Page 288 - 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 283

CHAPTER 39 CARDINAL POINTS OF THE LEGION APOSTOLATE 283
What an electrifying thought! Christ our King in the
possession, so to speak, of the enemy! What a watchword for
a lifelong campaign, for the grimmest battle ever waged, for
an unrelenting pursuit of the soul that must be converted in
order that Christ’s agony be ended! Everything that is natural
must be burnt up in the white-hot act of faith that sees and
loves and stands by Christ crucified in that sinner. Just as the
toughest steel turns to liquid at the fiery breath of the blow-
lamp, so will the most hardened heart soften under the flame
of that invincible charity.
A legionary of wide experience of the most depraved
sinners of a great city was asked if he had met any that were
absolutely hopeless. Reluctant, as a legionary, to acknowledge
the existence of that category, he replied that many were
terrible but few were hopeless. Being pressed, he eventually
admitted that he knew of one who seemed to be capable of
being so described.
That very evening he received his overwhelming rebuke.
Quite accidentally he met in the street the person he had
named. Three minutes’ conversation, and the miracle of a
complete and lasting conversion took place!
“One episode stands out in the life of Saint Madeleine Sophie, in
which the faithful pursuit of a soul is seen in all its pathos. For twenty-
three years she clung with persistent love to one whom God’s
providence had brought across her path: a lost sheep, who but for the
Saint could never have found the fold. Where Julie came from, no one
ever knew—she never told her own story twice in the same way. But
she was alone and poor and of a difficult and wayward disposition;
like nothing in ordinary life, it was said; deceitful, treacherous, mean,
passionate to the verge of frenzy. But the Saint saw only a soul, found
in dangerous places by the Good Shepherd and put into her care by
him. She adopted her as her own child, wrote more than two hundred
letters to her, and suffered much on her account. Repaid by calumny
and ingratitude, the Saint still held on, forgave her again and again,
and ever hoped . . . Julie died seven years after the Saint and in peace
with God.” (Monahan: Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat)

3. LEGIONARY COURAGE
Each profession calls for its own particular type of courage,
and counts as unworthy the member without that courage.
The Legion’s demand is especially for moral courage. Nearly