Substantial Active Legionary Work
Some principles of the Legion are so precious that we should go back to them again and again. In fact, we should never stop thinking of them and putting them into practice. Without them the Legion would cease to exist. They are the basic nourishment of the Legion spirit. When they are fully lived, grace and joy flow superabundantly through the Legion into the mystical Body of Christ, the Church.
These principles are contained in the Standing Instruction that must be read out at the first meeting of each month. Today I want to reflect, once more, on the third requirement of Legion duty: ‘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’. Frank Duff, our Founder, wrote with the utmost care every word of these requirements.
It should be legionary work: that means the work should be mandated by the praesidium and done in a spirit of obedience. There is no question of just doing our own thing. Obviously, there is a sense in which the Legionary is always on duty and is encouraged to do apostolic work whenever the opportunity arises. But the work we should do specifically as a legionary is the work assigned to us by the praesidium. Otherwise we could end up doing everything except what we have been asked to do.
The Legion has as its primary aim the making of saints but the specific character of Legion holiness is its apostolic character. And there can be no doubt that the best way to develop an apostolic spirit is by actually engaging in the apostolate.
Legionaries meet each week not only to pray together or exchange beautiful in sights into the spiritual life, and certainly not to become a talk shop. Along with the indispensable prayer component of the meeting must be the indispensable planning and executing of genuine apostolic work for the salvation of souls. And preference should always be given to the souls who are in gravest need of the maternal care of Mary and the grace of conversion. Our devotion to Mary will easily become mere lip service if there is little real zeal for the work of the salvation of souls. So the praesidium must ask at least once every month: are we really doing substantial work for the salvation of souls? Could we be doing more for this most worthy of objectives?
The work should be substantial, that is, a couple of hours a week and done in a supernatural spirit of faith and it must be done in the closest union with Mary. Our Legion work is a profound and practical way of living true devotion to Mary. Its essential aim should be to instil knowledge and love of Mary in others that will lead them to seek to share in Mary’s maternal care of souls. The words of St. Pius X come to mind at this point: ‘As soon as devotion to the august Mary has driven deep its roots into souls, then - and not till then - will he who labours for those souls see proceed from them the fruits of virtue and sanctity corresponding to his toils on their behalf.’ Then we have one of the unforgettable lines describing the spirit of the Legion: ‘working… 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’. This means giving our whole lives to Mary so that she can love Jesus through us and serve Him in our fellow legionaries and in those whom we meet and work with in our apostolate.
By way of conclusion let me suggest that a legionary who does not perfonn some substantial active legionary work every week will soon cease to be worthy of the name of legionary. This is particularly true of legionaries who are members of higher councils and must lead by example. Certainly if any legionary should habitually fail to do this substantial apostolic weekly work, they should seriously consider leaving the Legion or better still praying for the grace to rediscover the essential spirit of the Legion.
The Handbook seems to me to be equivalently saying the same thing in several passages. For example: ‘a main consideration is the allocation of active work to each member. Without substantial work there is no praesidium.’ Or, ‘Similarly, members of a praesidium, which is not engaged in some fonn of active work, have no right to the name of legionaries of Mary. It is reiterated that spiritual exercises do not satisfy the legionary obligation to do active work. The inactive praesidium is not only untrue to the Legion purpose of showing a virile apostolate in action, but it does a further grave injustice to the Legion. It creates the impression that the Legion is not suited to the doing of certain work, whereas the real fact is that the Legion, though perfectly capable, is not even being employed on that work.’
Hopefully, the worldwide Legion is overwhelmingly faithful to the perfonnance of substantial apostolic work every week because therein lies the source of magnificent graces and the best fonnation of its members. The Legion is called not only to be a school of saints but saints who are all great apostles. Needless to say the monthly reading of the Standing Instruction is a very wise rule of the Legion.
