January Allocutio 2026

As Legionaries we must bear the Word of God

Fr. Liam O’Cuiv

Today sees the beginning of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. However, since I spoke on that topic when I last gave an Allocutio to the Concilium Legionis, today, at the beginning of a new year, I wish to speak on the theme of the Word of God in the lives of legionaries.

Next Sunday, the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, is Sunday of the Word of God, a celebration introduced by Pope Francis in 2020 for the first time. Therefore, it is fitting that as legionaries we seek to enrich ourselves in the context of this day which calls for “the celebration, study and dissemination of the Word of God”.

This annual celebration was introduced following the issuing of a motu proprio entitled Aperuit Illis, (“He opened to them”) taken from the account of how the Lord Jesus appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus and opened their hearts which were very saddened by the handing over and condemnation to death and crucifixion of Jesus (Luke 24: 13-32).

There may well be times when we too may travel along, downcast by news we have learnt and feel unable to share the Good News. So, openness to the Word of God is most important as we also seek to encounter others on the road of life, with their own cares and troubles.

While it is true that the Handbook itself is full of quotations from and references to Sacred Scripture, and that this is a sign of how deeply rooted Legion spirituality is in the Word of God, the place we, as legionaries, have for the Word of God goes far deeper. As legionaries, in deep union with Mary, our Mother, we seek to share her devotion to the Word of God.

At the Visitation, Elizabeth says to Mary, “blessed is she who believed that the promise made to her by the Lord would be fulfilled” (Luke 1:45). Later, when the parents of Jesus become separated from him and then find Him after long searching in the temple on the third day, St Luke relates, “His mother stored up all these things in her heart” (2:52). Moreover, to the woman who spoke of how his mother was blessed in bringing him into the world, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that fed you”, Jesus responds by saying “More blessed still are those who hear the word of God and keep it” (Luke 11:27-28).Mary, the mother of Jesus is thus the disciple par excellence and a model for us all.

Thus, as legionaries, we must share Mary’s devotion to the Word of God. In doing this we must never forget that the true Word of God is a person, Jesus Christ, and not words on a page or a book. St. Jerome has stated “ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ”. Pope Benedict XVI would clearly state “The Word of God is not first of all a book, but first of all a person. We find in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 108 “The Christian faith is not a ‘religion of the book’. Christianity is the religion of the “Word” of God, a word which is “not a written and mute word, but the Word which is incarnate and living.

The privileged place where we listen to and pray with the Word of God is in the celebration of the Eucharist. With the reform of the Lectionary after Vatican II, we now hear a great deal more of the Sacred Scriptures than before the Council. Besides, with preaching during Mass calling for homilies to be a reflection on an aspect of the Word of God in the Scripture texts of the day, people are helped to enter more deeply into the mystery being celebrated.

All of this means that members of the Legion can hear the Word of God and take it into their hearts as Mary, the Mother of God received the Word of God in her womb. The late Fr. Bede McGregor, O.P. as Spiritual Director to Concilium stated, “The legionary must be steeped in the Word of God if he or she wishes to be radically in tune with Mary”. We can become steeped in Scripture through regular or daily attendance at the Liturgy. This can be greatly enhanced if we prepare for Mass, especially Sunday Mass by reading and mediating on the Word before going to the celebration of the Eucharist. Besides, our meditative praying of the Holy Rosary can help us receive the Word of God with Mary.

Allow me to conclude with those words taken from Pope St. Paul VI that I quoted earlier from the handbook: “As we participate in the celebration of the word, Our Lady is our model for she is “the attentive Virgin who receives the word of God with faith, that faith which in her case was the gateway and path to the divine motherhood”. (MCul 17)

Mary, our Queen and Mother, pray for us.