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Legion HANDBOOK D10944_1 26/02/2014 15:53 Page 237

CHAPTER 37 SUGGESTIONS AS TO WORKS 237
outside world.’ (Father Michael Creedon, first Spiritual
Director of Con cilium Legionis Mariae.)
Legionary visitation should be used to educate the patients
to a true conception of their sufferings, that they may bear
them in the proper spirit.
They must be persuaded that what they regard as so
intolerable is in reality a moulding to the likeness of Christ,
and as such a great favour. “No greater favour,” says St. Teresa
of Avila, “can His Majesty bestow on us than to give us a life
such as was led by His beloved Son.” It is not difficult to bring
home to people this aspect of suffering which, when once
grasped, deprives it of half its sting.
They should be helped to realise the greatness of the
spiritual treasures which they can acquire, by repeating often
to them the exclamation of St. Peter of Alcantara to one who
had long endured a most painful illness with admirable
patience:—”O happy patient, God has shown me how great a
glory you have merited by your illness. You have merited
more than others can gain by prayer, fast ing, vigils, scourging,
and other penitential works.”
It is desirable that the spending of these spiritual treasures
should possess a variety which is lacking in the earning of
them. More over, a gathering for self will not exercise so
potent an appeal. So the legionary will unfold the idea of the
apostleship of suffering. The patients should be taught to
busy themselves in the spiritual affairs of the world, offering
the treasures of their sufferings for its myriad needs, and
conducting a campaign whose force must be irresistible
because it is at once prayer and penance.
“Such hands, raised to God,” cries Bossuet, “break through
more battalions than those that strike.”
It will aid towards perseverance if the patients feel a
personal interest in what they are praying for. So it is
important that particular needs and works (notably the
legionary’s own) be singled out and described to them.
Auxiliary membership must be an early objective, and then
the adjutorian degree. Groups of these members could be
formed who would then recruit others. In every other way,
too, the patients should be encouraged to help each other.
But if those degrees of membership are practicable, why not
active membership. Many psychiatric hospitals have praesidia
com posed of patients. To have such in the institution is to set