Page 248 - 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 243

CHAPTER 37 SUGGESTIONS AS TO WORKS 243
children. Mass-missing by children he held to be one of the
chief sources of all later trouble. A Sunday morning visitation
of the homes of children (whose names should be ascertained
from school rolls, etc.) will be found to be of sovereign efficacy.
Incidentally, it is to be borne in mind that children are
seldom bad of themselves. Where they are found to be
exempting themselves from this elementary Catholic
requirement, it can be taken as certain that they are the victims
of parental indifference and bad example, and the Legion
apostolate should proceed mindful of this additional evil.
In the case of children, more even than in other directions,
a spasmodic or short-term visitation will accomplish little or
nothing.
(b) Visitation of the homes of children. In connection
with the visitation of children in their own homes, stress is
laid upon an important consideration. It is that an entry to
families which otherwise would be, for various reasons,
inaccessible to religious workers, may readily be secured when
the stated purpose is the approaching of the children of that
family. For it is a fact, springing from the natural relation of
parent to child, that zeal for the child is above zeal for self.
Ordinary parents have regard for the interests of their child
even when they are forgetful of their own. The hardest heart
softens somewhat at the thought of its own child. Persons
may be dead to religion themselves, but deep-rooted impulses
bid them not to wish their children the same fate, and
instinctive joy is felt at seeing the movements of grace in
their children. As a consequence, one who would repulse
rudely and even violently those who seek to approach him
directly on a spiritual mission, will tolerate the same workers
when their mission is to his children.
Competent legionaries, once admitted to the home, will
know how to make all the members of that family feel the
radiation of their apostolate. A sincere interest in the children
will usually make a favourable impression on the parents.
This can be skilfully utilised to cultivate in them the seed of
the supernatural so that, as the children had been the key to
their parents’ home, likewise they will prove to be the key to
their parents’ hearts and eventually to their souls.