IN ADDITION to the mission “to the peoples”, which is Specific of the Marian vow, all our more ordinary apostolic activity carried out in our countries and in our churches also falls quite surely within the ambit of the Marian vow, described so distinctively, authentically and beautifully as Marion.The Ideal of Apostolic Activity
One can say without qualification that for the Franciscan with the Marian vow, whether brother or sister, the soul of his apostolate is the Immaculate. More than carrying, he is in fact carried by the Immaculate who animates him, supports him, strengthens him, comforts him in the apostolic activity directed to the salvation of souls for the increase of the Mystical Body, which is the earthly and heavenly Church, and for the supreme glory of God.
It is said that an ideal, by its very nature, is present and active, attracts and impels, illumines and guides, recalls and sustains whoever must fulfill an engagement. Now, for the Franciscan with the Marian vow the Immaculate is this ideal of love and of impulsion, of light and of strength in advancing the Kingdom of Christ toward its final consummation on earth and m the heavens in accord with the salvific plan of God, the specific mission of the Immaculate Mediatrjx
Values of Marian character in the Apostolate
The “Marian” character of the apostolate derives its suggestive appearance and power, usually very pleasing and fruitful, from the dual value it presents: the psychological and theological.
The psychological value stems from the presence of the “feminine” realized in its highest degree of perfection, “motherhood” which opens a path and penetrates into the hearts of men with a force so lovable that only with difficulty can it be resisted. The presence of a “Mother”!
A facile confirmation at this point is the remembrance of the innumerable and famous apparition of our Lady across the centuries, down to our times, in every continent: among the better known Guadalupe, La Salette, Lourdes and Fatima. It is the Mother who moves and takes the initiative to recall the children to be saved in the struggle against the kingdom of Satan for the coming of the Kingdom of Christ.
The theological value stems from the truth of faith about the Universal Mediation of Graces which the Immaculate effects between Christ and men in perfect, synchronous symbiosis within the Church, such that She is the “Virgin made Church”, as St. Francis of Assisi said (Salutation of the Blessed Virgin).
The Immaculate is the bearer of Christ to mankind and is the bearer of mankind to Christ. She is the heavenly ladder” by which Christ descends to men and by which men ascend to Christ. She is ever the only Mother of Jesus, the Savior, in the heart of each man to be saved.
On this basis, psychological and theological, as fundamental as it is invincible, the Marian apostolate can be developed in accord with a most fruitful dynamic of grace. The results are very often surprising and exceptional, just as the fruits of grace normally are surprising and exceptional at Marian sanctuaries everywhere on earth. For through Mary who attracts to Herself so many of Her children and to whom She gives Her Savior Son these are the truly privileged places of the Church’s vitality on earth.
The Scope of Apostolic Activity
The dynamic of the Marian apostolate is cultivated and extended to the entire area of action of the Church according to God’s plan of salvation, and brings with it this advantage that its “Marian” character offers a special guarantee of rapidity, of security and of ease in the march of a soul toward salvation and holiness, as Sts. Louis Grignion de Montfort and Maximilian M. Kolbe above all teach. For the Marian apostolate effects a marianization of life so as to achieve as swiftly, as securely, as easily as possible its “Christification” into which all men might be introduced.
For this it is necessary to make the Immaculate enter every social entity, such as the family, the school, the hospitals, the factories, industries, ministries, universities, art and the theatre, and in every environment of work or of study, recreational or cultural.
In what way is this to be attained? We may answer with St. Maximilian: using every licit means, none excluded, from the least and simplest to the greatest and most sophisticated, in addition, naturally, to those always and absolutely primary, the supernatural, spiritual means of ceaseless prayer and of the sacraments, of generous penance and of ever present good example.
The Marian apostolate, to which the Marian vow commits one, is frontal and global, is for conquest, and so takes the offensive, because it cannot remain content merely to defend the goods which it already possesses. It is militant, employing strategic action with individuals or with large groups as needed or useful. It drafts the individual, but it also organizes people in circles or groups with apostolic commitments in view of various fields of interest and of work: missionary, doctrinal, retreats, works of mercy, printing, art, and the theatre...
Means of Marian Apostolate
The choice of means and methods, evidently, is to be effected in relation to the needs of times and places, to emergencies and to the more urgent demands, as charity and prudence suggest for achieving the better good.
A basic preferential option, however, could or should be the apostolic use of the mass-media (press and radio-television), given their potential for reaching a vast audience, even planetary, and their more direct and immediate influence on each member as well as on the entire People of God.
Essays and books, pamphlets and flyers, periodicals and folders, written and translated into all languages. together with radio-television stations distributed and spread over areas ever more vast, to the point of covering whole regions and nations, reaching the five continents “via satellite”, must constitute the continuous effort of the Franciscans of the Immaculate, friars and sisters, to give the immaculate to all mankind; a daily and untiring effort of transmission, by means of the press, in word and in image (via the airwaves), to reach every man and give him Her who will beget for him in his heart Jesus the Savior.
In regard to the content of Marian preaching it is absolutely required and necessary that the Immaculate be made known and loved - via the printed word or via the airwaves - in Her integral, mysterious reality; according to Sacred Scripture, Tradition, the Liturgy, the Pontifical Magisterium and the School of the Saints. Hypotheses and curious novelties - which are also an aspect of that “itch” (II Tim 4. 3) - are to be avoided, and even more the old and new errors which deform the ineffable mystery of the Mother of God and Queen.
Every Franciscan of the Immaculate, in virtue of the “fourth vow”, must be an expert of our Lady, at the level of study and doctrine, of technique and science, particularly those called to teach and guide, but even more he must be an expert of our Lady at the level of piety and of the spiritual life, of worship and of ardent devotion, to which all are called by vocation and mission.
Total Consecration as Key to Effective Apostolate
In substance and in conclusion, we affirm that every Franciscan of the Immaculate, whether friar or sister, must live daily, with radical commitment, the consecration to the Immaculate as expressed in the ardent prayer of St. Maximilian: “Grant me to praise You, O most holy Virgin, with my commitment and personal sacrifice. Grant me to live, to work, to suffer, to be consumed and die for You and only for You”.
But in particular he must aspire, each one more than the other, to give a glory ever new and ever greater, as again St. Maximilian passionately prays: “Grant me to render You such glory that no one has yet given You. Grant others to excel me in zeal for Your exaltation, and to me to excel them, so that in a noble competition Your glory might ever increase more profoundly, more rapidly, more intensely, as He desires who has exalted You so ineffably above all other beings”.
But there is still another invocation of St. Maximilian even more demanding of a commitment beyond every limit of human possibility, fully expressive of the uncontainable yearning of a heart as large as the world itself, as must be the heart of every Franciscan of the Immaculate. The expression is this: “Grant me to lead the entire world to You”. For each member and for the entire Institute of the Franciscans of the Immaculate, brothers and sisters, this must be the motto of an ardent and sleepless life, heroic and sublime: “Grant me to lead the entire world to You”.
The Marian vow in its apostolic dimension and dynamism, is contained in its entirety, invested with the splendor and power of love unlimited. And if lived faithfully, it cannot but give to the Church and to mankind Marian saints and apostles richly endowed with the attractiveness of the “All Beautiful”.
Fr. Stefano M. Manelli is the founder and Minister General of the Franciscans of the Immaculate. The above article is taken from his book "Il Voto Mariano" translated into English by Fr. Peter Damian Fehlner, FI
