Legion of Mary Blog

Allocutio

Fr. Peffley gave the Allocutio. He talked about the importance of signing up and keeping auxiliaries. Auxiliaries are vital for a strong healthy army. If an army is cut off from its supplies, how long would the front lines last? We need the auxiliaries to supply the prayers. He gave the example of a bird without wings. A praesidium without auxiliaries hobbles along. Those with wings fly above the mountains. There is a necessity of visiting the auxiliaries after the three-month probationary period. Then they should be visited personally every year.

 
When visits are made, we should tell them how important they and their daily prayers are to the Legion. Offer them a new Tessera and thank them for their prayers. Ask if they are faithful in saying the prayers. Take copies of the Legion magazine and encourage them to subscribe so they can see they are praying for the Legion all over the world. Give them holy cards and pamphlets of the potential Legion saints and explain who they are. Ask if they are familiar with the De Montfort Consecration and whether they have read, True Devotion.Ask if they wear the brown scapular and the Miraculous Medal and enroll them. Give them a copy of the “Wings” newsletter. This can be emailed to them directly or you can print it out and make copies and mail it out to them.

 
Suggest they join the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary at The Rosary Center, P.O. Box 3617, Portland, Oregon 97208. Give them a copy of the book, Secret of the Rosary. Recommend the writings of Frank Duff and give them old Handbooks. Send an invitation to the auxiliaries for a Patricians Meeting. Mention adjutorian membership and invite them to become active members. Invite them to the Acies by letter and then give them a phone call.

 
There is a gold mine of opportunity by keeping in touch with the auxiliaries. Sometimes people sign them up, and then the auxiliaries never hear from them again. We must manage the auxiliaries we have. We should have a Mass said in October and hold a day of recollection, or invite them to attend the November Mass for deceased Legionaries.  It could be followed by coffee and donuts with a Legion priest giving a talk about the Legion. We are the army of the Legion and the auxiliaries are the support. The more they pray the more we will see the fruits in active work.

PETER: SCHOOL OF FAITH IS NOT A TRIUMPHAL MARCH
 
VATICAN CITY, MAY 24, 2006 (VIS) - In his general audience today, Benedict XVI continued his catechesis dedicated to the personality of the Apostles, focussing again on the figure of Peter. The audience was held in St. Peter’s Square and attended by 35,000 people.
 
  The Pope began by recalling the miracles of the loaves and the fishes, which Christ later interpreted “not in the sense of regality over Israeli, in the way the crowd had hoped, but in the sense of the giving of self. … Jesus announced the cross, and with the cross the Eucharistic bread: His absolutely new way of being king.”
 
  “We can understand that these words of the Master, as all His behavior, were difficult for people to accept, even for the disciples,” said the Holy Father. Peter’s faith, he added, “was still a nascent faith, a developing faith. It would acquire true fullness only through his experience of the events of Easter. Yet it was already faith, open to a greater reality, above all because it was not faith in something, but faith in Someone: in Him, in Christ.”
 
  The Holy Father went on: “Nonetheless, Peter’s impetuous generosity did not safeguard him from the risks of human weakness. … The moment came in which even he gave in to fear and crumbled. He betrayed the Master. The school of faith is not a triumphal march but a road beset with suffering and with love, with trials and with faithfulness, to be renewed day after day.
 
  “Peter, who had promised absolute faithfulness, knew the bitterness and humiliation of denial; the proud man learns the cost of humility at his own expense. … When the mask finally fell and he understood the truth in his weak believing-sinner’s heart, he burst into liberating tears of penance, after which he was ready for his mission.”
 
  One day, on the shores of Lake Tiberias, “that mission was entrusted to him by the Risen Jesus,” as St. John recounts. The dialogue between Peter and Jesus, the Pope observed, “contains a very significant play of verbs. In Greek, the verb ‘fileo’ expresses the love of friendship, tender but not total, while the verb ‘agapao’ means unreserved, complete and unconditional love. The first time, Jesus asks Peter: ‘Simon, do you love Me? (agapas-me?).’
 
  “Prior to his experience of betrayal, the Apostle would certainly have replied: ‘I love You (agapo-se).’ Now that he has known the bitter sadness of infidelity, the drama of his own weakness, he simply says: ‘Lord, I love you (filo-se),’ in other words, ‘I love you with my poor love.’ … Simon had understood that his poor love, the only one of which he was capable, was enough for Jesus. … We could almost say that Jesus had adapted Himself to Peter, rather than Peter to Jesus.”
 
  Pope Benedict continued: “It was precisely this divine adaptation that gave hope to the disciple. … From that day, Peter followed the Master with a specific awareness of his own frailty. But this knowledge did not discourage him; he knew he could count on the presence of the Risen One at his side.”
 
  He concluded: “From the ingenuous enthusiasm of the outset, passing through the painful experience of denial and the tears of conversion, Peter came to trust himself to the Jesus Who had adapted Himself to his own poor capacity to love. It was a long journey that made him a reliable witness, because constantly open to the action of the Spirit in Jesus. Peter would describe himself as ‘a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that is to be revealed’.”
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