To Recapture the Dream

Contents

One in the Heart of Mary

Spouse of Jesus Crucified

Mothers to the world

Born of the Spirit

Women of Eucharist

Poor and Obedient

Go to Section 3

Go to Section3

Section Two: Forming the Heart of the Institute

Introduction: 

One of the most consistent thoughts in the writings of Mary, was the notion that religious life - each expression of religious life - had its own grace, its own blessedness, and that one of the most important things for any group of religious men or women to do, was to remain faithful to the song each had been given to sing. In one of the first conferences given to her followers she wrote:

To ask why there are so many orders might be answered by the questions: Why are there so many and various kinds of flowers? Each flower has its own peculiar beauty, and is distinct from the others. This is God's design, and in the beginning when he commanded the earth to bring forth fruit after its own kind, creation, according to this divine will, looked beautiful with its various plants and flowers, each of a distinct kind. So, in God's new creation - the Church - each flower must have its own particular sweetness, each fruit its own taste, if his design and will are corresponded with. Why do I dwell on this? Because it is important to recollect that our perfection consists in corresponding with the designs of God in our regard. (M.C. 2, p.20)

God, having led a person into a religious community which has a certain end and spirit, along with some special devotion, would not inspire her with such attractions as I have suggested before. No - God expects the religious to have the same devotion and spirit as the order to which she has been called.(M.C. ibid.)

To know the heart of the institute to which the new members of the congregation were drawn meant that Mary had to clearly define the pattern that the plan of God had laid down in her mind. From the moment of its inception, Mary stated clearly that she had been called by God to found a society within the Church, that had its own unique identity. It was no borrowed model, but a unique plan:

“The Little Company of Mary is a direct impress from the Most high. God visited my room with a series of marvels and simple as I was, unread in mystical theology, or even ordinary writings upon devotion, I knew that God's manifestation to me meant something great, something indeed of moment.” (A.N.Vol.1, p.11)

One in the Heart of Mary  Back

When Mary Potter began instructing the first members of her small band in l877, at the request of “our father and director” (Bishop Bagshawe), she did so in order to ensure that “in the many matters of the day, our many works and various duties, we might (not) lose sight of the object, the special spirit and end of our institute”. The members who came to join the little society were ordinary women. Some had been married and widowed, others were young and single. Some came because they knew Mary Potter and shared a vision with her, others, because they were drawn to give their lives to God, but were unsure or where or how, or because they were recommended by their Bishop. There were some who sought entry who had failed in other institutes of religion, but were determined to try again. If the society was to get off the ground, and assume its truth, the members all had to realise that a plan had been laid. Firstly, everyone had to understand that - in accordance with the principles long established (and still true)- the principal end of any form of Christian life, and more especially that form of Christian life lived under vow, was the perfection of its members. Mary wrote:

First and foremost, the end we have in view, is to perfect ourselves - and how? By the imitation of Jesus and Mary. We are especially bound to imitate our Crucified Lord and his martyred Mother on Calvary. This is the final end to which we are tending. We aspire to become spouses of Jesus Crucified.” (M.C. 3., p.29)

From her earliest conception of the society, Mary had seen that True Devotion was the way the Little Company was called to follow Christ. De Montfort had laid down a spiritual pathway that was deceptive in its simplicity, ruthless in its radicality. Mary Potter had herself entered upon the path and had experienced high graces. By following the principles of De Montfort, she had become free to accept the voice of God within her. She had experienced the pain of stripping away the mask of self and self control the pain of abandoning herself to the hands of another, that God's will be done in her and she knew that this spirituality would be the corner-stone upon which the foundation of the society would be built. Writing to her brother Henry, she said:

I intend True Devotion should form the spirit of our Little Society, so that we might all have one spirit among us - the spirit of Mary - and that anyone who did not like this devotion, and would not adopt it, should not remain. (Selley Correspondence, Undated letter from Southsea)

The devotion to our Lady that I speak of would make them saints in the world.....It is simply our Lord's devotion to Mary. You give yourself entirely to our Lady, body and soul and all, once and for all, and depend on her as Jesus did....I have such confidence in this devotion, that give me a soul willing to embrace it (I do not say even like it...) not matter what the defects of that soul, it will be entirely changed. I am very anxious to spread the devotion.(Selley Letters, June l3, l876).

Baptism is  regeneration, a new birth. We can be baptized but once but though we cannot twice receive Baptism, we can renew its effect within us whenever we please. Thus it is with the devotion recommended it is a marvellous 'secret' of grace. Its effects in the soul are truly wonderful, but these are not seen all at once, and the 'transformation' caused in the soul does not take place at once and likewise the graces which it is promised will be given (to those who adopt the devotion), are given, according to the co-operation of each soul with the graces given (that is) - according to the spirit with which the soul enters and continues in the Path of Mary.(Spiritual Exercises, p.44, USA ed.)

She was - in spirit and truth - the perfect expression of the Gospel 'little one' who realized that, by herself, life was impossible, but who also knew that with God all things were possible. The wonderful gift and example of the Mother of Jesus, was that she possessed the freedom given to those who have total dependence upon God, and who understand, with that dependence, that they are independent of everything else in the universe. For such a one, there is only God and the desires of God's heart. Human respect, human regard, vanishes, in the knowledge that it is only God who truly IS.

For Mary Potter, such a perception of the Mother of God, enabled her to see that it was to just such a 'little one' that the Word came. Jesus came to Mary, to be born of her, because she was dependent upon nothing other than God. The virgin of Nazareth - by owning completely her dependence upon the Most High God had received the promise of the beatitude: The kingdom of heaven was indeed hers, in the conception of Jesus. It was the belief of Mary Potter, that if this woman had the humility and grace sufficient to attract God so completely to herself - if God had seen fit to trust his Son to Mary, could we not trust ourselves to her, that she might take us to the Son and to the Father? If the “Most High God” had taken Mary for Mother - should we not also? For Mary Potter, the answer was “Yes”!:

You wish to imitate Jesus, by giving yourself to Mary. Now behold how Jesus, like other children was under the influence of his mother in the womb. He was there formed by the operation of the Holy Spirit. The sweet soul and spirit of Mary was possessed by the Holy Spirit of God. As naturally the thoughts, wishes and feelings of a mother influence her unborn child, so it was with Jesus in the womb of Mary, she receiving from on high - from the Father and from the Eternal Word - the Holy Spirit. (Spiritual Exercises, p. 45 USA ed.)

The act (of consecration) has to work a change in them Mary has to throw the mantle of her maternal protection specially round the soul now her very own. She is anxious to work in that soul to influence it, to bring the Holy Spirit to press and invigorate, and form it to a new life. But the soul must be pliable, docile it must be ready to be moulded. If it is stubborn, self-willed, rigid, how can it be moulded into the likeness of Jesus? How can Mary influence it? (ibid)

“Those who enter this little society”(wrote Mary), “will not be required to enter at once into its full spirit, that is to say, the spirit of Calvary. It may be some years before they are prepared to do so. The preparatory step will be to enter the Path of Mary, as little Children, and to be born again of her. They will then consecrate themselves entirely to her Maternal Heart, to be disposed of, body and soul, according to her wish.”(Conferences “M”, p.8)

When the self is subdued, when we have fought with it and brought it down, when we have made room for Jesus, by having cast out our self love, then all does indeed seem easy, then our lives indeed become beautiful.....We carry heaven within us, for where Jesus is, there is heaven, and Jesus dwells in the soul that is emptied of self. He is, to the persons who thus possess him, as their very heart...... you will likewise love others, for you will see and rejoice in his grace in them thus you will love them, since you love his grace in them and having love, your soul will please God and thus replenished with love, you will let your light of love shine before the world.(op cit p48)

What the way of going to Jesus through Mary will bring to the soul is “a remarkable union with God, a sweet simplicity and liberty which will be, at the same time, joyous and modest, and having a demeanor natural and unaffected.”(op. cit 5. P.50) It would be the means of bringing that soul into the liberty of spirit that brought joy to the world:

Those who live more by the Spirit of God than their own, are according to God's own heart. Those who live in the company of Mary will ever do this, as she did, who lived and spoke to the Holy Spirit, who “possessed her in the beginning of her ways”. All therefore who walk in the “Path of Mary” will possess this holy liberty.....(op.cit. p. 189)

What Mary Potter believed with all her heart, was that the Path of Mary would be the means not only of binding her followers to their God, and leading them into the joys of union. It would also be the means of binding the community together. They would truly be one in the heart of Mary, for if each individual member was drawn to love God with all her heart, it was a natural follow-through that she would love the other with all her heart as well. The 'grand effect' of this devotion would be the ability to live with each other in true charity:

You will love with every beat of your heart, where Jesus lives in love you will pour out his love upon those outside you will see God everywhere you will see him in his creatures, you will love him in them. you could not cherish a hard thought of a creature God loved. You could not, possessing within you, the Holy Spirit of love, think hard thoughts, speak harsh word - you will have a kind look for all, a kind word, a kind deed. We should then do good. Again and again it might be said:

Mary Potter saw that the spiritual growth of the individual was the key to the development of the community, and to the blessedness of community life. She understood that the souls of her followers, like her own, would be led to different points at different times, and that each would experience and express her relationship to God in a unique manner. If the graces that would be given were corresponded to, then the little society would be conforming to the spirit implanted within it by God - the expression of the human life of Jesus and Mary:

We wish in our Lady's little Company to represent on earth the life of our Lord and our Lady. The greater part of our Lord's life was made up of simple, and to outward appearances, natural actions. Our Lady too was occupied in actions of an ordinary kind. But while outwardly occupied like other persons, what a difference there was interiorly. What a life of love, suffering and sacrifice there was within. Calvary had already begun in each heart........Thus is should be with Mary's own. The united company will together manifest to God the life of Jesus and Mary. Some of its members may be called by God to go through all the various states of life of our Lord and our Lady. Some more especially drawn to one of those states than to another....In our Little Company, the holy spirit will fashion the saint at will. The various members may all be alike and yet all different. All alike in simplicity, in liberty, in love, yet each differing in some particular way from the others, by being in a different spiritual state, or in its passage from one state to another. Yet all together will make up a whole, well pleasing to the good God. (M.C. 10., p.111-112)

Our Lady leads her own, and the Path she leads them, in being trodden first by Jesus, therefore is replete with graces. She leads them the path walked by the Blessed in heaven, and those who walk it are blessed already on earth. Our Lord's voice proclaimed it so, for so our Lord's own words tell us. They deliver their souls and body and all they possess. They make an offering of all to our Lady. Their voluntary spoiling of themselves of their goods, both interior and exterior, make them 'poor in spirit', whom our Lord has pronounced blessed. We might go through the various beatitudes, showing how our Lady leads her own on through one after another. She is the Mother of Mercy, therefore her children must be merciful. She is the Immaculate Mother, therefore her children must be pure of heart - upright. She is the Mother of the Prince of Peace. She teaches her children to imitate their brother Jesus, and breathe peace wherever they go, and she permeates their own souls in peace, teaching them how to suffer patiently, to bear persecutions, filling them with holy hope that the kingdom of heaven is theirs. (A.N. Vol.3.)

(This path) will serve to keep you in your proper place in creation. You are a work of God, you are therefore bound to give him glory. You are bound to give him service. You were made for God, therefore you should seek to live for him alone, and not live for yourself. (P.O.M.p.79)

a simple and natural life, not an extraordinary life, but a very simple one. I mean religious life, so far as religious means 'binding', but that is not a very extraordinary thing. It is a very natural thing to be bound. If Adam and Eve had not sinned, we should all have been thus bound, that is to say, we should have belonged so entirely to God, we should ever have felt so consecrated to him, that the formal binding would not have been necessary. We should have been as little children playing before a loving God, sporting and abounding in our liberty in the life of love given by the good creator to his happy creatures, and yet, not selfish in our happiness, since every joy would produce from God's sinless children, an act of love and thanksgiving to their good Father, their own joy would but have made them rejoice the more in his. (Conference “M” Compendium of the Rule, p. 32 )

“If you give yourself thus, after the example of Jesus to Mary, she will in return give you the power to give a new life to Jesus. He will be born and live within you, so that henceforth you may say: I live now, not I, but it is Christ who lives within me. The Eternal Word will be spiritually conceived in you, therefore will God the Father, bending over you, encompass you with jubilee, and pour forth upon you his holy spirit.” ( P.O.M. p.22-23)

What this meant for Mary Potter, in terms of the Little Company, was that the offering that was to be made was a total abandonment, a radical offering, a willingness to be used for God's own purpose. Mary Potter's understanding of the radical abandonment of this Path of Mary, meant several things. Firstly, the Path of Mary was a way of living the Christian life in its fullness. Therefore it was a way of living the Gospel, and of becoming Gospel for the world. It was, therefore, not a way that was restricted to religious life. It was a way for all people, and a way of bringing all people into their own beauty and truth - it was therefore a way of evangelization. Thus she would say:

We were not founded in God's kingdom simply to nurse, that is an addition. We were founded to extend the kingdom of God on earth, by making Mary reign in the hearts and minds of men.(Unpublished Conference on the Confraternity of Calvary)

I particularly wish that few postulants should be refused admission to try their vocation. They will all be led into the Path of Mary, and thus do incalculable service to their souls, and if they find that their vocation is for the world, they will return to it, to live over again the wondrously sweet domestic life of Mary.
They will go through the Spiritual Exercises, and can return at any time for a retreat. The “sanctuary of Mary's heart” must be a place of refuge, a place of retreat for members in the world who will come and be consecrated to Mary(M.C. 24, p. 247)

There is a mistaken idea in many who desire perfection, that it is not to be found in the world. In this they are wrong. People may attain as high a perfection (and certainly, since perfection consists in doing the will of God, a higher perfection) in the world as in the cloister. There can be no doubt that if it is God's will they should remain in the world, he will give them grace to perfect themselves there, for perfection is to be attained by our corresponding to whatever it is that God wills for us. (M.C. 24, p. 254)

Let the few who join the highest part of this work of Mary for the good of holy Church, be those who have been well tried, who have suffered long. (M.C. 24. p. 246).

Spouse of Jesus Crucified  Back

If the members of the society had been called to be one in the Heart of Mary - that is, bound together by a common spirituality which drew them all into the Mother heart of Mary to be formed into the image of Christ (and therefore drawn into a commonly held belief regarding the nature of the Christian life and Marian discipleship), they were also called to a unique vocation to be Spouse of Jesus Crucified. While *we* might recoil at this imagery, for Mary Potter, the term had a singular meaning, one that was essentially linked to the spiritual path they had been called to follow.

Having entered the Path of Mary, those who sought to follow the plan of God for the society would “take time to consider and consult with their director as to whether they feel themselves called to take the next step that follows in our Little Society, namely to follow Mary on the Way of the Cross, there to watch as she did, Jesus dying, there to pray as she did in union with Him, Father forgive them....there to join their hearts as she did hers with the agonising heart of Jesus, and be united with him so closely, that henceforth their place of abode will be on the Cross in the heart of Jesus. (On Formation, Conferences “M”, p.8)

Union with Jesus on the Cross was a particular manner of living life, and Mary Potter had been given an understanding, that the members of the Little Company were called to a unique relationship with the Cross of Christ. On Calvary, Jesus had gained the redemption of humanity. On Calvary, by the willing obedience of the Son to the Father, the Mercy of God had been poured out, that the world be renewed into the blessedness God had created it to be. On Calvary, Mary, who had been made the spouse of the Holy Spirit and the mother of the redeemer, at the moment of the Annunciation, becomes truly the Mother of all the redeemed - all those who are born in the spirit, through the water and the blood (the Mercy) of God, incarnated in Christ. If followers of the Path of Mary, had been called into religious life to be co-redeemers with Christ, they must, of necessity, embrace the same Cross that Jesus had embraced, and suffer the life of contradiction that he, the Saviour of the world had suffered. They had to be willing to undergo the suffering and struggle, necessary for disciples, to bring Christ to birth in their own lives and in the lives of others.

To be a spouse of Jesus Crucified was not to seek out suffering, but rather, to do what Jesus had done walk the earth telling of the good news of the Father's love and revealing the coming of the kingdom through every action of life. Writing of this Mary Potter stated that

“those who...have been vowed and united to Jesus on the Cross will henceforth live in a constant union with him - (a union) of thought, desire and feeling. That is to say, his thoughts during those three hours, his desires, his feelings will be theirs for the remainder of their lives. They will never seek to come down from that Cross where his love has called them, and where their Mother has placed them. If Mary has obtained that certain of her own should, by a special grace of predilection on the part of God, be called to so high and holy a vocation as to be spouses of Jesus, and to stand with herself on Calvary, those who have received this great grace cannot be too careful to correspond with it, and by daily more and more studying the interior dispositions of our Lord and his mother (though these two are really one), will, day by day, enter more fully into the spirit of their Institute. (Conference “M”, On Formation p.8)

Jesus on Calvary opened his Sacred Heart and poured forth its treasure of Precious blood...he did it with a special intent of drawing upon us the sinful unworthy children of the earth, the great gift of his Holy Spirit. Let us humbly remind the Eternal Father of this wish of the Heart of Jesus. Let us, in union with Mary, show our Father in heaven this desire of our Lord in his death agony, that the Holy Spirit might speak and live in the hearts of those whose nature he had assumed, and to whom he made himself a brother. We who devote ourselves to live with Jesus and Mary on Calvary, must enter into their Sacred hearts that our own may be filled with their wishes and intentions. The Heart of Jesus was filled with love for the whole human race, and therefore did it suffer and empty itself of its Precious Blood, to obtain for us what alone could fit us for heaven, for eternal life with himself....the gift of God's spirit.(M.C. 14, p.152)

Following means literally walking in another's footsteps, imitating their actions, or being guided by their example. Following the Man of Sorrows therefore, necessarily means a life of poverty, subjection and contradiction.(B.C. Part Two, p.53 USA Ed. l957)

To find oneself in the Cross of Christ, was to be found by Love Incarnate, but it was also to find the place of being-with Christ. Mary wrote of the necessity of those who are drawn into this union with God, to clearly understand the responsibility that is theirs. In a dialogue with Christ on the Cross, it is as if Jesus impresses upon her these words: “ My child, if though wilt remain with me on the Cross, thou must suffer with me on it.” (Mary's Call, P. 198) This was the truth of the one who comes to understand the nature of the Act of the Redemption. To love a crucified Lord is to embrace the total folly of the Cross, and the folly of a God who loves such frail and sinful people, enough to die for them. It is to love with the same love to live with the same desire. Mary Potter's own response we have already seen. For those who would follow, this union with the Heart of Christ crucified was to be the reality of their spiritual lives:

Our Lord called the hour of his Passion emphatically his hour. It is likewise the holy hour of his spouses. It is termed Sacred it is so. The soul that has come to this sacred hour, that is united, not alone for time, but for eternity, to the Lord of heaven and earth, and united with Him on the Cross, is likewise sacred it is set apart it is united to Jesus suffering on the earth, to be united with Jesus glorified in heaven. Happy vocation, given not to all. The soul has sunk deep into the wounded side of Jesus. It is united for ever to his strong loving heart. When it speaks, it is not a long way off the spouse of Jesus speaks to the God of her heart, to the Heart of her God within her, the God in whom she lives more than in herself.(O.L.R. p.199)

In reading our Rule or having it explained to us, we may find that we did not realise all that it requires of us. I think many of you will find that your Rule says: “in union with the Sacrifice of Mary at the foot of the Cross, where Jesus shed his Precious Blood for the salvation of the world” (First Rule Part 1., Chapter 1.) and that this has not been seriously enough thought of and practised...that you have not distinctly offered yourselves as victims in union with the great Victim for us all.(Conferences on the Rule, Conferences “M”. p.89)

Through the courageous bearing of all kinds of trials, with the heart and mind fixed upon bringing relief of soul and body to another, there was the radical commitment of Gospel discipleship. Only great love can respond to Calvary. Only a real realisation of the love with which I am loved can bring me to that place. Equally however, only a great love and a great desire to live the same sort of life that Jesus lived could keep the soul on Calvary. To live as 'spouse of Jesus Crucified was to live in union with the thoughts, desires and feelings of Jesus. To do this, the soul had to enter into the Calvary moment completely, to understand the undying constancy of it. Then would come the realization of the absolute nature of Calvary, when every breath, bevery heartbeat was one of anguish and love. On Calvary there is a suffering that is personal (I thirst) a suffering that is for 'the other' (Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do) a suffering that is the dark night of despair and solitude (My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?).

Bound mystically to the Cross with her Lord, the spouse of Jesus would see her world with Jesus' eyes. She would come to understand the depth of love that brought Christ to his Passion, and would come to share his vision for the world, and her role within that vision. Once bound, the one who had been called to this place would experience the heart-longing of God, for the salvation of his people. Like her Lord, the spouse of Jesus Crucified would have her eyes wide open to see the reality the results of sin in the world. She had been called to emulate her Saviour and Jesus did not have his eyes closed on Calvary. From the Cross he looked upon his earth, his people. He suffered with them and in them. The call to be spouse of Jesus Crucified meant that the task was to look upon the world with the same love, the same pain, the same anguish, and to endure the suffering, that the pain of the world might cease. More still, it was to offer oneself - in practical terms - that Christ was not crucified in his people. In practical terms, it was to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to seek out the lost and the abandoned, to stand against the agents of sin and division in the world. And if that leads to a personal crucifixion - a personal dying, at the hands of others who do not understand, or choose not to understand, then so be it.

This concept of being Spouse of Jesus Crucified cannot lead us to a passive 'delighting in the Lord' for our own sakes, it can only lead us - as it led Jesus - to our own personal Calvary. It breaks apart what Mary Potter herself called a “spirituality sensuality” (Mary's Call, Introduction), and forces the soul into action.
For Mary Potter, the epitome of such a love and such a union of heart and will and suffering that was to be expressed by the spouse of Jesus Crucified, was to be found in the woman who was the first among the faithful.....Mary, the Mother of Jesus.

In her writing on the Mother of Jesus, Mary Potter had pointed out that it was Calvary that brought Mary out of her retirement. The love of the Mother for the Son had drawn her to this place of total abnegation. On Calvary, the Mother of Jesus, united herself with her Son She shared his pain she witnessed the birth of the Church, in the Spirit, from the outpouring of Mercy from the wounded side of Christ she had herself been missioned, by that action of grace, to become Mother of the Church. She was drawn into the Calvary experience not simply as a bystander, but as an active participant. The loves of Jesus' heart were her loves. His pain, hers. His longing, hers also. For Mary Potter, the Mother of Jesus assumed a new dimension on Calvary. Here the sword of sorrow pierced her heart, and she became the Mother of Sorrow, the Mother of Pity, the Mother of Mercy. The members of Mary's Little Company were called to learn of Mary in this moment too. They were to be as 'other Mary's' in the world. They were to embrace her dispositions of mind and heart, and were then to emulate her stance on Calvary. But what did Calvary really mean for the Mother of Jesus? Mary Potter's vision of the Mother of the Lord on Calvary was as one perfectly tuned to the desire of the Son. We can tend to forget that the Calvary moment was Mary's moment of redemption also. At this point in time and history, she was not simply the Mother of Jesus, but also the Spouse of Jesus Crucified. She stood on Calvary and embraced the agony of watching her son die to save all people. She watched her son die for her! Here she stood in union with him, and knew again the moment of Annunciation, the truth of her own ecce and her fiat. She stood beside her son, received the gift anew, and with the gift the agony of loss:

The Mother of God stands silently by her dying son. Grief enough would it be to watch his anguish were he dying a perfectly natural death, but in that fearfully unnatural death - unnatural because he is hated and murdered by his own people, whom he loved more than his own life - what did she feel? Words and thoughts fail us here. Shame she felt for her people, grief deeper than words for the grief of Jesus, sorrow for this people who were many of them working their own damnation, sorrow that Jesus should lose forever those he was dying to save, sorrow that God the father should be so outraged by his creatures, her heart still clamoring to save those poor unfortunate beings, who, clamoring and shouting blasphemies on Calvary, were courting eternal woe.......Mother, draw us near thee, and make us understand thy suffering.....(O.L.R. p.181).

What Mary Potter always sought to inculcate in her followers, was the fact that the Heart of Mary was ever in tune with the heart of the Son. Jesus was dying to bring to birth new life in God's grace and goodness. His anguish and pain were willingly endured to achieve that end. Mary, Mother of the Lord - was united with him in that moment of redemptive suffering. For both of them, it was the moment that expressed the reality of something Mary Potter felt was totally real, namely that 'suffering was indeed the touchstone of love.' The willingness to endure all things, to embrace all things, to be patient under all difficulty for the sake of the kingdom, was the truth of being a Spouse of Jesus Crucified, a real 'handmaid of the Lord'.

Again and again Mary Potter returned to the thought that the reality of this could only be experienced if we can see God with the eyes with which God sees us. That kind of humility and truthfulness, however is not within the reach of frail human beings without the graced presence of God to sustain us in the knowledge. One way that is possible to us  is that we abandon ourselves to be formed by Mary into another Christ. If Mary is the Mother of the redeemed she is also the nurturer of those redeemed. If she is the Mother of the Church, she is responsible for her children - she has a role and function within the economy of salvation. She is a means of assisting us become our true selves. Those who were called to the Path of Mary would:

Beg of Mary to lend us her heart, that we may love with it her mind that we may think with it and when her thoughts and affections have full possession of us, then that mind will be in us that was in Christ Jesus. And this is what we would have, this is what will make us saints, this is what will make us all God desires we should be, real Christians, real followers of Christ. If the apostle tells us, “Be ye imitators of me, as I also am of Christ” how much more may we refer these words to Mary, the Mother of Christians, the first follower as well as the Mother of Christ.” (O.L.R. p.182/3)

On Calvary, that 'first follower', became 'spouse of Christ crucified'. She was, in the Johannine sense, bound in a new way to the mission, ministry and new life of Jesus within his church. If the members of the Little Company were to live their vocation fully, one means of doing that was to learn from Mary how to live on Calvary, and how to embrace a Calvary life in order that others might live. Mary Potter wrote:

If then we would imitate Mary, especially on Calvary, we must beg from the Holy Spirit light and wisdom. Mary on Calvary was flooded with light concerning God's ways. She saw what even she, with all the wisdom she possessed, had never seen before. May be she saw with Jesus the eternal destiny of all, and that as they were presented to her sight, her heart sent forth that cry and prayer for their salvation which was to save souls in every age until the last day. It may be that God in his mercy showed them to the Mother whom he had but just consecrated as Mother of Christians, Mother of the Church, and that Mary was touched with compassion and a cry for Mercy came forth from her heart, such as the Almighty could not disregard at that moment of her intense suffering....(O.L.R. p.183)

This was the prayer of the heart of Jesus and the heart of his mother. It was to be the prayer of the heart of those who were called to embrace the Cross and love with the same self-sacrificing love. Mary Potter wrote to her followers:

It is that prayer Mary's children must continue. Yes, take your place on Calvary view heaven and hell from that sacred mount, and your soul will grow purer in that purifying atmosphere it will grow unselfish, it will expand to something of the grandeur of Mary's soul it will somewhat resemble Mary's, and pour itself out upon others, in love, in earnest, anxious, agonising prayer, and like Mary, gain souls to God. Oh Jesus, we will then, stay and watch with Thee on Calvary. We will remain in loving union with Thee, loving Thee most, where Thou hast most loved us. Close to our Mother on Calvary, close to Thee dear Jesus, our Lord, we will live close to Thee dear Lord, we will die.” (O.L.R. p.185)

To be Mothers to the World  Back

Amongst the graces Mary had received in the formulation of the plan for the Little Company, was the direct instruction from God to “Honour the Heart of my Mother”. This was a working word from God, and like all the graces, was two edged. In the first place, it spoke of the interior life of Mary herself, and of those who would follow her, and secondly, it determined actions which would flow over into the world, and be part of the mission and ministry of the Little Company. So, what did the words “honour the heart of my Mother” mean for Mary Potter?

In the first instance, to honour the heart of the Mother of God, was yet again focused upon a real understanding of the Incarnation. God had indeed become man he had assumed the condition of a slave, in order that his people, who were slaves to sin, might be renewed and reborn in the spirit. The Incarnation of God took place in time and history, and in one sense, it took place because one human being dared to face the abyss of God, and say “Be it done unto me, according to thy word”. In that one, breathtaking moment in time, as Mary Potter herself realised, “heaven began on earth”. (Spiritual Exercises).

Mary Potter loved the Mother of Jesus - not with a pious or extreme sentimentality, but within the context of a high Christology. She understood the awesome gift of God in Christ - the wonder of a God who placed himself in the womb of a human mother, that he might free his people, and glorify them. For Mary Potter, the maternity of Mary was supreme gift. It was part and parcel of the wonder of the Incarnation of the Son. Augustine had cried out: “What an astounding thing, that a creature should have conceived its creator” (Sermon 189:2), Mary Potter would cry out in the same tone of wonder and joy:” What is it then to be a saint?
It is simply to let Jesus come and live in you! Dear Lord, how he loves us!” (S.E. p.147 USA ed.).

For Mary Potter, the Incarnation of Jesus in the womb of Mary was not only the moment of salvation for the people of God, it was also the revelation of who and what each and every person was born to be - a saint, a 'womb enholding God', or as she more whimsically put it, echoing Meister Eckhart: “ the nutshell, encasing God” (Life in God's human Family).

What the mother of the Lord had demonstrated in her conception of the Son, by the power of the Spirit, was the deep desire God had, to love his people back to life, and the ability of the human heart to respond to that love. Mary, the chosen vessel of the Lord was open to receive. By her willingness to assume the motherhood of Jesus, she accepted the responsibility of being a saint - i.e. a real human being, bound to its creator by generative and loving ties. In this, the mother of Jesus was the model for all Christian life - a model of the receptivity needed to hear the Word of God, to receive it absolutely, and to bear it forth in the flesh, to the world.

From her contemplation of the life of the Mother of Jesus, and her own experience of having been led to Jesus and the Father through Mary, Mary Potter saw that those who would follow her would be called to live the same union of mind and heart and will that was exemplified in Mary, the Mother of the Lord. The sisters would indeed be one in the heart and mind of their mother, and one in the heart and mind of the Son. If the radical obedience of the Cross as well as its poverty were the foundations of the building, its structure would be made of the love and the virtues of their mother Mary's heart. They were to have the same virtues and the same interests as that heart, and as Mary was truly the Mother of the human face of God, she would be the mother of the human face of Christ that dwells in each human soul. What was necessary was that, like Jesus, all must commit themselves to her, and must become an echo of God.

What Mary Potter understood about the reality of Mary's being was that there was but one voice in Mary - God's voice. Her heart was the throne of the Trinity. By her voluntary 'ecce' and 'fiat', the word had become flesh and dwelt among his people! By the voluntary 'ecce' and 'fiat' of those who had been called to the Little Company, they could become Christ bearers - as Mary had been Christ bearer.

In the Mother of Jesus, Mary Potter found the model of the fullness of the Christian life. It was she who in her simplicity and openness to God, had been the one to receive the Word as she was truly the mother of the Son, she was also our Mother, for had not Christ brought us all back into the wonder of our relationship with the Father? were we not with Christ in the womb of Mary? were we not with Christ in the moment of his dying? And, are we not with him in all the moments of his rising? And if we are - are we not with a Mother, whose love for us, is the same love with which she loves the Son, and is, in fact, the same love with which the Son loves us?
 

Dear Sisters, ( Mary Potter wrote), what are we doing? Of what are we thinking if we think not of Jesus and Mary? If you do not love Mary with this Jesus-love, you have him not with you as you should. This love for Mary must be the distinguishing mark of your Institute. A child-like, confiding love of Mary, the mother above all Mothers, the Mother of Jesus. Devotion to the Mother Heart of Mary is what we must pray for, this is what Jesus desires we should love, the heart of his Mother. (M.C. 5., p.47)

It was a work! Something to be achieved - a transformation, that was at once personal, yet for the world. To honour the heart of the Mother of Jesus, was to imitate it in its virtues, and to live by its desires. In that way, the soul is assured of living according to the desires and wishes of the Son. But the particular grace given to Mary Potter, was to honour that heart of Mary in its Maternity. What did that mean to her and her followers? It meant that they were to learn of the Mother-heart of Mary:- The heart that had conceived the Word, and then enfleshed it within her womb: The heart that received a new word on Calvary: “Woman behold thy son”, and renewed its commitment to nurturing the precious body of her child this time in the person of his brothers and sisters, the Church: This was the heart that would empower and animate the members of the Little Company. By the power of their love and commitment to the people of God, they would act as agents of transformation in the world in which they lived. Through the commitment of a Marian discipleship, the members would seek to sustain, support, encourage and enliven the Church, that the image of Christ that lived within it might reach its full stature. As the Virgin Mary had been missioned by the Spirit in the new moment of her motherhood on Calvary, when she was made Mother of the Church, the members of the Little Company of Mary were missioned to that same Motherhood.

But to imitate the heart of Mary, meant that those who followed the dream that had been implanted in Mary Potter's soul, would have to be intent upon receiving the Word. The attitude called for, was a life of deep contemplation, a life of reflective listening for the still small voice of God within all the circumstances of life. Here again, Mary was the model of such contemplative awareness. She who pondered all things in her heart, was the model and exemplar. Only through such a life of reflective listening, would one receive the gifts God had to offer. And it was necessary to receive. Mary Potter had come to understand that power of Motherhood. She wrote:

My God, I understand! A mother is one who receives to give. Thy spirit impresses me. I must bear fruit. I must give. I receive to give. May I be faithful to thy mission: “I have made thee mother. Remember thy office in my Church”. (A.N. Vol. 1., p. 95)

Open the doors wide to receive wayfarers from the world. Mary has given her heart to her own Little Company they must act by its dictates. They must act with the most perfect form of human love, the mother's, with that mother-love raised to such a height as it was raised in Mary. (M.C.24, p.252)

Honouring the heart of the Mother of Jesus was to live by its desires and loves, to be so moulded into an image of Mary that the society would live as Mary lived, united in the heart of the Son. So important was this concept of honouring the heart of Mary by loving imitation that the first rule of the Institute said clearly:

“ The Sisters seek to be moulded by Mary, so as to become the perfect likeness of her Maternal heart, wishing for what it wishes. and conforming themselves to its spirit.” (Conferences on the Rule, l893)
Why? Because we must ever recollect that we have to follow our vocation we must form ourselves on our rule, which tells us our special work and devotion is to honour, and to honour by imitation, our Lady as Mother. Not even especially as the Mother of Jesus, but more especially as the Mother of us, and we know the place where she was made our Mother - it was on Calvary. There are other orders devoted to other parts of our Lady's life.....(but) we have to honour her as Mother, and to turn to her sweet heart to discover its emanations, to love it and honour it, and to form our own upon it. What is the heart of a Mother - even an ordinary one? Ah, it is full of warm, unselfish love. Oh, the depths of a Mother's heart, it is generally acknowledged that there is no love like it. It will suffer all things, endure all things, hope all things...(Conferences “M” p.91)

To suffer all things, to endure all things, to hope all things! If this was the role of a mother, then it was the role of the Little Company of Mary. Founded on the love of the Heart of Mary which itself suffered all things and endured the unendurable, and maintained itself in hope that all manner of things shall be well, the member of the Little Company of Mary was to have the willingness to walk the earth with boundless faith, hope and love, and to pray without ceasing to the Father of all Mercies, that none might be lost. To be such a Mother to the world demanded fidelity to the interior life of the Spirit - that the Word might be heard in the world - fidelity also to the needs of the children of earth, that their sufferings might not destroy the truth of the hope that lay within them.

The love that motivated action in the members of the Little Company of Mary, was based upon the love that reigned in the heart of Mary:
 

What was this love of Mary? It was an ardent desire of the possession of, and of union with, the children of earth because they are the children of God, made to his image and likeness, and redeemed by the blood of her Son, with a persevering willingness to suffer all things rather that one should be lost. And this is the love, sweet mother, that thou wouldst that thy children should have. It is thy entreating prayer thou wouldst have them offer, the prayer that never ceased in the midst of thy daily occupations, the prayer of thy heart. ..... We have to become what all Mary's own must be - mothers - and that not in a half-and-half kind of way. Oh, no. What can be worse than a cold-hearted, neglectful mother? Certainly, it would be better not to be one at all than to be a bad one. No! We will be devoted, generous mothers to all who need our care, whether for their souls or for their bodies. God be praised, He is good indeed. He will give us all the grace we need - as much, I might almost say, as we choose to take and we want grace. We need to have our hearts in union with Mary's heart. (L.H.M. p.18)

But, the power and the hunger of the human heart for love - to love and be loved - is immense. To voluntarily chose a life of celibate loving is to chose a life of fundamental aloneness. To love God in spirit and truth, is to reach a point where all the images vanish and the soul is bound to the infinite darkness of the unknowable God, who reveals himself in the littleness of things, and in the graced moments of his being in time and place and history. Mary Potter found in the wonderful immensity of God a sense of her own fullness and emptiness. She could write:” I seem to have been with God creating....”, and in that moment, when she had found herself in the darkness of the creating womb of God, she had come to an understanding that this vast, creative, darkness, was the 'spirit of God' as it hovered over the waters, and was an expression of the mothering forth from God, of all created things.

In her contemplation of the Mary, the Mother of Jesus, Mary Potter had seen that Mary herself was the perfect human expression of one who was chosen to reflect the Motherhood of God. She saw that motherhood itself was a conception of God - an expression of God's own creative and creating power. We need, perhaps, to break apart our own conceptions of motherhood, to enter into the thought of the founder, that God is Mother, as much as Father, and the twin conceptions are essential to a real understanding of God's being. As God created humanity “in his own image and likeness”, so he created them male and female...each in that likeness. Mary Potter saw clearly that one of the functions of the Little Company of Mary, was to reveal that feminine dimension of God to the world. It was not a sugar coated femininity that was wanted, nor a sterile harshness, but rather a warm and generative power that resembled the 'mother love of the good shepherd':

You must be true mothers Mothers by suffering, even unto death. Offer your life to give birth to children, in the spirit of the Mother-like Shepherd, who tells us: “I lay down my life for my sheep.”(M.C. 1., p.19)

Being a 'Mother after Mary's heart' was therefore inseparable from being a 'spouse of Jesus Crucified'. Jesus had shown that to give birth to souls, a death was necessary. For the member of the Little Company of Mary, that was equally true. They were to be mothers to the world in spirit and truth, with their whole being dedicated to the birthing of Christ in the hearts of humanity. Yet, here too, she reflects the practicality of her gift. To be a true Mother, there are attitudes of mind and heart that must be carefully nourished and brought into being in the members of this Little Company. There is a learning process to be undergone - or perhaps, it is better called an unlearning, for the characteristic of the Christ-like Mother, was one of abandonment to the will of the Father, and that characteristic was not something that was easy for the children of earth. It required a heroic giving of self, again an abandonment, that would lead to the willing eradication of everything that was not of Jesus, in our hearts, our souls:

Mary is the Mother above all Mothers, Mary is the model of motherhood and we cannot be like our Mother Mary, unless we too have mother's hearts. If we keep close in her company, if we lean upon her and trust in her, if we ask her to show the love of her sweet maternal heart, we shall gradually grow like, it, we shall imbibe its spirit such a beautiful spirit it is, such a lovable one. Little by little, we shall feel it growing within us the change may be imperceptible at first, but there will come by degrees a new feeling, a maternal feeling, new to us, superseding our old feeling of self love, and what is better than any feeling at all - inducing us to greater things for the good of others.
We may perhaps have had a sister's love, we may have had an apostolic love of souls, we may have longed to do good to others, yet this love was quite a different thing from the new love we find our Mother putting into our hearts this mother love for others and this mother love is such a passion, that our hearts seem different ones from what they were. We hardly know them now. (LHM. p.18)

This is the perfection we children of the Maternal Heart are to aim at. It will bring such graces upon the world when Jesus can look down and see this Mother-love of Mary spread over the world in every country. The pleadings of a mother will be everascending before God, that beautiful unselfish cry of a true mother we shall, hidden in our Mother's heart, send up the pure incense of prayer from our unselfish hearts, a loving maternal feeling for those around will induce a constant cry for mercy for them, and mercy will come. God's mercy will be ever descending as the maternal prayer of Mary's heart is sent from earth to heaven by Mary's children on earth the hopeful, imploring, loving cry will be most pleasing to God, and his benediction will certainly come from heaven to earth upon those poor erring ones from whom it is thus implored, and a double benediction likewise for those who ask and who plead, as if for their own salvation, and who thus fulfil our Lord's command, by loving others as He has loved them. (LHM p.19).

Need I point out again, (Mary wrote), that whether sick or well your place is at the gates of Holy Church, that no soul should pass through those portals of time into Eternity for whom we have not prayed All have this same work, whether we are in the kitchen or in the laundry, or in the sick room or on a sick bed ourselves. We must still keep to our post. The post that holy Church has assigned us, that we may help the poor dying. We must be as sentinels, faithful to death.” (Conferences on the Rule, p.89, Conferences “M”)

My principal object is simply to draw your attention, to examine yourselves (on) how much your own hearts resemble mothers' hearts. Much more - how do they resemble the Mother heart of Mary? Take each point - and principally the point of love - that self-sacrificing, generous, patient, hopeful love that a good mother possesses, and then, looking upon our Mother Mary, see how this love extends to all mankind. How much we shall find to fill us with confusion! How we shall find that we never considered this our daily work for souls. Have we worked with the love of a mother, with the patience of a mother, with the hope of a mother? Ah, it is here we give up. A mother ever hopes, and we, how soon we give up and lose our hope. If we hoped more, how much we should do. Consider the Canaanite mother, how she hoped and persevered in her request, even though our Lord seemed to repel her - so must we hope and persevere and then much good shall we do. (Conferences “M” p. 91)

Our spirit is the highest form of love known among men, a mother's love. The beautiful conception of God that he created in this world, and which is more like himself than anything else in the world. How carefully should we guard this treasure God has given us.....

Reliable and trustworthy sisters will not be formed by being threatened and stormed at. We can be led to love to do our works, to lead noble lives for love of God, but we cannot be forced to it.....
Another thing - those who are constantly reproached in a hard manner are not raised to respect themselves and their state, and a great many of our sisters need raising and refining. They may have been threatened in the world, and have acquired a habit ...of working for the eye of man to see. How can they be stripped of this, which is so necessary, and taught to live in another atmosphere - a fresh groove of thought implanted in their minds - if they are treated in this worldly way? If we want to raise them to a higher range of thought, and let them be inspired with the great idea of their dignity as spouse of Jesus, that they may strive to keep up to that dignity, show them great respect, which any tone bordering on contempt would be likely to injure. (Conferences “M” p.96)

Born of the Spirit  Back

If the members of the Little Company of Mary were to live according to the demands of their vocation, Mary Potter knew well that, they must be open to the movements of the Spirit of God within their own souls, and within the world as Jesus and Mary had been. The entire vocation of those who had been called to the Little Company was dependent upon their being open to it. In order to receive the Spirit, however, the soul needs to rid itself of everything that would block its action:

If we give up ourselves, we receive God's self. When we give up our own will and way, our own spirit, to walk according to God's will and his way, we receive his Spirit. Precious, happy exchange, every part of ourselves emptied, subdued, is filled with God. (S E, p.17., USA Ed.)

Mary Potter understood, however, that the Holy Spirit does not 'breathe easily in softness' (Conference of Whitsuntide - Unpublished Conference N.) To receive the Holy Spirit, the soul must be mortified - must be constantly seeking to deny itself, that the Spirit may enter. However, the paradox remained true, that the soul cannot subdue the self that seeks to dominate, without the action of the Spirit. In a particular sense, it is the Spirit of God itself which seeks to subdue the violence of sin in the soul, because it lives within the soul, within the nature of beings, made in the image of likeness of God. For Mary Potter, the indwelling nature of the Spirit was joy and glory, but it had to be let free:
 

The holy Spirit is in all who are longing , who labour in harmony with their longings, for we all know that to long to be a good musician, a good painter, or anything else, would be fruitless if we practise not the art we would be master of. Then we, who aim at putting off the old man and putting on the new, namely living a life of union with Jesus, putting on his virtues, becoming God-like - we must use strenuous efforts to keep to our high resolutions. (op. cit., p.101)

Do we realise what the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity is? That Spirit of love, proceeding from the Father and Son, yet - equal to both! We speak of the spirit of certain saints - the spirit of the sweet St. Francis De Sales, of the great St. Ignatius - the spirit of these saints means to us, as it were, their essence, their manifestation. So it is, in a higher sense, with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God. (op. cit., p.34 A retreat on the Holy Spirit).

Dear Sisters, think again: our own perfection consists in realising what we know. We repeated as children - God the Father made me God the Son redeemed me God the Holy Spirit sanctified me...The work of God's spirit.. is to make us saints! (Conferences “A”, No.31, p.53)

Love for the spirit of God, for Mary Potter, came from her understanding of the wonder of the Incarnation and Redemption. Mary, the Mother of Jesus had been invaded by Love - impregnated by the Spirit of Love, and in her love response, had conceived Jesus - God made man. This was endless wonder and awe for Mary: God had become flesh, that poor human beings may know their own glory in him. The Virgin Mary had become Mother by the power of the Spirit. That Spirit was able to enter into her because there was nothing in her to block that entry no concern for self, no desire for anything else but God's will being achieved in her:

The Third Person of the Blessed Trinity manifested himself to us in that magnificent work of God, the Incarnation. His indwelling within, and overshadowing of our Blessed Lady produced the Incarnate Word. In her pure heart there was nothing that could be an obstacle to the action of God's spirit, and through the Holy Spirit, the Immaculate Virgin became the Mother, not only of the Incarnate Son, but also of all that vast family which he has given her. And in her prompt response to her Spouse, the Holy Spirit, she is our model, as she is in everything. (Conference on the Holy Spirit. Conferences “N” p.134)

This was the supreme joy! In the Incarnation, Mary Potter saw the reality of the spiritual life. As Mary had enfleshed Christ by the power of the Spirit, so, from that time forward, all those who called themselves Christians were destined to conceive the Christ. The grace and the power of Baptism brought the Spirit to the soul. The grace and the power of Confirmation brought added strength and aid. What the soul was called to do, was to respond. For those who entered the Little Company, and indeed for all those who were called to the Christian life, this was the task:- To become pregnant with the Word of God, and to nurture that Christ life to its fulfilment within themselves and within each other. This was Motherhood in Christ. This was being a real Spouse of Christ - wedded to him in the intimacy of union. This was to come to know and find oneself in the immensity of the Triune life of God. This wonderful yet awesome delight to which the Christian is called - (to live in, with, for God) - is rather more complex for us to achieve, borne as we are without Mary's fullness of grace! To reach the being-in-God, that we are called to, there is a necessary self-emptying to be undergone. Mary Potter understood the need we all have, to subdue the self that would obstruct such intimacy:

The pure still atmosphere of God's presence needs us to keep in it - that we should keep away all foreign spirits - self, the world, and be attentive to God's spirit. God's voice, which is passing sweet to the attentive soul, to the listening one who waits humbly in the presence of its God, longing for the moment he will speak.(ON Vol.4., p.8)

God, looking upon this world, will again bless it, and the Holy Spirit be attracted, drawn to those souls who are echoing the melody that Mary's soul made to God. As often as we renew our promises, our vows, so often do we give fresh gifts to God. (O.N. Vol 3., p. 27)

Inflame me anew. Breathe into me, O my God, of thy spirit, that I may commence anew. Let my youth be renewed, O my God. Give strength to my soul, that I may never relax, but persevere with ever increasing love, labouring at Thy work, O my God, in the spirit Thou wouldst have me (have) - not slavishly, but generously, willingly, using all my powers of mind, of memory, of understanding, loving Thee, my God, in all I do. Loving Thee in Thine, in those around me. Waiting on, working for all, especially those who are given to my care - the sick, the poor, the suffering. (O.N. Vol. 4., p. 9)

My heart is yours my God, touch it with your Divine finger. May it respond ever in accord. May my heart be an instrument ever ready for thee my God, to touch at pleasure, and produce from it, in thy exceeding condescension, music which - even from such a poor instrument, found in a fallen world - is still pleasing to thee,(though)varying must be the strains. Now the sound shall resound to thy ordinance, by thy sweet will, the sound shall rise from earth to heaven, of hope.(A.N. Vol 1., p.37)

..Do not condemn the world...Hate the sins that are committed in it. Look fixedly and long on the perpetrators of crime. You turn away with a shudder from a degraded woman, a tipsy man, a murderer. They are, however, of the same flesh and blood as you. One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. You may be like them. You may be surprised into greater sins, if you fight not with the lesser ones - but fight! (AN Vol.4., p. 24)

We children of Mary, if we would be like our Mother, how must we love the world so loved by God? The author of the world dwelt within her. The world's history lay clear before her. ...Let us look out upon the world....(and)..view the world with our Mother. She seemed to hold it within her. Her colossal mind saw at once how little was the world, and, at the same time, how great. A world so loved by God. (AN Vol., 4, p. 24)

He is waiting, our Lord and Life and Love, with outstretched arms to receive us. We will not stay on the road, nor think of rest, but hurry on the way. It is the one way we have of showing our Love to Jesus, helping and encouraging others and yet, our selfish trials sometimes hinder us from doing this one work, loving others not in word only, but in deed, and by loving others, not only those whom we go out to assist, those outside the convent, but we mean, first and foremost our own sisters. I mean not to make light words, but beside kind, loving words, we must have kind loving acts, and the law of charity obliges us to give them first at home, and then to externs....(Retreat of the Holy Spirit, Conferences “N” p.105)

When we reflect, possess, God-like virtues, when our hearts are full of love, resignation, kind in thought etc., - we attract God. There is much to think of in this. Without our asking God to come, he is himself attracted. He is drawn to us. He gravitates - as a mother draws a child to herself and longs, loves to embrace her offspring, so our God loves his children, draws them, and draws them to himself. (AN Vol. 4., p. 23)

“God, looking upon this world, will again bless it, and the Holy Spirit will be attracted, drawn to those souls who are echoing that melody that Mary's soul made to God. (AN Vol.3.p27)

To be spouse of the Spirit was to be in tune with the master singer, as the Mother of Jesus had been, from the moment of annunciation to the moment of resurrection and beyond. Only by being filled by the spirit, could the life of suffering and penance be truly lived. Only then could the vocation of the sister of the Little Company of Mary, to be Mercy, be Mother, come to its fulfilment

In the final analysis, for Mary Potter, if the member of the Little Company was to live her life, true to her calling to be one in and with the heart of Mary, bound to Christ through the Cross, then it was of paramount importance that she listen to the voice of the Spirit in all the occurrences of her life. Only in that way could the will of God be fulfilled. Only in that correspondence to the touchings of grace, could the soul be brought into union with its beloved Lord:

What graces will not this devotion bring with it untold will be the graces that devotion to the Holy Spirit will bring us, graces incredible to those who have not this love for God's love, the beautiful spirit of God, by whom, if we live we shall be indeed not of this earth, earthy, but though on earth, we shall have our souls in heaven. Yes, heaven is already begun in the souls of those who live by God's spirit, who have opened their hearts to receive him, who have received, by means of God's fair fountain, our dear Mother Mary, the holy Spirit into their souls, with such love and devotion, with such renunciation of their own selves, their own spirits, that they are indeed living temples of God, and the holy Spirit dwells in them with love untold. (It) penetrates their human nature, filling it with the priceless gifts of God - charity, joy, peace, patience. These are God's gifts, even whilst we are on earth: joy, peace, content, happiness. Those who have joy on this earth, those who have peace, are wrapt in the embraces of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, the beautiful spirit of God. (O.L.R. p. 93)

Women of Eucharist  Back

If the member of the Little Company was to be the bearer of the good news of Jesus to the world, it was imperative that each member of the community understood her relationship to the Word of God revealed in the Eucharist. For Mary Potter, the ultimate point of that relationship was her sense of being bound to Eucharist....bound to the power of Christ in the wonder of his sacrament of love. Only by such a centering, could the spiritual life of the individual and the community be realised, for within that reality, there lay a further truth regarding the nature of the vocation of the member of the Little Company.
Firstly, in the presence of Christ in the sacrament, lay the necessary 'food for the journey' that was to be undertaken:

Not mere sentiment should prompt your love for the Blessed Sacrament. You need this strengthening food, if you would be firm and walk faithfully in the steps of Jesus to Calvary. ....Refresh your spirits and strengthen your soul every hour of the day with spiritual communion that will make you yearn for the holy hour in which he will come to you. ......Our whole body and soul, our very life depends on the Blessed Sacrament we must be penetrated with its virtue. It must live in us, we must exist for it (B.C, p.3 USA ed.).

To know Jesus in the breaking of the Bread, was the same for Mary Potter, as it had been for the disciples on the way to Emmaus - it was the kind of knowing that opened the eyes of faith, enabling those who would be disciples to race back to their communities, their people, to tell them of the good news of Jesus risen and glorified, and living again in the hearts and minds of his followers. The power of the sacramental life, was the power of the Lord of all things: the power of God himself who sought to transform, liberate, enliven, the heart of the members of the Institute, the Institute itself, and the apostolate to which they had been called. Mary wrote:

We cannot be nuns, we cannot live the life of Jesus, unless he himself supports us, and holds us in his arms. We shall fail, we shall fall, we shall become dry without him. I am smitten as grass and my heart is withered, for I have forgotten to eat my bread. Yes, well impressed with this thought, we shall wisely walk in the desert, ever leaning on our Beloved.(B.C., p.6)

Thou hast drawn us dear Jesus, and we have come to live with Thee upon the Cross to be moulded into a work of thy Holy Spirit to be known as Spouses of Jesus Crucified but oh, sweet Jesus, we must first be spouses of thine in thy Sacrament of Love, before we lean upon your breast with your beloved disciple, and hear the pulsations of your sacred heart! Oh dear Jesus, we need to be thus drawn closely to thee, if we would live with thee upon the Cross, and feel those other beatings of thy crushed heart, as they come and go with intermittent throbs in thy death agony.(B.C., p.7)

He...looks upon the souls whom he has enriched with graces that they may help him, that they may go in his place in search of the lost sheep and so many are deaf to his whisper, so many are rejoicing in the graces, the gifts he has given them, (that they) forget the naked and hungry and sick souls they could help if they stretched out their hands to them. Many are too happy, too warm and comfortable in their devotion ..... (M.Cl. p.2)

For Mary Potter, the reality of the sacramental life of the Church was the place where such strength, such faith, such courage could be attained and strengthened.

There is one lesson that should be learned today, tomorrow and every day, for only by having it strongly imprinted upon our minds, and putting it into practice, will we advance spiritually. It is the constant going to our dear Lord when we feel needy and poor and taking help from him by means of the sacraments received, really or spiritually. We can received Communion but once a day in reality, but any number of times during the day will our dear Lord spiritually raise his hand in pardon, absolution, benediction over us many times will he clasp us to his heart and feed us with his most Precious Blood - if we but ask him.(B.C. p.10)

What was to be understood, was that the power of the Eucharist was always present. It was in fact, the radiating heart of the universe the expression of the longing love of God, which waits for his people to turn to him, to receive him - actually and spiritually. The reality of the Eucharistic life of the member of the Little Company was that she was able to see and know that power, and to be an agent of its love and mercy in the world, by her own willingness to be consumed with the fire of love:

It is well for us to know that our whole strength, our whole life is in Jesus, and derived from him. Let us learn our lesson well, and never need another to prove to us where our strength lies. With St. Paul, let us say, “I can do all things in him who strengthens me”. With this motto sunk deeply into our souls, we shall conquer all difficulties, we shall fight the good fight well, and strive with the world, the flesh and the devil, not only for ourselves, but for others. We shall then be fruitful spouses of Jesus we shall give him children we shall conquer even hardened souls by the grace that he will give us, because we shall know so well that it is not ourselves but Jesus who conquers in us..........
No pain should be, and no pain shall be too great to do our work for our Lord, and to bring him children for whom he died. For this will we labour in our souls, sparing no pains. (B.C., p. 11)

The spouse of Incarnate love must be all love, and, advance as we may in the queen of virtues, charity, still we have little idea how far we are from its perfection. ....charity is not simply patience, benevolence, generosity it is a real turning of the heart to a loved one, and the giving all possible good to the object beloved. Charity is union of heart and soul with the object beloved, and this charity, when perfected as it will be in heaven, makes us rejoice in another's happiness as though it were our own. (B.C. p.13)

Go, and do this.....in memory of, and in union with Me. Go! Sacrifice yourself on the altar of my love, that others may live: Go! Be willing victims, that others may live to come to know Me: Go! Preach My name to all nations, and care for the little ones of the kingdom, with the mother-love of the Good Shepherd:
Go! Feed my lambs and my sheep: Go! Bring Mercy to the most piteous - and suffer yourself not to be separated from Me by living within the heart of My Mother! To live such a life, however, requires strength, and the strength was there in the Sacrament of Love: “The spouse of Jesus must live by the grace and strength of the Blessed Sacrament.” (B.C. p.7)

If the member of the Little Company of Mary was to be true to her 'Calvary' vocation as spouse of Jesus Crucified, and was to live the reality of the motherhood to which she had been called, in the mystery of the Spirit, then the Eucharist was the place of understanding. In the sacrament the reality of what had been done in time and place and history, was held and continued: Jesus had said: “No one takes my life from me I lay it down of my own free will” (Jn.l0:18).
The free self-emptying of Christ, was the model of the free self-emptying of the member of the Little Company of Mary - the reason for her entry into the Path of Mary, the reason for her vows to God, the reason for her ministry.

Christ's victory over death, however, was won in one blinding moment of dying and rising. The human cast of the followers of Jesus demanded that the moment be won again and again, through an ever deepening renunciation of all that is not of God - and that can only be achieved, by a constant awareness of our personal powerlessness which can be transformed into power, only if we let God be God to us - to permit him to reign in our hearts and minds, as Mary, the Mother of the Lord had done:

Let us turn to the Mother of our holy Faith the Virgin proclaimed blessed because she believed. We know our faith is weak, but let us use the faith of the Mother most faithful. Let us ask her to offer for us her heart of faith. In all the acts in which we know we have been so wanting hitherto, let us offer to Jesus his mother's virtues to supply for us. The faith and hope of the Mother of Jesus will be in her children if they humbly ask her to supply for their deficiencies. We will ask our holy Mother to strengthen our faith now, today and tomorrow, this month and next. We will, likewise, ask Jesus to regard not us, but to see his Mother in us, and for her dear sake to supply our deficiencies, and bless us and our works. .......Remember sisters, you are not powerless, but most powerful, if you work with faith. So we will work and living by faith and hope, we will die, please God, Victims of love. (B.C. p.29)

Let us go into the presence of our dear Lord, and there, kneeling and adoring, thank him for his great love and condescension to us......He longs to begin on earth that union for which he made us, which will be consummated in heaven. It seems as though it were too long for him to wait our death. Let us but prepare a place for him in our hearts, and he will come and abide there, for so he promises.....”If any one love me, my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him.” Yes, Jesus has already made his abode with us we have him on our altars......but a far more pleasing abode indeed, is the human heart to Jesus, than the tabernacle of our altars. Those are happy souls who ever keep Jesus with them, taking his delight in them and filling them with the peace and joy that must ever accompany his holy presence.” (L.H.M. p. 39)

In a specific and wonderful way, to accept to be eucharist, is to reaffirm the call to be “mother” in the same way as Jesus was and is 'Mother' to his people. Mary Potter constantly returned to this theme - this theological insight. Her hopes for her congregation lay in the understanding of the calling to be maternal in the sense that Jesus himself was maternal: His gifts and graces come to us tenderly and simply, in the homely way of bread and wine, and gentle hospitality. Even as he is Lord of the Universe, Maker of all things, he is the Mother who brought us forth on Calvary, and who nourishes us on his very flesh in Eucharist. For Mary Potter, the lesson lay clear. The vocation of the sister of the Little Company was to do the same for others. In the Motherhood of the Son, as well as in the Motherhood of Mary, the manner of being and loving in the world was established: A tendering of the human family of God in littleness and simplicity in the homeliness of hospitality in the welcoming of the stranger, the widow, the orphaned, and in the longing and never ceasing cry for the ones who had not come 'home' - the sinner, and (- as is the way with all mothers ), for the ones who were in greatest danger - the dying.

As much as Eucharist drew Mary Potter to adore, praise and worship God made present in the world, it drew her too, to be that which she and all who followed, were to be - mothers, fashioned after the mother heart of the Son, and the mother heart of the Mother, called to work without ceasing that the Kingdom might come, and God reign in His world.

If that ideal was to be reached, however, it was important that two other elements, essential to the interior life of the individual, and the interior life of the congregation, be established in the hearts and minds of the members. If they were to be true followers of Jesus, in the manner of Mary, and if they were to come to Jesus through Mary, then they, like Jesus and Mary themselves, were to be poor and obedient - even to the Cross.
 

Poor and obedient  Back

To be called to religious life, for Mary Potter, was to be called to live a radical and singlehearted life style for love of God and neighbour. It was to embrace with joy and willingness, the command of the Gospel which said: “If you seek perfection, go, sell your possessions, and give to the poor. You will then have treasure in heaven. Afterward, come back and follow me” (Matt: 19: 21). It was also to enter into the truth of the doctrine of the Cross which Jesus preached to those who would be his disciples: “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny his very self, take up his cross and begin to follow in my footsteps. Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matt16: 24-25).

The twin demands that were placed on those who longed to be followers of Jesus, were the demands of radical poverty and obedience.If the members of the Little Company were to understand themselves as religious - i.e. those who were by their free choice bound to God, then it was essential that poverty and obedience be lived not simply in the external behaviour of the individual, but in the heart. The merit of religious life lay not in the making of the vows, but in their living. Writing to the young society she said:

We are following a Crucified Lord we have been enlightened to know the Creator. The Holy Spirit has illumined our minds and taught us that though our God is a God of Mercy, He, the All-Pure God, is also a God of justice. Our reason tells us that we should do penance, we should lead a mortified life. This has been one of the principal reasons for the institution of the Religious life, it being difficult to practise penance in the world, where everyone, or we may say, perhaps the greater part of the human race, seek their own way, ease and comfort, not to be drawn along in the same strain. Certainly everyone in the world does not have ease and comfort there is much poverty and distress. The merit of poverty does not lie in the fact, but how it is borne. To be poor and hankering after riches is not meritorious poverty. (Conferences “F”, p. 79)

The religious who has embraced this state of poverty and who hankers after things contrary to her state, who is not contented with what she has given her, and ever desiring of other things, loses the merit of her state, is a most imperfect religious, and would do better in the world. So (too) with our penances, mortifications, and sufferings, it is not the amount we bear, but how we bear them. (ibid.)

We have our own spirit stamped, impressed, well defined. The spirit of Calvary. There we see suffering, poverty, and we fly not from our own model, Jesus. We desire to know of all things in this world, that we might desire to know but Jesus Christ, and Him Crucified. (Conferences “A” p.40)