Mary who accompanies us
Mary and the Holy Spirit accompanied Vincent, and were intimately related in his spiritual
life.
This was evident in Vincent’s early life. As a boy, his Novena to the Holy Spirit,
encouraged by his mother, was an intimation of the relationship in him between the Spirit
and Mary. From his upbringing Vincent received a great love for Mary. His favourite images
of her were those in which she appeared with her Son in her arms, because, as he said, “He is
the reason of her” (Gaynor 55).
Mary in the context of the Trinity
Vincent was ordained 1818. When his own mother became ill, he carried on his
apostolic work from home. On the 19th July, 1827 his mother died and was buried in the
white habit of the Third Order of St Clare. For three months prior to her death Vincent stayed
by her bedside nursing her and carrying out his apostolic work from there. Each day he
prayed the Office of the Passion attributed to St Francis which had a special prayer to “Mary,
Daughter of the Father, Mother of the Son, and Spouse of the Holy Spirit” which became
indelibly rooted in his spirit. These ideas appeared for the first time in his three booklets,
Months of May for Clerics, for Religious, and for Lay People, which he wrote in 1832, and
which prepared him for a unique grace.
On the last day of December 1832, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Vincent in an
overwhelming manner. He experienced a Spiritual Espousal to Mary. “The doctrine of
‘Espousals’ lays down that in special instances Almighty God permits other human beings to
be associated with Mary and to share through her, in that mystical union with the divinity …
the Espousals preceded another grace, the certitude of God’s call on him regarding the Union
of Catholic Apostolate”(Gaynor p.57).
Vincent described what happened: “On the last day of the year 1832, the great
Mother of Mercy in order to triumph with a miracle of mercy … deigned to enter into a
Spiritual Espousal with her subject. She gives him as dowry, what she possesses, and grants
him a deeper knowledge of her own divine Son; as Spouse of the Holy Spirit, she will see to it
that his whole interior life will be transformed in the Holy Spirit.” The miracle of mercy
Vincent describes is the Incarnation in Mary somehow happening now to him, “…we have
here a direct intervention of Christ into Pallotti’s interior life” (Eugene Weber). Mary seeks
the same for us. She asks us to pray for “the fullness of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. There in
the Cenacle, the apostles and I were filled with the Spirit. I wish to see you further enriched
with the treasures of the divinity; transformed in God, and ministers of the Gospel, more
useful for souls and able to work effectively for the Father’s glory (MME).
Fr Jacob is seeking to develop a pedagogy of the Cenacle for UAC members as to
how Mary and the Spirit accompany us.
The first element must be: The Holy Spirit, the creative, transforming Spirit, as the
principal agent of formation. The role of Mary forming Christ in us, bringing about an
incarnation of Christ in us as happened to her, is the work of the Spirit. Vincent striving all
his life for intimate union with God was aware of the infinite distance between himself and
God, but through the Spirit forming Jesus in him, Jesus became his bridge to God. In 1832
Vincent discovered in Romans 8:29, Jesus as his first born Brother, image of God to whom he
must be conformed. Thus in Jesus he is able to make the response to God’s love that God
was asking of him. “Jesus Christ is my firstborn Brother and since Mary is the real Mother of
Jesus she is also my Mother. Oh how blessed am I! The Daughter of the Father, the Mother of
the divine Word, the most pure Spouse of the Holy Spirit is my Mother” (God, Infinite Love
XXV) Mary, in her triple relationship led Vincent to be conformed to the image of her Son so
as to reach the Trinity. “She uses her intercessory power to complete the image of Christ in
us” (OOCC III:78-9).
The incarnate Christ, the bridge between God and man, is Vincent’s way into the
Trinity. It is also through prayer and through a union of wills that the Spirit leads him into the
Trinity. “Walk in the man and you will arrive at God” (Augustine). In 1839 Vincent wrote,
“Christ makes me completely one with himself, the Father and the Holy Spirit.” Jesus, his
Firstborn Brother, has led Vincent into relationship with all the Persons of the Trinity. It is
from the burning heart of God that the Word, become Jesus, is sent out in mission. This is
Vincent’s energy source. His experience of divine union with, in and through Christ enabled
Vincent to rise to the sphere of the supernatural and to perform actions that were no longer
simply natural but in accordance with the Spirit of Christ. Some fifty years later, Elizabeth of
the Trinity, a Carmelite from Dijon, made the same journey from Romans 8:29 into the
Trinity, and wrote,
“O consuming fire, Spirit of love, ‘come upon me,’ and create in my soul a kind of
incarnation of the Word; that I may be another humanity for him in which he can renew his
whole mystery.”
The second element in a pedagogy of UAC Formation is: Mary, Queen of Apostles as
spiritual guide and example. In 1835 Vincent founded the UAC and placed Mary as patroness
of the Union and of the communities that form part of the Union for two reasons: Mary as
model and as intercessor. As model, Mary Queen of Apostles, vindicates Vincent’s claim that
all are called to the apostolate, to ministry within the Church, at a time when the title of the
Union, ‘Catholic Apostolate,’ was under fire. He argued that we don’t have to preach, be a
bishop or priest in order to merit the reward of an apostle and pointed to the Litany of Loreto
where the Church herself called Mary, “Queen of Apostles.” Vincent draws the following
conclusion, “Therefore priests, [religious] and laity and all of every sex, state grade and
condition will be inspired to imitate …Mary in all undertakings for the greater glory of God,
and in all works of corporal and spiritual mercy in favour of our neighbour.” As intercessor,
Vincent called Mary the great missionary and made the Cenacle the model of the Union.
The Third element: The Upper Room, symbolising a community of believers
gathered together: Vincent proposed three places from Scripture where Mary exercised her
intercessory role: Bethlehem, Nazareth and the Cenacle. Bethlehem was the place where
potential saviours of God’s people could be born, a place of silence and of prayer. Nazareth
was for Vincent, a God-given design, a school of holiness which one entered in order to be
taught by Mary and Joseph; where one learned from Jesus the innocence of holy childhood, no
matter what one’s previous life had been, and where one practised virtue especially
obedience, joy and a spirit of sacrifice, prerequisites for an apostolic life. Nazareth was to be a
model of collaboration, balancing prayer and work; being ready for “charitable and
harmonious cooperation with others”(OOCCII:148-9). Working together in the Union was to
be not the project of a single person, but rather of a family, that of Nazareth, since Nazareth
was where men and women lived and worked in unity.
Secondly Pallotti wanted to awaken in each one their own creativity, initiative, apostolic
zeal and commitment; he wanted people to cooperate in the works of the Union with pure
charity, free of self-interest or ambition, and to help each one find their mission and place in the
community, with due regard for their “personal qualities, abilities and competence.” Pallotti’s
way of reviving faith and re-enkindling charity was to unite the efforts of all Christians and to
bring their activities together in order to promote with greater effectiveness the apostolic
mission of the Church.
The Cenacle was the place of Pentecost, where Mary coached the dispirited disciples to
yield to the Spirit as she herself had done in Nazareth in joyful response to God's plan of
salvation. It was the place where the Spirit descended like tongues of fire on Mary and the
apostles so that the Church came into being. The Cenacle was the place of lay collaboration
visually portrayed in the painting of Serafino Cesaretti of two women on either side of Mary
praying with the apostles. It was a place to discern the Spirit's leading, to be sent out as
apostles and to return and reflect together on the next apostolic action as described in the
vision of Maria of Agredi.
Combining Vincent’s ideas of the Family of Nazareth and the Community of the Cenacle,
the shape his UAC was to take was 'A family of apostles' or in today’s terms – 'a community of
disciples.' Pope Francis' wants "a community of missionary disciples" (ibid:24).
Other elements suggested are:
ent: Listening to the Word of God and breaking the Bread in a spirit of sharing and fraternity
nt:
Inner transformation of persons into apostles of Jesus as the transforming experience
nt:
Going forth from the Cenacle as apostles, as missionaries to bear witness to the Good News
ment: The Spirituality and charism of St Vincent Pallotti as the inspiration as well as the spiritual
and apostolic foundation
Pope Francis wants us to be "Spirit-filled evangelisers" who are "fearlessly open to the
workings of the Holy Spirit and who have the courage to proclaim the newness of the Gospel
with boldness in every time and place, even when it meets with opposition;" "evangelisers
who pray and work" in the knowledge that "mission is at once a passion for Jesus and a
passion for his suffering people whom Jesus wants us to touch" (ibid 259, 268, 270).
The Apostolic Prayer of the Union to Mary Queen of Apostles is a consecration to
Mary for mission, with the promise that she as Spouse of the Spirit would form members
of the Union to be apostles, made in the image of her Son. “Consecration to Mary for
Vincent and Union members entailed a striving for holiness through prayer and inner
discipline; a commitment to renew faith and enkindle charity, both in each one’s life and in
the lives of others; and with Mary’s intercession to direct the powers of each one’s body
and spirit to the greater glory of God and alleviate the material and spiritual needs of
others.
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Pope Francis urges us to "create places where faith in the crucified and risen Jesus is
renewed, the most profound questions and daily concerns are shared, where deeper
discernment about our experiences and life is undertaken in the light of the Gospel, for the
purpose of directing individual and social decisions toward the good and beautiful" (Apostolic
Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium par 77) … and to "create an interior space which can give a
Christian meaning to commitment and activity (ibid 262).

What is the place of the Cenacle for you, a place where the presence of the Lord is
most easily identified and experienced? A place where you can draw upon power and energy
in your deliberations and choices? Where you feel one with the Lord and with one another,
where you go to be energised and from where you are sent?

How can we make our meeting together a Cenacle place or experience?