Page 43 - 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 42

42 THE LEGIONARY AND THE HOLY TRINITY CHAPTER 7
of that emblem. This was strange, for that design was the
product of artistic and not of theological thinking. A non-
religious emblem, that is, the Standard of the Roman Legion,
had been taken and adapted to the purposes of the Marian
Legion. The Dove entered in by mode of substitution for the
Eagle; and Our Lady’s image was in substitution for the image
of the Emperor or Consul. Yet the final result portrayed the
Holy Spirit as using Mary as the channel to the world of his
life-giving influences, and as having taken possession of the
Legion.
And later, when the Tessera picture was painted, it illustra -
ted the same devotional position: the Holy Spirit broods over
the Legion. By his power the undying warfare accomplishes
itself: the Virgin crushes the head of the serpent: her bat talions
advance to their foretold victory over the adverse forces.
It is an additional picturesque circumstance that the colour
of the Legion is red, and not, as might be expected, blue. This
was determined in connection with the settling of a minor
detail, that is the colour of Our Lady’s halo in the vexillum
and in the Tessera picture. It was felt that Legion symbolism
required that Our Lady be shown as full of the Holy Spirit,
and that this should be denoted by making her halo of his
colour. This drew with it the further thought that the Legion’s
colour should be red. The same note is struck in the Tessera
picture, which depicts Our Lady as the biblical Pillar of Fire,
all luminous and burning with the Holy Spirit.
So, when the Legion Promise was composed, it was
consistent — though initially causing some surprise — that it
should be directed to the Holy Spirit and not to the Queen of
the Legion. Again that vital note is struck: it is always the
Holy Spirit who regenerates the world—even to the bestowing
of the smallest individual grace; and his agency is always
Mary. By the operation of the Holy Spirit in Mary, the Eternal
Son is made Man. Thereby, mankind is united to the Holy
Trinity, and Mary herself is placed in a distinct, unique
relation to each Divine Person. That three-fold place of Mary
must at least be glimpsed by us, inasmuch as an
understanding of the divine arrangements is the choicest sort
of grace, one which is not intended to be out of our reach.
The saints are insistent on the necessity for thus
distinguishing between the Three Divine Persons and for