Page 183 - 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 178

178 FUNCTIONS CHAPTER 30
Sometimes all the legionaries are brought to the Congress,
sometimes only the officers of praesidia. In the former case it
would be allowable at the first session to divide the
legionaries according to their different offices, the ordinary
members being in one body. Then, the special duties and
needs of each would be considered. Or alternatively, the
legionaries could be divided according to the works on which
they are engaged. But such dividing up is optional, and in any
case the subsequent sessions should not be subdivided. It
would be inconsistent to bring the members together and
then keep them separated for most of the time. It is to be
noted that the duty of officers has a wider scope than the
routine functions belonging to each office. A Secretary, for
instance, whose official horizon was bounded by his minute
book would indeed be a defective officer. As all the officers are
members of the Curia, their session must investigate methods
of perfecting the working of the Curia, both in regard to its
actual meetings and its general administration.
A Congress must not amount merely to a Curia meeting,
occupy ing itself with the same administrative details and
queries that would fall to be dealt with at the Curia. It should
apply itself to the fundamentals. But of course all the lessons
learned at the Congress should be put into force by the Curia.
The subjects to be dealt with should concern the main
principles of the Legion, broadly:
(a) The devotional system of the Legion. The Legion is not
under stood unless its many-sided devotional aspect is to some
reasonable extent grasped by the members; and the Legion is
not being properly worked unless that devotion be linked to
the active work so intimately as to be its motive and its spirit;
in other words, the devotion must animate the whole work as
the soul animates the body.
(b) The legionary qualities, and how they are to be developed.
(c) The methodical system of the Legion, including the
conducting of the meetings and the vital matter of the
members’ reports, that is, the manner of giving them and of
commenting on them.
(d) The Legion works, including the improvement of
methods and the planning of those new works which will
enable the Legion to reach out to every person.