Page 119 - 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 117

CHAPTER 19 THE MEETING AND THE MEMBER 117
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 com munication 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