Bishop Barry Wood: My Devotion to Our Lady

As the bicentenary of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate comes to an end, BISHOP BARRY WOOD OMI reflects on the Marian spirituality of his order, and the role of Our Lady in his own life. 

The founder of the Oblates, St Eugene de Mazenod, was heavily influenced by the rise in devotion to Our Lady in France in the early 19th century, in the wake of the tumultuous French Revolution.

He was also very personally devoted to Mary, having been cut off from his own mother at a young age.

When he founded his society of priests in 1816 they were originally called the Missionaries of Provence, after the area in south-east France from which St Eugene originated.

Tensions with local priests caused him to wonder if the order should really continue so he prayed to Mary for guidance and, he said afterwards, “it was as if her statue smiled at me”.  This inspired him to persevere.

This sense of being under Mary’s protection was reinforced when Pope Leo XII in 1826 confirmed the new order under the title Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI).

In the early 1800s in France there was a growing focus of devotion to Mary Immaculate, a title which has roots back in the earliest centuries of the Church.

All Catholics today are inheritors of this tradition because of two important apparitions of Mary in France at that time.

In 1830, in a small chapel in Paris, Our Lady gave the Miraculous Medal to Catherine Labouré which included the words, “conceived without sin”.

And in 1858 a beautiful woman kept appearing in visions to the girl Bernadette Soubirous in a mountainous grotto in the south of France. When Bernadette asked her name, the woman replied: “I am the Immaculate Conception.”

The first apparition strengthened the resolve of Pope Pius IX when he proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854; the second apparition confirmed his decision.

Lourdes, the site of the 1858 apparitions, is for me “Holy Ground”.  I was there only once before, 40 years ago, and I had prayed that I should be able to visit once again before I die. I am therefore so pleased to be leading a group of pilgrims next September to Lourdes and also to Paris which will include a visit to the chapel of the Miraculous Medal.

From a young age our family’s habit of a daily rosary instilled in me a devotion to Our Lady — even my Methodist father joined in!

When I was sent to the Jesuit St Aidan’s College in Grahamstown, it was the Sodality of Our Lady that I joined. This devotion, coupled with my desire to be a missionary to the poor, led to my joining the OMIs almost 60 years ago. I still try to say a daily rosary and I find that the pattern of walking, repeating the words, and fingering the beads is very calming and contemplative.

Through my priestly ministry, I have always felt that I have been accompanied by Mary, walking hand in hand with her, hearing her say to me, as she said to the wedding stewards at Cana: “Do whatever Jesus tells you!”

When I was a young Oblate, I remember watching Archbishop Denis Hurley also walking around his garden saying his rosary.  His devotion to Our Lady became very public when he organised the Marian Congress at Greyville Racecourse in Durban in 1952, and also when he promoted Our Lady’s shrine at Shongweni.

Whenever he went to Rome, he stayed at the Oblate General House, where he would have seen the statue of Mary which “seemed to smile” at St Eugene de Mazenod. Our pilgrimage group will also see that on the Rome leg of our trip.

I think that Archbishop Hurley, like me and like St Eugene de Mazenod, saw in Mary an inspiration for the mission to serve the poor.

Our founder was clear that the name OMI did not mean that we were making sacrifices (“oblations”) for Mary. Rather, our sacrifices are to evangelise and serve the poor, under the protection of our Lady.

The great hymn that St Luke records in Mary’s mouth, the Magnificat, remains a key text for me. The great South African theologian Fr Albert Nolan OP said that it showed Mary as a “Prophetess of Social Justice”. She talks about God’s desire to “pull down the mighty from their thrones and raise up the lowly”.

Those were powerful, and potentially treasonable, words in the Roman Empire 2000 years ago, and in France 200 years ago. They are not less significant in South Africa, whether 40 years ago or today.

As I prepare for the feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8 — also the patronal feast of the archdiocese of Durban where so many OMIs have been trained and have served — I give thanks to Mary Immaculate for the inspiration that she has been.

And I pray that all OMIs — and all Christians — will have the courage to continue to fight for the poor under Mary’s protection.

Bishop Barry Wood OMI is the auxiliary in Durban and a former vicar-general of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. The Denis Hurley memorial pilgrimage to Lourdes, Paris and Rome, which Bishop Wood will lead with Raymond Perrier, is scheduled for September 11-21, 2017. See www.fowlertours.co.za/hurley