Object of the Legion of Mary

“The object of the Legion of  Mary is the glory of God through the holiness of its members developed by prayer and active co-operation, under ecclesiastical guidance, in Mary’s and the Church’s work of crushing the head of the serpent and advancing the reign of Christ.”  This quote from page 11 of the Handbook aptly describes the object of the Legion. 

It is sometimes easy to forget that people join the Legion of Mary for the purpose of giving glory to God, through increasing their own personal holiness.  The Legion of Mary seeks to turn average Catholics into normal Catholics.  In other words, it seeks to turn every-day, typical Catholics into people who live out their Catholic faith, as they ought to.

The Handbook says, “Does not St. John Chrysostom say that he had never succeeded in persuading himself that anyone could achieve salvation who had never done anything for the salvation of his neighbor?”

The Legion of Mary engages in the work of proclaiming the good news to all creation, because doing so is needed for our own personal holiness.  We cannot give glory to God by our own holiness, unless we seek to inflame the world with love of Christ Jesus.

According to the Handbook:

Material relief must not be given — even in the smallest ways; and experience shows that it is necessary to mention that old clothing belongs to this category. In ruling thus, the Legion does not slight the act of relief giving in itself. It simply declares that for the Legion it is impracticable. To give to the poor is a good work. Done with a supernatural motive it is a sublime one. The systems of many great societies rest upon this principle; notably that of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul to whose example and spirit the Legion rejoices to proclaim itself deeply indebted — so much, in fact, as to make it possible to say that the roots of the

Legion lay in that Society. But to the Legion is assigned a different field of duty. Its system is built upon the principle of bringing spiritual good to every individual in the population. This program and one of relief-giving are not compatible in practice because:

(a) The visits of an organization which gives relief will seldom be welcomed by persons who do not need relief. They will fear lest such a visitation would label them in the eyes of their neighbors as benefiting in some material way. So the praesidium which earns the name of relief-giving will quickly

find its field of work narrowed exceedingly. Material relief may be to other societies a key which opens. It is the key with which the Legion locks itself out.

(b) Those who expect to receive, and are disappointed, become aggrieved and hence impervious to legionary influence.

(c) Even among those who are subjects for relief, the Legion will not accomplish spiritual good by giving. Let the Legion leave this to those other agencies whose special work it is, and which have a special grace for it. Certainly, legionaries will have no grace for it, because thereby they break their rule. The praesidium which errs in this way will find itself involved in grievous complications, and will never bring anything but sorrow to the Legion.