Page 11 - 聖母軍團員手冊（英文版，2014年5月-2022年1月更新版）

Legion HANDBOOK D10944_1 26/02/2014 15:53 Page 10

10 NAME AND ORIGIN CHAPTER 1
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
atmos phere, was the inspired notion of one of the earliest
comers. It crystal lised 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 invocations died away, they sat up,
and under the auspices of Mary (as repre sen t ed by her statue),
they set themselves to the considera tion 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.”