The primary objective of any religious congregation is to help each member seek union with God and the salvation of his soul. This applies to the Third Order as well as to the First and Second. This means that the sanctification of each member is of paramount importance to our work. To ignore the interior life is to neglect the very fundamental reason for any religious consecration. As we have said, the devotional life is not separate from our life of study, and neither is it isolated from our apostolate. They all emanate from the same impulse to love God and be true servants and slaves of Jesus through Mary.
Every member of the Crusade is required faithfully to observe four particular Marian devotional practices:
- Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary – make it for the first time, or renew it, properly; then live it, and renew it formally once each year. (All members of the Crusade should make this formal renewal of their pledge of slavery to the Mother of God on Pentecost Sunday each year.)
- Brown Scapular of Mount Carmel – wear it with constancy and devotion.
- Miraculous Medal – wear it with constancy and devotion.
- The Holy Rosary – pray daily at least five decades, one chaplet, as Our Lady requested at Fatima. And carry the rosary at all times.
It should be noted that these obligations are not binding under pain of sin. In addition, tertiaries take no vows, only a promise of obedience in matters pertaining to our Crusade.
Devotion Practices
The Rosary
I could conquer the world if I had an army to say the Rosary - (Pius IX).
The rosary is the weapon of all true children of Jesus and Mary and, most especially, of their slaves. Saint Louis Marie de Montfort, says that “true disciples of Jesus Christ, walking … according to the holy Gospel and not according to the maxims of the world…. They shall carry on their shoulders the bloody standard of the Cross, the Crucifix in their right and the Rosary in their left, the sacred Names of Jesus and Mary in their heart…” (True Devotion, 59). That is why our Lady, in this Age of Mary, has insisted upon the Rosary so much. Reciting the “beads” (five decades of the rosary) is the only daily duty imposed on members of the third order; therefore, this prayer should be said with all possible devotion. We must humble ourselves, and acknowledge our complete unworthiness to recite this prayer, which has been said by so many saints, and has so many graces attached to it. We should look at the recitation of the Rosary as an honor and not merely an obligation. When we say the rosary, we should recall that we are saying this in union with all the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and with all the great saints that have been so devoted to this prayer. After we have finished, we should ask forgiveness for any distractions we may have succumbed to during its recitation and resolve, with the help of grace, to say the Rosary with more love and more attention tomorrow. Finally, we must thank Jesus and Mary for giving us such an exceptional means of grace.
The Brown Scapular
One day through the Rosary and the Scapular, I will save the world - (Our Lady to St. Dominic).
Sister Lucia of Fatima tells us that: “The Rosary and the Scapular are inseparable!” We should see the Rosary as our great weapon and the Brown Scapular as our shield in our war with the Prince of this World. It must become to us “a sign of [our] Consecration to the Most Sacred Heart of the Immaculate Virgin” (Pius XIl). The ever vigilant eye of Mary is always upon those who wear her habit, and where her eye is, there also is the love of her Heart to save and defend us; “Withersoever thou shalt go, I will go; where thou shalt dwell, I also will dwell” (Ruth 1:16). Finally, knowing the promise of our Lady that “whosoever dies wearing this [scapular] shall not suffer eternal fire,” we must do everything to our power to spread this devotion. ‘Thc Scapular and the Miraculous Medal (see following) must become our indispensable tools for our own fuller conversion and for the salvation of sinners and non‑Catholics.
The Miraculous Medal
Then the Blessed Virgin said to me: “Get a medal struck after this model; those who wear it when it is blessed will receive great graces, especially if they wear it round their necks. Graces will be abundant for those who have confidence” - (St. Catherine Labouré).
Besides wearing the Miraculous Meal, every third order member should confidently use this gift of our Lady as ammunition to bring about the triumph of her Immaculate Heart. Who can doubt that our Lady left us this devotion for that purpose? And, as Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary we have even greater cause to use this. Our first goal as a congregation is the sanctification of our members. Who can doubt, with the above promise of our Lady, that this medal will speed each member along the path to sanctity? Our second goal is the conversion of America. Our country has been solemnly dedicated to our Lady under the title of the Immaculate Conception. The miraculous medal is the medal of the Immaculate Conception, so who can doubt that it will be doubly powerful when used to convert this nation? Finally, with regard to our third goal, the medal shows our Lady crushing the serpent’s head. Is this not the same serpent, whose greatest victory has been to bring about the almost universal denial of the thrice-defined dogma: “extra ecclesiam nulla salus?” Therefore, each member must use this medal, but use it with confidence. Listen to our Lady speak through the Holy Ghost: “I am the Mother of Fair Love…. He that hearkeneth to me shall not be confounded: and they that work by me shall not sin. They that explain me shall have life everlasting” (Ecclesiasticus 24:24,30,31).
