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Our Lady Queen of Peace Praesidium

Our Lady Queen of Peace praesidium is attached to Saint Peter’s Cathedral but meets weekly, on Monday evenings at 7.30 pm in Frank Duff House (Belfast’s Legion of Mary Headquarters), 14 Cliftonville Road, BT14 6JX.

If you might be interested in joining, or would like to find out more about Our Lady’s work in our praesidium (parish group), you are most welcome to join us any Monday night. 

The object of the Legion of Mary is the glory of God through the holiness of its members developed by prayer and active co-operation in Mary’s and the Church’s work. The unit of the Legion of Mary is called a praesidium, which holds a weekly meeting, where prayer is intermingled with reports and discussion. 

The members neither collect money nor give out money or material relief. The members are dedicated to engaging with all the parishioners with the objective of building up and strengthening a welcoming, dynamic, Christian community in the parish. 

Each legionary carries out one duty each week in addition to their attendance at the weekly meeting. The duties we currently undertake are as follows: 

  • Recitation of the Most Holy Rosary in St Peter’s Cathedral, at 7:00pm each Tuesday evening, before 7:30pm mass.
  • Recitation of the Most Holy Rosary in St Mary’s Chapel Lane, at 5:30pm each Thursday evening.
  • Door to door visitation. We promote the Divine Mercy image and Miraculous Medals by going door to door and offering the sacramentals (for free). We explain the devotions, and encourage parishioners to receive the sacraments, with an emphasis on the importance of being in a state of grace through the sacrament of reconciliation (confession), and receiving Our Lord; Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Blessed Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist at Mass. We stress the importance of receiving Holy Communion in a state of grace, as He is the crux of our Catholic Faith.
  • Stall at St Mary’s, Chapel Lane. We have a stall which sits outside St Mary’s Church on Chapel Lane in Belfast, adjacent to Kelly’s Cellars and the side entrance of Castle Court. Legionaries offer miraculous medals, scapulars, devotional literature and other Catholic books and information, every Saturday. The duty typically starts with recitation of the Most Holy Rosary at the outdoor Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes at 12:30pm, and lasts until 2:30pm. 

We have found that membership of our Legion of Mary praesidium has helped us in a number of ways, hopefully as a primary we have grown in holiness through our membership, and we have also gained many friends, as our faith-based community grows all the time. It is important to surround ourselves with other people who are striving for holiness, and enjoy good company and good craic. The Legion of Mary is a great way for the laity to achieve these things. Come join us! 

For further information, contact Michael at 07763418867 or Gerard on +44 7590 026628.

Again, please feel free to join us any Monday evening. Just arrive around 7:20pm at Frank Duff House, 14 Cliftonville Road. God Bless!