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Legion HANDBOOK D10944_1 26/02/2014 15:53 Page 78

78 THE EXTERNAL AIMS OF THE LEGION CHAPTER 12
from the Legion. While shunning anything suggestive of worldliness,
nevertheless, the Legion must ever be mindful of the world in the
sense of the above Decree. It must realise that man has to live amid
material things and that his salvation is to a large extent bound up
with them.” (Father Thomas P. O’Flynn C.M., a former Spiritual
Director of Concilium Legionis Mariae)

4. IN HIGH ENTERPRISE FOR GOD
Such a chivalry is needed at this time of particular peril for
religion. Secularism and irreligion, aided by able propaganda,
spread their corrupting influences in constantly widening
circles and seem capable of engulfing the world.
Compared with these formidable forces, what a modest little
flock the Legion is. Yet that very contrast emboldens one. The
Legion is composed of souls who are united to the Virgin most
Powerful. More, it contains within itself great principles, and it
knows how to apply them in effective ways. It may be that he
who is mighty will do great things to it, and through it.
The aims of the Legion of Mary and of those other legions
which deny “our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 4)
are diametrically opposed. That of the Legion is to bring God
and religion to every soul; the object of the other forces is to
accomplish the very opposite. But it is not to be thought that
the legionary scheme was conceived in deliberate opposition
to this empire of unbelief. Things worked out more simply. A
little band gathered around a statue of Our Lady and said to
her: “Lead us”. United to her, they began the visitation of an
immense infirmary, filled with the sick and sorrowful and
broken ones of a great city, seeing her Beloved Son in each of
them. They came to understand that so also is he in each
member of humanity and that they should join in Mary’s
mother-work for him in each one. So, hand in hand with her,
they set about their simple work of service, and lo, they have
grown into a legion; and over the world that Legion is doing
those simple acts of the love of God in man, and of the love
of men for the sake of God; and in every place that love
shows its power to stir and win hearts.
Likewise, the secularistic systems profess the love and
service of man. They preach a hollow gospel of fraternity.
Millions believe that gospel. In its name, they desert a religion