3rd Annual Conference of the Militia of the Immaculata

June 12, 2010

Click to enlarge

Third Annual MI Conference

The third annual Militia of the Immaculata (MI) conference took place on Saturday, June 12^th at the St. Augustine’s Seminary in Toronto, and despite the rain, the conference was well attended.

The speakers were, Fr. Stephen McKinley, O.F.M. Conv., Rector of the Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe, Illinois, U.S.A, and Fr. Patrick Greenough, O.F.M., Conv., National President of the MI, U.S.A. and Canada.

The Conference started at 9:00 am., with the welcome speech by Jaclyn Marroquin of MI Teens, Canada.

The opening prayer was the Memorare, led by Fr. Stephen McKinley.  The Theme of this Year’s conference was “The Year for Priests”.

The first speaker was Fr. Stephen whose talk was based on the post-synod Apostolic exhortation of Pope John Paul II,  “Christifedelis Laici”.  This document focused on the vocation and mission of the Laity in the Church and in the world.

Fr. Stephen reminded us that our priesthood began with our Baptism, and quoted from the scriptures to confirm this (Ex. 19.6. Heb. 7:21.,  Rev. 1:6. Rev. 5:10). While our Priests form the Ministerial priesthood and perform the Sacramental duties, we, the laity are the priesthood of the faithful and by our Baptism we received God’s grace – gratis – totally free, for everything we need to obtain eternal life. With this grace we should bear fruit and spread the message of the Kingdom of Jesus to the whole world.  Our goal should be “Everything for God”.  He also stated that something that we should all strive to achieve is the Greatest Commandment, which is to “Love one another. Fr. Stephen ended his talk by encouraging us to read the document which can be found on the Vatican website. (Try www.catholicculture.org)

Celebrant at the Mass was Fr. Patrick with Fr. Henry McErlean who, as concelebrant, read the Gospel and homily.  Fr. Stephen provided the Music.  After the homily eleven persons made a Total Consecration to the Blessed Mother.  Before the Consecration Ceremony, Fr. Patrick spoke to those to be consecrated saying that they should be certain of their decision to be consecrated, because once they have given their “yes”, the Blessed Mother will lead them into places where they may
least expect.

Fr. Patrick our second speaker in the afternoon spoke on the role of the Priests, the various duties for which they are responsible and their day-to-day activities.  He spoke about the special relationship between the Priest and God and compared this relationship to the special relationship between a mother and her child.  He said that in this special relationship the Priest is able to ask God to come down to earth during the consecration at Holy Mass. 

He also spoke of our relationship with our Blessed Mother and said that as a mother always knows what is best for her children and is always there for her children, in the same way Our Blessed Mother Mary is always there for us.  When we consecrate ourselves to her, we should dedicate all our prayers actions and sacrifices to her, reciting the consecration prayer daily.

Information on MI teens and the upcoming Summer Retreat camp (August, 4-8, 2010) was provided by Jaclyn Marroquin and David Mesina.

Closing remarks and thanks was made by Catharine Bone