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Legion HANDBOOK D10944_1 26/02/2014 15:53 Page 35

CHAPTER 6 THE DUTY OF LEGIONARIES TOWARDS MARY 35
be found wanting. Therefore, the fate of the enterprise may be
said to depend entirely on the legionary, so that he must
bring to it all his intelligence and all his strength, perfected
by careful method and by perseverance.
Even if it were known that Mary were going to give a desired
result independent of the legionary effort, nevertheless that
effort must be exerted in its fulness, with just the same
intensity as if all depended on it. While placing a limitless
confidence in the aid of Mary, the legionary’s effort must
always be pitched at its maximum. His generosity must always
rise as high as his trust. This principle of the necessary inter-
action of boundless faith with intense and methodical effort is
expressed in another way by the saints, when they say that
one must pray as if all depended on that prayer and nothing
on one’s own efforts; and then one must strive as if absolutely
everything depended on that striving.
There must be no such thing as proportioning the output of
effort to one’s estimate of the difficulty of the task, or of
thinking in terms of “just how little can I give to gain the
object in view?” Even in worldly matters, such a bargaining
spirit constantly defeats itself. In supernatural things it will
always fail, for it forfeits the grace on which the issue really
hangs. Moreover, human judgments cannot be depended on.
The apparent impossibility often collapses at a touch; while,
on the other hand, the fruit which hangs almost within reach,
may persistently elude the hand, and at long last be harvested
by someone else. In the spiritual order the calculating soul will
sink to smaller and smaller things and finally end in
barrenness. The only certain way lies in unrestricted effort.
Into each task, trivial or great, the legionary will throw
supreme effort. Perhaps that degree of effort is not needed. It
may be that a touch would be sufficient to bring the work to
completion; and were the completion of the task the only
objective, it would be legitimate to put forth that slight effort
and no more. One would not, as Byron says, uplift the club of
Hercules to crush a butterfly or brain a gnat.
But legionaries must be brought to realise that they do not
work directly for results. They work for Mary quite
irrespectively of the simplicity or the difficulty of the task;
and in every employment the legionary must give the best
that is in him, be it little or be it great. Thereby is merited the