All of us are familiar with the idea of vocation as it applies to the priesthood or the religious life.  Those are special vocations.  Scripture says about the priesthood that “no one takes this honor upon himself but only when called to it by God.”

But all of us have a vocation to be apostles and to be holy.  We are called to that by God.  That calling comes to us by our baptism.  We can fulfill this calling in many ways and through many different organizations.  One of these is the Legion of Mary.  In the Legion we are called and helped to grow in holiness and in the desire to save souls. 

“Your proper vocation as lay people, that is the vocation to be a leaven in the People of God, a Christian inspiration in the modern world, and to bring the priest to the people, is eminently ecclesial”.

Pope John Paul II to the Legion of Mary

"The Legion of Mary is apostolic duty decked out in attractive and alluring form; throbbing with life so that it wins all to it; undertaken in the manner stipulated by Pope Pius XI, that is, in dependence on the Virgin Mother of God; insistent on quality as the foundation of membership and even as the key to numerical strength; safeguarded by plenteous prayer and self-sacrifice, by exact system, and by complete co-operation with the priest. The Legion of Mary is a miracle of these modern times."

Cardinal Riberi, formerly Apostolic Delegate to missionary Africa and later Internuncio to China:

“This is the essential idea of the Legion apostolate. Lay it will be in bulk of membership, but working in inseparable union with the priests, and under their captaincy, and with absolute identity of interests. It will ardently seek to supplement their efforts, and to widen their place in the lives of men, so that men, receiving them, shall receive him who sent them.”

Legion Handbook

"The growth of what is usually designated the Lay Apostolate is a special manifestation of our modern days, possessing-were it for no other reason than the numbers concerned-infinite potentialities. Yet, insufficient seems the provision for this giant movement. When one looks upon the multitude of beautifully conceived Orders which cater for those who are able to abandon the world, the contrast with the form of organisation thought good enough for those who are not so circumstanced, is very striking. On the one hand, what intensity and exact science, making the most of the material! On the other, how elementary and superficial is the provision made! The system calls, indeed, for some service from its members, but it forms for the generality of them little more than an incident in the week's round, and it hardly even endeavours to play a more considerable part. There must be a higher conception of it. Should it not be the staff of their earthly pilgrimage-the very backbone of their whole spiritual life? Undoubtedly the Religious Order must form the pattern for workers in common and, other things being equal, it may be taken that the quality of the work done will improve in the measure that there is approximation to the Order idea. Still this brings with it the difficulty of determining the exact degree of rule which is to be imposed. Desirable though discipline is in the interests of efficiency there is always the danger of overdoing it, and narrowing the appeal of the organisation. The fact must be borne in mind that the object in view is permanent lay organisation-not something equivalent to a new Religious Order, or which would eventually drift into becoming one, and of which history is full of instances.  The aim is this, and no other: the drawing into efficient organisation of persons living their ordinary life as we know it, and in whom the presence of various tastes and pursuits other than purely religious ones has to be allowed for. The amount of regulation attempted should be no more than will be accepted by the average of the class for whom the organisation is intended, but it should certainly be nothing less."

Father Michael Creedon, the first Spiritual Director of Concilium