Page 189 - 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 184

184 OBJECTIONS WHICH MAY BE ANTICIPATED CHAPTER 32
apostolate in the general populace are necessary in these days,
if religion is to be prevented from settling down into routine
or materialism. Thirdly, the patient and intensive labours of
such workers are required for the shepherding of those whose
lives are frustrated or of those whose tendency is to stray.
On all superiors rests responsibility for developing to the
full the spiritual capacity of those in their charge. What then,
of apostleship, that distinctive and essential ingredient of the
Christian character? Therefore, the call to the apostolate must
be made. But to call, without providing the means for
responding, is little better than silence, for few of those who
hear will have the ability to work out the means for
themselves. Thus, machinery, in the shape of an apostolic
organisation, must be set up.

2. “Persons suitable for membership are not available”
As this objection usually proceeds from a misconception as
to the type of worker required, it may in general be stated that
every office, shop, and place of work holds potential
legionaries.
Those potential legionaries may be learned or unlettered,
labourers or leisured, or in the ranks of the unemployed. They
are not the monopoly of any particular colour, race, or class,
but can be found in all. The Legion has the special gift of
being able to enlist in the service of the Church this hidden
force, this undeveloped loveli ness of character. Mgr. Alfred
O’Rahilly, as the result of a study of Legion activity, was
moved to write as follows: “I made a great discovery, or rather
I found that the discovery had been made, that there is a
latent heroism in seemingly ordinary men and women;
unknown sources of energy had been tapped.”
Standards for membership should not go beyond those
which the Popes have had in mind when they declared that
in any class whatever an elite could be formed and trained to
the apostolate.
In this connection, paragraph 3 (b) of chapter 31, Extension
and Recruiting should be read most carefully; also chapter 40,
section 7, “The Legion as the complement of the Missionary,”
which urges the wide extension of legionary membership
among the newly-won Christian communities.