How does the MSM enlarge God's Kingdom on Earth?

As stated in its constitutive documents, the Militia Sanctae Mariae’s fundamental aims are to promote the Social Kingship of Our Lord and thereby to "restore Christendom."

While the expression “Christendom” has seldom been used since the time of Pope Leo the XIII^th (Immortale Dei Encyclical, 1885), the equivalent terms “Christian Civilization” (Pope Pius X, Letter on Le Sillon, 1910); “Christian Order” (Pope Pius XII, Christmas Radio Message, 1951); and “Moral Order” (Pope John-Paul II, World Peace Day Message, 2003) still are.

In order to "restore Christendom" and "enlarge God’s Kingdom on Earth,” the Order’s members are called to: “elevate public morality;..  encourage the meeting of civilizations and establish world peace (including through opposition to terrorism, ethnic wars, and national parochialism); and promote spiritual, political and economic unity in Society and the world.” In the words of the Superiors of the Order, inspired by Chap. I §4 of our Rule, the Order’s aim may thus also be phrased as follows; to “establish the Temporal City on the basis of natural and Christian order, in the respect of fundamental liberties and of the communities of people” (The notion of the “Temporal City” must be understood as meaning “Society at large,” as distinguished from the “Eternal City” -i.e. the Church, “the City of God” or St-Augustine’s Civitate Dei). These are fundamental, distinguishing characteristics of our vocation and charism.

The Order however also encourages its members to promote the Sacred and oppose secularization, to educate children, to advocate for the rights of the family in the public space, to defend Life, to promote the Social Doctrine of the Church, to visit prisoners and elderly priests, and to engage in other actions. The new evangelization thus stands alongside more traditional chivalric actions, related to the promotion of peace, justice, and order, and the defence of the weak, as a pillar of our approach to accomplishing our stated goals. In the words of the superiors of the Order: "It is not primarily external conquests that will be decisive, but those which we make over the perennial encroachments of ‘the Old Man’ on the ‘New Man’."

Why do these various activities still require Christian Chivalry? It is our fundamental belief that “Chivalry is connected to Christendom, which it has the mission to defend and promote” (Dom Lafond, Principles for a Charter of Chivalry, Art. 4).

In the words of the Superiors of the Order: “Only an Order of Chivalry, comprised of tempered, solidly trained men, strong in their bond… harvesting the fruits of the theological virtues, will be capable of obtaining from the Lord through Our Lady the Grace of a restoration of Christendom...” It may be in how far our commitment to what we understand to be our vocation in the world extends that the Knight answers differently from many others in the Laity. As stated by our Founder: “Every knight is prepared to defend the supreme values of Christian civilisation, of which he has the guardianship, wherever they may be attacked, with all his strength and the help of Divine grace. No knight can turn his back on this ultimate requirement of his dubbing. But knightly force, however it may express itself, must always be at the service of freedom of consciences and the rights of truth, and never in order to impose Faith” (Dom Lafond, Principles for a Charter of Chivalry, Art. 7c).

And so the Knight has a particular charism and vocation in the world, and must exhibit a particular commitment to see it through.

Is it possible to believe that we can truly find the strength required to live by our ideals and to acccomplish our stated goals? We believe that we can; through “a way of life… the Code of Honor, and our fraternity and common love of that which is true and good.” But, perhaps most importantly: “Chivalry is marked by the Grace stemming from a sacramental; dubbing conferred in the form of the Benedictio novi militis. The sacramental of dubbing confers on the knight his mission in service of the restoration of Christendom, and the Grace required to accomplish this mission.” In the words of the Rule: “By this sacramental of the Church, the knight officially receives the mission of combating the enemies of God and man, and of enlarging God’s Kingdom here on earth.”