Page 62 - 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 61

CHAPTER 10 THE LEGION APOSTOLATE 61
3. THE LEGION AND THE LAY APOSTOLATE
Like many another great principle, the apostolate is in itself
something cold and abstract. Hence there is a very real danger
that it may not exercise an appeal, so that the laity does not
respond to the high destiny which has been held out to it,
and, worse still, may even be deemed to be incapable of
responding. The disastrous sequel would be that the effort to
make the laity play its proper and indispensable part in the
battle of the Church would be abandoned.
But, in the words of one qualified to judge, Cardinal Riberi,
formerly Apostolic Delegate to missionary Africa and later

Inter nuncio to China: “The Legion of Mary is apostolic
duty decked out in attractive and alluring form; throbbing
with life so that it wins all to it; undertaken in the manner
stipulated by Pope Pius XI, that is, in dependence on the
Virgin Mother of God; insistent on quality as the founda -
tion of membership and even as the key to numerical
strength; safe guarded by plenteous prayer and self-
sacrifice, by exact system, and by complete co-operation
with the priest. The Legion of Mary is a miracle of these
modern times.”
To the priest the Legion gives the respect and obedience
which are owing to lawful superiors, yet more than this. Its
apostolate is built upon the fact that the main channels of
grace are the Mass and the sacramental system, of which the
priest is the essential minister. All the strivings and expedients
of that apostolate must have in view this great end: the
bringing of the divinely-appointed nourishment to the
multitude, sick and hungering. It follows that a first principle
of legionary action must be the bringing of the priest to the
people, not always in person — for that may be impossible —
but every where in influence and in understanding.
This is the essential idea of the Legion apostolate. Lay it will
be in bulk of membership, but working in inseparable union
with the priests, and under their captaincy, and with absolute
identity of interests. It will ardently seek to supplement their
efforts, and to widen their place in the lives of men, so that
men, receiving them, shall receive him who sent them.
“Very truly, I tell you, whoever receives one whom I send receives
me; and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.” (Jn 13:20)