I attended your meeting of the Army of Mary at ... I also experienced my “road to Damascus” because Mary captivated me as I have never been in my life. After three months, I am still under the effects of that grace. Now, all my past life is there, but only to sing the great mercy and love of God and Mary for their unworthy child whom they have never ceased to fill with great graces in spite of my many weaknesses.
In that gathering, I felt completely taken over by the purest love. This purity of love, I discovered it for the first time, in those around me who seemed to love me, the most miserable of all creatures, For the first time, I tasted pure love which needs no effusion of feeling or various solicitations, but communicates itself according to the spirit, and surpasses all that human love can give. I am qualified to talk about it, because my consecrated life has nothing to rejoice about.
Since that day, I have often wept before the statue of Mary, the All-Pure. I had abandoned prayer and meditation to let myself be attracted by the world. Only the desire for a holiday from my Community led me, without enthusiasm, to a meeting of the Army of Mary. I must say that since that day, I have only one desire: recollection alone in the chapel; to see my Sisters in a wholesome and pleasant atmosphere; to live at peace with God who has become my Confidant.
I must ascend, now. He will help me. He will never ask enough of me. I want to give Him everything, something I should have done the day of my profession. But, I want to make up for lost time. I surrender to His will. I am not afraid because I feel bound to all the members of the Army of Mary, this beautiful family in which we really feel like brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.
I am looking for a director, I was deceived, and then it was the easy life. No longer being asked to rise above myself, I fell into tepidity, to say the least. What can I do? I can fall into error so easily. Help me, for I also wish to live my life completely for Christ, the spouse I have chosen. What a grace to be called into the Army of Mary! I owe it the renewal of my life, and I wish to testify to this. Thank you.
Sister X...
Your testimony filled with humility and an ideal, deeply touches us.
You turn yourself resolutely “towards the God of love, mercy and goodness in the joy of a renewed life,” conscious of the demands that this involves, ready, above all, to meet them.
Have confidence, dear Sister. As Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort puts it so well: “We advance more in a brief period of submission to Mary and dependence on her, than in whole years of self-will and self-reliance.” Whence the importance of a well-understood Marian devotion, because Mary guides us to her Son. “To forget the Mother leads to no longer recognizing the Son.”
In this ascent towards the summits, there will be difficult moments. Above all, do not tarry over your past life, unless it is to live in a more profound humility and an ever purer love. Live the present intensely; look to the future with serenity, assured that God calls you and loves you. Keep your courage up, remain firm, confident in the goodness of the Father.
If the Army of Mary appears to you as a beneficent haven, inviting you to recollection, silence and pure love, it is because this Work of the Church favors a return to the sources, and faithfully takes up again the teaching of Christ repeated by Peter’s successors. With Christ Jesus, all is so simple and so pure.
Your desire to refuse Him nothing, to give yourself totally, is praiseworthy. It will exact heroism, at times. With the grace of God, all is possible, and what is more, “the yoke is easy and the burden light.”
You are looking for a director... While awaiting to find him, lose no time and read carefully the simple counsels of the “little way of the spiritual childhood” of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus. Draw also upon the works of Saint Teresa of Avila, a doctor of the Church. Her virile teaching remains timely and will be in conformity with your profound aspirations.
There is true happiness only in the gift of self, in the pure love which unite us all to Christ and make us children of the same Father, the God of Love.
Go thoroughly into the spirit and the commitments recommended by the Army of Mary and you will experience, always increasingly, the graces attached to the consecration to Mary asked by the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council. You will realize, more and more, the solicitude of Mary, our Mother, who bends down over her child who prays to her.
Marie-Paule
