Page 34 - 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 33

CHAPTER 6 THE DUTY OF LEGIONARIES TOWARDS MARY 33
Accordingly, the Legion is not built, as some suppose, upon
two principles, that is, Mary and apostleship, but upon the
single principle of Mary, which principle embraces
apostleship and (rightly under stood) the entire Christian life.
Wishful thinking is proverbially an empty process. A mere
verbal offering of our services to Mary can be as empty. It is
not to be thought that apostolic duties will descend from
Heaven on those who content themselves with waiting
passively for that to happen. It is rather to be feared that
those idle ones will continue in their state of unemployment.
The only effective method of offering ourselves as apostles is
to undertake apostleship. That step taken, at once Mary
embraces our activity and incorporates it in her motherhood.
Moreover, Mary cannot do without that help. But surely
this suggestion goes too far? How could the Virgin so
powerful be dependent on the aid of persons so weak? But,
indeed, such is the case. It is a part of the divine arrangement
which requires human co-operation and which does not save
man otherwise than through man. It is true that Mary’s
treasury of grace is superabundant, but she cannot spend
from it without our help. If she could use her power
according to her heart alone, the world would be converted in
the twinkling of an eye. But she has to wait till the human
agencies are available to her. Deprived of them, she cannot
fulfil her motherhood, and souls starve and die. So, she
welcomes eagerly any who will really place themselves at her
disposal, and she will utilise them, one and all; not only the
holy and the fit, but likewise the infirm and the unfit. So
needed are they all that none will be rejected. Even the least
can transmit much of the power of Mary; while through those
that are better she can put forth her might. Bear in mind how
the sunlight streams dazzlingly through a clean window and
struggles through a dirty one.
“Are not Jesus and Mary the New Adam and Eve, whom the tree of
the Cross brought together in anguish and love for the repairing of
the fault committed in Eden by our first parents? Jesus is the source
and Mary the channel of the graces which give us spiritual rebirth
and aid us to win back our heavenly home.’’
“Along with the Lord let us bless her whom he has raised up to be
the mother of mercy, our queen, our most loving mother, mediatrix
of his graces, dispenser of his treasures. The Son of God makes his
mother radiant with the glory, the majesty and the might of his own