Page 263 - 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 258

258 SUGGESTIONS AS TO WORKS CHAPTER 37
This is the recommendation of His Holiness Pope Pius XI, in
the Encyclical quoted below, to those “companies of pious lay
people who have ambition to serve the Apostolic Hierarchy by
the works of Catholic Action. In these sacred Retreats they will
see clearly the value of souls and be inflamed with the desire
of helping them; likewise, they will learn the ardent spirit of
the apostolate, its diligence, its deeds of daring.”
The emphasis laid by that great Pope on the forming of
apostles is to be noted. Sometimes that purpose is not served;
apostles do not emerge. In that case the utility of those
Retreats is to be doubted.
Legionaries need not be deterred from trying to cast abroad
the benefits of a Retreat by reason of the fact that there is no
possibility of providing sleeping accommodation. Practical
experience has proved that a form of Retreat, with manifest
fruits, can be accomplished in a single day from morning to
night: indeed there is no other way of bringing the system to
the masses. Almost any sort of premises with some grounds
attached can be converted to this use for a day, and the
expense of providing a few simple meals will not be great.

“The Divine Master himself was wont to invite his apostles to the
friendly silence of retreat: ‘Come apart into a desert place, and rest a
little.’ (Mk 6:31) When he left this earth of sorrows to go to heaven, he
willed that these same apostles and his disciples should be polished
and perfected in the upper chamber at Jerusalem. There for the space
of ten days ‘persevering with one mind in prayer’ (Acts 1:14), they
were made worthy to receive the Holy Spirit: surely a memorable
retreat, which first foreshadowed the Spiritual Exercises; from which
the Church came forth endowed with virtue and perpetual strength;
and in which, in presence of the Virgin Mary Mother of God, and
aided by her patronage, those also were instituted whom we may
rightly call the precursors of Catholic Action.” (MN 5)

17. PIONEER TOTAL ABSTINENCE ASSOCIATION OF
THE SACRED HEART
An admirable activity for a praesidium would unquestion -
ably be the recruiting of members for this Association. The
primary aim of the Association is the glory of God through
the promotion of sobriety and temperance; its chief means of
attaining this aim are prayer and self-sacrifice. Members are
inspired by their personal love of Christ (a) to be independent