Page 80 - 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 79

CHAPTER 12 THE EXTERNAL AIMS OF THE LEGION 79
which they think to be inert. And yet the position is not a
hopeless one. There is a way of bringing back to Faith those
determined millions, and of saving countless other millions.
That hope lies in the application of a great principle which
rules the world, and which St. John Vianney, the Cure of Ars,
has stated thus: “The world belongs to him who loves it most,
and who proves that love.” People cannot help seeing, and
being moved by a real faith which operates through a real
heroic love for all men. Convince them that the Church loves
them most, and they will return to Faith in spite of
everything. They will even lay down their lives for that Faith.
No common love can conquer men thus. Neither will it be
accomplished by a mediocre Catholicism which can hardly
preserve itself. It can be done by a Catholicism which loves
Christ its Lord with all its heart, and then sees him and loves
him in all men of whatsoever description. But this supreme
charity of Christ must be practised on such a scale that they
who look on are driven to admit that it is indeed a character -
istic of the Church, and not merely the acts of sublime
members of the Church. Therefore, it must be exhibited in
the lives of the general body of the laity.
But it seems a hopeless thing to fire the entire household of
the Church with this exalted spirit? Yes, the task is herculean!
So unending, indeed, are the perspectives of the problem, so
infinite the hosts which possess the land, that even the
courage of the strongest heart might well fail. But Mary is the
heart of the Legion, and that heart is faith and love
unutterable. So thinking, the Legion looks out over the world,
and all at once excited hope is born: “The world belongs to
him who loves it most.” Then it turns to its great Queen, as it
did at the beginning: “Lead us!”

“The Legion of Mary and its opposing forces, secularism and ir -
religion, confront each other. These forces, sustained by constant
propaganda through the press, television, and video, have brought
abortion, divorce, contra ception, drugs and every form of indecency
and brutality into the heart of every home. The simplicity and
innocence of every new born babe is there fore left open to these
devastating influences.
Nothing short of total mobilisation of the Catholic people will
avail to resist that indoctrination. For this purpose the Legion of Mary
possesses the perfect machinery. But machinery itself is useless
without a sufficient driving force. This motive power lies in the