Page 121 - 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 119

CHAPTER 19 THE MEETING AND THE MEMBER 119
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 (a) the setting
of the meeting faithfully according to rule; (b) the orderly
succession of duty to duty; (c) the punctual taking of business
as prescribed; (d) the pervading note of Mary as the
mainspring of that order; does the Legion rely for the
development in its members of the spirit of discipline,
without which the meeting is as a clear head on a paralysed