality Publications

Saint Joseph's Workshop, the Catholic Literature Guild of the the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Patrick, makes some of its publications available through lulu.com, which you can access here.

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Sodality Exercises

The Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Patrick meets on the first Wednesday of each month after 11 a.m. Mass in the Church of St. Francis Xavier, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin 1, Ireland.

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Night Adoration of the Sacred Heart

The Sodality promotes the devotion of Night Adoration of the Sacred Heart. The devotion is an accompaniment to the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in homes. 

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Contact Details

Mrs. Elizabeth Mahon,
E. de M.,
President,
Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary & St. Patrick,
c/o Church of St. Francis Xavier,
Upper Gardiner Street,
Dublin 1.
eamahon@gmail.com

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