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Legion HANDBOOK D10944_1 26/02/2014 15:53 Page 69

CHAPTER 11 SCHEME OF THE LEGION 69
Yet, insufficient seems the provision for this giant movement. When
one looks upon the multitude of beautifully conceived Orders which
cater for those who are able to abandon the world, the contrast with
the form of organisation thought good enough for those who are not
so circumstanced, is very striking. On the one hand, what intensity
and exact science, making the most of the material! On the other,
how elementary and superficial is the provision made! The system
calls, indeed, for some service from its members, but it forms for the
generality of them little more than an incident in the week’s round,
and it hardly even endeavours to play a more considerable part. There
must be a higher conception of it. Should it not be the staff of their
earthly pilgrimage—the very backbone of their whole spiritual life?
Undoubtedly the Religious Order must form the pattern for
workers in common and, other things being equal, it may be taken
that the quality of the work done will improve in the measure that
there is approximation to the Order idea. Still this brings with it the
difficulty of determining the exact degree of rule which is to be
imposed. Desirable though discipline is in the interests of efficiency,
there is always the danger of overdoing it, and narrowing the appeal
of the organisation. The fact must be borne in mind that the object in
view is permanent lay organisation—not something equivalent to a
new Religious Order, or which would eventually drift into becoming
one, and of which history is full of instances.
The aim is this, and no other: the drawing into efficient
organisation of persons living their ordinary life as we know it, and in
whom the presence of various tastes and pursuits other than purely
religious ones has to be allowed for. The amount of regulation
attempted should be no more than will be accepted by the average of
the class for whom the organisation is intended, but it should
certainly be nothing less.” (Father Michael Creedon, the first Spiritual
Director of Concilium Legionis Mariae)

3. PERFECTION OF MEMBERSHIP
The Legion wishes perfection of membership to be estimated
according to exact adherence to its system, and not according
to any satisfaction or apparent degree of success which may
attend the efforts of the legionary. It deems a member to be a
member to the degree to which he submits himself to the
Legion system, and no more. Spiritual Directors and Presidents
of praesidia are exhorted to keep this con ception of
membership ever before the minds of their members. It forms
an ideal attainable by all (success and con solation do not), and
in its realisation will alone be found the corrective to
monotony, to distasteful work, to real or imagined failure,