THE OFFICIAL HANDBOOK
OF THE LEGION OF MARY
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Abbreviations of Documents of the Magisterium
DOCUMENTS OF VATICAN II (1962-1965)
AA Apostolicam Actuoisitatem (Decree on the apostolate
of lay people)
DV Dei verbum (Dogmatic Constitution on Divine
Revelation)
GS Gaudium et Spes (Pastoral Constitution on the Church
in the modern world)
LG Lumen Gentium (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church)
PO Presbyterorum Ordinis (Decree on the ministry and
life of priests)
SC Sacrosanctum Concilium (Constitution on the sacred
liturgy)
OTHER DOCUMENTS OF THE MAGISTERIUM
AAS Acta Apostolicae Sedis (Acts of the Apostolic See)
AD Ad Diem Illum (Jubilee of definition of the
Immaculate Conception, Pope St. Pius X,1904)
AN Acerbo Nimis (The teaching of christian doctrine,
Pope St. Pius X, 1905)
CCC Catechism of the Catholic Church,(1992)
CIC Codex Iuris Canonici (The Code of Canon Law)
CL Christifideles Laici (The vocation and mission of
the lay faithful in the Church and in the world, Pope John Paul II,1988)
CT Catechesi Tradendae (Catechesis in our time,Pope
John Paul II,1979)
EI Enchiridion Indulgentiarum (Official list of
Indulgences and the laws governing them - The Sacred Penitentiary,1968)
EN Evangelii Nuntiandi (Evangelisation in the modern
world, Pope Paul VI, 1975)
FC Familiaris Consortio (The christian family in the
modern world, Pope John Paul II,1981)
JSE Jucunda Semper (The Rosary, Pope Leo XIII,1894)
MC Mystici Corporis (The Mystical Body of Christ, Pope
Pius XII, 1943)
Mcul Marialis Cultus (The right ordering and
development of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Pope Paul VI, 1974)
MD Mediator Dei (The Sacred Liturgy, Pope Pius XII,
1947)
MF Mysterium Fidei (The mystery of faith - on the
mystery of the Eucharist, Pope Paul VI, 1965)
MN Mens Nostra (Retreats, Pope Pius XI, 1929)
PDV Pastores Dabo Vobis (The formation of priests in
circumstances of the present day, Pope John Paul II, 1992)
RM Redemptoris Missio (The permanent validity of the
Church's missionary mandate, Pope John Paul II, 1990)
Rmat Redemptoris Mater (Mary, Mother of the Redeemer,
Pope John Paul II, 1987)
SM Signum Magnum (Consecration to Our Lady, Pope Paul
VI, 1967)
UAD Ubi Arcano Dei (On the peace of Christ in the reign
of Christ, Pope Pius XI, 1922)
Pope John Paul II to the Legion of Mary
Part of an address delivered by the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, to a group
of Italian legionaries on 30th October 1982
1. My welcome is addressed to each and every one of you. It is reason for joy
for me to see you in this hall in such great numbers from various regions of
Italy, more so in that you are only a small part of that apostolic movement,
that in the span of sixty years has rapidly spread in the world and today, two
years from the death of its founder, Frank Duff, is present in so many dioceses
in the universal Church.
My predecessors, beginning with Pius XI, have addressed words of appreciation
to the Legion of Mary, and I myself on 10 May 1979, when receiving one of your
first delegations, recalled with great pleasure the occasions I had previously
had to come in contact with the Legion, in Paris, Belgium and Poland, and then,
as Bishop of Rome, in the course of my pastoral visits to the parishes of the
city.
Today, therefore, as I receive in audience the Italian pilgrimage of your
movement, I would like to emphasise those aspects which constitute the
substance of your spirituality and your modus essendi within the Church.
Vocation to be a leaven
2. You are a movement of lay people who propose to make faith the aspiration of
your life up to the achievement of personal sanctity. It is without doubt a
lofty and difficult ideal. But today the Church, through the Council, calls all
Christians of the Catholic laity to this ideal, inviting them to share in the
kingly priesthood of Christ with the witness of a holy life, with mortification
and charitable works; to be in the world, with the splendour of faith, hope and
charity, what the soul is in the body (LG 10,38).
Your proper vocation as lay people, that is the vocation to be a leaven in the
People of God, a Christian inspiration in the modern world, and to bring the
priest to the people, is eminently ecclesial. The same Second Vatican Council
exhorts all the laity to accept with ready generosity the call to be united
ever more intimately to the Lord and, considering as one's own everything that
is his, to share in the same salvific mission of the Church, to be its living
instruments, above all where, because of particular conditions of modern
society - a constant increase in population, a reduction in the numbers of
priests, the appearance of new problems, the autonomy of many sectors of human
life - it could be more difficult for the Church to be present and active
(ibid. 33).
The area of the lay apostolate today is extraordinarily enlarged. And so the
commitment of your typical vocation becomes more impelling, stimulating, live
and relevant. The vitality of the Christian is the sign of the vitality of the
Church. And the commitment of you legionaries becomes more urgent, considering
on the one hand the needs of the Italian society and of the nations of ancient
Christian tradition, and on the other hand the shining examples which have gone
before you in your own movement. To give just some names: Edel Quinn, with her
activity in Black Africa; Alfonso Lambe in the most emarginated areas of Latin
America; and then the thousands of legionaries killed in Asia or ending up in
work camps.
With the spirit and solicitude of Mary
3. Yours is an eminently Marian spirituality, not only because the Legion
glories in carrying Mary's name as its unfurled banner, but above all because
it bases its method of spirituality and apostolate on the dynamic principle of
union with Mary, on the truth of the intimate participation of the Virgin Mary
in the plan of salvation.
In other words, you intend to render your service to every person, who is the
image of Christ, with the spirit and the solicitude of Mary.
If our one and only Mediator is the man Jesus Christ, as the Council states,
"Mary's motherly role towards men in no way dims or diminishes this unique
mediation of Christ: on the contrary, it demonstrates its efficacy" (LG
60). So the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of
Advocate, Auxiliatrix, Perpetual Help, Mediatrix, Mother of the Church.
For its birth and growth, apostolic work looks to her who gave birth to Christ,
conceived by the Holy Spirit. Where the Mother is, there too is the Son. When
one moves away from the Mother, sooner or later he ends up keeping distant from
the Son as well. It is no wonder that today, in various sectors of secularised
society, we note a widespread crisis of faith in God, preceded by a drop in devotion
to the Virgin Mother.
Your Legion forms a part of those movements that feel personally committed to
the spread or the birth of that faith through the spread or the revival of
devotion to Mary. It therefore will always be able to do its utmost that, through
love for the Mother, the Son, Who is the way, the truth and the life of every
person, will be more known and loved.
In this perspective of faith and love I impart the Apostolic Blessing to you
from my heart.
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Preliminary Note |
FRANK DUFF
Founder of the Legion of Mary
Frank Duff was born in Dublin, Ireland, on June 7, 1889. He entered the Civil
Service at the age of 18. At 24 he joined the Society of St. Vincent de Paul
where he was led to a deeper commitment to his Catholic faith and at the same
time he acquired a great sensitivity to the needs of the poor and underprivileged.
Along with a group of Catholic women and Fr. Michael Toher, Dublin Archdiocese,
he formed the first praesidium of the Legion of Mary on September 7, 1921. From
that date until his death, November 7, 1980, he guided the world-wide extension
of the Legion with heroic dedication. He attended the Second Vatican Council as
a lay observer.
His profound insights into the role of the Blessed Virgin in the plan of
Redemption, as also into the role of the lay faithful in the mission of the
Church, are reflected in this Handbook which is almost entirely his
composition.
THE LEGION OF MARY
Who is she that comes forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as
the sun, terrible as an army set in battle array? (Song 6:10)
"The Virgin's name was Mary." (Lk I:27)
"The Legion of Mary! What a perfectly chosen name!" (Pope Pius XI)
1 NAME AND ORIGIN
The Legion of Mary is an Association of Catholics who, with the sanction of the
Church and under the powerful leadership of Mary Immaculate, Mediatrix of all
Graces (who is fair as the moon, bright as the sun, and - to satan and his
legionaries - terrible as an army set in battle array), have formed themselves
into a Legion for service in the warfare which is perpetually waged by the
Church against the world and its evil powers.
"The whole life of men, both individual and social, shows itself to be a
struggle, and a dramatic one, between good and evil, between light and
darkness." (GS 13)
The legionaries hope to render themselves worthy of their great heavenly Queen
by their loyalty, their virtues, and their courage. The Legion of Mary is
therefore organised on the model of an army, principally on that of the army of
ancient Rome, the terminology of which is adopted also. But the army and the
arms of legionaries of Mary are not of this world.
This army, now so considerable, had the most humble of beginnings. It was not a
thought-out organisation. It sprang up spontaneously. There was no
premeditation in regard to rules and practices. A suggestion was simply thrown
out. An evening was fixed, and a little group came together, unaware that they
were to be the instruments of most loving Providence.
To look at that meeting, it was identical with what would be seen to-day were
one to attend a Legion meeting anywhere in the world. The table around which
they met bore a simple altar, of which the centre was a statue of the
Immaculate Conception (of the miraculous medal model). It stood on a white
cloth, and was flanked by two vases with flowers, and two candlesticks with lighted
candles. This setting, so rich in atmosphere, was the inspired notion of one of
the earliest comers. It crystallised everything for which the Legion of Mary
stands. The Legion is an army. Well, their Queen was there before they
assembled. She stood waiting to receive the enrolments of those whom she knew
were coming to her. They did not adopt her. She adopted them; and since then
they have marched and fought with her, knowing that they would succeed and
persevere just to the extent that they were united to her.
The first corporate act of those legionaries was to go on their knees. The
earnest young heads were bent down. The invocation and prayer of the Holy
Spirit were said; and then through the fingers which had, during the day, been
toilsomely employed, slipped the beads of the simplest of all devotions. When
the final ejaculations died away, they sat up, and under the auspices of Mary
(as represented by her statue), they set themselves to the consideration of how
they could best please God and make him loved in his world. From that
discussion came forth the Legion of Mary, as it is today, in all its features.
What a wonder ! Who, contemplating those inconspicuous persons - so simply
engaged - could in his wildest moments imagine what a destiny waited just a
little along the road? Who among them could think that they were inaugurating a
system which was to be a new world-force, possessing - if faithfully and
forcefully administered - the power, in Mary, of imparting life and sweetness
and hope to the nations? Yet so it was to be.
That first enrolment of legionaries of Mary took place at Myra House, Francis
Street, Dublin, Ireland, at 8 p.m. on 7 September, 1921, the eve of the feast
of Our Lady's Nativity. From the title of the parent branch, that is, Our Lady
of Mercy, the organisation was for a time known as "The Association of Our
Lady of Mercy."
Circumstances which one would regard as accidental determined this date, which
seemed at the time less appropriate than the following day would have been. In
after years only-when countless proofs of a truly maternal love had made one
reflect-was it realised that not the least exquisite touch of Mary's hand had
been shown in the moment of the Legion's birth. Of the evening and the morning
was the first day made (Gen 1:5), and surely the first, and not the last
fragrances of the feast which honours her own Nativity were appropriate to the
first moments of an organisation, whose first and constant aim has been to
reproduce in itself the likeness of Mary, thus best to magnify the Lord and
bring him to men.
"Mary is the Mother of all the members of the Saviour, because by her
charity she has co-operated in the birth of the faithful in the Church. Mary is
the living mould of God, that is to say, it is in her alone that the God Man
was naturally formed without losing a feature, so to speak, of His Godhead; and
it is in her alone that man can be properly and in a life-like way
formed into God, so far as human nature is capable of this by the grace of
Jesus Christ." (St. Augustine)
"The Legion of Mary presents the true face of the Catholic Church"
(Pope John XXIII)
2 OBJECT
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, under ecclesiastical
guidance, in Mary's and the Church's work of crushing the head of the serpent
and advancing the reign of Christ.
Subject to the approval of the Concilium, and to the restrictions specified in
the official handbook of the Legion, the Legion of Mary is at the disposal of
the bishop of the diocese and the parish priest for any and every form of
social service and Catholic action which these authorities may deem suitable to
the legionaries and useful for the welfare of the Church. Legionaries will
never engage in any of these services whatsoever in a parish without the
sanction of the parish priest or of the Ordinary.
By the Ordinary in these pages is meant the local Ordinary, that is, the bishop
of the diocese or other competent ecclesiastical authority.
(a) "The immediate end of organisations of this class is the apostolic end
of the Church; in other words: the evangelization and sanctification of men and
the Christian formation of their conscience, so as to enable them to imbue with
the Gospel spirit the various social groups and environments.
(b) The laity, cooperating in their own particular way with the hierarchy,
contribute their experience and assume responsibility in the direction of these
organisations, in the investigation of the conditions in which the Church's
pastoral work is to be carried on, in the elaboration and execution of their
plan of action.
(c) The laity act in unison after the manner of an organic body, to display
more strikingly the community aspect of the Church and to render the apostolate
more productive.
(d) The laity, whether coming of their own accord or in response to an
invitation to action and direct cooperation with the hierarchical apostolate,
act under the superior direction of the hierarchy, which can authorise this
cooperation, besides, with an explicit mandate."
(AA 20)
3 SPIRIT OF THE LEGION
The spirit of the Legion of Mary is that of Mary herself. Especially does the
Legion aspire after her profound humility, her perfect obedience, her angelical
sweetness, her continual prayer, her universal mortification, her altogether
spotless purity, her heroic patience, her heavenly wisdom, her self-sacrificing
courageous love of God, and above all her faith, that virtue which has in her
alone been found in its utmost extent and never equalled. Inspired by this love
and faith of
Mary, her Legion essays any and every work and "complains not of
impossibility, because it conceives that it may and can do all things.''
(Imitation of Christ, Book 3:5)
"Perfect model of this apostolic spiritual life is the Blessed Virgin
Mary, Queen of Apostles. While on earth her life was like that of any other,
filled with labours and the cares of the home; always, however, she remained
intimately united to her Son and cooperated in an entirely unique way in the
Saviour's work . . . Everyone should have a genuine devotion to her and entrust
his life to her motherly care."
(AA 4)
4 LEGIONARY SERVICE
1 Must "put on the whole armour of God". (Eph 6:11)
The Roman Legion, from which the Legion takes its name, has come down through
the centuries illustrious for loyalty, courage, discipline, endurance, and
success, and this for ends that were often base and never more than worldly.
(see appendix 4, The Roman Legion) Manifestly, Mary's Legion cannot offer to her
the name (like a setting stripped of the jewels which adorned it) accompanied
by qualities less notable, so that in these qualities is indicated the very
minimum of legionary service. St. Clement, who was converted by St. Peter and
was a fellow-worker of St. Paul, proposes the Roman army as a model to be
imitated by the Church.
"Who are the enemy? They are the wicked who resist the will of God.
Therefore let us throw ourselves determinedly into the warfare of Christ and
submit ourselves to his glorious commands. Let us scrutinise those who serve in
the Roman Legion under the military authorities, and note their discipline,
their readiness, their obedience in executing orders. Not all are prefects or
tribunes or centurions or commanders of fifty or in the minor grades of
authority. But each man in his own rank carries out the commands of the emperor
and of his superior officers. The great cannot exist without the small; nor the
small without the great. A certain organic unity binds all parts, so that each helps
and is helped by all. Let us take the analogy of our body. The head is nothing
without the feet; likewise the feet are nothing without the head. Even the
smallest organs of our body are necessary and valuable to the entire body. In
fact all the parts work together in an interdependence and yield a common
obedience for the benefit of the whole body." (St. Clement, Pope and
Martyr: Epistle to the Corinthians (96 .A.D.), chps 36 and 37)
2 Must be "a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God . .
. not conformed to this world." (Rom 12:1-2)
From that foundation will spring in the faithful legionary, virtues as far
greater as his cause is superior, and in particular a noble generosity which
will echo that sentiment of St. Teresa of Avila: "To receive so much and
to repay so little: O! that is a martyrdom to which I succumb."
Contemplating his crucified Lord, who devoted to him his last sigh and the last
drop of his Blood, the legionary's service must strive to reflect such utter
giving of self.
"What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in
it?" (Is 5:4)
3 Must not turn from "toil and hardship."(2 Cor 11:27)
There will ever be places where Catholic zeal must be prepared to face the
instruments of death or torture. Many legionaries have thus triumphantly passed
through the gates of glory. Generally, however, legionary devotedness will have
a humbler stage, but still one giving ample opportunity for the practice of a
quiet but true heroism. The Legion apostolate will involve the approaching of
many who would prefer to remain remote from good influences, and who will
manifest their distaste for receiving a visit from those whose mission is good,
not evil. These may all be won over, but not without the exercise of a patient
and brave spirit.
Sour looks, the sting of insult and rebuff, ridicule and adverse criticism,
weariness of body and spirit, pangs from failure and from base ingratitude, the
bitter cold and the blinding rain, dirt and vermin and evil smells, dark
passages and sordid surroundings, the laying aside of pleasures, the taking on
of the anxieties which come in plenty with the work, the anguish which the
contemplation of irreligion and depravity brings to the sensitive soul, sorrow
from sorrows wholeheartedly shared-there is little glamour about these things,
but if sweetly borne, counted even a joy, and persevered in unto the end, they
will come, in the weighing-up, very near to that love, greater than which no
man has, that he lay down his life for his friend.
"What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me?" (Ps
116:12)
4 Must "live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up
for us." (Eph 5:2)
The secret of all success with others lies in the establishment of personal
contact, the contact of love and sympathy. This love must be more than an
appearance. It must be able to stand up to the tests that real friendships can
bear. This will frequently involve little mortifications. To greet, in
fashionable surroundings, one who a little while before was the subject of one's
visitation in a jail, to be seen walking with bedraggled persons, to grasp
warmly the hand which is coated with grime, to partake of a proffered meal in a
very poor or dirty home, may to some be difficult; but if avoided, the attitude
of friendship is shown to have been a pretence, the contact breaks, and the
soul that was being lifted sinks back in disillusion.
At the bottom of all really fruitful work must be the readiness to give oneself
entirely. Without this readiness, one's service has no substance. The legionary
who somewhere sets up the barrier: "thus far and no farther is
self-sacrifice to go," will accomplish only the trivial, though great
exertions may be made. On the other hand, if that readiness exist, even though
it may never, or but in small measure, be called upon, it will be fruitful of
immense things.
"Jesus answered : 'Will you lay down your life for me?' " (Jn 13:38)
5 Must "finish the race" (2 Tim 4:7)
Thus the call of the Legion is for a service without limit or reservations.
This is not entirely a counsel of perfection, but of necessity as well, for if
excellence is not aimed at, a persevering membership will not be achieved. A
lifelong perseverance in the work of the apostolate is in itself heroic, and
will only be found as the culmination of a continuous series of heroic acts, as
indeed it is their reward.
But not alone to the individual membership must the note of permanence attach.
Each and every item of the Legion's round of duty must be stamped with this
selfsame seal of persevering effort. Change, of course, there must necessarily
be. Different places and persons are visited; works are completed, and new
works are taken on. But all this is the steady alteration of life, not the
fitful operation of instability and novelty-seeking, which ends by breaking
down the finest discipline. Apprehensive of this spirit of change, the Legion
appeals unceasingly for a sterner temper, and from each succeeding meeting
sends its members to their tasks with the unchanging watchword, as it were,
ringing in their ears: "Hold firm."
Real achievement is dependent upon sustained effort, which in turn is the
outcome of an unconquerable will to win. Essential to the perseverance of such
a will is that it bend not often nor at all. Therefore, the Legion enjoins on
its branches and its members a universal attitude of refusal to accept defeat,
or to court it by a tendency to grade items of work in terms of the
"promising," the "unpromising," the "hopeless,"
etc. A readiness to brand as "hopeless" proclaims that, so far as the
Legion is concerned, a priceless soul is free to pursue unchecked its reckless
course to hell. In addition, it indicates that an unthinking desire for variety
and signs of progress tends to replace higher considerations as the motive of
the work. Then, unless the harvest springs up at the heels of the sower, there
is discouragement, and sooner or later the work is abandoned.
Again, it is declared and insisted that the act of labelling any one case as
hopeless automatically weakens attitude towards every other case. Consciously
or unconsciously, approach to all work will be in a spirit of doubt as to
whether it is justifying effort, and even a grain of doubt paralyses action.
And worst of all, faith would have ceased to play its due part in Legion
affairs, being allowed only a modest entrance when deemed approvable to reason.
With its faith so fettered and its determination sapped, at once rush in the
natural timidities, the pettinesses, and the worldly prudence, which had been
kept at bay, and the Legion is found presenting a casual or half-hearted
service which forms a shameful offering to heaven.
Hence it is that the Legion is concerned only in a secondary way about a
programme of works, but much about intensity of purpose. It does not require
from its members wealth or influence, but faith unwavering; not famous deeds
but only unrelaxed effort; not genius but unquenchable love; not giant strength
but steady discipline. A legionary service must be one of holding on, of
absolute and obstinate refusal to lose heart. A rock in the crisis; but
constant at all times. Hoping for success; humble in success; but independent
of it; fighting failure; undismayed by it; fighting on, and wearing it down;
thriving upon difficulties and monotony, because they give scope for the faith
and effort of an enduring siege. Ready and resolute when summoned; on the alert
though not called upon; and even when there is no conflict and no enemy in
sight, maintaining a tireless precautionary patrol for God; with a heart for
the impossible; yet content to play the part of stop-gap; nothing too big; no
duty too mean; for each the same minute attention, the same inexhaustible
patience, the same inflexible courage; every task marked with the same golden
tenacity; always on duty for souls; ever at hand to carry the weak through
their many weak moments; vigilantly watching to surprise the hardened at their
rare moments of softness; unremitting in search for those that have strayed;
unmindful of self; all the time standing by the cross of others, and standing
there until the work is consummated.
Unfailing must be the service of the organisation consecrated to the Virgo
Fidelis, and bearing, either for honour or dishonour, her name.
5 THE DEVOTIONAL OUTLOOK OF THE LEGION
The devotional outlook of the Legion is reflected in its prayers. The Legion is
built in the first place upon a profound faith in God and in the love he bears
his children. He wills to draw great glory from our efforts, and he will purify
them and render them fruitful and persevering. We swing between the opposite
extremes of apathy and feverish anxiety because we regard him as detached from
our work. Instead, let us realise that we only have the good purpose because he
has implanted it, and that we shall only bring it to fruition if he sustains us
all the time. The success of the enterprise in hand is more by far to him than
it is to us. Infinitely more than we, does he desire that conversion we are
seeking. We wish to be saints. He yearns for it a million times more than we.
The legionaries' essential mainstay must be this knowledge of the companionship
of God, their good Father, in their two-fold work of sanctifying themselves and
serving their neighbour. Nothing can stand in the way of success except want of
trust. If there be but faith enough, God will utilise us to conquer the world
for him.
"For whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory
that conquers the world, our faith." (1 Jn 5:4)
"To believe means 'to abandon oneself' to the truth of the word of the
living God, knowing and humbly recognising 'how unsearchable are his judgments
and how inscrutable his ways' (Rom 11:33). Mary, who by the eternal will of the
Most High stands, one may say, at the very centre of those 'inscrutable ways'
and 'unsearchable judgments' of God, conforms herself to them in the dim light
of faith, accepting fully and with a ready heart everything that is decreed in
the divine plan" (R Mat 14).
1. GOD AND MARY
Under God, the Legion is built upon devotion to Mary, "that ineffable
miracle of the Most High." (Pope Pius IX) But what is the place of Mary
herself in relation to God? It is that he brought her, as he did all the other
children of earth, out of nothing; and though he has since then exalted her to
a point of grace immense and inconceivable, nevertheless, in comparison to her
Maker, she still remains as nothing. Indeed, she is - far more than any other -
his creature, because he has wrought more in her than in any other of his
creatures. The greater the things he does to her, the more she becomes the work
of his hands.
Very great things he has done to her. From all eternity, the idea of her was
present to his mind along with that of the Redeemer. He associated her to the
intimacies of his plans of grace, making her the true mother of his Son and of
those united to that Son. He did all these things because, in the first place,
he would gain from Mary herself a return greater than he would from all other
pure creatures together. In the second place, he thereby intended, in a way
which our minds cannot adequately grasp, to enhance the glory which he would
receive from ourselves also. Thus, the prayer and loving service, with which we
recompense Mary, our mother and the helper of our salvation, can represent no loss
to him who made her so. What is given to her goes none the less surely and
fully to him. But there is question of more than undiminished transmission;
there is question of increase. And Mary is more than a faithful messenger. She
has been set by God to be a vital element in his gracious scheme, in such sort
that both his glory and our grace are the greater by reason of her presence
there.
As it is the pleasure of the Eternal Father so to receive through Mary the
homages intended for him, so too he has been graciously pleased to appoint her
to be the way by which shall pass to men the various outpourings of his
munificent goodness and omnipotence, beginning with the cause of them all-the
Second Divine Person made man, our true life, our only salvation.
If I will to make myself dependent on the Mother, it is in order to become the
slave of the Son. If I aspire to become her possession, it is in order to
render more surely to God the homage of my subjection." (St. Ildephonsus)
2. MARY, MEDIATRIX OF ALL GRACES
The Legion's trust in Mary is limitless, knowing that by the ordinance of God,
her power is without limit. All that he could give to Mary, he has given to
her. All that she was capable of receiving she has received in plenitude. For
us God has constituted her a special means of grace. Operating in union with
her we approach him more effectively, and hence win grace more freely. Indeed
we place ourselves in the very flood-tide of grace, for she is the spouse of
the Holy Spirit: she is the channel of every grace which Jesus Christ has won.
We receive nothing which we do not owe to a positive intervention on her part.
She does not content herself with transmitting all: she obtains all for us.
Penetrated with belief in this office of Mary, the Legion enjoins it as a
special devotion for all its members.
"Judge as to the ardent love with which God would have us honour Mary
seeing that he has set in her the fullness of all good: in such manner that all
we have of hope, all of grace, all of salvation all-I say and let us doubt it
not - flows to us from her." (St. Bernard: Sermo de Aquaeductu)
3. MARY IMMACULATE
A second aspect of Legion devotion is towards the Immaculate Conception. At the
very first meeting, the members prayed and deliberated round a little altar of
the Immaculate Conception identical with that which now forms the centre of
every Legion meeting. Moreover, the very first breath of the Legion may be said
to have been drawn in an ejaculation in honour of this privilege of Our Lady,
which formed the preparation for all the dignities and all the privileges
afterwards accorded to her.
The Immaculate Conception is referred to by God in the same sentence in which
Mary herself is first promised to us. The privilege is part of Mary: Mary is
the Immaculate Conception; and, together with the privilege, prophecy is made
of its heavenly sequel: the Divine Maternity, the crushing of the serpent's
head in Redemption, and Mary's Motherhood of men.
"I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring
and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel." (Gen
3:15)
To these words, addressed to satan by Almighty God, the Legion turns as the
source of its confidence and strength in its warfare with sin. It aims with all
its heart to become in fullness the seed, the children of Mary, for there is
the pledge of victory. In the measure that it makes her more and more its
mother, is the Legion's enmity with the powers of evil intensified and victory
made more complete.
"The sacred writings of the Old and New Testaments, as well as venerable
tradition, show the role of the Mother of the Saviour in the plan of salvation
in an ever clearer light and call our attention to it. The books of the Old
Testament describe the history of salvation, by which the coming of Christ into
the world was slowly prepared.
The earliest documents, as they are read in the Church and are understood in
the light of a further and full revelation, bring the figure of a woman, Mother
of the Redeemer, into a gradually clearer light. Considered in this light, she
is already prophetically foreshadowed in the promise of victory over the
serpent which was given to our first parents after their fall into sin. (cf Gen
3:15)" (LG 55)
4. MARY OUR MOTHER
But if we claim the inheritance of children, there must be esteem for the
motherhood through which it comes. A third aspect of Legion devotion to Mary is
the special honouring of her as our real mother, which in very fact she is.
Mary became the Mother of Christ and our mother when to the Angel's salutation
she pronounced her meek assent, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord, let
it be with me according to your word." (Lk 1:38) That motherhood of hers
was proclaimed at the moment when it reached its complete expansion, that is,
when Redemption was consummated. Amid the sorrows of Calvary Jesus said to her
from the cross: "Woman, here is your son" and to St. John "Here
is your mother." (Jn 19:26-27) Through St. John, these words were
addressed to all the elect. Fully co-operating by her consent and sorrows in
this spiritual birth of mankind, Mary became in the fullest and most perfect
sense our mother.
Truly her children, we must behave as such, and indeed as very little children
dependent utterly upon her. We must look to her to feed us, to guide us, to
teach us, to cure our ailments, to console us in our griefs, to counsel us in
our doubts, to recall us when we wander, so that wholly confided to her care,
we may grow to the resemblance of our elder brother, Jesus, and share his
mission of combating sin and conquering it.
"Mary is the Mother of the Church not only because she is the Mother of
Christ and his most intimate associate in 'the new economy when the Son of God
took a human nature from her, that he might in the mysteries of his flesh free
man from sin' but also because 'she shines forth to the whole community of the
elect as a model of the virtues.' No human mother can limit her task to the
generation of a new man. She must extend it to the function of nourishing and
educating her offspring. Just so the Blessed Virgin Mary, after participating
in the redeeming sacrifice of the Son, and in such an intimate way as to
deserve to be proclaimed by him the mother not only of his disciple John but -
may we be allowed to affirm it - of mankind which he in some way represents,
now continues to fulfil from heaven her maternal function as the cooperator in
the birth and development of divine life in the individual souls of redeemed
men. This is a most consoling truth which, by the free consent of God the
All-Wise, is an integrating part of the mystery of human salvation, therefore
it must be held as faith by all Christians." (SM)
5. LEGIONARY DEVOTION THE ROOT OF THE LEGIONARY APOSTOLATE
One of the dearest duties of the Legion shall be to show whole-hearted devotion
to the Mother of God. It can only do so through its members, so that each one
of these is asked to associate himself with it by serious meditation and
zealous practice.
If the devotion is to be in real truth a legionary tribute, it must be an
essential part of the Legion - as much an obligation of membership as the
weekly meeting or active work: all must participate in it in a perfect unity.
This is a point of view with which members cannot be too deeply impressed.
But this unity is something most delicate, for each member in a measure
controls it, and can mar it. So on each one devolves a solemn trusteeship in
the matter. If there is default; if the legionaries are not "living stones
. . . built into a spiritual house" (1 Pet 2:5), then is a vital part of
the structure of the Legion defective. In measure as the living stones are
found in this way wanting, will the Legion system tend more and more to become
a ruin, which will not shelter, and hence with difficulty will retain, its children.
Still less will it be the home of high and holy qualities, or a starting-point
for heroic endeavour.
But with everyone adequately discharging this item of legionary service the
Legion will be found possessed of a marvellous unity of mind and purpose and
action. This unity is so precious in the sight of God that he has vested it
with an irresistible power; so that, if for the individual a true devotion to
Mary is a special channel of grace, what shall it bring to an organisation
which is persevering with one mind in prayer with her (Acts 1:14) who has
received all from God, participating in her spirit; and entering fully into the
design of God with regard to the distribution of grace! Shall not such an
organisation be filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4) and shall there not be
"many wonders and signs." (Acts 2:43)
"The Virgin in the Cenacle, praying in the midst of the apostles and
pouring out her heart for them with intensity unspeakable, calls down upon the
Church that treasure which will abound in it for ever: the fullness of the
Paraclete, the supreme gift of Christ." (JSE)
6. IF MARY WERE BUT KNOWN!
To the priest struggling almost despairingly in a sea of religious neglect, the
following words of Father Faber - taken from his preface to St. Louis-Marie de
Montfort's "True Devotion to Mary" (an abounding source of
inspiration to the Legion) - are commended as a preliminary to his
consideration of the possible value to him of the Legion. The argument of
Father Faber is that Mary is not half enough known or loved, with sad results
for souls:- "Devotion to her is low and thin and poor. It has no faith in
itself. Hence it is that Jesus is not loved, that heretics are not converted,
that the Church is not exalted; that souls, which might be saints, wither and
dwindle; that the sacraments are not rightly frequented, or souls
enthusiastically evangelised. Jesus is obscured because Mary is kept in the
background. Thousands of souls perish because Mary is withheld from them. It is
the miserable unworthy shadow which we call our devotion to the Blessed Virgin,
that is the cause of all these wants and blights, these evils and omissions and
declines. Yet, if we are to believe the revelations of the saints, God is
pressing for a greater, a wider, a stronger, quite another devotion to his
blessed mother . . . Let a man but try it for himself, and his surprise at the
graces it brings with it, and the transformations it causes in his soul, will
soon convince him of its otherwise almost incredible efficacy as a means for
the salvation of men, and for the coming of the Kingdom of Christ."
"To the powerful Virgin it is given to crush the serpent's head; to souls
who are united to her, it is given to overcome sin. In this we must believe
with an unshaking faith, with a firm hope.
God is willing to give us all. All now depends on us, and on thee
by whom all is received and treasured up, by whom all is transmitted, O Mother
of God! All depends on the union of men with her who receives all from
God." (Gratry)
7. BRINGING MARY TO THE WORLD
If devotion to Mary will work such wonders, then the great purpose must be to
bring that instrument to bear, to bring Mary to the world. And how more
effectively can this be done than through an apostolic organisation; lay-hence
unlimited as to numbers; active-hence penetrating everywhere; loving Mary with
all its might, and binding itself to involve the hearts of all others in that
love; utilising all its avenues of action to fulfil this purpose.
And so, bearing her name with an inexpressible pride; built as an organisation
upon an unbounded and childlike trust in her, to which it gives solidity by
planting it in the heart of each individual one of its members: possessing then
these members as working parts acting in a perfect harmony of loyalty and
discipline-the Legion of Mary does not think it presumption, but rather a right
degree of confidence to believe that its system forms, as it were, a mechanism
which only requires operating by the hand of authority to compass the world,
and which Mary will deign to use as an agency to accomplish her maternal work
for souls, and to carry on her perpetual mission of crushing the head of the
serpent.
"'Whoever does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother.' (Mk
3:35) What a marvel! What an honour! To what a height of glory Jesus elevates
us! The women proclaim as most happy her who brought him into the world; but
what prevents them from participating in that same maternity? For here the
Gospel speaks of a new mode of generation, a new parenthood." (St. John
Chrysostom)
6 THE DUTY OF LEGIONARIES TOWARDS MARY
1. The honouring of the Legion devotion to Mary by serious meditation and
zealous practice is placed on each member as a solemn trusteeship to the
Legion. It is to be regarded as an essential part of legionary duty, ranking
before any other obligation of membership.(See chp 5, The Devotional Outlook of
the Legion, and appendix 5, Confraternity of Mary Queen of All Hearts)
The Legion aims to bring Mary to the world as the infallible means of winning
the world to Jesus. Manifestly, the legionary without Mary in his heart can
play no part in this. He is divorced from the legionary purpose. He is an
unarmed soldier, a broken link, or rather as a paralysed arm - attached to the
body, it is true - but of what use for work!
The study of every army (and no less that of the Legion) must be to bind the
individual soldier to the leader, so that the latter's plan passes smoothly
into concerted action. The army acts as one. To this end is all the elaborate
machinery of drill and discipline directed. In addition, there is found in the
soldiers of all the great armies of history a devotion of a passionate sort for
their leader, intensifying their union with him, and rendering easy the
sacrifices which the execution of his plan called for. Of this leader it could
be said that he was the inspiration and soul of his soldiers, in their hearts,
one with them, and so forth. These phrases describe the operation of his
influence and in a measure express a truth.
But at best such unity is only an emotional or mechanical one. Not so the
relation between the christian soul and Mary its Mother. To say that Mary is in
the soul of the faithful legionary would be to picture a union infinitely less
effective than that which actually exists, the nature of which is summed up by
the Church in such titles of Our Lady as: "Mother of Divine Grace,"
"Mediatrix of all Graces." In these titles is expressed a sway of
Mary over the life of the soul, so complete that even the closest of earthly
unions - the mother and the babe unborn-is inadequate to describe its intimacy.
Other natural processes can help to make real to the mind this place of Mary in
the operations of grace. The blood is not distributed except by the heart, the
eyes are the necessary link with the world of vision, and the bird-despite the
beating of its wings - cannot lift itself without the support of the air. So
the soul, according to the divinely established order, cannot without Mary lift
itself to God or do God's work.
Not being a creation either of the reason or of the emotions but a Divine
arrangement, this dependence on Mary exists even though it is not adverted to.
But it can be, and should be, immeasurably strengthened by a deliberate
participation in it. In intensity of union with her, who is (as St. Bonaventure
says) the dispenser of our Lord's Blood, lie marvels of sanctification and an
incredible source of power over the souls of others. Those whom the plain gold
of the apostolate could not ransom from the captivity of sin are freed -
everyone - when Mary studs that gold with the jewels of the Precious Blood
which she has in her gift.
So, beginning with a fervent Consecration, frequently renewed in some phrase
embodying it (for instance: "I am all yours, my Queen, my Mother, and all
that I have is yours"), this thought of the ever-present influence of Mary
in the soul should be reduced to such methodical and vivid practice that the
soul may be said to "breathe Mary as the body breathes air." (St.
Louis-Marie de Montfort)
In the Holy Mass, Holy Communion, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, the
Rosary, the Stations of the Cross, and other Devotions, the legionary soul must
seek, as it were, to identify itself with Mary, and to meditate on the
mysteries of the Redemption through that supremely faithful soul which lived
them with the Saviour, and in them played an indispensable part.
And so, imitating her, thanking her tenderly, rejoicing and sorrowing with her,
giving her what Dante calls 'the long study and the great love,' bringing some
thought of her into every prayer and work and act of the spiritual life,
forgetting itself and its own resources to depend on her; the soul of the
legionary becomes so filled with the image and thought of her that the two
souls are but one soul. The legionary, lost in the depth of Mary's soul, shares
her faith, her humility, her Immaculate Heart (and hence the potency of her
prayer), and swiftly is transformed into Christ, which is the object of all
life. While on the other hand, in and through her legionary, Mary participates
in every duty and mothers souls, so that in each of those worked for and of
one's fellow-workers, not only is the person of our Lord seen and served, but
seen and served by Mary, with the same exquisite love and nurturing care which
she gave to the actual body of her Divine Son.
Its members thus grown into living copies of Mary, the Legion sees itself in
truth a Legion of Mary, united to her mission and guaranteed her victory. It
will bring Mary to the world, and she will give light to the world and
presently set it all ablaze.
"With Mary live joyfully, with Mary bear all your trials, with Mary
labour, with Mary pray, with Mary take your recreation, with Mary take your
repose. With Mary seek Jesus; in your arms bear Jesus and with Jesus and Mary
fix your dwelling at Nazareth. With Mary go to Jerusalem, remain near the Cross
of Jesus, bury yourself with Jesus. With Jesus and Mary rise again, with Jesus
and Mary mount to Heaven, with Jesus and Mary live and die." (Thomas à
Kempis: Sermon to Novices)
2. THE IMITATION OF MARY'S HUMILITY IS BOTH THE ROOT AND THE INSTRUMENT OF
LEGIONARY ACTION
The Legion speaks to its members in terms of an army and battles. This is
fitting, for the Legion is the instrument and visible operation of her who is
like an army in battle array and who wages an intense warfare for the soul of
every man. Moreover, the martial idea is one with great appeal to mankind.
Legionaries, knowing themselves to be soldiers, are stimulated to impart a
soldierly seriousness to their work. But the warfare of legionaries is not of
this world, and must be waged according to the tactics of Heaven. The fire
which burns in true legionary hearts springs only from the ashes of lowly and
unworldly qualities. Particular among these is the virtue of humility, so
misunderstood and despised by the world. Yet, it is noble and strong, and
confers a strange nobility and strength on those who seek it and practise it.
In the Legion system, humility plays a unique part. In the first place, it is
an essential instrument of the legionary apostolate. For, the effecting and
developing of the personal contact, on which the Legion relies so largely in
its work, calls for workers with gentle, unassuming manners such as are derived
only from true humility of heart. But humility is more to the Legion than a
mere instrument of its external action. It is the very cradle of that action.
Without humility there can be no effective legionary action.
Christ, says St. Thomas Aquinas, recommended to us humility above all things,
for thereby is removed the chief impediment to the salvation of men. All the
other virtues derive their value from it. Only when humility exists will God
bestow his favours. When it fades, those gifts will be withdrawn. The Incarnation,
the source of all graces, depended on it. Mary says, in the
"Magnificat," that in her God has shown might in his arm, that is, he
has exerted in her his very omnipotence. And she proclaims the reason. It was
her lowliness which had won his regard and brought him down to terminate the
old world and begin the new.
But how could Mary be a model of humility, considering that her treasury of
perfections was altogether immeasurable - touching in fact the very borders of
infinity, and that she knew it? She was humble because she was likewise aware
that she was more perfectly redeemed than any other of the children of men. She
owed every gleam of her inconceivable sanctity to the merits of her Son, and
that thought was ever vivid in her mind. Her peerless intellect was full of the
realisation that as she had received more, so no other creature stood as much
in God's debt as she. Hence her attitude of exquisite and graceful humility was
effortless and constant.
Studying her, therefore, the legionary will learn that the essence of true
humility is the recognition and unaffected acknowledgement of what one really
is before God; the understanding that one's worthlessness alone is one's own.
Everything else is God's free gift to the soul: his to increase, diminish, or
withdraw completely, just as he alone gave it. A sense of one's subjection will
show itself in a marked preference for humble and little-sought tasks, in a
readiness to bear contempt and rebuffs, and generally in an attitude towards
the manifestations of God's Will which will reflect Mary's own declaration:
"Here am I, the servant of the Lord." (Lk 1:38)
The necessary union of the legionary with his Queen requires not only the
desire for that union, but the capacity for it. A person may determine to be a
good soldier, but yet may never possess the qualities which will make him an
efficient cog in the military machine. In consequence that man's union with his
general is an ineffective one, so that he impedes the working out of the
military plan. Similarly, the legionary may aspire to play a great part in the
plan of his Queen; yet he may be incapable of receiving what Mary so ardently
longs to give. In the case of the ordinary soldier this incapacity would
proceed from defects of courage, intelligence, physical fitness, and the like.
In the case of the legionary, that incapacity would be caused by the absence of
the virtue of humility. The purpose of the Legion is the sanctification of its
members and the radiation of that holiness in the world of souls. But there can
be no holiness without humility. Moreover, the Legion apostolate operates
through Mary. But there can be no union with Mary without some likeness to her,
and there can be little likeness to her in default of her special virtue of
humility. If union with Mary is the indispensable condition - the root, so to
speak, of all legionary action, then the soil on which these roots depend is
humility. If that soil is deficient, the legionary life will wither.
It follows that the Legion's battle for souls must begin in the heart of the
individual legionary. Each one must wage the battle with himself, determinedly
conquering in his heart the spirit of pride and self. This terrible struggle
with the root of evil within one, this constant striving after purity of
intention, how exhausting it is. It is the battle of a lifetime. Reliance upon
one's own efforts will make it the failure of a lifetime; for self winds itself
even into the attack on self. Of what use are his own muscles to one struggling
in a quicksand? A firm support is necessary.
Legionary, your firm support is Mary. Lean upon her with complete trust. She
will not fail you, for she is deeply rooted in that humility which is vital to
you. In the faithful practice of the spirit of dependence upon her will be
found a supreme, simple, comprehensive way of humility - what St. Louis-Marie
de Montfort terms "a little-known secret of grace, enabling us quickly and
with but little effort to empty ourselves of self, fill ourselves with God, and
become perfect."
Consider how this is so. The legionary, in turning towards Mary, must
necessarily turn away from self. Mary takes hold of this movement and elevates
it; makes of it the supernatural dying to self which fulfils the stern but
fruitful law of the Christian life. (Jn 12:24-25) The humble Virgin's heel
crushes the serpent of self, with its many heads:-
In the legionary, who is truly forgetful of self, there will be no impediment
to the maternal influences of Mary. She will develop in him energies and
sacrifices beyond nature, and make of him a good soldier of Christ (2 Tim 2:3),
fit for the arduous service to which that profession calls him.
"God delights to work on nothing; from that deep foundation it is that he
raises the creations of his power. We should be full of zeal for God's glory,
and at the same time convinced of our incapacity to promote it. Let us sink
into the abyss of our worthlessness; let us take shelter under the deep shade
of our lowliness; let us tranquilly wait until the Almighty shall see fit to
render our active exertions instrumental to his glory. For this purpose he will
make use of means quite opposed to those we might naturally expect. Next to
Jesus Christ no one ever contributed to the glory of God in the same degree as
the Blessed Virgin Mary, and yet the sole object to which her thoughts
deliberately tended was her own annihilation. Her humility seemed to set up an
obstacle to the designs of God. But it was, on the contrary, that humility
precisely which facilitated the accomplishment of his all-merciful views."
(Grou: Interior of Jesus and Mary)
3. REAL DEVOTION TO MARY OBLIGES APOSTLESHIP
Elsewhere in this handbook it has been stressed that we cannot pick and choose
in Christ; that we cannot receive the Christ of glory without at the same time
bringing into our lives the Christ of pain and persecution; because there is
but the one Christ who cannot be divided. We have to take him as he is. If we
go to him seeking peace and happiness, we may find that we have nailed
ourselves to the cross. The opposites are mixed up and cannot be separated; no
pain, no palm; no thorn, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown. We
reach out for the one and find that we have got the other with it.
And, of course, the same law applies to Our Blessed Lady. Neither can she be
divided up into compartments as between which we may pick and choose what seems
to suit us. We cannot join her in her joys without finding that presently our
hearts are riven with her sufferings.
If we want, like St. John the beloved disciple, to take her to our own (Jn
19:27), it must be in her completeness. If we are willing to accept only a
phase of her being, we may hardly receive her at all. Obviously devotion to her
must attend to and try to reproduce every aspect of her personality and
mission. It must not chiefly concern itself with what is not the most
important. For instance, it is valuable to regard her as our exquisite model
whose virtues we must draw into ourselves. But to do that and to do no more
would be a partial and indeed a petty devotion to her. Neither is it enough to
pray to her, even though it be in considerable quantity. Nor is it enough to know
and rejoice at the innumerable and startling ways in which the Three Divine
Persons have encompassed her, and built upon her, and caused her to reflect
their own attributes. All these tributes of respect are due to her and must be
given to her, but they are no more than parts of the whole. Adequate devotion
to her is only achieved by union with her. Union necessarily means community of
life with her; and her life does not consist mainly in the claiming of
admiration but in the communicating of grace.
Her whole life and destiny have been motherhood, first of Christ and then of
men. For that she was prepared and brought into existence by the Holy Trinity
after an eternal deliberation (as St. Augustine remarks). On the day of the
Annunciation she entered on her wondrous work and ever since she has been the
busy mother attending to her household duties. For a while these were contained
in Nazareth, but soon the little house became the whole wide world, and her Son
expanded into mankind. And so it has continued; all the time her domestic work
goes on and nothing in that Nazareth-grown-big can be performed without her.
Any caring of the Lord's body is only supplemental to her care; the apostle
only adds himself to her maternal occupations; and in that sense Our Lady might
declare: "I am Apostleship," almost as she said: "I am the
Immaculate Conception."
That motherhood of souls being her essential function and her very life, it
follows that without participation in it there can be no real union with her.
Therefore, let the position be stated once again: true devotion to Mary must
comprise the service of souls. Mary without motherhood and the christian
without apostleship, would be analogous ideas. Both the one and the other would
be incomplete, unreal, unsubstantial, false to the Divine intention.
Accordingly, the Legion is not built, as some suppose, upon two principles,
that is, Mary and apostleship, but upon the single principle of Mary, which
principle embraces apostleship and (rightly understood) the entire Christian
life.
Wishful thinking is proverbially an empty process. A mere verbal offering of
our services to Mary can be as empty. It is not to be thought that apostolic
duties will descend from Heaven on those who content themselves with waiting
passively for that to happen. It is rather to be feared that those idle ones
will continue in their state of unemployment. The only effective method of
offering ourselves as apostles is to undertake apostleship. That step taken, at
once Mary embraces our activity and incorporates it in her motherhood.
Moreover, Mary cannot do without that help. But surely this suggestion goes too
far? How could the Virgin so powerful be dependent on the aid of persons so
weak? But, indeed, such is the case. It is a part of the divine arrangement
which requires human co-operation and which does not save man otherwise than
through man. It is true that Mary's treasury of grace is superabundant, but she
cannot spend from it without our help. If she could use her power according to
her heart alone, the world would be converted in the twinkling of an eye. But
she has to wait till the human agencies are available to her. Deprived of them,
she cannot fulfil her motherhood, and souls starve and die. So she welcomes
eagerly any who will really place themselves at her disposal, and she will
utilise them, one and all; not only the holy and the fit, but likewise the
infirm and the unfit. So needed are they all that none will be rejected. Even
the least can transmit much of the power of Mary; while through those that are
better she can put forth her might. Bear in mind how the sunlight streams
dazzlingly through a clean window and struggles through a dirty one.
"Are not Jesus and Mary the new Adam and Eve, whom the tree of the Cross
brought together in anguish and love for the repairing of the fault committed
in Eden by our first parents? Jesus is the source and Mary the channel of the
graces which give us spiritual rebirth and aid us to win back our heavenly
home."
"Along with the Lord let us bless her whom he has raised up to be the
mother of mercy, our queen, our most loving mother, mediatrix of his graces,
dispenser of his treasures. The Son of God makes his mother radiant with the
glory, the majesty and the might of his own Kingship. Because she was united to
the King of Martyrs, as his mother and his assistant, in the stupendous work of
redeeming the human race, she remains for ever united to him, vested with a
practically unlimited power in the distributing of the graces which flow from
the Redemption. Her empire is vast like that of her Son; such indeed that
nothing is outside her sway." (Pope Pius XII: Discourses of 21 April,
1940, and 13 May, 1945)
4. INTENSITY OF EFFORT IN MARY'S SERVICE
In no circumstances should the spirit of dependence upon Mary be made an excuse
for lack of effort or for defects in system. Indeed the exact contrary must
obtain. Because one works with Mary and for her so completely it follows that
one's gift to her must be the choicest that can be offered. One must always work
with energy and skill and fineness. Now and then, fault has had to be found
with branches or members who did not appear to be making sufficient effort in
connection with the ordinary Legion work or with extension or recruiting.
Sometimes this kind of answer is forthcoming: "I distrust my own powers. I
rely altogether on Our Blessed Lady to bring about the right result in her own
way." Often this reply proceeds from earnest persons who are inclined to
ascribe to their own inactivity a sort of virtue, as if method and effort
implied a littleness of faith. There may be, too, a certain danger of applying
human ideas to these things and of reasoning that if one is the instrument of a
simply immense power, the exact degree of one's own effort does not so greatly matter.
Why, it may be argued, should a poor man who is in partnership with a
millionaire, exhaust himself to contribute an extra penny to the already
overflowing common purse?
It is necessary, therefore, to emphasise a principle which must govern the attitude
of the legionary towards his work. It is that legionaries are no mere
instruments of Mary's action. There is question of a true co-operation with her
for the purpose of enriching and ransoming the souls of men. In that
co-operation each supplies what the other cannot give. The legionary gives his
action and his faculties: that is all of himself; and Mary gives herself with
all her purity and power. Each is bound to contribute without reserve. If the
spirit of this partnership is honoured by the legionary, Mary will never be
found wanting. Therefore, the fate of the enterprise may be said to depend
entirely on the legionary, so that he must bring to it all his intelligence and
all his strength, perfected by careful method and by perseverance.
Even if it were known that Mary were going to give a desired result independent
of the legionary effort, nevertheless that effort must be exerted in its
fulness, with just the same intensity as if all depended on it. While placing a
limitless confidence in the aid of Mary, the legionary's effort must always be
pitched at its maximum. His generosity must always rise as high as his trust.
This principle of the necessary inter-action of boundless faith with intense
and methodical effort is expressed in another way by the saints, when they say
that one must pray as if all depended on that prayer and nothing on one's own
efforts; and then one must strive as if absolutely everything depended on that
striving.
There must be no such thing as proportioning the output of effort to one's
estimate of the difficulty of the task, or of thinking in terms of "just
how little can I give to gain the object in view?" Even in worldly
matters, such a bargaining spirit constantly defeats itself. In supernatural
things it will always fail, for it forfeits the grace on which the issue really
hangs. Moreover, human judgments cannot be depended on. The apparent
impossibility often collapses at a touch; while, on the other hand, the fruit
which hangs almost within reach, may persistently elude the hand, and at long
last be harvested by someone else. In the spiritual order the calculating soul
will sink to smaller and smaller things and finally end in barrenness. The only
certain way lies in unrestricted effort. Into each task, trivial or great, the
legionary will throw supreme effort. Perhaps that degree of effort is not
needed. It may be that a touch would be sufficient to bring the work to
completion; and were the completion of the task the only objective, it would be
legitimate to put forth that slight effort and no more. One would not, as Byron
says, uplift the club of Hercules to crush a butterfly or brain a gnat.
But legionaries must be brought to realise that they do not work directly for
results. They work for Mary quite irrespectively of the simplicity or the
difficulty of the task; and in every employment the legionary must give the
best that is in him, be it little or be it great. Thereby is merited the full
co-operation of Mary, so that even miracles are wrought where they are needed.
If one can do but little, and yet does it with all one's heart, Mary will come
in with power and will give that feeble movement the effect of a giant's
strength. If, having done all that he can, the legionary is still a million
miles from success, Mary will bridge that distance to carry their joint work to
an ideal conclusion.
And even if the legionary puts into a work ten times the intensity which is
needed to perfect it, nevertheless not a particle of what he does is wasted.
For is not all his work for Mary and at the service of her vast design and
purpose ? Mary will receive with joy that surplus effort, will multiply it
exceedingly, and with it supply grave needs of the household of the Lord. There
is nothing lost of anything which is committed to the hands of the careful
housewife of Nazareth.
But if, on the other hand, the legionary's contribution falls meanly short of
what might reasonably be required from him, then Mary's hands are held from
giving munificently. The compact of common goods with Mary, so full of unique
possibilities, is set aside by legionary negligence. O what sad loss to souls
and to the legionary himself thus to be left on his own resources!
It is useless, therefore, for the legionary to justify insufficient effort or
slovenly methods by alleging that he relies on Mary altogether. Surely that
sort of reliance, which enabled him to shrink from reasonable endeavour on his
own part, would be a weak, ignoble thing. He seeks to transfer to Mary's
shoulders a burden which his own are adequate to bear. Would any common knight
of chivalry serve his fair lady so strangely!
So just as if nothing had been said on this subject, let this root principle of
the legionary alliance with Mary be stated once again. The legionary must give
to the utmost of his capacity. Mary's part is not that of supplying what the
legionary refuses to give. It would not be proper for her to relieve her
legionary from the effort, method, patience, thought, which he can provide, and
which is due by him to the treasury of God.
Mary desires to give profusely, but she cannot do so except to the generous
soul. Therefore, desirous that her legionary children will draw deeply from her
immensity, she anxiously appeals to them, in her Son's own words, for a service
"with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and
with all your strength." (Mk 12:30)
The legionary must only look to Mary to supplement, to purify, to perfect, to
supernaturalise the natural, to enable weak human effort to achieve what is
impossible to it. But these are mighty things. They can mean that mountains
will be torn from their roots and hurled into the sea, and the land be made
plain, and the paths straightened to lead on to the Kingdom of God.
"We are all unprofitable servants, but we serve a Master who is absolutely
economical, who lets nothing go to waste, not a drop of the sweat of our brow,
any more than a drop of his heavenly dew. I know not what fate awaits this
book; whether I shall finish it; or whether I shall reach even the end of the
page that lies beneath my pen. But I know enough to cause me to throw into it
the remnant, be it great or small, of my strength and of my days."
(Frederick Ozanam)
5. LEGIONARIES SHOULD UNDERTAKE DE MONTFORT'S TRUE DEVOTION TO MARY
It is desirable that the practice of the legionary devotion to Mary should be
rounded off and given the distinctive character which has been taught by St.
Louis-Marie de Montfort under the titles of "The True Devotion" or
the "Slavery of Mary", and which is enshrined in his two books, True
Devotion to the Blessed Virgin and the Secret of Mary. (see appendix 5)
That Devotion requires the formal entry into a compact with Mary, whereby one
gives to her one's whole self, with all its thoughts and deeds and possessions,
both spiritual and temporal, past, present, and future, without the reservation
of the smallest part or slightest little thing. In a word, the giver places
himself in a condition equivalent to that of a slave possessing nothing of his
own, and wholly dependent on, and utterly at the disposal of Mary.
But the earthly slave is far freer than the slave of Mary. The former remains
master of his thoughts and inner life, and thus may be free in everything that
matters to him. But the surrender to Mary bears with it everything: each
thought, the movements of the soul, the hidden riches, the inmost self. All -
on to the final breath - is committed to her that she may expend it all for
God. It is a sort of martyrdom, the sacrifice of self to God, with Mary as the
altar of that sacrifice. How conformed, indeed, to the sacrifice of Christ
himself, which likewise began in Mary's bosom, was publicly confirmed in the
arms of Mary uplifted in the presentation, embraced every moment of his life,
and was consummated on Calvary on the cross of Mary's heart.
The True Devotion is inaugurated by a formal Act of Consecration, but it
consists principally in the subsequent living of that Consecration. The True
Devotion must represent not an act but a state. Unless Mary takes possession of
all the life, and not merely of minutes and hours of that life, the Act of
Consecration-even though frequently repeated-has but the value of a passing
prayer. It is like a tree which has been planted, but which has never taken
root.
But this does not mean that the mind has to remain ever fixed upon the
Consecration. Just as one's physical life is governed by one's breathing or by
the beating of one's heart, even though these operations are not consciously
viewed, so it is with the True Devotion. Even though not adverted to, it works
incessantly on the life of the soul. It suffices if the idea of Mary's
ownership is now and then made vivid by deliberate thought, by acts and
ejaculations; provided that the fact of one's dependence on her remains
permanently acknowledged, always at least vaguely present to the mind, and put
into force in a general way in all the circumstances of one's life.
If there is a warmth in all this, it can be a help. But if not, it does not
affect the value of the Devotion. Oftentimes, in fact, warmth makes things soft
and not dependable.
Mark this well: the True Devotion does not depend on fervour or emotions of any
kind. Like every lofty edifice, it may at times burn in sunshine, while its
deep foundations are cold like the rock they rest on.
Reason is commonly cold. The best resolve may be icy. Faith itself can be chill
as a diamond. Yet these are the foundations of the True Devotion. Set in them,
the latter will abide; and the frost and the storm, which cause mountains to
crumble, will only leave it the stronger.
The graces which have attended the practice of the True Devotion, and the
position it has attained in the devotional life of the Church, would reasonably
appear to indicate that it represents an authentic message from Heaven, and
this is precisely what St. Louis-Marie de Montfort claimed it to be. He
attached to it immense promises, and he asserted most positively that those
promises would be fulfilled if the conditions which govern them are fulfilled.
And as to the everyday experience: speak to those whose practice of the
Devotion is more than a surface affair, and see with what complete conviction
they speak of what it has done for them. Ask them if they may not be the
victims of their feelings or imagination. Always they will declare that there
is no question of it; the fruits have been too evident to admit of their being
deceived.
If the sum of the experiences of those who teach, and understand, and practise
the True Devotion is of value, it seems unquestionable that it deepens the interior
life, sealing it with the special character of unselfishness and purity of
intention. There is a sense of guidance and protection: a joyful certainty that
now one's life is being employed to the best advantage. There is a supernatural
outlook, a definite courage, a firmer faith, which make one a mainstay of any
enterprise. There is a tenderness and a wisdom which keep strength in its
proper place. There is, too, the protectress of them all, a sweet humility.
Graces come which one cannot but realise are out of the common. Frequently,
there is a call to a great work, which is patently beyond one's merits and
natural capacity. Yet with it come such helps as enable that glorious but heavy
burden to be borne without faltering. In a word, in exchange for the splendid
sacrifice which is made in the True Devotion by selling oneself into this
species of slavery, there is gained the hundredfold which is promised to those
who despoil themselves for the greater glory of God. When we serve, we rule;
when we give, we have; when we surrender ourselves we are victors.
Some persons appear to reduce their spiritual life very simply to a matter of
selfish gain or loss. These are disconcerted by the suggestion that they should
abandon their treasures even to the Mother of our souls. Such as the following
is heard: "If I give everything to Mary, will I not at the hour of my
departure from this life stand empty-handed before my Judge, and therefore
perhaps have to go for a vast time into Purgatory?" To this, a commentator
quaintly answers: "No, not at all, since Mary is present at the
Judgment!" The thought contained in this remark is profound.
But the objection to making the Consecration is usually due less to a purely
selfish outlook than to perplexity. There is difficulty in understanding how
those things for which one is bound in duty to pray, such as one's family,
one's friends, one's country, the Pope, etc., will fare if one makes the
unreserved gift of one's spiritual treasures. Let all these misgivings be put
aside, and let the Consecration be boldly made. Everything is safe with Our
Lady. She is the guardian of the treasures of God himself. She is capable of
being the guardian of the concerns of those who place their trust in her. So
together with the assets of your life, cast all its liabilities - its
obligations and duties - into that great sublime heart of hers. In her
relations with you, she acts in a manner as if she had no other child but you.
Your salvation, your sanctification, your multiple needs are peremptorily
present to her. When you pray for her intentions, you yourself are her first
intention.
But here, where one is being urged to make sacrifice, is not the place to seek
to prove that there is no loss whatever in the transaction. For to prove this
would sap the very foundations of the offering and deprive it of the character
of sacrifice on which its value depends. It will suffice to recall that once
upon a time a multitude of ten or twelve thousand were in a desert, and were
hungry. (Jn 6:1-14) In all that number only one person had brought food with
him. What he possessed amounted to five loaves and two fishes and he was asked
to give them up for the common good; and he did so with willingness. Then those
few loaves and fishes were blessed and broken and distributed to the multitude.
And in the end all that immense throng did eat, until they could eat no more;
and among them he who had given the original seven items of food. And yet what
remained over filled twelve baskets, full and to overflowing! Now supposing
that individual had said: "What good will these few loaves and fishes be
to so great a multitude? Besides, I require them for the members of my family
here with me and oppressed by hunger. I cannot give." But no! He gave and
he and his people received far more from the miraculous repast than they had
contributed to it. And no doubt they had a form of claim to the twelve
basketfuls, if they desired to assert it.
Such is always the way of Jesus and Mary with the princely soul which gives its
possessions without reserve or stipulation. The gift avails to satisfy the
wants of a vast throng. Yet, one's own needs and intentions, which had appeared
to suffer, are filled to overflowing and still the Divine bounty lies scattered
about.
Let us, then, hasten to Mary with our poor loaves and fishes, and press them
into her arms, so that Jesus and she may multiply them to feed the souls of the
millions hungering in the arid desert of this world.
The form of one's ordinary prayers and actions need not be changed as a result
of the making of the Consecration. The customary paths of life may be pursued,
and one may continue to pray for one's usual intentions and for all special
purposes, but subject in future to Mary's good pleasure.
"Mary shows us her Divine Son and addresses to us the same invitation that
she did of old to the serving men at Cana: 'Whatsoever he shall say to you, do
ye.' (Jn 2:5) If at her command we pour into the vessels of Charity and
Sacrifice the tasteless water of the thousand details of our everyday actions
the miracle of Cana is renewed. The water is changed into a delicious wine,
that is to say, into choicest graces for ourselves and for others."
(Cousin)
7 THE LEGIONARY AND THE HOLY TRINITY
It is significant that the first corporate act of the Legion of Mary was to
address itself to the Holy Spirit by his Invocation and Prayer, then proceeding
by the rosary to Mary and her Son.
Similarly significant is the fact that when the vexillum was designed some
years later, the same note was unexpectedly struck. The Holy Spirit proved to
be the predominant feature of that emblem. This was strange, for that design
was the product of artistic and not of theological thinking. A non-religious
emblem, that is, the Standard of the Roman Legion, had been taken and adapted
to the purposes of the Marian Legion. The Dove entered in by mode of
substitution for the Eagle; and Our Lady's image was in substitution for the
image of the Emperor or Consul. Yet the final result portrayed the Holy Spirit
as using Mary as the channel to the world of his life-giving influences, and as
having taken possession of the Legion.
And later, when the tessera picture was painted, it illustrated the same
devotional position: the Holy Spirit broods over the Legion. By his power the
undying warfare accomplishes itself: the Virgin crushes the head of the
serpent: her battalions advance to their foretold victory over the adverse
forces.It is an additional picturesque circumstance that the colour of the
Legion is red, and not, as might be expected, blue. This was determined in
connection with the settling of a minor detail, that is the colour of Our
Lady's halo in the vexillum and in the tessera picture. It was felt that Legion
symbolism required that Our Lady be shown as full of the Holy Spirit, and that
this should be denoted by making her halo of his colour. This drew with it the
further thought that the Legion's colour should be red. The same note is struck
in the tessera picture, which depicts Our Lady as the biblical Pillar of Fire,
all luminous and burning with the Holy Spirit.
So, when the Legion Promise was composed, it was consistent - though initially
causing some surprise - that it should be directed to the Holy Spirit and not
to the Queen of the Legion. Again that vital note is struck: it is always the
Holy Spirit who regenerates the world-even to the bestowing of the smallest
individual grace; and his agency is always Mary. By the operation of the Holy
Spirit in Mary, the Eternal Son is made Man. Thereby mankind is united to the
Holy Trinity, and Mary herself is placed in a distinct, unique relation to each
Divine Person. That three-fold place of Mary must at least be glimpsed by us,
inasmuch as an understanding of the divine arrangements is the choicest sort of
grace, one which is not intended to be out of our reach.
The saints are insistent on the necessity for thus distinguishing between the
Three Divine Persons and for rendering to each one of them an appropriate
attention. The Athanasian Creed is mandatory and strangely menacing in regard
to this requirement, which proceeds from the fact that the final purpose of
Creation and of the Incarnation is the glorification of the Trinity.
But how can so incomprehensible a mystery be even dimly probed? Assuredly by
divine enlightenment alone, but this grace can confidently be claimed from her
to whom, for the first time in the world, the doctrine of the Trinity was
definitely intimated. That occasion was the epochal moment of the Annunciation.
Through its high angel the Holy Trinity thus declared Itself to Mary: "The
Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow
you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of
God." (Lk 1:35)
In this revelation all the Three Divine Persons are clearly specified: first,
the Holy Spirit, to whom the operation of the Incarnation is attributed;
second, the Most High, the Father of him who is to be born; third, that Child
who "will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High." (Lk
1:32)
The contemplation of Mary's different relations to the Divine Persons helps
towards our distinguishing as between the Three.
To the Second Divine Person Mary's relation is the one nearest to our
comprehension, that of Mother. But her motherhood is of a closeness, a permanency,
and a quality infinitely surpassing the normal human relationship. In the case
of Jesus and Mary the union of souls was primary, and of flesh secondary; so
that even when separation of flesh occurred at birth, their union was not
interrupted but went on into further incomprehensible degrees of intensity and
association - such that Mary can be declared by the Church to be not only the
"helpmate" of that Second Divine Person - Co-Redemptress in
salvation: Mediatress in grace - but actually "like unto Him."
Of the Holy Spirit, Mary is commonly called the temple or the sanctuary, but
these terms are insufficiently expressive of the reality, which is that he has
so united her to himself as to make her the next thing in dignity to himself.
Mary has been so taken up into the Holy Spirit, made one with him, animated by
him, that he is as her very soul. She is no mere instrument or channel of his
activity; she is an intelligent, conscious co-operator with him to such degree
that when she acts, it is also he who acts; and that if her intervention be not
accepted, neither is his.
The Holy Spirit is Love, Beauty, Power, Wisdom, Purity, and all else that is of
God. If he descend in plentitude, every need can be met, and the most grievous
problem can be brought into conformity with the Divine Will. The man who thus
makes the Holy Spirit his helper (Ps. 77) enters into the tide of omnipotence.
If one of the conditions for so attracting him is the understanding of Our
Lady's relation to him, another vital condition is that we appreciate the Holy
Spirit himself as a real, distinct, Divine Person with his appropriate mission
in regard to us. This appreciation of him will not be maintained except there
be a reasonably frequent turning of the mind to him. By including just that
glance in his direction, every devotion to the Blessed Virgin can be made a
wide-open way to the Holy Spirit. Especially can legionaries so utilise the
rosary. Not only does the rosary form a prime devotion to the Holy Spirit by
reason of its being the chief prayer to Our Lady, but, as well, its contents,
the fifteen mysteries, celebrate the principal interventions of the Holy Spirit
in the drama of redemption.
Mary's relation to the Eternal Father is usually defined as that of Daughter.
This title is intended to designate: (a) her position as "the first of all
creatures, the most acceptable child of God, the nearest and dearest to
him" (Cardinal Newman); (b) the fulness of her union with Jesus Christ
which makes her enter into new relations to the Father,* thereby entitling her
to be mystically styled the Daughter of the Father; (c) the pre-eminent
resemblance which she bears to the Father, which has fitted her to pour out
into the world the everlasting light which issues from that loving Father.
* "As Mother of God, Mary contracts a certain affinity with the
Father." (Lépicier)
But that title of "Daughter" may not sufficiently bring home to us
the influence which her relation to the Father exerts on us who are his
children and her children. "He has communicated to her his fruitfulness as
far as a mere creature was capable of it, in order that he might give her the
power to produce his Son and all the members of his Mystical Body." (St.
Louis-Marie de Montfort) Her relation to the Father is a fundamental,
ever-present element in the flow of life to every soul. It is the requirement
of God that what he gives to man must be reflected in appreciation and
co-operation. Therefore, that life-giving union must be made a subject of our
thoughts, and so it is suggested that the Pater Noster, which is often on the
lips of legionaries, should take particular account of that intention. This
prayer was composed by Jesus Christ our Lord, and therefore it asks for the
right things in the ideal way. If recited with the right advertence and in the
spirit of the Catholic Church, it must accomplish perfectly its purpose of
glorifying the Eternal Father and of acknowledging his everflowing gift to us
through Mary.
"Let us recall here, as a proof of the dependence we ought to have on Our
Blessed Lady, the example which the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit give
of this dependence. The Father has not given and does not give his Son except
by her. He has no children but by her, and communicates no graces but by her.
God the Son has not been formed for the whole world in general except by her;
and he is not daily formed and engendered except by her in union with the Holy
Spirit; neither does he communicate his merits and his virtues except by her.
The Holy Spirit has not formed Jesus Christ except by her, neither does he form
the members of our Lord's Mystical Body except by her; and through her alone
does he dispense his favours and his gifts. After so many and such pressing
examples of the Most Holy Trinity, can we without an extreme blindness dispense
ourselves from Mary, and not consecrate ourselves to her, and depend on her
?" (St. Louis-Marie de Montfort: Treatise on True Devotion, Par. 140)
8 THE LEGIONARY AND THE EUCHARIST
1. HOLY MASS
Already it has been stressed that the holiness of the member is of fundamental
importance for the Legion. It is moreover the primary means of action, for only
in the measure that the legionary possesses grace can he be the channel of it
to others. Hence it is that the legionary begins his membership by a request to
be filled, through Mary, with the Holy Spirit and to be used as an instrument
of his power which is to renew the face of the earth.
The graces, which are thus asked for, flow one and all from the sacrifice of
Jesus Christ on Calvary. By means of the Mass, the Sacrifice of the Cross is
continued among men. The Mass is not a mere symbolic representation of the
past, but places really and actually present in our midst that supreme action
which our Lord consummated on Calvary, and which redeemed the world. The cross
was not worth more than the Mass, because the two are but one and the selfsame
Sacrifice, time and space being pushed aside by the hand of omnipotence. The
priest and the victim are the same, the setting alone is different. The Mass
contains everything that Christ offered to God, and all that he acquired for
men; and the offerings of those who assist at Mass become one with the great
offering of Christ.
Therefore to the Mass must the legionary have recourse if a plenteous sharing
in the gifts of redemption is desired for oneself and for others. By reason of
the fact that opportunities and circumstances differ so much, the Legion does
not impose any obligation on its members in this matter. Nevertheless,
solicitous for them and their work, it urges and implores each one of them to
assist frequently - every day if at all possible - at Mass, and at that Mass to
receive Holy Communion.
Legionaries perform their actions in union with Mary. Especially does this
apply to their taking part in the Eucharistic celebration.
The Mass as we know is made up of two principal parts - the liturgy of the Word
and the liturgy of the Eucharist. It is important to bear in mind that these
two parts are so closely connected with each other that they constitute one
single act of worship. (SC 56) For this reason the faithful should participate
in the whole of the Mass where both the table of God's Word and the table of
Christ's Body are prepared, so that from them the faithful may be instructed
and nourished. (SC 48, 51)
"In the Sacrifice of the Mass we are not merely reminded of the sacrifice
of the cross in a symbolical form. On the contrary, the sacrifice of Calvary,
as a great supra-temporal reality, enters into the immediate present. Space and
time are abolished. The same Jesus is here present who died on the cross. The
whole congregation unites itself with his holy sacrificial will, and through
Jesus present before it, consecrates itself to the heavenly Father as a living
oblation. So holy Mass is a tremendously real experience, the experience of the
reality of Golgotha. And a stream of sorrow and repentance, of love and
devotion, of heroism and the spirit of sacrifice, flows out from the altar and
passes through the praying congregation." (Karl Adam: The Spirit of
Catholicism)
2. THE LITURGY OF THE WORD
The Mass is above all a celebration of faith, of that faith which is born in us
and nourished through the hearing of the Word of God. We recall here the words
of the General Instruction on the Missal (No. 9): "when the Scriptures are
read in church, God Himself is speaking to his people, and Christ, present in
his word, is proclaiming the Gospel. Hence the readings from God's word are
among the most important elements in the liturgy, and all who are present
should listen to them with reverence." Of great importance also is the
homily. It is a necessary part of the Mass on Sundays and Holydays, while on
other days it is desirable that there be a homily. By its means the homilist
explains the sacred text in the light of the Church's teaching for the building
up of the faith of those present.
As we participate in the celebration of the word, Our Lady is our model for she
is "the attentive Virgin who receives the word of God with faith, that
faith which in her case was the gateway and path to the divine
motherhood". (MCul 17)
3. THE LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST IN UNION WITH MARY
Our Blessed Lord did not begin his work of redemption without the consent of
Mary, solemnly asked and freely given. Likewise he did not complete it on
Calvary without her presence and her consent. "From this union of
sufferings and of will between Mary and Christ, she merited to become most
worthily the restorer of the lost world and the dispenser of all the graces
Jesus purchased by his death and by his Blood." (AD 9) She stood by the
cross of Jesus on Calvary, representing all mankind there, and at each new Mass
the offering of the Saviour is accomplished subject to the same conditions.
Mary stands at the altar no less than she stood by the cross. She is there, as
ever, co-operating with Jesus - the Woman, foretold from the beginning,
crushing the serpent's head. A loving attention to her ought, therefore, to
form part of every Mass rightly heard.
And also with Mary on Calvary were the representatives of a Legion, the
Centurion and his men, who took a mournful part in the offering of the Victim,
though indeed they did not know they were crucifying the Lord of Glory. (1 Cor
2:8) And, wonder of wonders, grace burst upon them! "Contemplate and see,"
says St. Bernard, "how piercing is the glance of faith. Consider
attentively what lynx-eyes it possesses. On Calvary it enabled the Centurion to
see life in death, and to recognise in a dying breath the sovereign
Spirit." Looking upon their dead and disfigured victim, the legionaries
proclaimed him to be the very Son of God. (Mt 27:54)
These fierce rude converts were the fruits, swift and unexpected, of Mary's
prayers. They were strange children that the mother of men first received on
Calvary; yet they must have ever made the name of legionary dear to her. So,
who can doubt that when her own legionaries - united to her intention, part of
her co-operation - come to the daily Mass, she will gather them to her, and
give to them the "lynx-eyes" of faith and her own overflowing heart,
so that they will enter most intimately (and with surpassing profit) into that
continuation of the sublime sacrifice of Calvary.
When they see the Son of God lifted up, they will unite themselves to him to be
but a single victim, for the Mass is their sacrifice as well as his sacrifice.
Then they should receive his adorable Body; for this partaking, with the
priest, in the flesh of the immolated Victim is essential, if the fullness of
the fruit of the Divine Sacrifice is to be gathered.
They will understand the essential part of Mary, the new Eve, in those holy
mysteries-such a part that "when her beloved Son was consummating the
redemption of mankind on the altar of the cross, she stood at his side,
suffering and redeeming with him." (Pope Pius XI) And when they come away,
Mary will be with her legionaries, giving them a share and part in her
administration of graces, so that on each and all of those they meet and work
for are lavished the infinite treasures of redemption.
"Her motherhood is particularly noted and experienced by the Christian
people at the Sacred Banquet - the liturgical celebration of the mystery of the
Redemption - at which Christ, his true body born of the Virgin Mary, becomes
present.
The piety of the Christian people has always very rightly sensed a profound
link between devotion to the Blessed Virgin and worship of the Eucharist: this
is a fact that can be seen in the liturgy of both the West and the East, in the
traditions of the Religious Families, in the modern movements of spirituality,
including those for youth, and in the pastoral practice of the Marian Shrines.
Mary guides the faithful to the Eucharist." (RMat 44)
4. THE EUCHARIST OUR TREASURE
The Eucharist is the centre and source of grace: therefore, it must be the very
keystone of the legionary scheme. The most ardent activity will accomplish
nothing of value if it forgets for a moment that its main object is to
establish the reign of the Eucharist in all hearts. For thereby is fulfilled
the purpose for which Jesus came into the world. That purpose was to
communicate himself to souls so that he might make them one with him. The means
of that communication is chiefly the holy Eucharist. "I am the living
bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for
ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my
flesh." (Jn 6:51-52)
The Eucharist is the infinite good. For in that sacrament is Jesus himself, as
much present as he was in his home at Nazareth or in the Upper Room at
Jerusalem. The holy Eucharist is no mere symbol of him, or instrument of his
power, but is Jesus Christ himself substantially. So that she, who had
conceived him and nurtured him, "found again in the adorable host the
blessed fruit of her womb, and renewed in her life of union with his
Sacramental presence the happy days of Bethlehem and Nazareth." (St. Peter
Julian Eymard)
Many who think Jesus little better than an inspired man are found to yield him
reverence and imitation. If they thought him to be more, they would render him
more. What, therefore, should proceed from the household of the faith? How
inexcusable are those Catholics who believe, but do not practise that belief.
That Jesus whom others admire, Catholics possess - ever living in the Eucharist.
They have free access to him and can, and should, receive him even daily as the
food of their souls.
Considering these things, one sees how sad it is that such a splendid heritage
should be neglected; that persons having the faith of the Eucharist should
nevertheless permit sin and thoughtlessness to deprive them of this vital need
of their souls, which Our Lord had in mind for them from the first moment of
his earthly existence. Even as a new-born babe in Bethlehem (which means the
House of Bread), he lay on that straw of which he was the Divine Wheat:
destined to be made into the heavenly bread which would make men one with him
and with each other in his Mystical Body.
Mary is the mother of that Mystical Body. As she once anxiously attended to the
wants of her Christ-child, so now she yearns to feed that Mystical Body, of
which she is, no less, the Mother. How her heart is anguished at seeing that
her babe, in his Mystical Body, is hungry - even starving - by reason of the
fact that few are nourished as they should be with the Bread Divine, while many
do not receive it at all. Let those, who aim to be associated to Mary in her
maternal care of souls, share her maternal anguish, and strive, in union with
her, to allay that hunger of the Body of Christ. Every avenue of legionary
action must be availed of to awaken knowledge and love of the Blessed Sacrament
and to dissipate the sin and indifference which keep men from it. Each Holy
Communion brought about is truly an immeasurable gain. Through the individual
soul, it nourishes the entire Mystical Body of Christ, and causes it to advance
in wisdom and growth and grace with God and men. (Lk 2:52)
"This union of the Mother and the Son in the work of redemption reaches
its climax on Calvary, where Christ "offered himself as the perfect
sacrifice to God" (Heb 9:14) and where Mary stood by the cross. (cf. Jn
19:25) "suffering grievously with her only-begotten Son. There she united
herself with a maternal heart to his sacrifice, and lovingly consented to the immolation
of this victim which she herself had brought forth" and also was offering
to the Eternal Father. To perpetuate down the centuries the Sacrifice of the
Cross, the divine Saviour instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice, the memorial of
his death and resurrection, and entrusted it to his spouse the Church, which,
especially on Sundays, calls the faithful together to celebrate the Passover of
the Lord until he comes again. This the Church does in union with the saints in
heaven and in particular with the Blessed Virgin, whose burning charity and
unshakeable faith she imitates."
(MCul 20) 9 THE LEGIONARY AND THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST
1. LEGIONARY SERVICE IS BASED ON THIS DOCTRINE
At the very first meeting of legionaries the supernatural character of the
service, which they were undertaking, was stressed. Their approach to others
was to be brimful of kindness, but their motive was not to be that merely
natural one. In all those whom they served they were to see the Person of Jesus
Christ himself. What they did to those others - even the weakest and lowest -
they were to remember that they did it to Our Lord himself, according to his
own words: "Truly, I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of
these who are members of my family, you did it to me." (Mt 25:40)
As at the first meeting, so ever since. No effort has been spared to bring home
to legionaries that this motive is to be the basis of their service, and
likewise that the discipline and internal harmony of the Legion rest chiefly
upon the same principle. In their officers and in each other they must
recognise and reverence Christ himself. In order to ensure that this
transforming truth will remain impressed on the minds of the members, it is
incorporated in the Standing Instruction which is read monthly at the
praesidium meeting. In addition, the Standing Instruction emphasises the other
legionary principle that the work must be done in such a spirit of union with
Mary that it is she, working through the legionary, who really performs it.
These principles, upon which the Legion system is built, are a consequence of
the doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ. This doctrine forms the main theme
of the epistles of St. Paul. This is not surprising, for it was a declaration
of that doctrine which converted him. There was light from heaven. The great
persecutor of the Christians was thrown, blinded, to the ground. Then he heard
those overwhelming words: "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" and
St. Paul rejoined: "Who are you, Lord?" And Jesus replied: "I am
Jesus whom you are persecuting." (Acts 9:4-5) What wonder that these words
burnt themselves into the apostle's soul, so that he must always speak and
write the truth which they expressed.
St. Paul describes the union which exists between Christ and the baptised as
being like the union between the head and the other members of the human body.
Each part has its own special purpose and work. Some parts are noble and some
are less so; but all are dependent one upon the other, and the same life animates
them all. All are put to loss by the failure of one, as all profit by the
excellence of one.
The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ and his fullness. (Eph 1:22-23)
Christ is its head, its chief, indispensable, and perfect part, from which all
the other members of the body derive their powers, their very life. In Baptism
we are attached to Christ by the most intimate ties imaginable. Realise,
therefore, that mystical does not mean unreal. To use the vehement expression
of Holy Scripture, "we are members of his body." (Eph 5:30) Sacred
obligations of love and of service are set up between the members and the head,
and between the members themselves. (1 Jn 4:15-21) The image of the body helps
to a vivid realisation of those obligations, and this is half-way to the
fulfillment of them.
This truth has been described as the central dogma of Christianity. For, in
fact, all the supernatural life, all the graces conferred on man, are a fruit
of the Redemption. The Redemption itself is based on the fact that Christ and
the Church form together but a single mystical person, so that the satisfaction
of Christ the head, the infinite merits of his Passion, belong to his members,
who are all the faithful. This is the reason why Our Lord could suffer for man
and expiate faults which He had not Himself committed. "Christ is the head
of the church, the body of which he is the Saviour." (Eph 5:23) The
activity of the Mystical Body is the activity of Christ Himself. The faithful
are incorporated into Him, and then live, suffer and die in Him, and in His
resurrection rise again. Baptism only sanctifies because it establishes between
Christ and the soul that vital connection by which the sanctity of the Head
flows into its members. The other sacraments, and above all the Divine Eucharist,
exist for the purpose of intensifying the union between the Mystical Body and
its Head. In addition, that union is deepened by the operations of faith and
charity, by the bonds of government and mutual service in the Church, by labour
and suffering rightly submitted to, and generally by every act of the christian
life. Especially will all of these be effective when the soul acts in
deliberate concert with Mary.
Mary forms an eminent bond of union, due to her position as mother of both Head
and members. "We are members of His body", (Eph 5:30) and hence, with
equal reality and fullness, children of Mary His mother. The sole purpose of
Mary's existence is to conceive and bring forth the whole Christ, that is the
Mystical Body with all its members perfect, and fitly joined together (Eph
4:15-16), and one with its Head, Jesus Christ. Mary accomplishes this in
co-operation with, and by the power of, the Holy Spirit, who is the life and
soul of the Mystical Body. It is in her bosom and subject to her maternal care
that the soul grows up in Christ and comes to the age of His fullness. (Eph
4:13-15)
"In God's scheme of redemption, Mary plays a principal part, unlike any
other. Among the members of the Mystical Body, she holds a special place of her
own, the first after the Head. In the divine organism of the whole Christ, Mary
performs a function which is intimately bound up with the life of the entire
body. She is its Heart . . . More commonly, the role of Mary in the Mystical
Body is (following St. Bernard) likened to that of the neck, which joins the
head to the rest of the body. This comparison emphasises fairly well the
universal mediation of Mary between the Mystical Head and his members. However,
the neck does not exemplify as effectively as the heart the idea of the
all-important influence exercised by Mary, and of her power, second only to
that of God in the workings of the supernatural life. For the neck is no more
than a connecting link. It plays no part in the initiating or influencing of
life. The heart, on the contrary, is a reservoir of life which first receives
into itself the richness which it has then to distribute to the whole
body." (Mura: Le Corps Mystique du Christ)
2. MARY AND THE MYSTICAL BODY
The various offices which Mary fulfilled, of nourishing, tending, and loving
the actual body of her Divine Son, are still her offices in regard to each
member of the Mystical Body, the least brethren as well as the most honourable.
So that, when "the members may have the same care for one another" (1
Cor 12:25), they do not act independently of Mary, even when, through
thoughtlessness or ignorance, they fail to recognise her presence. They but
join their efforts to Mary's efforts. It is already her work, and she has been
exquisitely busied on it from the time of the Annunciation to this very day.
Hence it is that legionaries do not really bring Mary to help them in their
service of the other members of the Mystical Body. She it is who summons them
to assist her. As it is her special and proper work, no one is able to take
part in it save by her gracious permission. Let those who attempt to serve
their neighbour, and who yet narrow down the place and privileges of Mary, give
a thought to the logical consequence of the doctrine of the Mystical Body. Still
more, this doctrine has its lesson for those who profess to receive the
scriptures, but who at the same time ignore or decry the Mother of God. Let
such persons recall that Christ loved his Mother and was subject to her (Lk
2:51), and that his example obliges the members of his Mystical Body.
"Honour . . . your mother." (Ex 20:12) By divine command, they must
render her a filial love. All generations are bound to bless that mother. (Lk
1:48)
As no one can even attempt the service of his neighbour other than in the
company of Mary, similarly no one can discharge this duty worthily except by
entering to some degree into the intentions of Mary. It follows that the more
close the union with Mary, the more perfectly is fulfilled the divine precept
of loving God and serving one's neighbour. (1 Jn 4:19-21)
The special function of legionaries in the Mystical Body is to guide, console,
and enlighten others. That function cannot be adequately discharged without a
realisation of the position of the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ. The
place and privileges of the Church, its unity, authority, growth, sufferings,
miracles, triumphs, its conferring of grace and forgiveness of sin, can only be
appreciated by understanding that Christ lives in the Church and through it
continues his mission. The Church reproduces the life of Christ and all the
phases of his life.
Each member of the Church is summoned by Christ its head to play his part in
the work of the Mystical Body. "Jesus Christ" - we read in the
Constitution Lumen Gentium - "by communicating his spirit to his brothers
and sisters, called together from all peoples, made them mystically into his
own body. In that body the life of Christ is communicated to those who believe
. . . As all the members of the human body, though they are many form one body,
so also are the Faithful in Christ. (cf 1 Cor 12:12) Also in the building up of
Christ's body there is a diversity of members and functions" . . . The
spirit of the Lord gives a vast variety of charisms inviting people to assume
different ministries and forms of service . . ." (CL 20).
To appreciate what form of service ought to characterise legionaries in the
life of the Mystical Body we look to Our Lady. She has been described as its
very heart. Her role, like that of the heart in the human body is to send the
blood of Christ coursing through the veins and arteries of the Mystical Body,
bringing life and growth with it. It is above all a work of love. Legionaries
then, as they carry out their apostolate in union with Mary are called to be
one with her in her vital role as the heart of the Mystical Body.
"The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you', nor again the
head to the feet, 'I have no need of you'." (1 Cor 12:21) Out of this let
the legionary learn the importance of his share in the apostolate. Not only is
he one body with Christ and dependent upon Christ, but likewise Christ, who is
the Head, is in a true sense dependent on him; so that even Christ, our Lord,
must say to the legionary: "I need thy help in my work of saving and
sanctifying souls." It is to this dependence of the head on the body that
St. Paul refers when he speaks of filling up in his own flesh what is wanting
of the sufferings of Christ. (Col 1:24) This striking expression does not suggest
that Christ's work was in any way imperfect, but simply emphasises the
principle that each member of the body must give what it can give towards the
working out of its own salvation and that of others. (Phil 2:12)
Let this teach the legionary his sublime vocation in the Mystical Body. It is
to supply what is wanting to the mission of our Lord. What an inspiring thought
for the legionary: that Christ stands in need of him to bring light and hope to
those in darkness, consolation to those who are afflicted, life to those who
are dead in sin. It goes without saying that it must be the legionary's place
and duty to imitate in a quite especial manner the surpassing love and
obedience which Christ the head gave his Mother, and which the Mystical Body
must reproduce.
"As St. Paul assures us that he fills up the sufferings of Christ, so we
may say in truth that a true Christian, who is a member of Jesus Christ and
united with him by grace, continues and carries to completion, by every action
performed in the spirit of Jesus Christ, the actions which Jesus Christ himself
performed during the time of his peaceful life on earth. So that when a
Christian prays, he continues the prayer of Jesus during his life on earth.
When he works, he makes up what was wanting to the life and conversation of
Jesus. We must be like so many Christs upon earth, continuing his life and his
actions, doing and suffering all in the spirit of Jesus, that is to say in holy
and divine dispositions." (St. John Eudes: Kingdom of Jesus)
3. SUFFERING IN THE MYSTICAL BODY
The mission of the legionaries brings them into close touch with humanity, and
especially with suffering humanity. Therefore, they should possess insight into
what the world insists on calling the problem of suffering. There is not one
who does not bear through life a weight of woe. Almost all rebel against it.
They seek to cast it from them, and if this be impossible, they lie down
beneath it. Thus are frustrated the designs of redemption which require that
suffering must have its place in every fruitful life, just as in weaving the
woof must cross and complement the warp. While seeming to cross and thwart the
course of man's life, suffering in reality gives that life its completeness.
For, as holy scripture teaches us in every page God "has graciously
granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for
him as well." (Phil 1:29) and again: "If we have died with him, we
will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him." (2
Tim 2:11-12)
That moment of our death is represented by a cross, all dripping with blood,
upon which our head has just finished his work. At the foot of the cross stands
a figure, so desolate that it seems impossible for her to continue to live.
That woman is the mother alike of the Redeemer and of the redeemed. It was
first from her veins that the blood was drawn which now lies scattered cheaply
about, but which has ransomed the world. That Precious Blood will henceforth
flow through the Mystical Body, forcing life, so to speak, into every crevice
of it. But all the consequences of this flowing must be understood, so that
they can be applied. That precious stream brings to the soul the likeness of
Christ; but it is the Christ complete: not merely the Christ of Bethlehem and Thabor
- the Christ of joy and glory, but as well the Christ of pain and sacrifice -
the Christ of Calvary.
Every Christian should be made to realise that he cannot pick and choose in
Christ. Mary realised this fully even in the joyful Annunciation. She knew that
she was not invited to become only a Mother of Joys, but the Woman of Sorrows
as well. But she had always given herself utterly to God, and now she received
him completely. With full knowledge, she welcomed that infant life with all it
stood for. She was no less willing to endure anguish with him than she was to
taste bliss with him. In that moment, those Sacred Hearts entered into a union
so close as to approach identity. Henceforth, they will beat together in and
for the Mystical Body. Thereby Mary has become the Mediatrix of all Graces, the
Spiritual Vessel which receives and gives our Lord's Most Precious Blood. As it
was with Mary, so shall it be with all her children. The degree of man's
utility to God will always be the closeness of his union with the Sacred Heart,
whence he can draw deeply of the Precious Blood to bestow it on other souls.
But that union with the heart and blood of Christ is not to be found in a phase
of his life, but in the life entire. It is as futile, as it is unworthy, to welcome
the King of Glory and to repulse the Man of Sorrows, for the two are but the
one Christ. He who will not walk with the Man of Sorrows has no part in his
mission to souls, nor share in its sequel of glory.
It follows therefore that suffering is always a grace. When it is not to bestow
healing, it is to confer power. It is never merely a punishment for sin.
"Understand," says St. Augustine, "that the affliction of
mankind is no penal law, for suffering is medicinal in its character." And
on the other hand, the passion of our Lord overflows, as an inestimable
privilege, into the bodies of the sinless and the saintly in order to conform
them ever more perfectly to his own likeness. This interchange and blending of
sufferings is the basis of all mortification and reparation.
A simple comparison with the circulation of blood through the human body will
make this place and purpose of suffering more vivid. Consider the hand. The
pulse which throbs in it is the beat of the heart. The warm blood from the
heart courses through it. That hand is one with the body of which it forms
part. If the hand grows cold, the veins contract and the flow of the blood is
impeded. As it grows colder, the flow diminishes. If the chill is such that the
movement of blood ceases, frost-bite sets in, the tissues begin to die, the
hand becomes lifeless and useless. It is as a dead hand, and if left in that
condition, gangrene will result. Those stages of cold illustrate the possible
states of members of the Mystical Body. These may become so unreceptive of the
Precious Blood flowing through that body that they are in danger of dying, like
the gangrenous limb which must be cut off. It is plain what must be done in the
case of a frozen limb. The blood must be induced to circulate again in order to
restore it to life. The forcing of the blood through the shrunken arteries and
veins is a painful process; yet that pain is a joyful sign. The majority of
practising Catholics are as limbs not actually frost-bitten. Scarcely even in
their self-satisfaction do they regard themselves as chilled. Yet they are not
receiving the Precious Blood to the degree that our Lord wills for them. So he
must force his life upon them. The movement of his blood, dilating their
reluctant veins, gives pain; and this makes the sorrows of life. Yet, when this
idea of suffering is grasped, should it not turn sorrow into joy? The sense of
suffering becomes the sense of Christ's close presence.
"Jesus Christ has suffered all that he had to suffer. No more is anything
wanting to the measure of his sufferings. His Passion then is finished ? Yes:
in the head; but there remains the Passion of his body. With good reason
therefore does Christ, still suffering in his Body, desire to see us share in
his expiation. Our very union with him demands that we should do so. For as we
are the Body of Christ and members, one of the other, all that the head
suffers, the members ought to endure with it." (St. Augustine)
10 THE LEGION APOSTOLATE
1. ITS DIGNITY
To portray the dignity of the apostolate to which the Legion summons its
members, and its importance to the Church, one can find no more emphatic words
than the following authoritative declarations:
"From the fact of their union with Christ the head, flows the laymen's
right and duty to be apostles. Inserted as they are in the Mystical Body of
Christ by baptism and strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit in
confirmation, it is by the Lord himself that they are asssigned to the
apostolate. If they are consecrated a kingly priesthood and a holy nation (cf 1
Pet 2:4-10), it is in order that they may in all their actions offer spiritual
sacrifices and bear witness to Christ all the world over. Charity, which is, as
it were, the soul of the whole apostolate, is given to them and nourished in them
by the sacraments, the Eucharist above all." (AA 3)
"Pope Pius XII once stated: 'The faithful, more precisely the lay
faithful, find themselves on the front lines of the Church's life; for them the
Church is the animating principle for human society. Therefore, they in
particular, ought to have an ever-clearer consciousness not only of belonging
to the Church, but of being the Church, that is to say, the community of the
faithful on earth under the leadership of the Pope, the head of all, and of the
bishops in communion with him. These are the Church...'" (CL 9)
"Mary exercises over the human race a moral influence which we cannot
better determine than by comparing it to those physical forces of attraction,
affinity and cohesion, which in the order of nature unite together bodies and
the parts of which they are composed. . . . We believe we have shown that Mary
took part in all the great movements which constitute the life of societies and
their real civilisation." (Petitalot)
2. AN APOSTOLIC LAITY ESSENTIAL
The proposition is ventured upon that the health of a Catholic community
depends upon the presence of a large apostolic class - belonging to the laity,
yet sharing the outlook of the priest, and providing points of contact with the
people and intimacy of control. Security depends on this complete union of
priest and people.
But the essential idea of apostleship is an intense interest in the welfare and
the work of the Church, and such interest there can hardly be without some
feeling of participation. Thus the apostolic organisation is a mould which
produces apostles.
Wherever these qualities of apostleship are not sedulously cultivated, it is
certain that the next generation will have a serious problem to face in the
lack of all real interest in the Church, and of all sense of responsibility.
Out of this infantile Catholicism what good can come? And where is its safety
but in a complete calm ? History teaches that such a nerveless flock is readily
stampeded even unto the destruction of its own pastors, or else that it is
devoured by the first fierce pack of wolves which comes upon the scene.
Cardinal Newman states it as a principle that "in all times the laity have
been the measure of the Catholic spirit."
"The great function of the Legion of Mary is to develop the sense of a lay
vocation. There is a danger that we lay folk may identify the Church with the
clergy and religious, to whom God has certainly given what we too exclusively
call a vocation. We are unconsciously tempted to regard the rest of us as an
anonymous crowd who have a chance of being saved if we perform the prescribed
minimum. We forget that our Lord calls his own sheep by name (Jn 10:3); that -
in the words of St. Paul (Gal 2:20), who, like us, was not physically present
on Calvary - 'the Son of God loved me and gave himself up for me'. Each of us,
even if he be only a village carpenter as was Jesus himself or a humble
housekeeper like his mother, has a vocation, is called individually by God to
give him his or her love and service, to do a particular work which others may
indeed surpass but cannot replace. No one but myself can give my heart to God
or do my work. It is precisely this personal sense of religion which the Legion
fosters. A member is no longer content to be passive or perfunctory; he or she
has something to be and to do for God; religion is no longer a side-issue, it
becomes the inspiration of one's life, however humanly commonplace. And this
conviction of personal vocation inevitably creates an apostolic spirit, the
desire to carry on Christ's work, to be another Christ, to serve him in the
least of his brethren. Thus the Legion is the lay substitute for a religious
order, the translation of the Christian idea of perfection into the lives of
layfolk, the extension of Christ's Kingdom into the secular world of
to-day." (Mgr. Alfred O'Rahilly)
3. THE LEGION AND THE LAY APOSTOLATE
Like many another great principle, the apostolate is in itself something cold
and abstract. Hence there is a very real danger that it may not exercise an
appeal, so that the laity does not respond to the high destiny which has been
held out to it, and, worse still, may even be deemed to be incapable of
responding. The disastrous sequel would be that the effort to make the laity
play its proper and indispensable part in the battle of the Church would be
abandoned.
But, in the words of one qualified to judge, Cardinal Riberi, formerly
Apostolic Delegate to missionary Africa and later Internuncio to China:
"The Legion of Mary is apostolic duty decked out in attractive and
alluring form; throbbing with life so that it wins all to it; undertaken in the
manner stipulated by Pope Pius XI, that is, in dependence on the Virgin Mother
of God; insistent on quality as the foundation of membership and even as the
key to numerical strength; safeguarded by plenteous prayer and self-sacrifice,
by exact system, and by complete co-operation with the priest. The Legion of
Mary is a miracle of these modern times."
To the priest the Legion gives the respect and obedience which are owing to
lawful superiors, yet more than this. Its apostolate is built upon the fact
that the main channels of grace are the Mass and the sacramental system, of
which the priest is the essential minister. All the strivings and expedients of
that apostolate must have in view this great end: the bringing of the
divinely-appointed nourishment to the multitude, sick and hungering. It follows
that a first principle of legionary action must be the bringing of the priest
to the people, not always in person - for that may be impossible - but
everywhere in influence and in understanding.
This is the essential idea of the Legion apostolate. Lay it will be in bulk of
membership, but working in inseparable union with the priests, and under their
captaincy, and with absolute identity of interests. It will ardently seek to
supplement their efforts, and to widen their place in the lives of men, so that
men, receiving them, shall receive him who sent them.
"Very truly, I tell you, whoever receives one whom I send receives me; and
whoever receives me receives him who sent me." (Jn 13:20)
4. THE PRIEST AND THE LEGION
The idea of the priest, with a devoted band pressing round him to share his
labours follows the example of our Lord whose preparation for the conversion of
the world was to surround himself with his chosen ones, whom he tutored and
filled with his own spirit.
That divine lesson was learned and applied by the apostles, who called on all
to help them in the winning of souls. As has been beautifully said (Cardinal Pizzardo),
it may well be that the strangers from Rome (Acts 2:10), who heard the
preaching of the apostles on the day of Pentecost, were the first to announce
Jesus Christ in Rome, thus sowing the seeds of the Mother Church which St.
Peter and St. Paul soon after established officially. "What would the
twelve have done, lost in the immensity of the world, if they had not gathered
around them men and women, the old and young, saying: 'We carry with us the
treasure of heaven. Help to scatter it abroad'." (Pope Pius XI)
The words of one Pontiff have been quoted. Let those of another be added to
demonstrate finally that the example of our Lord and his apostles in relation
to the conversion of the world is divinely meant to form pattern for every
priest in relation to his own little world, be it parish, or district, or
special work:-
"Happening to be one day among a group of Cardinals, the Holy Father (St.
Pius X) said to them:- 'What is the thing most necessary at the present time to
save society?' 'Build Catholic schools,' said one. 'No.' 'Multiply churches',
replied another. 'No again.' 'Increase the recruiting of the clergy' said a
third. 'No, no,' replied the Pope. 'What is most necessary at the present time
is to have in each parish a group of laymen at the same time virtuous,
enlightened, determined, and really apostolic.' This holy Pope, at the end of
his life, counted for the salvation of the world on the training, by the zeal
of the clergy, of Catholics devoting themselves to the apostolate by word and action,
but above all, by example. In the dioceses in which, before being Pope, he had
exercised the ministry, he attached less importance to the census of
parishioners than to the list of Catholics capable of radiating an apostolate.
He considered that in any class whatever, chosen ones could be formed. And so
he classified his priests according to the results which their zeal and their
abilities had obtained on this point." (Chautard: The Soul of the
Apostolate, 4, l.f.)
"The pastor's task is not limited to individual care of the faithful. It
extends by right also to the formation of a genuine Christian community. But if
a community spirit is to be properly cultivated it must embrace not only the
local church but the universal Church. A local community ought not merely to
promote the care of the faithful within itself, but should be imbued with the
missionary spirit and smooth the path to Christ for all men. But it must regard
as its special charge those under instruction and the newly converted who are
gradually educated in knowing and living the Christian life." (PO 6)
"God-made-Man found it necessary to leave his Mystical Body upon earth.
Otherwise his work would have ended on Calvary. His death would have merited
salvation for the human race, but how many men could have gained heaven without
the Church to bring them life from the cross? Christ identifies himself with
the priest in a special way. The priest is like a supplementary heart pumping
on its way the supernatural life-blood to souls. He is an essential part of the
spiritual transmission system in Christ's Body. If he fails, the system is
blocked, and those who depend upon him do not receive the life that Christ
intends them to receive. The priest should be to his people what Christ is to
the Church, within due limits. Christ's members are an extension of himself,
not merely employees, followers, adherents, supporters. They have his life.
They share his activity. They should have his outlook. Priests must be one with
Christ in every possible respect. Christ found it necessary to form a spiritual
body for himself; the priest should do the same. He should form for himself
members who are one with him. Unless a priest has living members, formed by
him, united with him, his work will be reduced to negligible dimensions. He
will be isolated and helpless. "The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no
need of you', nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you'." (1
Cor 12:21)
So that if Christ has made the Mystical Body the principle of his way, his truth,
his life to souls, this same order precisely operates through the new Christ,
the priest. If he does not apply his function to a degree which is veritably
that full building of the Mystical Body referred to in the Epistle to the
Ephesians (4:12, a text usually translated by 'edification of the faithful'),
it will be in diminished measure that the divine life will enter souls and then
issue fruitfully from them.
Moreover, the priest himself will be left deprived by virtue of the fact that
though it is the mission of the head to minister life to the body, it is no
less a fact that the head lives by the life of the body, increasing with its
increase, sharing in its weakness if it wanes.
The priest who does not comprehend this law of priestly mission will go through
life realising only a fraction of his power, whereas it is his true destiny in
Christ to measure the horizons." (Canon F. J. Ripley)
5. THE LEGION IN THE PARISH
"In the present circumstances the lay faithful have the ability to do very
much and, therefore, ought to do very much towards the growth of an authentic
ecclesial communion in their parishes in order to reawaken missionary zeal
towards non-believers and believers themselves who have abandoned the faith or
grown lax in the Christian life." (CL 27) It will be found that the growth
of a true community spirit will be greatly promoted by the establishment of the
Legion of Mary. Through the Legion, lay people become accustomed to working in
the parish in close union with their priests and participating in pastoral
responsibilities. The regulation of various parish activities through a regular
weekly meeting is an advantage in itself. A higher consideration, however, is
that those involved in the work of the parish will be provided, through membership
of the Legion, with a spiritual formation, which will help them to understand
that the parish is an Eucharistic community, and with a methodical system,
which will enable them to reach out to everyone in the parish, with the aim of
building up that community. Some of the ways in which the Legion apostolate may
be undertaken in a parish are described in chp 37, Suggestions as to Works.
"The lay apostolate must be considered by priests as a definite part of
their ministry, and by the faithful as a duty of the Christian life."
(Pope Pius XI)
6. ITS FRUITS ARE INTENSE IDEALISM AND ACTION
Again, the Church by exhibiting only a cautious routine would place the Truth,
of which it is the custodian, in a very disadvantageous setting. If the young
once form the habit of looking to purely worldly or even irreligious systems
for the active idealism for which generous natures crave, a terrible harm has
been done, for which future generations will pay.
Here the Legion can aid by making its programme one of enterprise and effort
and sacrifice, such as will help to capture for the Church those two words
"idealism" and "action," making them handmaids of the
Church's doctrine.
According to the saying of Lecky, the historian, the world is ruled by its
ideals. If this is so, those who create a higher ideal thereby lift all
mankind; it being understood, of course, that the ideal is a practical one and
that it is sufficiently in evidence to constitute a headline. Possibly it may
be conceded that the ideals held up by the Legion conform to both of these
requirements.
An important feature of the Legion is that its work is graced by many priestly
and religious vocations among its members and their children.
But the objection will be made that amid universal selfishness, there are none
who will assume the heavy burden of Legion membership. This reasoning is wrong.
The many who answer the call to trivial action will quickly fade away and leave
not a trace. The few who respond to the call to high endeavour will persevere,
and little by little their spirit will communicate itself to the many.
A praesidium of the Legion can thus be a powerful means of helping the priest
to enlist gradually the co-operation of the laity in the task of evangelising
those committed to his care. Just so, the hour and a half spent once a week at
the meeting, guiding, encouraging, spiritualising the members, will enable him
to be everywhere, to hear everything, to influence everybody, to overcome all
his physical limitations. Indeed, it seems as if zeal could not be employed to
better purpose than in the directing of many praesidia.
Thus armed with his legionaries (in themselves such another humble equipment as
staff, scrip, sling, and pebbles, yet because of Mary made the instruments of
heaven), he can, like another David, go forth with certainty of victory against
the most defiant Goliath of unbelief and sin.
"It is a moral force, not a material, which will vindicate your profession
and secure your triumph. It is not giants who do most. How small was the Holy
Land! Yet it subdued the world. How poor a spot was Attica! Yet it has formed
the intellect. Moses was one, Elias was one, David was one, Paul was one,
Athanasius was one, Leo was one. Grace ever works by few; it is the keen
vision, the intense conviction, the indomitable resolve of the few, it is the
blood of the martyr, it is the prayer of the saint, it is the heroic deed, it
is the momentary crisis, it is the concentrated energy of a word, or a look,
which is the instrument of heaven. Fear not, little flock, for he is mighty who
is in the midst of you, and he will do for you great things." (Cardinal
Newman: Present Position of Catholics)
7. THE MASTER AND APPRENTICE SYSTEM OF FORMATION
The notion is general that the formation of apostles is mainly a matter of listening
to lectures and studying textbooks. But the Legion believes that such formation
cannot be effected at all without the accompaniment of the work itself; and
indeed that talk about the apostolate, divorced from the actual work, can have
the opposite effect to that intended. For it will be appreciated that in
discussing how a work should be done, it is necessary to describe its
difficulties and also to propose a very high spirit and standard of
performance. To talk in that way to recruits, without at the same time showing
by actual practice that the work is within their power, and in fact easy, will
only intimidate them and deter them from undertaking it. Moreover, the lecture
system tends to produce the theorist and those who think to convert the world
by play of intellect. These will be disinclined to devote themselves to the
humble employments and the laborious following up of individual contacts, on
which everything really depends, and which, let it be said, the legionary so
willingly accepts.
The Legion idea of formation is the master and apprentice method. This, it
contends, is the ideal way of training, used by every profession and craft,
apparently without exception. Instead of delivering lengthy lectures, the
master places the work before the eyes of the apprentice, and by practical
demonstration shows him how it is to be done, commenting on the different
points thereof as he proceeds. Then the apprentice himself attempts the work,
and is corrected in his execution of it. Out of that system emerges the skilled
craftsman. All lecturing should be based on the work itself; each word should
be linked to an action. If not, it may yield scant fruit. It may not even be
remembered. It is strange how little of a lecture is remembered even by regular
students.
Another consideration is that if a lecture system is proposed as the mode of
initiation to an apostolic society, few will present themselves as recruits.
Most persons are determined to be finished with school when they have left that
state. Especially the simpler people are awed at the prospect of going back
again into a sort of classroom, even though it be a holy classroom. That is why
apostolic study systems fail to exert a wide appeal. The Legion is on simpler,
more psychological lines. Its members say to other people: "Come along and
do this work with me." Those who come are not presented with a classroom.
They are presented with a work which is already being done by someone like
themselves. Accordingly, they know that the work is within their own capacity,
and readily they join that society. Having joined, having seen the work being
done and taken part in it, having learned by listening to the reports and
comments on that work the best method of doing it, they are soon found
proficient in it.
"The Legion is sometimes criticised for lack of expertise on the part of
its members, or because it does not insist that they devote long periods to
study. So let it be said: (a) The Legion systematically utilises the
contribution of its better equipped members. (b) While avoiding the extreme
stressing of study, it does endeavour in appropriate ways to fit each one for
his particular apostolate. (c) But the dominating purpose is to provide a
framework through which the Legion may say to the ordinary Catholic: 'Come,
bring your mite of talent; we will teach you to develop it and use it through
Mary for the glory of God'. It must not be forgotten that the Legion is for the
lowly and underprivileged as much as for the learned and powerful."
(Father Thomas P. O'Flynn, C.M., former Spiritual Director of Concilium
Legionis Mariae)
11 SCHEME OF THE LEGION
1. PERSONAL HOLINESS: THE OBJECT AND MEANS
The general and essential means by which the Legion of Mary is to effect its
object is personal service acting under the influence of the Holy Spirit,
having Divine Grace as its moving principle and support, and the Glory of God
and the salvation of souls as its final end and purpose.
Hence the holiness of life which the Legion of Mary seeks to promote in the
members is also its primary means of action. "I am the vine; you are the
branches. Those who abide in me, and I in them bear much fruit, because apart
from me you can do nothing." (Jn 15:5)
"The Church, whose mystery is set forth by this sacred Council, is held,
as a matter of faith, to be unfailingly holy. This is because Christ, the Son
of God, who with the Father and the Spirit is hailed as "alone holy",
loved the Church as his Bride, giving himself up for her so as to sanctify her
(cf Eph 5:25-26); he joined her to himself as his body and endowed her with the
gift of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God. Therefore all in the Church,
whether they belong to the hierarchy or are cared for by it, are called to
holiness, according to the apostle's saying: 'For this is the will of God, your
sanctification'. (1 Thess 4:3; cf Eph 1:4) This holiness of the Church is
constantly shown forth in the fruits of grace which the Spirit produces in the
faithful and so it must be; it is expressed in many ways by the individuals
who, each in his own state of life, tend to the perfection of love, thus
helping others to grow in holiness; it appears in a manner peculiar to itself
in the practice of the counsels which have been usually called
"evangelical." This practice of the counsels prompted by the Holy
Spirit, undertaken by many Christians whether privately or in a form or state
sanctioned by the Church, gives and should give a striking witness and example
of that holiness." (LG 39)
2. AN INTENSELY ORDERED SYSTEM
Unharnessed, the great natural sources of power run to waste. Likewise zeal
unsystematised, enthusiasm undirected, never bring large results, interior or
exterior, and seldom are durable. Aware of this, the Legion places before its
members a mode of life rather than the doing of a work. It provides an
intensely ordered system, in which much is given the force of rule that in
other systems is merely exhorted or left to be understood, and in regard to
every detail of which it enjoins a spirit of scrupulous observance. It
promises, in return, perseverance and conspicuous growth in the qualities of
Christian perfection, namely, faith, love of Mary, fearlessness,
self-sacrifice, fraternity, prayerfulness, prudence, patience, obedience,
humility, gladness, and the apostolic spirit.
"The growth of what is usually designated the Lay Apostolate is a special
manifestation of our modern days, possessing-were it for no other reason than
the numbers concerned-infinite potentialities. Yet, insufficient seems the
provision for this giant movement. When one looks upon the multitude of
beautifully conceived Orders which cater for those who are able to abandon the
world, the contrast with the form of organisation thought good enough for those
who are not so circumstanced, is very striking. On the one hand, what intensity
and exact science, making the most of the material! On the other, how
elementary and superficial is the provision made ! The system calls, indeed,
for some service from its members, but it forms for the generality of them
little more than an incident in the week's round, and it hardly even endeavours
to play a more considerable part. There must be a higher conception of it.
Should it not be the staff of their earthly pilgrimage-the very backbone of
their whole spiritual life ?
Undoubtedly the Religious Order must form the pattern for workers in common
and, other things being equal, it may be taken that the quality of the work
done will improve in the measure that there is approximation to the Order idea.
Still this brings with it the difficulty of determining the exact degree of
rule which is to be imposed. Desirable though discipline is in the interests of
efficiency there is always the danger of overdoing it, and narrowing the appeal
of the organisation. The fact must be borne in mind that the object in view is
permanent lay organisation-not something equivalent to a new Religious Order,
or which would eventually drift into becoming one, and of which history is full
of instances.
The aim is this, and no other: the drawing into efficient organisation of
persons living their ordinary life as we know it, and in whom the presence of
various tastes and pursuits other than purely religious ones has to be allowed
for. The amount of regulation attempted should be no more than will be accepted
by the average of the class for whom the organisation is intended, but it
should certainly be nothing less." (Father Michael Creedon, the first
Spiritual Director of Concilium Legionis Mariae)
3. PERFECTION OF MEMBERSHIP
The Legion wishes perfection of membership to be estimated according to exact
adherence to its system, and not according to any satisfaction or apparent
degree of success which may attend the efforts of the legionary. It deems a
member to be a member to the degree to which he submits himself to the Legion
system, and no more. Spiritual Directors and Presidents of praesidia are
exhorted to keep this conception of membership ever before the minds of their
members. It forms an ideal attainable by all (success and consolation do not),
and in its realisation will alone be found the corrective to monotony, to
distasteful work, to real or imagined failure, which otherwise bring to an
inevitable end the most promising beginnings of apostolic work.
"It is to be noted that our services to the Society of Mary are to be
measured not according to the importance of the post we fill, but according to
the degree of the supernatural spirit and of the zeal for Mary with which we
devote ourselves to the duty assigned by obedience, however humble, however
hidden it may be." (Petit Traité de Marialogie: Marianiste)
4. THE PRIMARY OBLIGATION
Foremost in its system, the primary obligation of each member, the Legion sets
the duty of attendance at its meetings. As the burning lens is to the rays of
the sun, so is the meeting to the members. The focus collects them, begets the
fire, and kindles everything that comes near it. It is the meeting which makes
the Legion. This bond sundered or dis-esteemed, the members drop away and the
work falls to the ground. Conversely, in measure as the meeting is respected,
so is the power of the organisation intensified.
The following, written in the first years of its life, represents now as it did
then the outlook of the Legion on the subject of organisation, and thus upon
the importance of the meeting, which is the focus-point of such organisation:-
"In the organisation the individuals, however notable, are content to play
the part of cogs. They yield up much of their independence to the machine, that
is to their associates as a body, but thereby the work gains a hundredfold in
the fact that a number of individuals, who would otherwise have been either
ineffective or else standing idle, are brought into action - each one, not with
his or her own individual weakness, but with the fervour and power of all the
greatest qualities amongst them. Consider pieces of coal lying unused, and the
same in the heart of the furnace. Such is the parallel which suggests itself.
Then the organised body has a well-marked life of its own, apart from the
individuals who compose it, and this characteristic, rather than the beauty or
urgency of the work done, seems in practice to be the magnet which attracts new
members. The association establishes a tradition, begets a loyalty, enjoys
respect and obedience, and powerfully inspires its members. Talk to the latter,
and you will see that they lean upon it as upon a wise old mother. And well it
may be so. Does it not save them from every pitfall: the imprudences of zeal:
the discouragement of failure: the elevation of success: the hesitancy of the
unsupported opinion: the timidity of loneliness: and, in general, from the
whole quicksand of inexperience? It takes the raw material of mere good
intention and educates it: sets about its work with regular plan: secures
expansion and continuity." (Father Michael Creedon, first Spiritual
Director of Concilium Legionis Mariae)
"Considered in relation to us, its members, the Society of Mary is the
extension, the visible manifestation of Mary our Heavenly Mother. Mary has
received us into the Society as into her loving and maternal bosom, so as to
mould us to the likeness of Jesus, and thus make us her privileged sons; so as
to assign to us our apostolic task, and thus give us share in her mission as
Co-redemptrix of souls. For us, the cause, the interests of the Society are
identified with the cause, the interests of Mary."(Petit Traité de
Marialogie: Marianiste)
5. THE WEEKLY MEETING OF THE PRAESIDIUM
In an atmosphere made supernatural by its wealth of prayer, by its devotional
usages, and by its sweet spirit of fraternity, the praesidium holds a weekly
meeting, at which work is assigned to each legionary, and a report received
from each legionary of work done. This weekly meeting is the heart of the
Legion from which the life-blood flows into all its veins and arteries. It is
the power-house from which its light and energy are derived. It is the treasury
out of which its own special needs are provided for. It is the great community
exercise, where someone sits unseen in the midst of them according to promise;
where the peculiar grace of the work is bestowed; and where the members are
imbued with the spirit of religious discipline, which looks first to the
pleasing of God and personal sanctification; thence to the organisation which
is best calculated to achieve these ends, and then proceeds to do the work
assigned, subordinating private likings.
The legionaries shall therefore regard attendance at their weekly praesidium
meeting as their first and most sacred duty to the Legion. Nothing else can
supply for this; without it their work will be like a body without a soul.
Reason tells us, and experience proves, that neglect in regard to this primary
duty will be attended by ineffective work, and will too soon be followed by
defection from the Legion's ranks.
"To those who do not march with Mary, we apply the words of St. Augustine:
'Bene curris sed extra viam': 'you run well, but you are out of the path.'
Where will you arrive in the end ?" (Petitalot)
12 THE EXTERNAL AIMS OF THE LEGION
1. THE ACTUAL WORK IN HANDS
The Legion aims not at the doing of any particular work, but has as a primary
object the making of its members holy. For the attainment of this it relies, in
the first place, upon its members' attendance at its various meetings, into which
prayer and devotion are so wound and woven as to give their complexion to all
the proceedings. But then the Legion seeks to develop that holiness in a
specific way, to give it the character of apostleship, to heat it white hot so
that it must diffuse itself. This diffusion is not simply a utilisation of
developed force, but (by a sort of reaction) is a necessary part of the
development of that force. For the apostolic spirit is best developed by the
apostolate. Therefore the Legion also imposes on each member, as an essential
obligation, the weekly performance of some active work prescribed by the
praesidium. The work proceeds from the meeting as an act of obedience to it,
and, subject to the exceptions later indicated, the praesidium can approve of any
active work as satisfying the member's weekly obligation. In practice, however,
the Legion outlook would require the directing of the work-obligation towards
actual needs, and among the latter, towards the gravest. For that intensity of
zeal which the Legion strives to generate in its members requires a worthy
objective. Trivial work will react unfavourably upon it, so that hearts that
were ready to spend themselves for souls, and to return love for the
Christ-Love, and effort and sacrifice for his labours and death, end by
settling down to pettiness and lukewarmness.
"Not so easily was I remade as made. He spoke and all things were made.
But while he made me simply and at once by a word, he has in the remaking of me
said many words, and worked wonders and suffered much." (St. Bernard)
2. THE REMOTER AND GREATER AIM - THE LEAVEN IN THE COMMUNITY
Important, however, as may be the work in hand, the Legion does not regard it
as the ultimate or even as the chief object of its members' apostolate. Such
work may employ two, three, or many hours of the legionary's week, whereas the
Legion looks beyond this to every hour of that week as radiant from the
apostolic fire which has been kindled at its hearth. The system that imparts
this quality of fire to souls has put abroad a mighty force. The apostolic
spirit enters in only as master, dominates every thought, word, and action; and
in its external manifestations is not confined to set times and places. The
most diffident and otherwise least equipped person becomes invested with a
peculiar capacity to influence others, so that whatever the surroundings, and
even without the pursuing of a conscious apostolate, sin and indifference will
end by bowing to a power greater than themselves. Universal experience teaches
this. Therefore, with the satisfaction with which a general contemplates
important posts adequately held, does the Legion think of each home, shop,
factory, school, office, and every other place devoted to purposes of work or
recreation, in which a true legionary may be set by circumstances. Even where
scandal and irreligion are at their worst, entrenched so to speak, the presence
of this other Tower of David will bar the way to further advance and menace the
evil. The corruption will never be acquiesced in; efforts at remedy will be
essayed; it will be a subject of sorrow, of prayer; will be contended against
determinedly, unremittingly, and probably successfully in the end.
Thus the Legion begins by bringing its members together to persevere with one
mind in prayer with their Queen. Then it sends them into the sinful and
sorrowful places, there to do a good work, and by catching fire in the doing to
do a greater. Finally it looks out over the highways and byways of the everyday
life as the object of a still more glorious mission. Knowing what has been done
by limited numbers, reflecting that the potential material for its ranks is
almost beyond number, believing that its system, if vigorously utilised by the
Church, affords a strangely efficacious way of purifying a sinful world, the
Legion yearns exceedingly for the multiplication of its members, that it may be
legion in number as in name.
Between those working actively, those giving auxiliary service and those being
worked for, the whole population can be embraced, and raised from the level of
neglect or routine to that of enthusiastic membership of the Church. Consider
what this can mean to village or town; no longer merely in the Church, but a
driving force in it, sending directly or through the Communion of Saints its
impulses to the ends of the earth, and into the dark places thereof. What an
ideal - a whole population organised for God! And yet this is no mere ideal. It
is the most practical and possible thing in the world to-day - if eyes are but
uplifted and arms unfolded.
"Yes, the laity are a 'chosen race, a holy priesthood', also called to be
'the salt of the earth' and 'the light of the world'. It is their specific
vocation and mission to express the Gospel in their lives and thereby to insert
the Gospel as a leaven into the reality of the world in which they live and
work. The great forces which shape the world - politics, the mass media,
science, technology, culture, education, industry and work - are precisely the
areas where lay people are especially competent to exercise their mission. If
these forces are guided by people who are true disciples of Christ, and who
are, at the same time, fully competent in the relevant secular knowledge and
skill, then indeed will the world be transformed from within by Christ's
redeeming power." (Pope John Paul II's address in Limerick, Ireland,
October 1979)
3. TO WELD ALL TOGETHER
This seeking "first for the kingdom of God and His righteousness" (Mt
6:33), that is, its direct labours for souls, absorbs the Legion altogether.
Nevertheless, it must not be overlooked that other things have been "added
unto it." For instance, the Legion has a social value. This becomes a
national asset to the individual country, and represents spiritual gain to the
souls which it contains.
The successful working of the social machine demands, like any other machine,
the harmonious co-operation of its component parts. Each part, that is the
individual citizen, must do exactly what it is intended to do, and with the
least possible amount of friction. If each does not render complete service,
then waste enters in to disturb that necessary balance, to throw all the cogs
out of alignment with each other. Repair is impossible, as it is infinitely
difficult to detect the degree or the origin of the trouble; hence the remedy
which must be adopted is to employ more force or lubricate with more money.
This remedy still further impairs the idea of service or spontaneous
co-operation, so that there is progressive failure. Communities have such
vitality that they continue to function even though half their parts are
misfits. But they work at a terrible price of poverty, frustration, and
unhappiness. Money and effort are poured out to drive parts which should be
moving effortlessly, or which indeed should be sources of power. Result:
problems, turmoil, crises.
Who can deny that this is what obtains even in the best regulated states
to-day? Selfishness is the rule of the individual life. Hate turns the lives of
many into purely destructive forces, and each new day brings new and universal
demonstration of a vital truth which may effectively be stated thus: "Men
who deny God, who are traitors to God, will be false to every person and to
everything less than God, to all things on earth and in heaven." (Brian
O'Higgins.) The state is only the sum of the individual lives, so what heights
can it be expected to reach ? A danger and a pain to themselves, what are the
nations offering to the world at large but a bit of their own turmoil ?
But suppose that into the community there enters a force which spreads like a
contagion from one to another, and which makes the ideas of self-sacrifice,
mutual love, and idealism pleasing to the individual! What a change is
effected! The grievous sores heal up, and life is lived on a different level.
Suppose a nation were to arise which built its life on lofty standards, and
held up to the world the example of a whole people putting its faith into
practice, and hence as a matter of course, solving its problems. Who can doubt
that such a nation would be a shining light to the world, so that the world
would come to sit at its feet for the purpose of learning.
Now, it is unquestionable that the Legion possesses the power of making the
laity vitally interested in their religion, and of communicating an ardent
idealism to those who come under its influence, so that they tend to forget
their worldly divisions, distinctions and antagonisms, and are animated with
the desire to labour for and love all mankind. This idealism, being rooted in
religion, is not a mere sentiment. It makes the individual think in terms of
service, it elicits great sacrifices, it reaches heights of heroism, and it
does not evaporate.
Why? The reason lies in the motive. Power must have a source. The Legion has a
compelling motive for that service of the community. It is that Jesus and Mary
were citizens of Nazareth. They loved that town and their country with a
religious devotion, for to the Jews faith and fatherland were so divinely
intertwined as to be but one. Jesus and Mary lived the common life of their
locality with perfection. Every person and thing there was an object of deepest
interest to them. It would be impossible to conceive them as indifferent or
neglectful in any respect.
Today the world is their country and each place is their Nazareth. In a
baptised community they are bound more intensely to the people than they were
to their own blood-kindred. But their love has now to issue through the
Mystical Body. If its members exert themselves in this spirit to serve the
place in which they live Jesus and Mary will move through that place shedding
their beneficial influences not only on souls but on the surroundings. There
will be material betterment; problems will shrink. Nor is true betterment to be
gained from any other source.
This attention to Christian duty in each locality would add up to patriotism
for the nation. This word denotes uncharted territory, for what is true
patriotism? There is no map or model of it in the world. An approximation is
the devotion and self-sacrifice which develop during a war. But this is
motivated by hate more than by love, and appropriately it is directed towards
destroying. So it is imperative that a correct pattern of peaceful patriotism
be provided.
It is this spiritualised service of the community which the Legion has been
urging under the title: True Devotion to the Nation. Not only is that service
to be undertaken out of the spiritual motive but it and all the contacts
arising from it must be used to promote the spiritual. Operations which
produced advance but only on the material plane would falsify the whole idea of
True Devotion to the Nation. Cardinal Newman perfectly expresses that basic
idea when he says that a material advance unaccompanied by a corresponding
moral manifestation is almost too awful to consider. The correct balance must
be preserved.
A booklet on this subject can be obtained from the Concilium.
Look, peoples of the world! If such be the Legion, would it not seem as if it
offers, ready for use, a chivalry with magic in it to weld all men together in
high enterprise for God: in service far transcending that legendary warfare of
King Arthur, who - in Tennyson's beautiful verse - "drew the
knight-erranthood of his realm: and all the realms: together in that Order of
his Table Round: a glorious company, the flower of men: to serve as model for
the mighty world: and be the fair beginning of a time."
"Thus the Church, at once a 'visible organisation and a spiritual
community', travels the same journey as all mankind and shares the same earthly
lot with the world: it is to be a leaven and, as it were, the soul of human
society in its renewal by Christ and transformation into the family of God.
The Council exhorts Christians, as citizens of both cities, to perform their duties
faithfully in the spirit of the Gospel. It is a mistake to think that, because
we have here no lasting city, but seek the city which is to come, we are
entitled to shirk our earthly responsibilities; this is to forget that by our
faith we are bound all the more to fulfil these responsibilities according to
the vocation of each one." (GS 40, 43)
"A practical answer to this need and obligation underlined in the Council
Decree is found in the legionary movement begun in 1960 and known as True
Devotion to the Nation. The measure of success already secured points towards
vast possibilities of development. But let us emphasise that what the Legion
has to offer to the temporal order is not exceptional knowledge or expertise,
not outstanding skills, not even great numbers of workers,-but the spiritual
dynamism which has made it a world force and which can be harnessed to uplift
any section of the People of God who have the insight and good sense to employ
it. But the initiative must come from the Legion. While shunning anything
suggestive of worldliness, nevertheless the Legion must ever be mindful of the
world in the sense of the above Decree. It must realise that man has to live
amid material things and that his salvation is to a large extent bound up with them."
(Father Thomas P. O'Flynn C.M., a former Spiritual Director of Concilium
Legionis Mariae)
4. IN HIGH ENTERPRISE FOR GOD
Such a chivalry is needed at this time of particular peril for religion.
Secularism and irreligion, aided by able propaganda, spread their corrupting
influences in constantly widening circles and seem capable of engulfing the
world.
Compared with these formidable forces, what a modest little flock the Legion
is. Yet that very contrast emboldens one. The Legion is composed of souls who
are united to the Virgin most Powerful. More, it contains within itself great
principles, and it knows how to apply them in effective ways. It may be that he
who is mighty will do great things to it, and through it.
The aims of the Legion of Mary and of those other legions which deny "our
only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ" (Jude 4) are diametrically opposed.
That of the Legion is to bring God and religion to every soul; the object of
the other forces is to accomplish the very opposite. But it is not to be
thought that the legionary scheme was conceived in deliberate opposition to
this empire of unbelief. Things worked out more simply. A little band gathered
around a statue of Our Lady and said to her: "Lead us". United to
her, they began the visitation of an immense infirmary, filled with the sick
and sorrowful and broken ones of a great city, seeing her Beloved Son in each
of them. They came to understand that so also is he in each member of humanity
and that they should join in Mary's mother-work for him in each one. So, hand
in hand with her, they set about their simple work of service, and lo, they
have grown into a legion; and over the world that Legion is doing those simple
acts of the love of God in man, and of the love of men for the sake of God; and
in every place that love shows its power to stir and win hearts.
Likewise, the secularistic systems profess the love and service of man. They
preach a hollow gospel of fraternity. Millions believe that gospel. In its
name, they desert a religion which they think to be inert. And yet the position
is not a hopeless one. There is a way of bringing back to Faith those
determined millions, and of saving countless other millions. That hope lies in
the application of a great principle which rules the world, and which St. John
Vianney, the Cure of Ars, has stated thus: "The world belongs to him who
loves it most, and who proves that love." People cannot help seeing, and
being moved by a real faith which operates through a real heroic love for all
men. Convince them that the Church loves them most, and they will return to
Faith in spite of everything. They will even lay down their lives for that
Faith.
No common love can conquer men thus. Neither will it be accomplished by a
mediocre Catholicism which can hardly preserve itself. It can be done by a
Catholicism which loves Christ its Lord with all its heart, and then sees him
and loves him in all men of whatsoever description. But this supreme charity of
Christ must be practised on such a scale that they who look on are driven to
admit that it is indeed a characteristic of the Church, and not merely the acts
of sublime members of the Church. Therefore, it must be exhibited in the lives
of the general body of the laity.
But it seems a hopeless thing to fire the entire household of the Church with
this exalted spirit? Yes, the task is herculean! So unending, indeed, are the
perspectives of the problem, so infinite the hosts which possess the land, that
even the courage of the strongest heart might well fail. But Mary is the heart
of the Legion, and that heart is faith and love unutterable. So thinking, the
Legion looks out over the world, and all at once excited hope is born:
"The world belongs to him who loves it most." Then it turns to its
great Queen, as it did at the beginning: "Lead us!"
"The Legion of Mary and its opposing forces, secularism and irreligion,
confront each other. These forces, sustained by constant propaganda through the
press, television, and video, have brought abortion, divorce, contraception,
drugs and every form of indecency and brutality into the heart of every home.
The simplicity and innocence of every new born babe is therefore left open to
these devastating influences.
Nothing short of total mobilisation of the Catholic people will avail to resist
that indoctrination. For this purpose the Legion of Mary possesses the perfect
machinery. But machinery itself is useless without a sufficient driving force.
This motive power lies in the Legion spirituality, which is a real appreciation
of and reliance on the Holy Spirit and on True Devotion to His Spouse, the
Blessed Virgin Mary, nurtured on the Bread of Life, the Eucharist.
When these two forces come into conflict, the spirit of the Legion will
prevail. Daily carrying their Master's cross, legionaries will effectively
fight the modern softness, permissiveness, and weakness which is ruining our
society today, and will finally triumph." (Father Aedan McGrath, S.S.C.)
13 MEMBERSHIP
Though women have thus the place of honour in the organisation, the
masculine pronoun is used throughout these pages to designate the legionary of
either sex. It avoids a tiresome repetition of the phrase "he or
she."
"The Church was founded to spread the kingdom of Christ over all the earth
for the glory of God the Father, to make all men partakers in redemption and
salvation and through them to establish the right relationship of the entire
world to Christ. Every activity of the Mystical Body with this in view goes by
the name of "apostolate"; the Church exercises it through all its
members, though in various ways. In fact, the Christian vocation is, of its
nature, a vocation to the apostolate as well. In the organism of a living body
no member plays a purely passive part, sharing in the life of the body it
shares at the same time in its activity. The same is true for the Body of
Christ, the Church: 'the whole Body achieves full growth in dependence on the
full functioning of each part.' (Eph 4:16) Between the members of this body
there exists, further, such a unity and solidarity (cf Eph 4:16) that a member
who does not work at the growth of the body to the extent of his possibilities
must be considered useless both to the Church and to himself." (AA 2)
14 THE PRAESIDIUM
"The rays of the sun are numerous, but the light is one; the
branches of a tree are many, but the trunk is one, strongly fixed on immovable
roots. " (St. Cyprian: De Unitate Ecclesiae)
15 THE LEGIONARY PROMISE
Most Holy Spirit, I, (name of candidate),
Desiring to be enrolled this day as a legionary of Mary,
Yet knowing that of myself I cannot render worthy service,
Do ask of you to come upon me and fill me with yourself,
So that my poor acts may be sustained by your power, and become an instrument
of your mighty purposes.
But I know that you, who has come to regenerate the world in Jesus Christ,
Has not willed to do so except through Mary;
That without her we cannot know or love you;
That it is by her, and to whom she pleases, when she pleases, and in the
quantity and manner she pleases,
That all your gifts and virtues and graces are administered;
And I realise that the secret of a perfect legionary service
Consists in a complete union with her who is so completely united to you.
So, taking in my hand the legionary Standard which seeks to set before our eyes
these things,
I stand before you as her soldier and her child,
And I so declare my entire dependence on her.
She is the mother of my soul.
Her heart and mine are one,
And from that single heart she speaks again those words of old:
"Behold the handmaid of the Lord";
And once again you come by her to do great things.
Let your power overshadow me, and come into my soul with fire and love,
And make it one with Mary's love and Mary's will to save the world;
So that I may be pure in her who was made Immaculate by you;
So that Christ my Lord may likewise grow in me through you;
So that I with her, his Mother, may bring him to the world and to the souls who
need him;
So that they and I, the battle won, may reign with her for ever in the glory of
the Blessed Trinity.
Confident that you will so receive me - and use me - and turn my weakness into
strength this day,
I take my place in the ranks of the Legion, and I venture to promise a faithful
service.
I will submit fully to its discipline,
Which binds me to my comrades,
And shapes us to an army,
And keeps our line as on we march with Mary,
To work your will, to operate your miracles of grace,
Which will renew the face of the earth,
And establish your reign, Most Holy Spirit, over all.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
"It was pointed out that the Legionary Promise was addressed to the Holy
Spirit, who received far too little devotion from the general body of
Catholics, and for whom legionaries must needs have special love. Their work,
which is the sanctification of themselves and of the other members of the
Mystical Body of Christ, is dependent on the power and operation of the Holy
Spirit, and hence calls for a very close union with him. Two things are
essential to this: deliberate attention to him, and devotion to the Blessed
Virgin with whom he works in inseparable union. Probably it was the lack of the
latter, rather than lack of the former, which has led to the general absence of
a true devotion to the Holy Spirit, in spite of the many books which have been
written and the many sermons which are preached on the subject. Legionaries are
already full of the love of their Queen and Mother. If they join it to a
definite devotion to the Holy Spirit, they will enter most fully into the
Divine plan, which has required the union of the Holy Spirit and Mary in the
work of regenerating the world. As a consequence, their legionary efforts
cannot fail to be attended by a great addition of force and success.
The first prayers ever said by legionaries were the invocation and prayer of
the Holy Spirit, followed by the Rosary. The same prayers have opened each
Legion meeting ever since; so that it is most appropriate to place under the
same holy auspices the ceremony which opens the legionary membership itself. It
returns to the idea of Pentecost, when the apostolic grace was conferred by the
Holy Spirit through Mary. The legionary, seeking the Holy Spirit through Mary,
will receive abundantly of his gifts, and among these gifts will be a truly
enlightened love of Mary herself.
Moreover, the proposed form of promise would be in conformity with legionary devotion
as pictured by the Standard, which shows the Dove presiding over the Legion and
its work, through Mary, for souls." (Extract from the Minutes of the 88th
Meeting of the Concilium Legionis)
[This quotation does not form part of the Legionary Promise]
16 ADDITIONAL GRADES OF MEMBERSHIP
In addition to the ordinary active membership, the Legion recognises two other
grades of membership:-
1. THE PRAETORIANS
The Praetorian (The Praetorian Guard was the picked regiment of the Roman army
degree is a higher grade of active membership, consisting of those who to the
ordinary obligations of membership undertake to add:-
Occasionally comes the suggestion that meditation be substituted for, or
made an alternative to, an Office. But this proposal would not accord with the
essential idea of praetorian membership, which is that of uniting the legionary
to the great official acts of the Mystical Body. The active work of the
legionary is a participation in the official apostolate of the Church.
Praetorian membership aims at immersing him still deeper in the corporate life
of the Church. Obviously it must prescribe Mass and Holy Communion, because
these are the central ceremonies of the Church, renewing daily the paramount
Christian act.
Next in the Liturgy comes the Office, the corporate utterance of the Church, in
which Christ prays. In any Office which is built upon the Psalms we use the
prayers inspired by the Holy Spirit and thus get close to that corporate Voice
which must be heard by the Father. That is why an Office, and not meditation,
is a condition of praetorian membership.
"As grace develops in us, our love must take on new forms," said
Archbishop Leen to his legionaries. The reciting of the entire Divine Office,
for those in a position to do it, would represent such an expansion of love.
The following is to be understood:-
The Legion anticipates much from the praetorian degree. It will lead many
members on to a life of closer union with God through prayer. It will mean the
incorporation in the Legion system of a heart of prayer; in which more and more
legionaries will tend to bury themselves. This will inevitably affect the whole
spiritual circulation of the Legion and make the Legion grow in the spirit of
reliance upon prayer in all its works. In fact it will cause the Legion to
realise ever more completely that its chief and true destiny is to spiritualise
its members.
"Grow you must; I know it; it is your destiny; it is the necessity of the
Catholic name; it is the prerogative of the Apostolic heritage. But a material
extension without a corresponding moral manifestation, it is almost awful to
anticipate." (Cardinal Newman: Present Position of Catholics)
2. AUXILIARY MEMBERSHIP
This membership is open to priests, religious and the laity. It consists of
those who are unable or unwilling to assume the duties of active membership,
but who associate themselves with the Legion by undertaking a service of prayer
in its name.
Auxiliary membership is subdivided into two degrees:-
There are no age limits in the case of auxiliary membership.
This service need not be offered directly on behalf of the Legion. It will
suffice to offer it in honour of Our Blessed Lady. Therefore it is conceivable
that the Legion might receive nothing from it, nor does the Legion desire to
receive anything which would do more good elsewhere. But as this service is a
legionary one, it is probable that it will incline the Queen of the Legion to
have regard for the needs of the Legion.
However, it is strongly recommended that this and all other legionary service
be offered to Our Lady as an unreserved gift to be administered according to
her intentions. This would lift it to a higher level of generosity and thus
greatly enhance its worth. This purpose would be kept in view by saying daily
some formula of offering such as the following: "Mary Immaculate,
Mediatrix of all Graces, I place at your disposal such portion of my prayers,
works and sufferings as is permitted to me."
This twofold auxiliary membership is to the Legion what its wings are to a
bird. With these wings widely expanded by possession of many auxiliaries, and
beating powerfully under the rhythmic drive of their faithful prayer, the
Legion can soar into the higher air of supernatural ideal and effort. It flies
swiftly wherever it wills, and even the mountains cannot stay its course. But
if those wings are folded, the Legion hobbles awkwardly and slowly along the
ground, brought to a stop by the slightest obstacle.
THE PRIMARY DEGREE: THE AUXILIARIES
This degree, named the auxiliaries, is the left wing of the Legion's praying
army. Its service consists in the daily recitation of the prayers comprised in
the tessera, namely: the invocation and prayer of the Holy Spirit; five decades
of the rosary and the invocations which follow them; the Catena; and the
prayers described as "concluding prayers". These may be divided
throughout the day, as convenient.
Persons who are already saying a daily rosary for any intention whatsoever may
become auxiliaries without obligation to say an additional rosary.
"He who prays helps all the souls of men. He helps his brethren by the
saving and powerful magnetism of a soul that believes, knows,and wills. He
supplies what St. Paul demands from us above all things: prayers,
supplications, and acts of thanksgiving on behalf of all men. 'Cease not to
pray and to make supplication at all times in the Holy Spirit.' (Eph 6:18) And
does it not seem that if you cease to watch, to insist, to make efforts, to
hold fast, everything will relax, the world will relapse, your brethren will
feel in themselves less strength and support ? Yes, surely it is so. Each one
of us in a measure bears up the world, and those who cease to work and to watch
overburden the rest." (Gratry: Les Sources)
THE HIGHER DEGREE: THE ADJUTORIANS
This is the right wing of the praying Legion. It comprises those who will (a)
recite daily all the prayers of the tessera and in addition (b) agree to attend
Mass and receive Holy Communion daily, and to recite daily an Office approved
by the Church.
See the reference in praetorian membership to the special value of an Office.
Accordingly adjutorian membership is to the ordinary auxiliary membership what
the praetorian membership is to the ordinary active membership. The additional
duties are the same.
Failure once or twice a week to fulfil the required conditions would not be
regarded as a notable failure in the duty of membership.
An Office is not required from religious who are not bound by their Rule to say
one.
The effort should be made to lead on the ordinary auxiliary to adjutorian
membership, for it offers a veritable way of life. What is said in the section
on the praetorians in regard to the uniting of the legionary to the prayer of
the Church, and to the special value of an Office, applies likewise to the
adjutorians.
Special appeal is addressed to priests and religious to become adjutorians. The
Legion earnestly desires union with this consecrated class, which has been
specially deputed to lead lives of prayer and close intimacy with God, and
which forms in the Church a glorious power-station of spiritual energy.
Effectively linked up with that power-station, legionary machinery would
pulsate with an irresistible force.
Consideration will show how little this membership would add on to their
existing obligations - no more, indeed, than the Catena, the Legion prayer, and
some invocations: a matter of some minutes only. But through that bond with the
Legion they have it in their power to become the driving force of the Legion.
"Give me," said Archimedes of old, "a lever and a support for
it, and I will lift the Earth itself." United to the Legion, the
adjutorians will find in it that essential support on which to rest the long
lever of their holy prayers, which then become omnipotent to uplift the
burdened souls of the entire world and move away its mountainous problems.
"In the Cenacle, where by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit the Church was
definitely founded, Mary begins to exercise visibly, in the midst of the
apostles and the disciples gathered together, a role which she will continue
ever after to exercise in a more secret and intimate manner: that of uniting
hearts in prayer and of giving life to souls through the merit of her
all-powerful intercession: 'All these were persevering with one mind in prayer
with the women and Mary the Mother of Jesus and with his brethren'. (Acts I,
14)" (Mura: Le Corps Mystique du Christ)
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS AFFECTING BOTH DEGREES OF AUXILIARY MEMBERSHIP
"What recompense will our good Jesus give us for the heroic and
disinterested action of making a surrender to him, by the hands of his holy
Mother, of all the value of our good works? If he gives a hundredfold, even in
this world, to those who for his love quit outward and temporal and perishable
goods, what will that hundredfold be which he will give to the man who
sacrifices for him even his inward and spiritual goods?" (St. Louis-Marie
de Montfort)
17 THE SOULS OF OUR DEPARTED LEGIONARIES
The end of the campaigning has come and a legionary lies nobly dead. Now at
last he is confirmed in legionary service. Through all eternity he will be a
legionary, for the Legion has shaped that eternity for him. It has been the
fibre and the mould of his spiritual life. Moreover, the might of the united
petition, uttered daily and earnestly by active members and auxiliaries alike,
that the Legion should reassemble without the loss of any one, has helped him
through the dangers and the difficulties of the long way. What a joyful thought
for all legionaries - on his account and on their own! But for the moment,
there is sorrow at the loss of friend and comrade, and there is need of prayer
so that the deliverance of the departed soldier from the realm of Purgatory may
be speedily accomplished.
The praesidium should without delay have a Mass offered for the soul of each
one of its active members who may die; and each member of that praesidium
should specially recite all the legion prayers, inclusive of the rosary, at
least once for the same intention. But these duties do not extend to the
deceased relatives of members. As many legionaries as possible, and not those
of the particular praesidium alone, should attend the Mass and accompany the
remains to burial.
It is recommended that the rosary and other legion prayers should be recited
while the interment is actually taking place. This could be done immediately
after the official prayers of the Church. This practice, besides being of much
benefit to the deceased, will be found to be a source of deep consolation to
the sorrowing relatives, to the legionaries themselves, and to all the friends
present.
It is trusted that the same prayers will have been said more than once beside
the remains during the period of laying out. Nor should the duty of remembrance
be deemed then to cease.
In the month of November each year, each praesidium shall have a Mass
celebrated for the souls of the legionary dead, not of that praesidium alone
but of all the world. In this, as on all other occasions where prayer is
offered for departed legionaries, all grades of membership are comprised.
"Purgatory forms part of the realm of Mary. There, too, are her children,
who in a passing spell of pain await their birth to the glory which will never
pass.
St. Vincent Ferrer, St. Bernardine of Sienna, Louis de Blois, as well as
others, explicitly proclaim Mary to be Queen of Purgatory; and St. Louis-Marie
de Montfort urges us to think and act in accordance with that belief. He wishes
us to place in Mary's hands the value of our prayers and satisfactions. He
promises us that, in return for this offering, those souls which are dear to us
will be more abundantly relieved than if we were to apply our prayers to them
directly." (Lhoumeau: La Vie Spirituelle a l'Ecole de St. Louis-Marie de
Montfort)
18 ORDER OF THE PRAESIDIUM MEETING
1. The setting of every meeting shall be uniform.The members should sit around
a table at one end of which for the purpose of the meeting a small temporary
altar is erected. On a white cloth of sufficient size is placed a statue of the
Immaculate Conception (in the attitude of the distribution of Graces),
preferably about two feet (60 cm) high - flanked by two vases of flowers and
two candlesticks with lighted candles. A little to the right of the statue, and
a little in advance of it, should be set the vexillum, which is described in
chp 27.
Photographs not shown
As the idea is that the statue represents the Queen present among her soldiers,
the altar must not be separated from the meeting-table or so placed as to
remove the statue outside the circle of the members. Filial love towards our
Heavenly Mother dictates that the equipment and the flowers should be as good
as possible; the equipment is not a recurring item of expense. Possibly a
benefactor or some other good fortune might put the praesidium in possession of
silver vases and candlesticks. It should be regarded as an honourable duty on
the part of some legionary to keep the vexillum and the vases and candlesticks
clean and bright, and duly provided with flowers and candles at the expense of
the praesidium.
If natural flowers are absolutely unobtainable it would be allowable to use
artificial ones with some greenery added to provide the element of living
nature.
In climates where it is necessary to shield the flame of the candles, plain
glass cups or globes, which will not conceal the candle itself, may be fitted
on to the top of the candle.
The words "Legio Mariae" may be worked upon the cloth, but not the
name of the praesidium. Points of unity, not of distinction, should be
stressed.
"In effect, Mary's mediation is intimately linked with her motherhood. It
possesses a specifically maternal character, which distinguishes it from the
mediation of the other creatures who in various and always subordinate ways
share in the one mediation of Christ, although her own mediation is also a
shared mediation. In fact, while it is true that 'no creature could ever be
classed with the Incarnate Word and Redeemer', at the same time 'the unique
mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise among
creatures to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in this unique
source.' And thus 'the one goodness of God is in reality communicated diversely
to his creatures'." (RMat 38)
2. Punctually at the appointed time, the members shall be in their places, and
the meeting shall begin. But a punctual start (so necessary for the efficiency
of the praesidium) will not be possible unless the officers are in attendance
some time in advance in order to make the requisite preparations.
No praesidium meeting is ever to begin without its written programme, termed
the "Work Sheet". This should be drawn up in advance of each meeting,
and from it the President will call the business. In the Work Sheet should be
set down in detail all the work being done by the praesidium, and opposite to
each item, the names of the members assigned to it. The various items need not
necessarily be taken in the same order at succeeding meetings, but every
member's name should be called and a report taken from each one, even though
they may be working in parties of two or more.
Before the end of the meeting it is to be ensured that each member has been
provided with his work for the coming week.
The President should have a bound book in which the Work Sheet can be compiled
each week.
"Idealism, however fervent and absorbing, must never be an excuse for
vague and unpractical emotion. As already pointed out, the genius of St.
Ignatius consisted in his careful and methodical exploitation of religious
energy. Steam is of no use, rather a nuisance, until we have a cylinder and
piston for it. How much spiritual fervour goes to waste, without a particular
examen and definite application! A gallon of petrol might be misused to blow a
car skyhigh; with care and inventiveness it can be employed to propel it to the
top of the hill." (Msgr. Alfred O'Rahilly: Life of Father William Doyle)
3 The meeting openswith the invocation and prayer to the Holy Spirit, who is
the source of that Grace, that Life, that Love, of which we rejoice to regard
Mary as the channel.
"From the moment when she conceived the Son of God in her womb, Mary
possessed, so to speak, a certain authority or jurisdiction over every temporal
procession of the Holy Spirit, in such sort that no creature receives any grace
from God except through her mediation . . . All the gifts and virtues and
graces of the same Holy Spirit are administered by her to whom she pleases, when
she pleases, and in the quantity and manner she pleases." (St. Bernardine:
Sermon on the Nativity)
[Note: The latter part of the above declaration in almost identical words is
also found in the writings of St. Albert the Great (Biblia Mariana, Liber Esther
I), who lived 200 years before St. Bernardine]
4 There follow five decades of the rosary, of which the Spiritual Director
shall initiate the first, third, and fifth, and the members the second and
fourth. No member is to act as if the rosary were a silent prayer. The same
measure of dignity and respect should be imparted to its recitation as if the
gracious personage to whom it is addressed were visibly present in the place of
the statue representing her.
The proper recitation of the Ave requires that the second part should not begin
until the first has been finished, and the Holy Name of Jesus reverently
pronounced. The rosary, playing, both by rule and by recommendation, such an
important part in the life of the legionary, each one is urged to register in
the Rosary Confraternity. (see appendix 7)
Pope Paul VI insists that the rosary must be preserved. It is pure prayer. Its
contents are eminently biblical. It effectively summarises the whole history of
salvation and it fulfils the essential purpose of exhibiting Mary in all her
various roles in that history.
"Among the different ways of praying, there is none more excellent than
the Rosary. It condenses into itself all the worship that is due to Mary. It is
the remedy for all our evils, the root of all our blessings." (Pope Leo
XIII)
"Of all prayers the Rosary is the most beautiful and the richest in
graces; of all it is the one which is most pleasing to Mary, the Virgin Most
Holy. Therefore, love the Rosary and recite it every day with devotion: this is
the testament which I leave unto you so that you may remember me by it."
(St. Pius X)
"For Christians, the first of books is the Gospel and the Rosary is
actually the abridgement of the Gospel." (Lacordaire)
"It is impossible that the prayers of many should not be heard if those
numerous prayers form but one single prayer." (St. Thomas Aquinas: on Matt
18)
5 The rosary is immediately followed by Spiritual Reading, to be given by the
Spiritual Director (or in his absence by the President). Its duration should be
limited to about five minutes. The choice of spiritual reading is free, but it
is strongly recommended that at least during the early years of a praesidium
the reading be taken from the handbook in order to familiarise the members with
its contents, and to stimulate them to study it seriously.
On the conclusion of the reading, it is the custom for the members to make,
together, the sign of the cross.
"Without any doubt, Mary is worthy of blessing by the very fact that she
became the mother of Jesus according to the flesh ('Blessed is the womb that
bore you, and the breasts that you sucked'), but also and especially because
already at the Annunciation she accepted the word of God, because she believed
it, because she was obedient to God, and because she 'kept' the word and
'pondered it in her heart' (cf. Lk 1:38, 45; 2:19, 51) and by means of her
whole life accomplished it. Thus we can say that the blessing proclaimed by
Jesus is not in opposition, despite appearances, to the blessing uttered by the
unknown woman, but rather coincides with that blessing in the persons of this
Virgin Mother, who called herself only 'the handmaid of the Lord'." (RMat
20)
6 The minutes of the previous meeting are read and, if approved by the members
present, are signed by the President. The minutes should strike a sensible mean
between excessive and inadequate length, and shall designate each meeting by
its proper serial number.
The importance of the minutes has already been stressed under the head of the
Secretary's duties. The minutes, being the first item of the ordinary business
of the meeting, hold, as it were, a strategic position. By their quality and
the manner of reading them, they may set the tone, for better or for worse, of
all that follows.
Good minutes are like good example. Poor minutes are like bad example; and it
is necessary to insist that well-written minutes, badly read, rank as poor
minutes. That example has compelling force upon the members. Their alertness,
their reports, are affected, so that the meeting may be good or bad simply
because the minutes were good or bad. And the quality of the work will follow
the quality of the meeting.
So let the Secretary, when engaged on the hidden work of preparation of the
minutes, reflect on these things; and let the praesidium, in the interest of
its own efficiency, oversee them.
"It would indeed be shameful if in this matter Christ's saying should be
verified that 'the children of this world are wiser than the children of
light.' (Lk 16, 8) We can observe with what diligence they look after their
affairs; how often they balance their credit and debit; how accurately they
make up their accounts; how they deplore their losses and so eagerly excite
themselves to repair them." (Pope St. Pius X)
7 Standing Instruction. The following Standing Instruction is to be inserted on
the Work Sheet (or otherwise placed so as to ensure that it will not be
overlooked at the proper time) and read out by the President at the first
meeting of each month, immediately after the signing of the minutes.
STANDING INSTRUCTION
"Legionary duty requires from each legionary:-
First, the punctual and regular attendance at the weekly meetings of the
praesidium, and the furnishing there of an adequate and audible report on the
work done;
Second, the daily recitation of the Catena;
Third, the performance of a substantial active legionary work, in the spirit of
faith, and in union with Mary, in such fashion that in those worked for and in
one's fellow-members, the Person of our Lord is once again seen and served by
Mary, his Mother;
Fourth, absolute respect for the confidential nature of many matters discussed
at the meeting or learned in connection with the legionary work."
"Through me, Mary desires to love Jesus too in the hearts of all those
whom I can kindle with love as the result of my apostolate and my perpetual
prayers. If I wholly identify myself with her, she will so flood me with her
graces and with her love that I shall come to resemble an over-brimming stream,
that in its turn will flood the souls of others. Because of me, Mary will be
enabled to love Jesus and to fill him with joy, not only through my own heart
but also through the countless hearts that are united with mine." (De
Jaegher: The Virtue of Trust) [This quotation is not to be read out as part of
the Standing Instruction.]
8 Treasurer's Statement. The Treasurer shall submit a weekly statement showing
the income and expenditure of the praesidium and the resulting financial
position.
"Souls are sometimes lost for want of money, or in other words for want of
a more complete participation in the apostolate." (James Mellett, C.S.Sp.)
9 Reports of the members are received.Members should remain seated while
delivering their reports, which should be verbal, though members may aid themselves
by notes.
The praesidium should not take the non-performance of the legionary duty as a
matter of course. When members have been validly prevented from performing
their work, they should (if possible) furnish some explanation. The absence of
a report, if unexplained, conveys the impression that neglect of duty is in
question and constitutes a bad example for every member.
If members are attaching a reasonable degree of seriousness to their work, the
necessity for excuse will arise but seldom, and happily so, for in an
atmosphere of excuses zeal and discipline wither away.
The report is not to be directed to the President alone. For a certain mental
process must be taken count of. When one person speaks to another individually,
the voice automatically tunes itself to the precise distance and no more. This
could mean that words addressed to the President would with difficulty be heard
by persons further away.
The report, and all discussion upon it, must be delivered in a tone of voice
which will reach every part of the room. A report, however full and faithful,
which is inaudible to many of those present is- having regard to its depressing
effect on the meeting-worse than no report. Whispering is no sign of modesty or
gentleness, as some apparently imagine. Who so modest, who so gentle as Mary?
Yet could anyone imagine her mumbling her words, or talking in such a fashion
that those close to her could not hear what she was saying? O legionaries!
Imitate your Queen in this, as in all other ways.
Presidents must refuse to accept reports which require an effort to hear. But
first let them be above reproach themselves. The President sets the tone for
all the members. Usually, the members speak less loudly than the President. If
the latter speaks only in a moderate or conversational tone, the members'
reports will come back in whispers. For, members speaking clearly when the
President is speaking softly, will imagine themselves to be shouting, and will
reduce their tones to inaudibility. The members must insist on all, including
the President, speaking out. Like a doctor, let the Spiritual Director make his
own demand for audibility as a vital element in the health of the praesidium.
In its own way the report is as important to the meeting as the prayers. They
supplement each other. Both elements are necessary to a praesidium meeting.
The report connects the work with the praesidium and therefore it must be a
clear presentation of the doings of the member - in a sense as vivid as the
picture on a cinema screen - such as will enable the other members mentally to
engage in that work, to judge it, to comment on it, to learn from it.
Accordingly, the report must show what has been attempted and achieved, and in
what spirit; the time spent; the methods used; what has not been gained and the
persons who have not been touched.
The meeting should be bright and cheerful. Therefore the reports should be such
as will interest as well as inform the meeting. It is impossible to believe
that the praesidium is healthy if the meeting is deadly dull, and undoubtedly
it will repel young members.
Some classes of work are so full of variety that it is easy to make a good
report. Other works do not offer the same possibilities, so that each unusual
feature, however small, should be remembered for mention in the report.
The report must not be too long; nor too brief; above all, it must not be a
routine phrase. Failure in these directions not only shows that the member is
neglecting his duty but also that the other members are assisting him in that
neglect. This strikes at the whole legionary idea of the supervision of the
work. The praesidium cannot supervise a work unless it is fully informed about
it.
Generally the work of the Legion is so difficult that members, if not
stimulated by the minute consideration of their efforts by the meeting, may be
inclined to spare themselves. This must not be. They are in the Legion to do as
much good as possible; and probably it will be in those very cases where the
natural repugnances assert themselves most that the greatest need for their
work exists. It is mainly through the meeting that the legionary discipline is
exerted which overcomes those weaknesses and drives the member on to
accomplishment. But if the report gives little indication as to what the legionary
is really doing, then the praesidium can exert only a vague control over that
member's actions. It will not stimulate him. It will not safeguard him. He will
be deprived of the interest and guidance of the praesidium and he cannot afford
to be without those vital things. Legionary discipline loses its grip on that
member with unhappy results all round.
Let it not be forgotten that bad reporting will draw the other members by the
strong chains of imitation. Thereby one who greatly desires to serve the Legion
is found doing it tragic disservice.
No legionary should be content to give a merely good report. Why not aim very
high, and deliberately set out to add to the perfect performance of the work a
model report to the praesidium; and thus train the other members both in the
doing of the work and in the way of reporting on it? "Example," says
Edmund Burke, "is the school of mankind and they will learn at no
other." Acting on this, one individual can raise an entire praesidium to the
highest pitch of efficiency. For the report, though not the whole meeting, is
so much its nerve-centre as to cause everything else in the praesidium to react
in sympathy with it either for better or worse.
Above, Our Lady has been pointed to as inspiration for one aspect of the
report. But thought of her can aid in every other aspect. A glance at her
statue, before beginning the report, will ensure that thought. It is certain
that anyone, who tries to make his report as he imagines she would make it,
will not deliver a report which is inadequate from any point of view.
"Some Christians see little more in Mary than a creature infinitely pure
and exquisite, the tenderest and gentlest Woman that ever existed. Therein,
they run the risk of having for her only a sentimental devotion, or - if they
are of a forceful character - of feeling but little attraction towards her.
They have never realised that this Virgin so tender, this Mother so gentle is,
as well, the Woman above all the most indomitable, and that never was there man
so full of character as this Woman." (Neubert: Marie dans le Dogme)
10 The recitation of the Catena Legionis. At a fixed time, which experience has
shown to be approximately mid-way between the signing of the minutes and the
end of the meeting (that would be an hour after the opening of a meeting which
usually lasts an hour and a half), the Catena Legionis (see chp 22, The Prayers
of the Legion) is recited, all standing.
The Antiphon is recited by all present: the Magnificat in alternate verses by
the Spiritual Director (or in his absence, by the President) and by the
members: the Prayer by the Spiritual Director (or President) alone.
The sign of the cross is not made before the Catena. It is made by all at the
first verse of the Magnificat. It is not made after the Prayer because at once
the Allocutio begins.
There is nothing in the Legion more beautiful than this united recitation of
the Catena. Whether it finds the praesidium immersed in joy or disappointment
or treading wearily the way of routine, it comes like a breeze from Heaven, all
steeped in the fragrancy of her who is the Lily and the Rose, refreshing and
gladdening most wonderfully. No mere picturesque description this - as every
legionary knows full well!
"I lay special stress on the Magnificat because it seems to me that it may
be considered, in a way perhaps not commonly realised, a document of
outstanding importance in its bearing on Mary's Motherhood of grace. The most
holy Virgin, identified with Christ as we know her to have been from the moment
of the Annunciation, proclaims herself the representative of the entire human
race, intimately associated with 'all generations,' and bound up with the
destinies of those who are truly her own. This canticle of hers is the song of
her spiritual maternity." (Bernard, O.P.: Le Mystère de Marie)
"The Magnificat is Mary's prayer par excellence, the song of the Messianic
times in which there mingles the joy of the ancient and new Israel. As Saint
Irenaeus seems to suggest, it is in Mary's canticle that there was heard once
more the rejoicing of Abraham (cf Jn 8:56) who foresaw the Messiah, and there
rang out in prophetic anticipation the voice of the Church . . . And in fact
Mary's hymn has spread far and wide and has become the prayer of the whole
Church in all ages." (MCul 18)
11 The Allocutio (The allocutio was the Roman General's
address to his legionaries) When the members resume their seats, a short talk
shall be given by the Spiritual Director. Except in special circumstances, this
should take the shape of a commentary upon the handbook with the object of
eventually making the members completely familiar with every point contained
therein. The allocutio will be greatly appreciated, and it will play an
all-important part in the development of the members. Responsibility for the
latter exists, and it would be an injustice both to them and to the Legion not
to draw out all their possibilities. To do this it is essential that they be
given a perfect knowledge of their organisation. The study of the handbook will
greatly help towards this end, but must not be considered to be a substitute
for the allocutio. Legionaries will believe that they have studied the handbook
when they have read it attentively two or three times. But even ten or twenty
readings would not bring the degree of knowledge which the Legion desires. This
will only be imparted by a systematic verbal explanation and expansion of the
handbook week after week, year after year, until the members have become
completely familiarised with every idea it contains.
In the event of the absence of the Spiritual Director, the commentary should be
made by the President or by any member designated by the President. It is
stressed that a mere reading from the handbook or any other document does not
suffice for the allocutio.
The allocutio should not occupy more than five or six minutes.
The difference between the praesidium where the allocutio has been thoroughly
done, and the praesidium where it has been badly done, will be precisely the
difference between a trained and an untrained army.
"I have long had the feeling that, since the world is growing so rapidly
worse and worse and God has lost his hold, as it were, upon the hearts of men,
he is looking all the more earnestly and anxiously for big things from those
who are faithful to him still. He cannot, perhaps, gather a large army round
his standard, but he wants every man in it to be a hero, absolutely and
lovingly devoted to him. If only we could get inside that magic circle of
generous souls, I believe there is no grace he would not give us to help on the
work he has so much at heart, our personal sanctification." (Msgr. Alfred
O'Rahilly: Life of Father William Doyle)
12 On the completion of the Allocutio, the sign of the cross is made by all
present. Then the taking of the Reports and the other business of the meeting
is continued.
"The historic fact is that the speech of Our Lady was the speech of an
extraordinarily refined woman. Her natural bent would easily have made her a
poet. Each time she spoke, her words flowed in a rhythm that was actually
poetry. Her phrasing was the picturesque language of the artist of words."
(Lord: Our Lady in the Modern World)
13 Secret bag collection. Immediately after the allocutio, a secret bag
collection is made, to which every member shall contribute according to means.
The purpose is the defraying of the various expenses of the praesidium and the
contributing to the Curia and the higher councils. It is repeated that these
latter bodies have no means of support or of discharging their functions of
government and extension other than what comes to them from the praesidia. (See
chp 35, Funds)
The meeting is not to be interrupted for the making of this collection. The bag
should be passed unostentatiously from member to member, and each one should
place his hand in the bag, even though he may not be contributing anything to
it.
A proper bag should be provided for the purpose of receiving the members'
offerings. A glove or a paper bag is not a proper receptacle.
The collection is secret because it is necessary to place those who have
resources and those who have not, on precisely the same level before the
praesidium. Therefore, the principle of secrecy should be respected, and no
member should disclose to another what his contribution is. In the second
place, all should appreciate that not alone the praesidium, but also the main
running of the whole Legion, depends on what is put into the secret bag by the
individual legionary. Accordingly, the matter is not to be viewed as a mere formality.
The obligation to subscribe is not complied with by the giving of a sum so
inconsiderable as to mean nothing to him. The fact is that he is being afforded
the privilege of sharing in the wider mission of the Legion. Therefore the act
of contributing to this Fund should be one for the exercise of the sense of
responsibility and generosity.
It is only the individual gift which is secret. The total amount may be
announced, and of course it must be properly entered up and accounted for.
"When Jesus praises the offering of the widow 'who gives not of her
abundance but of her indigence' (Lk 21:3-4), we suspect that his thought is of
Mary, his Mother." (Orsini: History of the Blessed Virgin)
14 Termination of the meeting. When all the business has been transacted,
including the assignment of work to each member and the marking of the
attendance roll, the meeting ends with the concluding prayers of the Legion and
the priest's blessing.
The meeting shall not last longer than one hour and a half from the appointed
time for starting.
"Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you
ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are
gathered in my name, I am there among them." (Mt 18:19-20)
19 THE MEETING AND THE MEMBER
1 Respect for the meeting. Everywhere in the natural order, the transmission of
power depends on the making or the breaking of a connection. Similarly in the
Legion system there can be a vital interruption at one point. A member may
attend the meetings, and yet receive little or no communication of that
inspiration, devotedness and strength, which has been pictured above as the
Legion life. There must be a union between meeting and member, and this union
is not effected by a mere mechanical attendance on the part of the latter. An
element must enter in to make that attendance an efficacious link between
meeting and member, and this element is respect. On this respect (manifesting
itself in obedience, loyalty, esteem) of member for meeting, everything in the
Legion system depends.
2 The praesidium must be worthy of this respect.A body, which does not in its
standards rise above the average of its members, lacks the first essential of a
guide, and will not long hold their respect.
3 The praesidium must respect the Rules. Proportionately as the legionary gives
that respect to the praesidium, will a communication of legionary life be made
to the legionary; and as the essence of the legionary spirit is the effort to
achieve excellence, the praesidium must set itself to win in the highest degree
the respect of its members so that it may correspondingly influence them. A
praesidium seeks to build upon sand, which claims from its members a respect
which it does not itself give to the code under which it works; a fact which
explains the insistence, throughout this handbook, on the necessity for exact
adherence to the order of meetings and the general procedure as laid down.
4 The praesidium to be a model of steadiness.The Legion requires that the voice
and action of its meetings shall be an example even to the most zealous member,
and its multifold life enables it to play this part. The individual legionary
may be prevented by illness, holidays or other unavoidable circumstances from
performance of the duties of membership. But the praesidium, being composed of
many who will not all be so hindered at the same time, will thus be able to
rise above the limitations of the individual. The weekly meeting should not be
omitted for any cause short of actual inability to hold it. Should the
customary day of meeting be definitely obstructed, the meeting should be
transferred to another day. The fact that a great number of its members will be
absent constitutes no reason for not holding the meeting. It is better to hold
a meeting of a few members than to drop it altogether. It is true that little
business will be transacted at such a meeting, but at least the praesidium will
have acquitted itself of its most important duty, and the business of its
future meetings will gain immeasurably from the enhanced respect which its
members will instinctively have for something which goes on almost in spite of
those who compose it, which stands steady in the midst of their weaknesses,
mistakes, and miscellaneous engagements, thus reflecting in some faint fashion
the chief characteristic of the Church itself.
5 Heat and light. The room should be well-lighted and of comfortable
temperature. Defects in this direction will convert to a penance the meetings
that should be a pleasure, and will prejudice fatally the prospects of the
praesidium.
6 Seating accommodation.Chairs, or at least benches should be provided for
seating purposes. If the members are scattered around on school-desks or on
other improvised seating-accommodation, an air of disorder will be created, in
which the Legion spirit, which is a spirit of order, will not thrive.
7 Praesidia must meet at suitable times. The fact that most persons are at work
during the day dictates that meetings be ordinarily held in the evening or on
Sunday. But there are many who work during the evening and at night, and these
must be provided for by having meetings at hours which suit them.
Likewise, shift-workers, that is those whose working-hours change periodically,
must be catered for. Two praesidia with widely different meeting-times should
co-operate to receive them. Those legionaries would alternate between the
praesidia according to their free time. To ensure the continuity of attendance
and work, the praesidia would need to keep in close touch with each other.
8 Duration of meeting. The meeting shall not last longer than one hour and a
half from the appointed time for opening. If, in spite of efficient handling of
the meeting, it is found that the business is frequently cut short or unduly
rushed by the automatic closure, it should be taken as a sign that the
praesidium has too much to do, and the sub-division of the praesidium should be
considered.
9 Inadequate length of meetings. There is no minimum duration prescribed, but
if meetings habitually last less than about an hour (of which the prayers,
spiritual reading, minutes and Allocutio occupy a half-hour), it looks as if
there is inadequacy in some direction. Whether it lies in the number of members
or in the quantity of the work, or in the quality of the reports, it should be
rectified. In industrial circles it would be deemed a grave fault of system to
neglect to work machinery to full capacity, if there is a market for the
output. Similarly, the Legion system should be worked to the utmost. No one can
suggest that there is not a need for the highest possible spiritual output.
10 Late arrival or early departure. Legionaries arriving late for the opening
prayers shall kneel down and recite privately the prayers (on the Tessera)
which precede the rosary and the invocations which follow it. But the loss of
the praesidium rosary cannot be repaired. Similarly, members obliged to leave
before the conclusion of the meeting should first ask the permission of the
President, and then kneel and recite the prayer, We fly to your patronage and
the invocations which follow.
In no circumstances can the persistent late-coming or early departure of a
member be permitted. It is true that the work may be done and reported upon,
but indifference to the missing of the opening or concluding prayers may well
be believed to denote a cast of mind alien to or even hostile to the real
spirit of the Legion, which is a spirit of prayer. Harm, not good, would be the
fruit of such a membership.
11 Good order the root of discipline. Upon
On the other hand, in a voluntarily-assumed discipline devoted to religious
ends, lies one of the most potent forces in the world. That discipline will
prove irresistible if it operates unwaveringly, yet at the same time without
admixture of grimness, and in hearty responsiveness to ecclesiastical
authority.
In its characteristic spirit of discipline the Legion possesses a treasure,
which it is also able to bestow outside itself. It is a priceless gift, for the
world alternates profitlessly between the opposite poles of tyranny and
licence. A lack of interior discipline may be cloaked by the operation of a
strong external discipline, the product of tradition or of force. Where
individuals or communities are dependent on that external discipline alone,
they will collapse if it be withdrawn, as in moments of crisis. Though the
inner discipline is infinitely more important than any system of external
discipline, it is not to be supposed that the latter is unimportant. Actually,
each requires the other. When the two combine in proper proportion, with the
sweet motive of religion intertwined, we hold that triple cord which - the
Scripture pronounces - "is not quickly broken." (Sir 4:12)
12 Punctuality paramount. Without punctuality the Lord's command: "Set
your house in order" (Is 38:1) cannot be fulfilled. A system that is
training its members to disorder is warping them in a radical way. In addition,
it is forfeiting that respect which is the basis of all right education and
discipline. Surely that neglect of something vital which could be so easily
supplied, is as insane a proceeding as the proverbial spoiling of the ship for
the halfpenny worth of tar!
Sometimes a watch is placed carefully on the table but exercises no influence
whatever on the course of the meeting. In other cases it does play a part in
regard to the beginning, middle, and end of the meeting but none in regard to
the regulation of the reports and other business; whereas the principle of
punctuality and order must apply to everything from beginning to end.
If the officers are at fault in the above directions, the members should
protest. Otherwise they are aiding and abetting.
13 Manner of saying the prayers. Some impetuous souls find it hard to hold back
even in the matter of praying; and this wrong sort of leadership can draw an
entire praesidium on to a way of saying the prayers which verges on the
disrespectful. In fact, if there is one fault which is more or less general, it
is that the prayers are recited too fast, seeming to denote a disregard of that
injunction which bids legionaries to pray as if Our Blessed Lady herself,
instead of her statue, were visibly present among them.
14 Prayers to be one with the meeting. From time to time it has been suggested
that the rosary might be recited before the Blessed Sacrament, the members then
proceeding to their meeting-room. This proposal is not allowable on the general
principle that the unity of the meeting is essential to the whole Legion
system. With the meeting one, all the business takes a distinctively prayerful
character (producing eminent fruits of heroism and effort), which it would lose
were the bulk of the prayers to be said elsewhere. Such a change would alter
the whole character of the meeting, and hence of the Legion itself which is
built upon the meeting. In fact the resulting organisation, however great its
merits, would not be the Legion of Mary at all. Having said this, presumably it
is unnecessary to state that the actual omission of the rosary or any other
part of the prayers is-no matter what the circumstances may be-still less
admissible. What the breathing is to the human body, the rosary is to the
Legion meetings.
15 Church devotions and meeting. For the foregoing reason, a praesidium which
has said the Legion prayers at some Church or other function prior to its
meeting, is bound to repeat the full prayers at the praesidium meeting.
16 Special prayers at meeting. It is frequently asked if it is permissible to
offer the prayers of the meeting for special intentions. As many applications
for such prayers are made, it becomes necessary to define the position:-
(a) If it is a question of offering the ordinary Legion prayers of the meeting
for a special intention, the ruling is that those prayers should be offered for
the intentions of Our Blessed Lady, the Queen of the Legion, and not for any
other intention.
(b) If it is a question of supplementing the Legion prayers by some other
prayers for special intentions, the ruling is that the existing prayers are
already long enough, and should not ordinarily be added to. It is recognised,
however, that from time to time items of exceptional legionary concern may call
for special prayer; and in that case, some short prayer may be added to the
ordinary prayers of the meeting. It is emphasised that such additions must be
of rare occurrence.
(c) It would, of course, be allowable to recommend special intentions to the
members for inclusion in their private devotions.
17 Does the report offend against humility? Members have been known to justify
a valueless report by saying that they felt it to be contrary to humility to
parade the good which they were doing. But there is such a thing as a pride
which imitates humility, and the poets have termed it the devil's favourite
sin. Those members, therefore, should beware lest in that thought of theirs may
lie the subtle workings not of humility but of pride itself, and not a little
of a desire to exempt their actions from minute control by the praesidium. For
surely, true humility would not urge them to set a false headline, which if
imitated by the other members would ruin the praesidium? No, to a certainty,
Christian simplicity would impel members to avoid singularity, to submit
themselves sweetly to the rules and observances of their organisation, and to
play fully their individual but none the less essential parts in the building
up of the meeting, of which each report forms, as has been said, a brick.
18 Harmony the expression of unity. Harmony, being the outward manifestation of
the spirit of love in the meeting, must reign supreme; and efficiency, in the Legion
sense of the word, never excludes the idea of harmony. Good accomplished at the
expense of harmony is a doubtful gain; while those failings which are in their
essence opposed to it must be shunned in the Legion like a veritable plague.
This refers to things like self-assertiveness, fault-finding, ill-temper,
cynicism, and airs of superiority, at whose entry to the meeting harmony
forthwith departs.
19 Work of each one a concern of all. The meeting begins with prayer, in which
all realise that they have participated equally. This feeling of equal
participation by all should characterise each item of the subsequent business
of the meeting. Hence conversation or laughter between individual members must
find no place there. Members should be taught that each case is a concern not
merely for the one or two members who may be engaged upon it, but for all
present, in such a degree that each one pays a spiritual visit to every person
or place recounted as having been the subject of the work. Without this realisation,
members will follow with a mere attention the reports and consideration of the
work of others, whereas every moment must be full, not merely with the
attention which one gives to an interesting account of work done, but with a
sense of intimate contact, of personal concern.
20 Confidentiality of paramount importance. The Standing Instruction, read to
the members month after month, should bring home to them the all important
place of confidentiality in the Legion's scheme of things.
Lack of courage in a soldier is accounted shameful, but treachery is infinitely
worse. It is treachery to the Legion to repeat outside matters of a
confidential nature learned or discussed at the praesidium meeting. At the same
time, there must be reason in all things. Sometimes over-zealous people may
urge that in the interests of charity legionaries should withhold from the
praesidium all names and reports which involve neglect of religion.
In this apparently plausible suggestion there is an error, and a threat to the
Legion's life, as the praesidium could not function satisfactorily under such
conditions:-
The reports to the meeting are to be regarded as being in the same category as
a family's discussion of its secrets, and should allow for the same freedom of
expression, unless and until it is demonstrated that leakage is taking place.
And even then, the remedy is not to limit reporting, but to expel the traitor.
It is recognised, of course, that an occasional extreme case may be encountered
in which the circumstances will suggest an absolute privacy. Recourse should at
once be had to the Spiritual Director (or, if he be unavailable, to some other
competent adviser) who will decide the point.
21 Freedom of speech.Is it in order to voice one's disagreement with the
methods of the meeting? The atmosphere of the praesidium should not be
regimental but rather "family" in its character.
Therefore "fair comment" should be welcomed from the members. But
obviously such comment must never be challenging in its tone or wanting in
respect to the officers.
22 The Meeting the mainstay of membership. It is the human tendency to be
impatient for visible results, and then to grow dissatisfied with whatever is
obtained. Again, visible results are an uncertain test of successful work. One
member secures them at a touch, while the heroic perseverance of another
remains barren. A sense of wasted effort is followed by abandonment of the
work, so that the work which is valued purely from the aspect of results, is a
quicksand which will not support for long the ordinary membership. Such a
support is essential. Legionaries will find it in the wealth of prayer, the
ritual, the distinctive atmosphere, the reports of duty done, the blessed
comradeship, the magnetism of discipline, the lively interest, and the very
orderliness, which each week go to make up their praesidium meeting.
No thought there of waste of effort to unloosen membership, but everything to
bind it fast! As meeting succeeds meeting in regular succession, there comes
the sense of smoothly running machinery surely attaining the end for which it
was contrived, and giving that fixed assurance of successful working upon which
a persevering membership depends. Let the legionaries cast their thoughts a
little further, and see in this mechanism Mary's engine of war for the
extension of her Son's dominion. They are its parts. Its working depends upon
the manner in which they lend themselves to it. Their faithful membership means
its perfect working, which Mary utilises to achieve the results which she
desires. These will be perfect results, for "it is Mary alone who knows
perfectly where lies the greatest glory of the Most High." (St.
Louis-Marie de Montfort)
23 The praesidium is a "Presence" of Mary. The advices of this
section have in view the more perfect consolidation of the individuals into a
body for comprehensive use in the official, pastoral apostolate of the Church.
The relation between that communal apostolate and the individual apostolate
might be likened to the relation between the liturgy and private prayer.
That apostolate is united to and sustained by the mothering of Mary "who
gave to the world the Life that renews all things, and who was enriched by God
with gifts appropriate to such a role" (LG 56). She continues to fulfil
that role through the ministry of those willing to help her. A praesidium
places at her disposal a group of loving souls eager to help her in that
office. It is certain that she will accept that aid. Therefore a praesidium may
be imagined as a sort of local presence of Mary through which she will display
her unique gifts and reproduce her motherhood. So it can be expected that a
praesidium which is true to its ideals will bestow around itself life and
renewal and healing and solutions. Places with problems should apply this
spiritual principle.
"Bend your shoulders and carry her, and do not fret under her bonds. Come
to her with all your soul, and keep her ways with all your might. Search out
and seek, and she will become known to you; and when you get hold of her, do
not let her go. For at last you will find the rest she gives, and she will be
changed into joy for you. Then her fetters will become for you a strong
defence, and her collar a glorious robe. Her yoke is a golden ornament, and her
bonds a purple cord." (Sir 6: 25-30)
20 THE LEGION SYSTEM INVARIABLE
"The system of the Legion of Mary is a most excellent one." (Pope
John XXIII)
"You must accept the whole, or reject the whole; reduction does but
enfeeble, and amputation mutilate. It is trifling to receive all but something
which is as integral as any other portion." (Cardinal Newman: Essay on
Development)
21 THE MYSTICAL HOME OF NAZARETH
A particular application of the Doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ may be
made to the Legion meetings, especially to the praesidium meeting which forms
the heart of the Legion system.
"Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them."
(Mt 18:20) These words of our Lord assure us that his influential presence in
the members of his Mystical Body is intensified according to the number in
which they unite to serve him. He specifies number as a condition for the
complete displaying of his power. Possibly this is a consequence of our
individual defectiveness, the virtues of each being so limited as to permit
Christ to show himself only partially through that one.
A simple natural image may illustrate how this may be. A coloured glass will
transmit only its own shade of light, obstructing all the other shades. But
when glasses of all the different colours jointly project their shades, these
unite to make the fullness of light. Similarly, when Christians in some number
combine for the purposes of the Lord, their qualities supplementing each other,
he is enabled through them to manifest his perfection and his power more fully.
So, when legionaries gather together in the praesidium in his name and for his
work, he is present in that potent way; it has been made evident that power
goes out from him there. (Mk 5:30)
Also with Jesus in that little Legion family are his Mother and St. Joseph, who
have towards the praesidium the same relation that they had to him; which
permits us to look on the praesidium as a projection of the Home of Nazareth,
and this not as a mere devotional exercise but as something based on reality.
"We are obliged," says Bérulle, "to treat the things and mysteries
of Jesus not as things past and dead, but as things living and present and even
eternal." Likewise we may piously identify the premises and equipment of
the praesidium with the fabric and the furniture of the Holy House, and we may
regard the behaviour of the legionaries towards those adjuncts of the
praesidium as a test of their appreciation of the truth that Christ lives in us
and works through us, necessarily availing of the things that we are utilising.
This thought provides a sweet and compelling motive for a bestowing of a
careful attention upon the things that surround the praesidium and form its
home.
Legionaries may have limited control over the room in which they meet, but
other accessories of the meeting are more fully in their charge, such as the
table, chairs, altar, books. How are the legionaries enabling the mother of the
praesidium Home of Nazareth to reproduce in it the devoted housekeeping which
she started long ago in Galilee? Their aid is necessary to her. They can deny
it to her or they can give it negligently - thus perverting her work for the
Mystical Christ. Faced with this idea, let legionaries try to imagine how Mary
kept her home.
Poor it was, and its furniture far from elaborate. Yet it must have been most
beautiful. For among the wives and mothers of all time this one was unique,
gifted with exquisite taste and refinement which could not but show themselves
in every item of her home. Each simple detail must somehow have possessed a
loveliness, each common thing a charm. For she loved - as only she could love -
all those things because of him who made them and who now made human use of
them. She cared them and cleaned them and polished them and tried to make them
nice, for they had to be quite perfect in their way. We may be certain that
there was not one jarring note in all that domicile. There could not possibly
be. For that little house was like no other. It was the cradle for the
redemption, the frame for the Lord of the world. Everything in it served
strangely to mould him who had made all things. Therefore everything had to be
fit to serve that sublime purpose and fit it was by the order, cleanliness,
brightness and indefinable quality which Mary contrived to impart to it.In its
own fashion everything about the praesidium plays its part in moulding the
member and therefore should reflect those characteristics of the Holy Home,
just as the legionaries themselves should reflect Jesus and Mary.
A French author has written a book entitled "A Journey Around My
Room." Make such a thoughtful journey around your praesidium and analyse
most critically everything that strikes the eye and ear; the floor and walls
and windows; the furniture; the components of the altar, in particular the
statue which represents the pivot of the home, its mother. Above all, observe
the demeanour of the members and the method of conducting the meeting.
If the sum total of what is seen and heard is unattuned to the Home of
Nazareth, then it is not likely that the spirit of Nazareth abides in that
praesidium. But without that spirit the praesidium is worse than dead.
Sometimes officers, like worthless parents, pervert those entrusted to their
care. Nearly always the shortcomings of praesidia can be traced back to the
officers. If members are unpunctual and irregular in their attendance, doing
insufficient work and doing it irregularly, failing in their attitude at the
meeting, it is because that defective behaviour is being accepted from them,
because they are not being taught any better. They are being warped by the
training they are receiving from their officers.
Contrast all that inadequacy with the Home of Nazareth. Imagine Our Lady being
thus neglectful about details and order, giving that disfiguring sort of
training to her child! Try - it is difficult, but try - to think of her as
slatternly, weak, unreliable, indifferent; letting the Holy House go to wrack
and ruin, so that it is the contemptuous talk of the neighbours! Of course the
very idea is fantastic. Yet more than a few Legion officers let things drift
thus shamefully in the praesidium Home of Nazareth which they profess to be
administering as the very embodiments of Our Lady.
But if, on the other hand, all those things by their perfection prove the
praesidium's devotion, then we may know that our Lord is there in that fullness
indicated by his words. The spirit of the Holy Family was not confined by the
Holy House, nor by Nazareth, nor by Judea, nor by any boundary. Neither,
therefore, can the spirit of the praesidium be confined.
"Catholic love for the Mother of God shows a praiseworthy sense of the
artistic by its reluctance to ask for elaborate details of the life at
Nazareth. We know that at Nazareth there dwells a life that is not of man's
experience, hardly of man's comprehension. Is there anyone here on earth who
could draw a picture of those two lives of superhuman intensity which find in
their very intensity a most complete blending of all their movements,
affections, aspirations? Let me watch from the hilltop over Nazareth a woman
going down to the well with the pitcher poised on her head, a boy of fifteen at
her side. I know that between the two there is a love such as is not found
among the spirits that dwell before the throne of God. But I know, too, that I
am not entitled to see more lest I die of wonderment." (Vonier: The Divine
Maternity)
22 THE PRAYERS OF THE LEGION
The following are the prayers of the Legion of Mary, divided in the manner in
which they are to be said at meetings. Privately recited, this order need not
be followed.
All these prayers are to be said daily by the auxiliary members.
The sign of the cross, specified at the beginning and the end of each section
of the prayers, has reference to the dividing up of the prayers. When the
prayers are not divided up, the sign of the cross is to be made only at the
very beginning and end.
1.Prayers to be said at the opening of the meeting
In the name of the Father, etc.
Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and enkindle in them the
fire of your love.
V/. Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created.
R/. And you shall renew the face of the earth. Let us pray
God our Father, pour out the gifts of your Holy Spirit on the world. You sent
the Spirit on your Church to begin the teaching of the gospel: now let the
Spirit continue to work in the world through the hearts of all who believe.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
V/. You, O Lord, will open my lips.
R/. And my tongue shall announce your praise.
V/. Incline unto my aid, O God.
R/. O Lord, make haste to help me.
V/. Glory be to the Father, etc.
R/. As it was in the beginning, etc.
Then follow five decades of the rosary with the Hail, Holy Queen!
V/. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God.
R/. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray
O God, whose only-begotten Son, by his life, death and resurrection, has
purchased for us the rewards of eternal salvation; grant, we beseech you, that
meditating upon these mysteries in the most holy rosary of the Blessed Virgin
Mary, we may imitate what they contain, and obtain what they promise. Through
the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
|
V/. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus |
R/. Have mercy on us. |
|
V/. Immaculate Heart of Mary |
R/. Pray for us. |
|
V/. St. Joseph |
R/. Pray for us. |
|
V/. St. John the Evangelist |
R/. Pray for us. |
|
V/. St. Louis-Marie de Montfort |
R/. Pray for us. |
In the name of the Father, etc.
2. The Catena Legionis:to be said mid-way through the meeting; and daily
by every legionary.
Antiphon. Who is she that comes forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon,
bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in battle array?
My soul glorifies the Lord,*
my spirit rejoices in God, my Saviour.
He looks on his servant in her lowliness;*
henceforth all ages will call me blessed.
The Almighty works marvels for me.*
Holy his name!
His mercy is from age to age,*
on those who fear him.
He puts forth his arm in strength*
and scatters the proud-hearted.
He casts the mighty from their thrones*
and raises the lowly.
He fills the starving with good things,*
sends the rich away empty.
He protects Israel, his servant,*
remembering his mercy,
the mercy promised to our fathers,*
to Abraham and his sons for ever.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, Amen.
Antiphon. Who is she that comes forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon,
bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in battle array ?
V/. O Mary, conceived without sin.
R/. Pray for us who have recourse to you.
Let us pray
O Lord Jesus Christ, our mediator with the Father, who has been pleased to
appoint the most Blessed Virgin, your Mother, to be our mother also, and our
mediatrix with you, mercifully grant that whoever comes to you seeking your
favours may rejoice to receive all of them through her. Amen.
3. The Legion Prayer:to be said at the conclusion of the meeting. It is
set out in a form which will facilitate reading.
In the name of the Father, etc.
We fly to your patronage, O Holy Mother of God; despise not our prayers in our
necessities, but ever deliver us from all dangers, O glorious and blessed
Virgin.
V/. (Invocation appropriate to praesidium) R/. Pray for us.
[On all occasions other than praesidium meetings the invocation to be used by
all members will be:-]
|
V/. Mary Immaculate, Mediatrix of all Graces |
R/. Pray for us. |
|
V/. St. Michael and St. Gabriel |
R/. Pray for us. |
|
V/. All you heavenly Powers, Mary's Legion of Angels |
R/. Pray for us. |
|
V/. St. John the Baptist |
R/. Pray for us. |
|
V/. Saints Peter and Paul |
R/. Pray for us. |
The following is to be said in unison down to the first Amen; after that
by the priest.
Confer, O Lord, on us,
Who serve beneath the standard of Mary,
That fullness of faith in you and trust in her,
To which it is given to conquer the world.
Grant us a lively faith, animated by charity,
Which will enable us to perform all our actions
From the motive of pure love of you,
And ever to see you and serve you in our neighbour;
A faith, firm and immovable as a rock,
Through which we shall rest tranquil and steadfast
Amid the crosses, toils and disappointments of life;
A courageous faith which will inspire us
To undertake and carry out without hesitation
Great things for your glory and for the salvation of souls;
A faith which will be our Legion's Pillar of Fire -
To lead us forth united -
To kindle everywhere the fires of divine love-
To enlighten those who are in darkness and in the shadow of death-
To inflame those who are lukewarm-
To bring back life to those who are dead in sin;
And which will guide our own feet in the way of peace;
So that - the battle of life over -
Our Legion may reassemble,
Without the loss of any one,
In the kingdom of your love and glory. Amen.
May the souls of our departed legionaries
And the souls of all the faithful departed
Through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.
[Then follows immediately the blessing of the priest; or if no priest be
present: - In the name of the Father, etc.]
"Mary's faith surpassed that of all men and all angels. She saw her Son in
the stable at Bethlehem and she believed that he was the Creator of the world.
She saw him fly from Herod and she never wavered in her faith that he was the
King of kings. She saw him born, and believed him eternal. She saw him poor and
without even the elemental necessities, and nevertheless she believed him to be
the Master of the universe. She saw him lying on straw, and her faith told her
that he was the All powerful One. She saw that he spoke not a word, yet she
believed that he was the eternal Wisdom itself. She heard him cry and she
believed that he was the joy of Paradise. And in the end she saw him dying,
exposed to all manner of insult, affixed to a cross, and though the faith of
all others was shaken, yet Mary persevered in her unhesitating belief that he
was God." (St. Alphonsus Liguori)
[This quotation does not form part of the Legion prayers.]
23 THE PRAYERS INVARIABLE
The prayers of the Legion are to be regarded as invariable. Even in the
invocations, no alteration or addition is to be made, either in respect of
national, local, or particular saints, or where such alteration or addition
would be a debatable matter.
This is a demand for sacrifice, but the demand only follows on a sacrifice
which is one of the greatest of its kind, as will readily be conceded by those
who know the land from which these Constitutions have come, and who understand
the unique place in its affections held by its National Apostle.
It is true that the toleration of special invocations would not in itself be a
large departure from common usage. Yet therein is contained the germ of a
divergence in system, and the Legion dreads even that germ.
Again, the soul of the Legion is shown forth in its prayers, and it is fitting
that the latter, by a uniformity most exact, shall typify - in whatever
language they may in time be said - the complete unity of mind, heart, rule and
practice, to which the Legion exhorts all who may anywhere serve beneath its
standard.
"As you are the children of Christ, so be you children of Rome." (St.
Patrick)
"The things I pray for, dear Lord, give me the grace to labour for. (St.
Thomas More)
24 THE PATRONS OF THE LEGION
1. ST.JOSEPH
In the Legion's prayers, St. Joseph's name follows the invocations to the
Hearts of Jesus and Mary, as he ranks next to them in the Court of Heaven. He
was head of the Holy Family, fulfilling in regard to Jesus and Mary a primary
and altogether special part. The same - no more, no less - this greatest of
saints continues to render to the Mystical Body of Jesus and its Mother. The
existence and activity of the Church, and therefore of the Legion, are
sustained by Him. His care is unfailing, vital, possessed of parental intimacy;
is second only in influence to the mothering of Mary, and is to be so
appreciated by the Legion. If his love is to be potent in us, we must open
ourselves fully to it by a behaviour which reflects the intense devotion which
he lavishes on us. Jesus and Mary were ever mindful of him and grateful to him
for all he did for them. Similarly legionaries must be attentive to him in a
constant sort of way.
The Solemnity of St. Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary occurs on 19
March.
The memorial of St. Joseph the Worker, occurs on 1 May.
"We cannot dissociate the historical life of Jesus from his mystical life
continuing in the Church. It is not without reason that the Popes have
proclaimed St. Joseph protector of the Church. His task has remained ever the
same amid changing times and ways. As protector of the Church of Christ, he
does no less than carry on his earthly mission. Since the days of Nazareth,
God's family has grown and spread to the ends of the earth. Joseph's heart has
expanded to the dimension of his new fatherhood, which prolongs and surpasses
the paternity promised by God to Abraham, the father of a myriad. God does not
vary in his dealings with us; there are no second thoughts, no arbitrary
changes to His plan. All is one, ordered, consistent and continuous. Joseph,
the foster-father of Jesus, is likewise foster-father to the brethren of Jesus,
that is, to all Christians through the ages. Joseph, the spouse of Mary who
brought forth Jesus, remains mysteriously united to her while the mystical
birth of the Church proceeds in the world. Hence, the legionary of Mary who is
working to extend here below the Kingdom of God, that is the Church, rightly
claims the special protection of him who was the head of the new-born Church,
the Holy Family." (Cardinal L. J. Suenens)
2. ST.JOHN THE EVANGELIST
Designated in the Gospel as "the disciple whom Jesus loved," St. John
appears therein as the model of devotion to the Sacred Heart. Faithful to the
end, he clung to that Heart till he saw it stilled and pierced in death.
Afterwards he is manifested as the model of devotion to the Immaculate Heart of
Mary. Pure as an angel himself, he took the place which Jesus himself had
filled, and he continued to render her the love of a son till she too died.
But our Lord's third word from the cross contained more than a filial provision
for his Blessed Mother. In St. John, our Lord pointed out the human race, but
above all those who would by faith attach themselves to him. Thus was
proclaimed Mary's motherhood of men - the many brethren of whom Christ himself
was the firstborn. St. John was the representative of all these new children,
the first to enter upon the inheritance, a model to all who were to come after
him, and a saint to whom the Legion owes tenderest devotion.
He loved the Church and every soul in it, and spent every faculty in its
service. He was apostle, evangelist, and had the merit of martyr.
He was Mary's priest: therefore a special patron to the legionary priest in his
service of the organisation which aims to be a living copy of Mary.
His feast occurs on 27 December.
"When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing beside
her, he said to his mother, 'Woman, here is your son.' Then he said to the
disciple, 'Here is your mother'. And from that hour the disciple took her into
his own home." (Jn 19:26-27)
3. ST.LOUIS-MARIE DE MONTFORT
"In view of other decisions as to the inadmissibility of particular and
local patrons, the inclusion of the name of Blessed Grignion de Montfort would
at first sight appear to be debatable ground. It can, however, be safely
asserted that no saint has played a greater part in the development of the
Legion than he. The handbook is full of his spirit. The prayers re-echo his
very words. He is really the tutor of the Legion: thus invocation is due to him
by the Legion almost as a matter of moral obligation." (Decision of the
Legion placing the name of Blessed Grignion de Montfort in the list of
invocations.)
He was canonised on 20 July, 1947, and his feast occurs on 28 April.
"Not only a founder, but missionary as well! And more than missionary; for
we see yet another aspect: He is doctor and theologian, who has given us a
mariology such as no one before him had conceived. So deeply has he explored
the roots of marian devotion, so widely has he extended its horizons, that he
has become without question the announcer of all the modern manifestations of
Mary - from Lourdes to Fatima, from the definition of the Immaculate Conception
to the Legion of Mary. He has constituted himself the herald of the coming of
the reign of God through Mary, and the precursor of that longed-for salvation
which in the fullness of time the Virgin Mother of God will bring to the world
by her Immaculate Heart." (Federigo Cardinal Tedeschini, Archpriest of St.
Peter's: Discourse at unveiling of statue of St. Louis-Marie de Montfort in
Saint Peter's, 8 December, 1948)
"I clearly foresee that raging beasts will come in fury to tear to pieces
with their diabolical teeth this little book and him whom the Holy Spirit has
used to write it, or at least to bury it in the darkness and silence of a
coffer, that it might not appear. They will even attack and persecute those who
read it and put it into practice. But what matter? So much the better! This
vision encourages me and makes me hope for great success, that is to say, for a
mighty legion of brave and valiant soldiers of Jesus and Mary, of both sexes,
to fight the devil, the world, and corrupt nature in those more than ever
perilous times that are to come!" (St. Louis-Marie de Montfort (died
1716): True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary)
4. ST.MICHAEL ARCHANGEL
"Although the prince of all the heavenly court, St. Michael is the most
zealous in honouring Mary and causing her to be honoured, while he waits always
in expectation that he may have the honour to go at her bidding to render
service to some one of her servants." (St. Augustine)
St. Michael has always been the patron of the chosen people, first of the Old
Law and then of the New. He remains the loyal defender of the Church, but his
guardianship of the Jews did not lapse because they turned away. Rather it was
intensified because of their need and because they are the blood-kindred of
Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The Legion serves under St. Michael. Under his
inspiration it must strive lovingly towards the restoration of that people with
whom the Lord made an everlasting covenant of love.
The feast of the "commander of the army of the Lord" (Josh 5:14)
occurs on 29 September.
"According to Revelation, the angels who participate in the life of the
Trinity in the light of glory, are called to play their part in the history of
the salvation of man, in the moments established by Divine Providence.
'Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve, for the sake of
those who possess salvation?' asks the author of the Letter to the Hebrews.
(1:14) This is believed and taught by the Church, on the basis of Sacred
Scripture, from which we learn that the task of the good angels is the
protection of people and solicitude for their salvation." (Pope John Paul
II, General Audience, 6 August 1986)
5. ST.GABRIEL ARCHANGEL
In some of the liturgies St. Gabriel and St. Michael are jointly hailed as:
champions and princes, leaders of the heavenly army; captains of the angels;
servants of the divine glory; guardians and guides of human creatures.
St. Gabriel is the Angel of the Annunciation. It was through him that the
compliments of the Holy Trinity were addressed to Mary; that the mystery of the
Trinity was first stated to man; that the Incarnation was announced; that the
Immaculate Conception was declared; that the first notes of the Rosary were
struck.
Reference has been made above to the concern of St. Michael for the Jews.
Perhaps the same can be said of St. Gabriel and the Muslims. These believe that
it was he who communicated their religion to them. That claim, though
unfounded, represents an attention to him which he will seek to repay in a
fitting way, that is by enlightening them in respect of the Christian
revelation of which he was the custodian. But he cannot by himself effect that
transformation. Always human co-operation must play its part.
Jesus and Mary have a strangely dominant place in the Koran, being shown there
almost as in the Gospel but without any function. That holy Pair will be kept
thus waiting in Islam until someone goes to help them to explain and assert
themselves. It has been proved that the Legion has a gift in that way and that
its members are received with appreciation by the Muslims. What rich substance
for explanation lies in all that Koran material!
The united feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael is celebrated on 29
September.
"The scriptures show us one of the highest of heaven's nobility sent in
visible form to announce to Mary the mystery of the Incarnation. Mary was asked
to become the Mother of God by an angel because by her divine motherhood she
would hold sovereignty, power and dominion over all angels. 'It can be said,'
writes Pope Pius XII, 'that the Archangel Gabriel was the first heavenly
messenger of the royal office of Mary.' (Ad Coeli Reginam). Gabriel is honoured
as patron of those who undertake important missions, who bear important news
for God. He bore God's message to Mary. In that moment she took the place of
all mankind and he was representative of all the angels. Their dialogue, which
will inspire men to the end of time, made a treaty on which will arise 'new
heavens and a new earth'. How wonderful, then, was he who spoke to Mary; how
wrong it is to reduce his role to one of mere passive recitation. He had been
fully enlightened and gave evidence of the widest possible resource. Reverent
to Mary, he met fully every enquiry she made, for he was God's spokesman and
trustee. From the meeting between Gabriel and Our Lady came the renewal of
creation. The new Eve reversed the ruin wrought by the first Eve. The new Adam,
as the Head of the Mystical Body which includes the angels, restored not only
mankind but also the honour of the angels tarnished by the false angel."
(Dr. Michael O'Carroll, C.S.Sp.)
6. THE HEAVENLY POWERS, MARY'S LEGION OF ANGELS
"Regina Angelorum! Queen of the Angels! What enchantment, what a foretaste
of heaven it is to think thus of Mary our mother ceaselessly accompanied by
legions of angels !" (Pope John XXIII.)
"Mary is the general of the armies of God. The angels form the most
glorious troops of her who is terrible as an army set in battle array!"
(Boudon: The Angels.)
From the first, the angels were invoked in the Legion prayers. The form
followed was:
St. Michael, Archangel, pray for us.
Our Holy Guardian Angels, pray for us.
In this one must suppose that the Legion was guided, for the closeness of the
angels' relation to the Legion was not then so clearly seen. As time went on,
the appropriateness of the recourse to the angels became more and more evident.
It was realised that the angels are a heavenly counterpart of the legionary
campaign. This alliance has different aspects. Every legionary, active and
auxiliary, has a guardian angel who fights blow for blow at his side. In a
sense that battle means more to the angel than to the legionary, for the angel
perceives vividly the issues at stake: God's glory and the value of the
immortal soul. So the interest of the angel is most intense, and his support
unfailing. But all the other angels are likewise concerned in this warfare. For
instance all those for whom the Legion works have their guardian angels who
lend their help.
In addition, the entire angelic army hastens to the scene. For our battle is
part of the main struggle which from the first they have maintained against
satan and his minions.
An impressive place is assigned to the angels in both the Old and the New
Testaments where there are several hundred references to them. They are
represented as paralleling the human warfare and as having an intimate
protective office in regard to men. They intervene at important junctures. The
phrase constantly recurs: "God sent his angel." All the nine choirs
of angels have guardianship of some kind: over individuals, places, cities,
countries; over nature; and some even over their fellow-angels. Scripture shows
that even heathen kingdoms have their guardian angels. (Dan 4:10, 20, 10:13)
The choirs are named as being: Angels, Archangels, Cherubim, Seraphim, Powers,
Principalities, Thrones, Virtues and Dominations.
The position is, accordingly, that the angels aid as a body as well as
individually, playing a part analogous to that of an airforce in relation to a
surface army.
It was finally seen that the existing angelic invocation was not expressive of
this universal protective role of the angels. It was decided:
Prolonged discussion throughout the Legion resulted in the adoption on l9
August, 1962, of the following form of invocation:
"All ye heavenly Powers, Mary's Legion of Angels, pray for us."
The memorial of the Guardian Angels occurs on 2 October.
There is an association, called the Philangeli, which specialises in spreading
knowledge of the angels and devotion to them. Its principal centre is:
Philangeli, Hon. General Secretary, Salvatorians, 129 Spencer Road, Harrow
Weald, Middlesex HA3 7BJ, England.
"Our Lady's queenship of the angels must not be taken as a term of honour
only. Her royal office is a participation in that of Christ and he has absolute
universal dominion over creation. Theologians have not yet explained all the
modes of Our Lady's joint rule with Christ the King. But it is clear that her
royalty is a principle of action and that the effects of this action reach out
to the confines of the visible and invisible universe. She rules the good
spirits and controls the bad. Through her is made that indissoluble alliance of
human and angelic society by which all creation will be led to its true end,
the glory of the Trinity. Her queenship is our shield, for our mother and
protectress has the power to command angels to help us. For her it means active
partnership with her son in the loosening and destruction of satan's empire
over men." (Dr. Michael O'Carroll, C.S.Sp.)
7. ST.JOHN THE BAPTIST
It is a strange fact, not easily explained, that it was not until 18 December,
1949 that St. John the Baptist was formally placed among the patrons of the
Legion. For he is more intimately bound up with the devotional scheme of the
Legion than any of its other patrons, with the exception of St. Joseph.
"I believe that the mystery of John is still being accomplished in
the world of today. Whoever is to believe in Christ Jesus, the spirit and
virtue of John must first come into his soul and prepare for the Lord a perfect
people, make straight the paths in the rough places of his heart and smooth the
ways. Up to this day the spirit and virtue of John go before the coming of the
Lord and Saviour. (Origen)
8. ST.PETER
"St. Peter, as prince of the apostles, is pre-eminently the patron for an
apostolic organisation. He was the first Pope, but stands for all the
illustrious line of Pontiffs, and for the present Holy Father. In invoking St.
Peter, we express once again a Legion's loyalty to Rome, the centre of our
faith, the source of authority, discipline, unity." (Decision of the
Legion placing St. Peter's name in the list of invocations.)
The feast of Saints Peter and Paul occurs on 29 June.
"And I tell you, you are Peter,
and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail
against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you
bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be
loosed in heaven." (Mt 16:18-19)
9. ST.PAUL
A soul that is to win others must be great and wide as the ocean. To convert
the world, one's soul must be greater than the world. Such was St. Paul from
the day when a sudden light from heaven shone round about him, and threw its
radiance into his soul, and enkindled therein the burning desire to fill the
world with the Name and Faith of Christ. The Apostle of the Gentiles - his work
is his name. Untiringly he laboured till the sword of the executioner sent his
indomitable spirit to God, and then his writings lived on, and ever will live,
to continue his mission.
It is the way of the Church ever to join him with St. Peter in its prayer,
which is praise indeed. It is fitting, too, for together these two great ones
consecrated Rome by their martyrdom.
The Church celebrates their feast on the same day.
"With far greater labours, far more imprisonments, with countless
floggings, and often near death. Five times I have received from the Jews the
forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a
stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at
sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger
from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the
wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters; in toil and
hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without
food, cold and naked." (2 Cor 11:23-27)
25 THE LEGION PICTURE
"In the Old Testament we read that the Lord conducted his people from
Egypt to the land of promise, 'by day in a pillar of cloud and by night in a
pillar of fire.' (Ex 13:21) This stupendous pillar, at one time of cloud and at
another of fire, was a figure of Mary and of the various offices which she
performs on our behalf." (St. Alphonsus Liguori)
26 THE TESSERA
A leaflet called the Tessera, containing the Prayers of the Legion and bearing
a reproduction of the Legion Picture, shall be issued to every member, active
and auxiliary.
In Latin, Tessera had the particular meaning of a tally or token which was
divided among friends in order that they or their descendants might always
recognise each other. As a military expression, it signified the square tablet
upon which the watchword was written and circulated through the Roman Legion.
The Legion of Mary applies the word Tessera to the leaflet containing its
prayers and picture. Here, too, are contained the ideas of (a) universal
circulation in the Legion; (b) the setting out of the true watchword of the
Legion - its prayers; and (c) a token of unity and fraternity between all
legionaries, wherever found. Incidentally this same idea of universality
applies to the dozen other Latin terms used to designate features of the
system. These so aid intercommunication as to be quite indispensable. The
objection that they constitute a foreign element in the Legion is inadmissible.
They have so taken root as now to be legionary words. It would do grave
injustice to the Legion to strip it of such useful and distinctive plumage.
"Travellers together in this miserable world, we are all so weak that we
mutually require the supporting arm of our brother to prevent our fainting by
the way. But in the order of salvation and grace, God especially requires that
we be united together. Prayer is the bond which thus unites all hearts and
voices, making them as one. Our strength lies in united prayer; this alone will
render us invincible. Let us then hasten to unite our prayers, our efforts, our
desires together, all of which being powerful of themselves, will by union
prove irresistible." (Ramiére)
27VEXILLUM LEGIONIS THE STANDARD OF THE LEGION
The Vexillum Legionis is an adaptation of the standard of the Roman Legion. The
eagle which surmounted the standard is replaced by the Dove, the emblem of the
Holy Spirit. Beneath the Dove a cross-bar bears the inscription "Legio
Mariae" (Legion of Mary). Intermediate between cross-bar and staff (and
joined to the former by a rose and a lily) is an oval frame bearing a
representation of the Immaculate Conception (the Miraculous Medal). The staff
is set in a globe which, for use on a table, stands on a square base. The whole
design conveys the idea that the world is to be conquered by the Holy Spirit
acting through Mary and her children.
"That beautiful standard of the Legion of Mary." (Pope Pius
XI)
VEXILLUM LEGIONIS
The Standard of the Legion
"Saint Louis-Marie de Montfort has realised with the utmost clarity that
there must be no separating of the Virgin from the Holy Spirit. The Legion of
Mary has imbibed with a complete conviction his teaching in regard to that bond
of union, and for that reason is earnestly seeking for a deeper knowledge of
the doctrine of the Holy Spirit." (Laurentin)
28 GOVERNMENT OF THE LEGION
1. OF APPLICATION TO ALL GOVERNING BODIES
The combination of the functions of
such higher body with those of the lower will ensure a large and constant
attendance of members. These will not only perform the duties proper to the
lower council, but will be interested and educated in the work of the higher
body. It then becomes possible to enlist them in the all-important supervisory,
extension, and clerical work of the higher body.
It may be objected that such an expedient amounts to giving the government of a
large area to a body which is virtually a district council. This is misleading,
because it is only the nucleus of that higher council which is proper to the
district. The representatives of every affiliated council have the duty to
attend and no doubt conscientiously do so to the best of their ability. The
alternative which is proposed is that the higher council should function
separately, contenting itself with, say, four meetings in the year. By this
means it would be enabled to secure a large representative attendance. But
indeed such a proposal, alleged to be in the interests of representative
government, is far from being so in reality. For during the long intervals
between its meetings, that council must necessarily leave its functions to be
discharged by its officers. Thus only in name is the council exercising the
functions of government. As a consequence its members soon lose the sense of
responsibility and all real interest in its work.
Moreover, a body meeting so rarely would be more like a Congress than a
council. It would not possess the qualifications for governing, the chief of
which is the sense of continuity and of mental closeness to the work of
administration and its problems.
These are startling words, but they
come from a very profound thinker. St. Gregory Nazianzen says the same thing in
different terms. When analysed, what seems so strange a statement resolves itself
into this: that the "world" is lack of charity; that charity is weak
in us; that this weakness is covered to some extent by ties of relationship,
intimacy, friendship (things proper to small numbers); but that when the
numbers grow large, and criticism and disagreements operate, the weaknesses in
that charity tend to declare themselves with most unhappy results. "God
Himself and charity are one and the same thing," says St. Bernard.
"Where charity does not reign, the passions and lusts of the flesh rule.
The torch of faith, if it be not lighted by the fire of charity, will never
last long enough to guide us to eternal happiness . . . There is no true virtue
without charity."
It is of little use for legionaries to read the above pronouncements of danger,
and then to vow that amongst them "such shall never be." It can be,
and will be if there are defects of charity at their meetings, if the
supernatural spirit is allowed to weaken there. Vigilance must never relax. We
read in history that the Roman Legion never passed a night, even in the longest
marches, without pitching a camp, entrenching it, and fortifying it most
elaborately; and this even though only a single night would be spent in it,
even though the enemy was afar, even in time of peace. With some approach to
this exact discipline, let the Legion of Mary apply itself to the protection of
its camps (which are its assemblies) against the possibility of invasion by
this fatal spirit of "the world." This protection will lie in the
exclusion of all words and attitudes which are hostile to charity, and,
generally, in the saturation of the meetings with the spirit of prayer and full
Legion devotion.
"Grace, no less than nature, has its feelings and its affections.
It has its love, its zeal, its hopes, its joys, its sorrows. Now, those
'feelings' of grace have always been in their fullness in Our Blessed Lady, who
lived much more by the life of grace than by the life of nature. The vast
majority of the faithful are rather in the state of grace than in the life of
grace. Quite different to them, the Holy Virgin has been always in grace
and-more than that-in the life of grace, and in the very perfection of that
life of grace, during the whole of her time on earth." (Gibieuf: De la
Viérge Souffrante au pied de la Croix)
2. THE CURIA AND THE COMITIUM
It is manifest, therefore, that a
high degree of moral courage will be required from the Curia, and especially
from its officers, for the proper discharge of its functions.
"All the works of God are founded on unity, for they are founded on
Himself, who is the most awfully simple and transcendent of possible unities.
He is emphatically One; and whereas He is also multiform in His attributes and
His acts, as they present themselves to our minds, it follows that order and
harmony must be of His very essence." (Cardinal Newman: Order, the Witness
and Instrument of Unity. This and the next three quotations form, in the
original, one passage)
3. THE REGIA
"To be many and distinct in his attributes, yet, after all, to be but one
- to be sanctity, justice, truth, love, power, wisdom, to be at once each of
these as if he were nothing but it, as if the rest were not - this implies in
the Divine Nature an infinitely sovereign and utterly incomprehensible order,
which is an attribute as wonderful as any, and the result of all the
others." (Cardinal Newman: Order, the Witness and Instrument of Unity)
4. THE SENATUS
"God is an infinite law, as well as an infinite power, wisdom, and
love. Moreover, the very idea of order implies the idea of the subordinate. If
order exists in the Divine Attributes, they must have relations one to another,
and though each is perfect in itself, it must act so as not to impair the
perfection of the rest, and must seem to yield to the rest on particular
occasions." (Cardinal Newman: Order, the Witness and Instrument of Unity)
5. THE CONCILIUM LEGIONIS MARIAE
"Thus God's power, indeed is infinite but it is still subordinate to his
wisdom and his justice; his justice, again, is infinite, but it, too, is
subordinate to his love; and his love, in turn, is infinite, but it is
subordinate to his incommunicable sanctity. There is an understanding between
attribute and attribute, so that one does not interfere with the other, for
each is supreme in its own sphere; and thus an infinitude of infinities, acting
each in its own order, are combined together in the infinitely simple unity of
God." (Cardinal Newman: Order, the Witness and Instrument of Unity)
29 LEGIONARY LOYALTY
The whole idea of organisation is the unification of the many. From the member
up through the ascending grades of authority in the Legion must the principle
of connection exist, and in the measure that it is wanting will there be a
departure from the principle of life.
In a voluntary organisation, the cement of this connection is loyalty; the
loyalty of the member to the praesidium, of the praesidium to its Curia, and so
on through the ascending grades of legionary authority to the Concilium
Legionis; and to the ecclesiastical authorities everywhere. True loyalty will
inspire legionary and praesidium and council with a dread of independent
action. On all doubtful points, in all difficult situations, and with regard to
every new work or novel departure, recourse must be had to appropriate
authority for guidance and sanction.
The fruit of loyalty is obedience, and the test of the latter is the readiness
to accept situations and decisions which are unpalatable and let it be
remarked-to accept them cheerfully. This prompt and cordial obedience is always
difficult. Sometimes, to give it violates one's natural inclinations to such an
extent as to amount to heroism, to be in fact a sort of martyrdom. And in such
terms does St. Ignatius of Loyola speak of it. "Those," he says,
"who by a generous effort resolve to obey, acquire great merits; obedience
in its sacrifice resembles martyrdom." The Legion expects from its
children everywhere that spirit of heroic and sweet docility to proper
authority of every sort.
The Legion is an army - the army of the Virgin Most Humble. It must exhibit in
its everyday working what is forthcoming in profusion from any earthly army -
heroism and sacrifice, even supreme sacrifice. Demands of a supremely exacting
character are all the time being made on legionaries, too. Not so often are
they called on to offer their bodies to laceration and death, like the soldiers
of the world. But let them rise gloriously higher in the things of the spirit.
Let them be ready to offer their feelings, their judgment, their independence,
their pride, their will, to the wounds of contradiction and the death of a
wholehearted submission, when authority requires.
"Deep harm to disobey, seeing obedience is the bond of rule," says
Tennyson, but the Legion's life-line can be sundered by more than wilful
disobedience. The same result is achieved by the officers whose neglect of the
duties of attendance or correspondence cuts off their praesidia or councils
from the main tide of legionary life. The same deep harm is done by those,
whether officers or members, who attend their meetings, but whose attitude
there - from whatever cause-is calculated to promote disunion.
"Jesus obeyed his Mother. You have read how all that the Evangelists tell
of Christ's hidden life at Nazareth with Mary and Joseph is that 'He was
subject to them' and 'advanced in wisdom and age' (Lk 2: 51-52) Is there
anything incompatible with his divinity in this? Certainly not. The Word is
made Flesh; He has stooped so far as to take a nature like to ours, sin
excepted: He came, said he, 'not to be ministered unto, but to minister' (Mt
20:28) to be 'obedient unto death' (Phil 2:8); that is why he willed to obey
his Mother. At Nazareth he obeyed Mary and Joseph, the two privileged beings
whom God had placed near him. In a certain measure, Mary shares in the
authority of the Eternal Father over his Son's Humanity. Jesus could say of his
Mother what he said of his Father in Heaven: 'I do always the things that
please him' (Jn 8:29)" (Marmion: Christ, the Life of the Soul)
30 FUNCTIONS
The duty of periodically bringing together the members of the Legion in any
district in order that they may know each other and that the spirit of unity
may be fostered, is imposed upon each Curia.
The following are the functions of the Legion.
1. THE AClES
Bearing in mind the importance of devotion to Mary in the Legion system, each
year there shall be a consecration of legionaries to Our Lady. The consecration
- which shall comprise both an individual and a collective consecration - will
take place on the 25 March or on a day close thereto, and will be known as the
Acies. This Latin word, meaning as it does an army ranged in battle array, is appropriate
to a ceremony in which the legionaries as a body assemble to renew their fealty
to Mary, Queen of the Legion, and from her to receive strength and blessing for
yet another year's battle with the forces of evil. Moreover, the word is in
effective contrast with praesidium, which contemplates the Legion, no longer
drawn up in united array, but split up into