Questions about the Legion of Mary

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Tis_Bearself

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Anybody here belong to a Legion of Mary, especially in USA? If so I would like to hear about your experiences.

My mom was in it when I was very young. We had those colorful pamphlets with the picture of Mary and the Legion on the front, here and there around the house. The parish chapter disbanded after a few years and was replaced by some generic parish “guilds” because this was the 1970s and a lot of the younger people and young parents in the parish weren’t interested in the older societies.

I thought the whole thing had kind of fallen by the wayside at least in USA but I discovered that one of the parishes I attend semi-regularly has a chapter of the Legion of Mary and had some of the little pamphlets out at the church. I am considering calling up and asking about joining and would like to hear from other members as to what they do, since I understand you need to do some kind of a service project each week. I think Mom volunteered at a local charity for the blind when she was in it. Thanks in advance.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Anybody here belong to a Legion of Mary, especially in USA? If so I would like to hear about your experiences.

My mom was in it when I was very young. We had those colorful pamphlets with the picture of Mary and the Legion on the front, here and there around the house. The parish chapter disbanded after a few years and was replaced by some generic parish “guilds” because this was the 1970s and a lot of the younger people and young parents in the parish weren’t interested in the older societies.

I thought the whole thing had kind of fallen by the wayside at least in USA but I discovered that one of the parishes I attend semi-regularly has a chapter of the Legion of Mary and had some of the little pamphlets out at the church. I am considering calling up and asking about joining and would like to hear from other members as to what they do, since I understand you need to do some kind of a service project each week. I think Mom volunteered at a local charity for the blind when she was in it. Thanks in advance.
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I used to be an active member. Love talking about some Jesus to people. Also, this isn’t really traditional Catholicism, this is where you should post this:
forums.catholic-questions.org/forumdisplay.php?f=100
 
adamhovey1988 said:
I used to be an active member. Love talking about some Jesus to people. Also, this isn’t really traditional Catholicism, this is where you should post this:
forums.catholic-questions.org/forumdisplay.php?f=100
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Thanks. With respect to the thread, if it’s in the wrong place maybe the moderator can move it rather than me starting a duplicate thread.

But in any event, I wasn’t under the impression the Legion was an evangelical society. As I remember (this is going way back, decades) when my mom was in it it was mostly women who prayed as a group and they did some service work for the parish and community (like volunteering for charity, maybe having events for new parishioners). They didn’t go out trying to convert people or preach to them.

Was your experience of the Legion primarily evangelical when you were in it? When were you in it and what exactly did you do?
 
Also, I just searched on the term “Legion of Mary” to see if there was a past thread on it. I saw 2 mentions of it in a Lay Evangelical Society thread in Evangelization, but a whole bunch of mentions of it in Spirituality forum as something that people who are seeking the Consecration to Mary should join. So now I am getting rather confused about what these Legion of Mary groups do. I know it was Legion of Mary that my mother was in - the pamphlets are really distinctive.

Can someone enlighten me as to how the Evangelization aspect plays into the Spirituality aspect of this group?
 
The Legion of Mary has been around for quite some time & is very active in the US. Our Archdiocese has many Parish Praesidium. If you google; you will find a myriad of information. Also, you can check with your Diocese’s Chancery for the local Curia information.
 
Thank you, I have Googled but the information I’m finding seems so very broad that it’s not giving me clear information on what the groups actually do. I’ve had this issue with other Catholic organizations as well and I suspect it may be because the parishes or the dioceses have some leeway in setting the actual tasks and goals, and/or the organization evolves over time and the website sticks to the broad mission statements.

I know it’s a really old organization as I have seen pamphlets going back to the 1940s and maybe 1930s. It’s nice that it has many active chapters but in my previous diocese where I attended at least 3 churches regularly (all of them established in late 1800s to mid 1900s) it seemed to have vanished - never saw mention in the bulletins or anything. I am in another diocese now.

I guess the best thing to do would be to call the lady who is the contact for the parish that seems to be offering it here. I was pleasantly surprised to find it still active in the USA as I thought it had kind of faded away here.
 
I think EWTN had a show on about a month ago, Father Joseph does a show called " the church universal" that features catholic charity groups. You might be able to find out something thru them. I specifically remember the group for one show was “The Legion of Mary”.
 
I’m in the Legion of Mary in the UK.
We do a variety of work, but great emphasis is placed on going door to door to speak with people, and we are generally well received (maybe they are just relieved we’re not Jehovah’s Witnesses, or trying to sell them something!) We also do crowd contact in public places like parks, and visit sick or housebound parishioners.

I’ve been a Legionary for 15 years and absolutely love it - as well as the weekly work there is the deepening of one’s spirituality that comes with the prayers and study at each meeting.

The Legion headquarters in Dublin has a useful website - legionofmary.ie
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Thank you, I have Googled but the information I’m finding seems so very broad that it’s not giving me clear information on what the groups actually do. I’ve had this issue with other Catholic organizations as well and I suspect it may be because the parishes or the dioceses have some leeway in setting the actual tasks and goals, and/or the organization evolves over time and the website sticks to the broad mission statements.

I know it’s a really old organization as I have seen pamphlets going back to the 1940s and maybe 1930s. It’s nice that it has many active chapters but in my previous diocese where I attended at least 3 churches regularly (all of them established in late 1800s to mid 1900s) it seemed to have vanished - never saw mention in the bulletins or anything. I am in another diocese now.

I guess the best thing to do would be to call the lady who is the contact for the parish that seems to be offering it here. I was pleasantly surprised to find it still active in the USA as I thought it had kind of faded away here.
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In my area there are two parishes that have the Legion of Mary in it. The priest who (usually the pastor) attends their weekly short meetings gives out assignments according to the needs of the area. Sometimes they visit the sick, and sometimes they knock on doors and offer a holy card or a small container of holy water. They Visit nursing homes and hospitals also. I believe they do two hours of that per week.
 
ora_pro_nobis said:
I’m in the Legion of Mary in the UK.
We do a variety of work, but great emphasis is placed on going door to door to speak with people, and we are generally well received (maybe they are just relieved we’re not Jehovah’s Witnesses, or trying to sell them something!) We also do crowd contact in public places like parks, and visit sick or housebound parishioners.
Click to expand...
Thanks, it’s interesting that you’re generally well received going door to door. In my experience most people in USA these days really hate door to door anything, or they won’t open the door for fear of being scammed or targeted by a criminal. Many places have do-not-knock ordinances where residents can put their names on a list for solicitors not to knock on their doors (a lot of rude salesmen will still do it anyway which doesn’t endear them to the resident) and other places, such as gated communities, won’t let door to door folks in at all. 50 years ago my hometown used to get a lot of LDS and Witnesses going door to door, now we get no LDS and almost no Witnesses, I suspect because of all the rules and backlash. I suspect in this area the Legion would focus more on visiting the sick and homebound who are probably more receptive than just going door to door, but we’ll see.
 
Ginmer said:
I think EWTN had a show on about a month ago, Father Joseph does a show called " the church universal" that features catholic charity groups. You might be able to find out something thru them. I specifically remember the group for one show was “The Legion of Mary”.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I will look for it. Sounds interesting.
 
Dorothy said:
In my area there are two parishes that have the Legion of Mary in it. The priest who (usually the pastor) attends their weekly short meetings gives out assignments according to the needs of the area. Sometimes they visit the sick, and sometimes they knock on doors and offer a holy card or a small container of holy water. They Visit nursing homes and hospitals also. I believe they do two hours of that per week.
Click to expand...
Thank you, I’m sure they are very welcome in the nursing homes and hospitals where some people don’t get any visitors.
 
I think it varies greatly from place to place. I don’t recall the group affiliated with our parish EVER going out to do things. They had regular meetings, and did many Marian devotions, but they didn’t do any outreach except for making the Baptismal bibs for the babies/children of the Parish. Perhaps it’s based on what the membership can do. Ours was primarily very elderly men and women. I know they went to regional events as a group, and manned a table at the annual Eucharistic Congress.
 
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