Note: The following guidelines should not be taken as all inclusive or as a restrictive list of valid assignments. The Legion is open to any and all works that fall within the Legion system as detailed in the Handbook.
What constitutes valid Legion work for active members?
- Any work required by the Pastor providing that it is in conformity with the Legion Handbook.
- Basically, any person-t o-person contact work such as:
- The prime work of the Legion is Evangelization because it brings the Church to both Catholic (practicing), fallen away Catholics and to non-Catholics.
- House to house visits.
- Nursing home visits.
- Hospital Visits.
- Visits to Auxiliaries members.
- Book barrow – street apostolate.
- Apostolate to the crowd (street contact).
- Special home calls:
- Home visits to fallen away Catholics
- Shut-in visits
- Bereavement visits
- Home Enthronements of the Sacred Heart
- Pilgrim Virgin Program visits
- Census taking for the Parish – information visits
- CCD (PREP) teaching.
- Conducting youth groups or Junior Praesidia.
- Organizing and conducting seminars such as for True Devotion to Mary.
- Organizing and conducting a Frank Duff Prayer Group.
- Works of Service
- Transportation to doctor
- Food shopping.
- (We should attempt to keep the Legion from simply providing taxi service. If needed in an emergency, the assignment should only last not more than a few weeks. A sincere attempt should be made to locate someone in the parish who would be willing to provide the transportation or service needed and relieve the active Legionary for his/her expertise in other Legion work. It is suggested that each praesidium maintain a list of Auxiliaries who might volunteer for this emergency. There are Auxiliaries who do not care to become active members but who would be willing occasionally to help out in special circumstances. In that case it would not be an assignment from the praesidium and it would not appear in the minutes or annual report. We never use auxiliaries on active Legion assignments.)
- Work must always be assigned with another active member (in pairs) unless the assignment is CCD (PREP).
- The work should take 2 hours, including transportation time; for juniors, only 1 hour.
- The work must be a definite assignment from the President.
- Look not at what we could do but what we should do to address the vital needs of the church. (See Father Giuffre’s Allocutio below.)
WORKS THAT DO NOT COUNT AS AN ACTIVE LEGIONARY ASSIGNMENT: (Note: In times of pandemic restrictions on person to person contacts, some of these works that involve contacting persons otherwise or works of service to the nation may be valid assignments.)
- For Senior Legionaries: (However the following are acceptable for Juniors)
- Simply assigning members to make telephone calls.
- Serving Mass.
- Lectoring at Mass.
- Extra ordinary Minister of the Eucharist at Mass.
- Leading Rosary in church.
- Meals on wheels, when it is simply distribution and delivery of food packages.
- Transportation to Mass.
- Parish library unless there is personal contact.
- Altar or Church Cleaning.
- Sewing.
- Rectory clerical work.
- Attending novenas, rosary and holy hours.
- Babysitting for grandchildren.
- Visiting your own sick relatives (in hospitals, nursing homes, etc.)
Deciding on Legion Works: Think Should, not Could
What is the difference between “could” and “should?” Grammarians tell us that “could” expresses what is possible, while “should” relates what, among the many possibilities, is the right thing to do. Legion of Mary members must sort out “could” from “should” as they ponder which active works to pursue in their Praesidia. After all, there is so much one “could” do in a parish, but, given Legion priorities (for works of conversion) and the limited number of members, the bigger question is what we “should” do in that parish.
As we face making that decision, we would do well to scrutinize the work itself against the following points raised in today’s Handbook reading. There we read that the Legion works which “should” be done involve: 1. acting for the sake of the “particular needs” of a parish, not merely what serves one’s own preferences; 2. honoring the primacy of performing the “difficult work”; 3. seeking “progressive pioneering” or that willingness to do more, give more, and emerge from a group’s “comfort zones” for the sake of the glory God; 4. never acting out of that “prudence” which would have members select the least risky or least demanding option, preferring the heroic to the trivial; 5. and opting for works which are “necessary to souls” and, in the process, edify others.
With regularly, the question arises, “Is a certain task brought before us an authentic Legion work?” We must know that the real question which we should be asking in its regard is not whether it could be done, but whether it should be done. If it “measures up” to much of the criteria listed above, it is certainly worthy of performance. If it does not, then it might be best to do it on one’s own, outside the Legion, or to seek someone else in the parish to do it, leaving the Legion free to pursue the more pressing work for souls.
The Servant of God, Frank Duff, once made the following statement: “Mary, the Queen of the Legion, has the office of mothering mankind. We have the privilege of helping her, and she depends on that cooperation. It is woeful if in such wonderful circumstances we only take in hand the things of lesser consequence, leaving the multitudes in real deprivation” (ML, 13). Friends, that is what really is at stake in the debate about what “could” be done in the Legion: making sure that our works bring our Mother closer to her children most in need of her love and help. For her sake and their sake, let us be sure we decide rightly … and then do what “should” be done for the sanctification and salvation of her sons and daughters.
October 15, 2017/Allocutio to the Philadelphia Senatus/Rev. Frank Giuffre
Reading: Handbook: Chapter 37, Introduction (p. 231 – paragraphs before no. 1)