As I am writing this, I am happy to announce that there are already 1000 members that have committed to join the Confraternity and to the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It really is a great grace in this difficult time that we live.
The question that inevitably comes up after a few days of joining is “Now what?”
As a Confraternity, a worldwide family united under the fatherhood of Bishop Schneider, we don’t see each other on a regular basis. We are spread throughout all the world. And yet we are close in spirit and are united in the ideal of the Reign of Mary.
The fact of the matter is that we are alone and by ourselves on a day to day basis. And we wonder what we can do next in our own little sphere of influence by ourselves to advance the Reign of Mary one more little step.
And the answer is simple. We can and must start with ourselves and deliberately allow Our Lady to rule over our hearts.
But how do we do that?
St. Louis de Montfort is really our guide, the one who will teach us how to let the Triumph happen inside of our heart.
There is a passage from the True Devotion that I would like to talk a little bit about. It’s a little long, but you will see that it is worth it.
He says:
IV. Finally we must do all our actions for Mary.
As we have given ourselves up entirely in service, it is but just to do every thing for her as a servant and a slave.
It is not that we can take her for the last end of our services for that is Jesus Christ alone, but we may take her for our proximate end our mysterious means and our easy way to go to Him.
Like a good servant and slave we must not remain idle; but supported by her protection, we must undertake and achieve great things for this August Sovereign.
We must defend her privileges when they are disputed. We must stand up for her glory when it is attacked. We must entice all the world if we can to her and to this true and solid devotion.
We must speak and cry out against those who abuse this devotion to the outrage of her Son and, we must at the same time establish this Veritable Devotion.
We must pretend to no recompense for our little services except the honor of belonging to so sweet a Queen and the happiness of being united by her to Jesus her Son in time and in eternity.
If I were to sum up briefly what St. Louis de Montfort is saying here, I would say that we, as members of the Confraternity, must really live a new way, as a slave or servant of Our Lady.
We must do everything out of love for Her. We must offer up all of our joys and sufferings for Her. When we offer up something, good or bad, we are making whatever action an act of love for Mary. When we offer things in this way with our hearts, we are letting Her truly reign and have dominion over our hearts. This is something we can do right now to help usher in Her Triumph.
But not just that. We can also begin to extend Her triumph outside of ourselves in our own little spheres of influence, within our families, workplaces, and among our friends. When we defend, and we must defend, the Catholic dogmas about Her privileges, we pronounce the truth about who She is. When we do that, we are gaining ground for Her Triumph, no matter how small, in the culture and in public discourse. We must be bold in affirming Her coming Triumph. We must try to attract our family, friends, and loved ones to a true devotion to Our Lady that comes from our authentic way of life.
These are two things that we can do right now on our own.
Why do we do this? What do we hope to get out of this? Nothing but Her Triumph over all the earth. As members of this new Confraternity, aren’t we simply happy to expend our lives just to move 1 mm closer to the Reign of Mary and to be loved by Her forever in heaven.