Practices of the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary

On a day and at an hour appointed the members hold their regular meetings. The usual practice of the Sodality, at its regular meetings, is to recite the Office of the Blessed Virgin, or the Little Office of the Immaculate Conception, if this is more convenient. In case of necessity, other prayers, hymns and devotions may be substituted.

The Director, or some one appointed by him, should always give an instruction at these meetings on some topic connected with our Lady, or, if it be evidently more profitable at times, on some other kindred topic.

Regularity in the holding of the meetings has much, if not everything to do with the success of the good work, and the regular instruction gives the Director an opportunity of doing much good to the members. A vast amount of instruction can be conveyed in a year when the work is not allowed to become desultory.

In the true spirit of the Sodality, the members should frequently receive Holy Communion—if possible, all together—especially on feasts of the Blessed Virgin: they should practise the devotion of the Six Sundays of St. Aloysius, and it is advisable that they devote some days every year to the spiritual exercises of a Retreat.

The good works recommended are not obligatory, but all or any of them may be done with great profit:

(a) Every day, to begin the day by some special prayers to their heavenly Patroness. In the Prima Primaria three Hail Marys are customary, morning and night.

To be present, if possible, at the holy Sacrifice of the Mass. To give some time to pious meditation or to spiritual reading. To recite at least in part, the Rosary or the Office of the Blessed Virgin. To make an examination of conscience before going to rest.

(b) Once a month, at the very least, to receive the sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist.

(c) Once or twice a year, to make a general confession; that is, a review since the last one made.

(d) At the death of a member of the Sodality, to accompany the body to the grave and fervently commend the soul to God.

(e) At all times, to be earnest in furthering the interests of the Church and of religion; to strive, by example as well as by words, to lead back to the way of salvation those who have strayed from the faith or from the practice of virtue; to promote works of mercy, especially towards members of the Sodality in time of sickness; to aim not only at acquiring ordinary Christian virtue, but at excelling in piety, purity, humility, modesty, diligence and fidelity in the duties of one’s state of life.

It is a special privilege of the members that they can second the efforts of the Church to counteract the spirit of religious indifference, so common in our age, by keeping the practices which have distinguished the Sodality where its purposes have been fully carried out.

In the history of the Sodality we find that its members have been the apostles of all good works, especially among men and boys. They should promote such undertakings, for example, as the Apostleship of Prayer, the Communion of Reparation, the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, the recitation of the Rosary, and the attendance at Retreats and Missions, such Catholic works as the Propagation of the Faith, the Holy Childhood, Catholic circulating libraries. They should be eager to encourage and help Catholic schools, to teach catechism to the poor and to abandoned children, help in the work of Sunday-schools, promote parochial and diocesan interests by lending their influence and their active co-operation to the ecclesiastical authorities.

The practical charity exercised in visiting the poor and the sick, both in their homes and in hospitals, will be a great safeguard for all, and, in particular, for young men, and even for men of mature age, against the seductions of vice and the dangers of idleness.

A true Sodalist will always be an apostle of charity in aiding the needy to find employment, in helping to form associations that will save boys and girls, young men and young women, from being led into error and vice—in a word, by striving in every way, by word, by influence, and by example, to check the spread of religious indifference, to discourage the reading of dangerous publications, to thwart the cunning tactics of secret societies, which are apt to deceive the unwary by their specious pretexts of mutual help. Wherever its members have been true to those duties which are embraced in its general aim and purpose, the Sodality has been found to be a real power for the defence of the Church and of Christian society.

Two things are painfully clear not only to priests actively engaged in the sacred ministry, but also to every practical Catholic layman. Now that the masses are either being estranged from the Church by indifference or irreligion, or kept from its services by the endless toil imposed upon them by unscrupulous masters, the Church must seek them out and go to minister to them in their workshops and meeting places. This can be best done by Sodalities in which the more favored children of the Church will unite to act as the agents of her priests, who cannot possibly reach all. Again, the socialistic tendencies of our age must be conteracted, or at least directed to seek the welfare, instead of the ruin, of human society. The Sodality, uniting men as it does, to influence one another for good, and that under the patronage of our Blessed Mother, is a most effectual means of doing this.