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Legion HANDBOOK D10944_1 26/02/2014 15:53 Page 204

204 BASIC DUTIES OF LEGIONARIES CHAPTER 33
thoughts, desires and affections converge on our Lord. The
model for achieving this is Our Blessed Lady. She continually
advanced in holiness, for spiritual progress, is, most of all,
progress in charity or love, and charity grew in Mary during
her whole life.
“All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the
fulness of Christian life and to the perfection of love.... All the
faithful are invited and obliged to holiness and the perfection
of their own state of life.” (LG 40, 42) Holiness is a practical
attainment. “All of holiness consists in the love of God, and
all of the love of God consists in doing his will.” (St.
Alphonsus Liguori)
“To be able to discover the actual will of the Lord in our lives
always involves the following: a receptive listening to the Word
of God and the Church, fervent and constant prayer, recourse
to a wise and loving spiritual guide, and a faithful discernment
of the gifts and talents given by God as well as the diverse
social and historic situations in which one lives.” (CL 58)
The spiritual formation of legionaries at praesidium level
greatly helps in the development of their holiness. But it must
be noted that the spiritual guidance given is collective. Since
each member is a unique individual with personal needs, it is
desirable that the collective be supplemented by individual
guidance and consequently that the member avail of a “wise
and loving spiritual guide” (ibid.)
There are three necessary requirements for a Christian life:
prayer, mortification and sacraments, and they are
interconnected:
(a) Prayer
It has to be private as well as public, because there are two
sides to our nature, individual as well as social. The duty of
worship obliges us primarily as individuals, but the whole
community, linked together by social bonds, is bound by it
also. The liturgy, like the Mass and the Divine Office, is the
public worship of the Church. However Vatican Council II
comments: “The Christian is indeed called to pray with others,
but he must also enter into his room to pray to his Father in
secret; furthermore, according to the teaching of the apostle, he
must pray without ceasing.” (SC 12) Private forms of prayer
include: “meditation [or mental prayer], examination of