Legion of Mary Philadelphia Senatus

President John F. Kennedy made immortal a line from his inaugural address: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
We active members in the Legion can think similarly about auxiliary members, regarding them more in terms of what they can do for us instead of what we can do for them. That is, we tend to give more attention to assuring their prayers on behalf of our work for the souls of others when we should also be seeking to assure and provide support for their souls, too.
It is precisely to correct this errant tendency that the Legion requires the regular visitation of auxiliaries and makes their “after care” one of its suggested works. (See H, Chapter 37, Number 14.) It values the sacrifices they are making for others so much that it counsels that like sacrifices be made for them. In this way, the Legion system conveys its wish that auxiliaries be treated not merely as individuals to be “used,” but instead as souls to be helped toward a goal shared with active members: holiness unto salvation. In that spirit, the Handbook counsels active members to “look out for” auxiliaries just as members of a family do for each other – with the elder brothers and sisters, the active members, seeking to do everything in their capacity to preserve the spiritual health of their younger siblings, the auxiliary members, and thereby fostering the realization of Christian “perfection” in all within the Legion “household” (H, 256).
Understanding this, praesidia should see to it that auxiliary visits be made and made with quality. They should assure that each is fulfilled by a personal contact (H, 89) and never only by phone call or mailing. They should include discussion of more than contact information and whether a Tessera needs replacement; instead it should involve ample time for prayer followed by a conversation which gives the auxiliary a chance to discuss the status of his or her life of faith. On the basis of what is said in that conversation, the active-member-visitor should be prepared to provide needed spiritual support to the auxiliary and be ready to “prescribe” to him or her practices that will help the auxiliary find healing and pursue growth in sanctity (H, 256).
What types of practices could active-member-visitors suggest? They might
– discuss the value of and encourage attendance at daily Mass;
– speak of the benefits of taking part in Eucharistic Adoration;
– talk over the graces of regular Confession;
– suggest and arrange the Anointing of the Sick for those of fragile age or health;
– explain how to pray the Liturgy of the Hours;
– specify how each might benefit from adjutorian membership;
– recommend solid Catholic and Legion reading material (even in the form of audio books), including the Bible, The Catechism, and the True Devotion … and then talking over with them what was read during a follow up visit;
– pass along editions of Maria Legionis;
– ask if they have considered attending a local Patrician Meeting;
– give them sacramentals, but first teaching them what they mean and how they are to be used;
– loan them DVD’s on the lives of the saints … and (again) talk over the story in a follow-up visit.
The Handbook calls the aftercare of auxiliaries “full of possibilities” (H, 256). In saying this, the Legion is challenging active members to be creative and zealous in finding ways to benefit the souls of auxiliaries who do so much to benefit its mission for souls. So let us be sure to visit our auxiliaries. And as we do, let us also be sure to think not only about what they do for the Legion, but what the Legion must do for them.

August 20, 2017: Allocutio to the Philadelphia Senatus by Rev. Frank Giuffre

Reading: Handbook: Chapter 37, Number 14

Finance experts say that one of the best things we can do for ourselves in life is to set money aside and invest it for retirement. Although it might limit the amount of funds available to us in the present, it will only serve to set the stage for our well-being in the future.
Our Handbook selection today relates the truth that one of the best things we can do for our Legion praesidium is to make another sacrifice in the present as an investment for the future: that of boosting the number of our auxiliary members. In fact, the text says boldly that it should be the goal of each praesidium to “bring every Catholic in its area into auxiliary membership” (H, 99, emphasis added).
At first, such a remark might seem to be wildly “overstated” and grossly impractical. “After all,” the legionary thinks, “Why ‘waste’ limited time and energy on the securing of praying members when they would be better spent on active works.” “In addition,” he or she asserts, “Don’t we have enough of them already?” Yet, seemingly conscious of such a sentiment, the Handbook goes on to insist that the welcoming of many as auxiliaries will become “… favorable soil … for the working of other aspects of the Legion apostolate” (H, 99). In other words, the strenuous effort invested into the gaining of auxiliary members will only add to – rather than subtract from – Legion aims and effectiveness. Like a financial investment, a present sacrifice will “pay off” with future benefits. How so?
Firstly, soliciting auxiliary members fulfills the Legion’s aspirations toward evangelization. By inviting a lukewarm or even fallen away Catholic to be an auxiliary, the grace of conversion is fostered in an individual’s soul. By teaching him or her to say the Rosary with the prayers of the Tessera, a more solid routine of sustaining prayer is engendered within each. By asking that a commitment be kept for the sake of Jesus and Mary, the keeping of other commitments attached to living one’s faith, such as regular attendance at Mass and at Confession, is also fostered.
Secondly, soliciting auxiliary members honors the legionary’s duty with regard to extension. Not only does educating the unfamiliar in the nature of the Legion add another soul to its circle of influence, it also increases the possibility that these same individuals will tell others – their friends and neighbors – about “the great group” they discovered! And some of those so reached might just get involved as active or auxiliary members.
Thirdly, soliciting auxiliary members secures help from heaven “essential” (H, 100) for the flourishing of the interior lives and the exterior works of active members. Just as armies often rely on “air support” in advance of a ground assault, so we in the Legion rely upon “prayer support” in advance of our battle for souls. Therefore the more prayers behind us, the greater the strength for the fight within us … and the better the chances of success for us, as well.
Fourthly, soliciting auxiliary members gets the Legion into more homes and places members in closer proximity with those, the family and friends of the auxiliary, who may be feeling attracted to the Faith, struggling with the Faith, or having questions about the Faith. Auxiliary visits then become occasions to interact with them in the hopes of influencing each for good.
Finally, soliciting auxiliary members stokes Legionary zeal. The courage and love demonstrated in reaching out to welcome a newcomer trains us to be equally courageous and loving in the field when the salvation of souls is at stake.
It is said that “God helps those who help themselves.” Well, God also helps the Legion when it helps itself by seeking praying-helpers in the form of auxiliaries. It gives more power in the present. It sets the stage for more effective apostolates in the future. Therefore, we can be certain that one of the best things we can do for the Legion is to invest time and energy into recruiting auxiliaries into our ranks.

July 16, 2017/Allocutio to the Philadelphia Senatus/Rev. Frank Giuffre Reading: Handbook, p. 99/Chapter 16 (f)

        Historians tell us that, originally, the process of recruiting men into the Roman legion was a relatively uncomplicated process. When war was declared by the Roman Senate, a red flag was hoisted over the capitol, news was carried to territories under imperial rule, and all men who were citizens, property owners, taxpayers, and age 17 to 46 were obliged to report for duty.

Recruiting – or what we call “extension” – into Mary’s Legion need not be complicated for us, either. The “red flag” of the battle for souls has already been hoisted by Christ over His Church. In response, the Legion of Mary mobilizes, holding a place in its ranks for any citizen of the Kingdom – any adult Catholic in good standing – who wishes to join in the fight. Yet those soldiers will never join that army – our Legion – unless one thing happens first: unless the news is carried to them – unless each of them, woman or man, is invited to join those ranks. Would any of us be in the Legion if that were not the case – unless someone had taken the time, in writing or in person, to summon us into the army of Mary? Thus it cannot be said enough: words bring members. Therefore, where no new invitations are being made, they will be no new legionaries, either.

As a help to making those invitations regularly and successfully, our Handbook reading for today offers two basic challenges on the topic of extension so as to inform our approach: it asks us to change the way we view recruiting, and it also asks us to change the way we view recruits. In terms of the former, the Handbook asserts that, while extension can be variously regarded, one way is definitely not as something optional. Instead the effort is referred to as a “duty” (H, 179) – which means as an obligation – from which no one can be excused: and that means no one! So serious does the Legion consider this stance that, as we heard, members are asked to hold one other accountable for how well or how poorly they are doing it (cf. H, 180). When was the last time we praised a fellow legionary for his or her outstanding work in reaching out to newcomers? When was the last time we took a fellow legionary aside and asked why he or she never reports a single active or auxiliary contact?

It is true: it often takes a great deal of courage to do extension, but we can draw inspiration from the fact that even our Lady did this work. Yes, we actually have a scene in the New Testament where Mary can be found reaching out to others to help serve Christ for the glory of the Father. It happened at the wedding feast of Cana where Mary, after learning that the newlyweds “had no more wine” (John 2:3), seeks out the assistance of others: those waiters whom she advises to “do whatever Jesus says” (John 2:5) and who eventually fill the stone jars with the water that Jesus later makes into wine. Mary could have thought, “Oh well, someone will step up to help on their own.” Instead Mary acted to involve others in her work and the work of her Son. More than likely, their saying “yes” to her invitation became a life-changing event. Who would not have been transformed at seeing divine power at work? (Remember, they saw water go in and wine come out!) Perhaps it began a lifetime of service as a disciple of the Lord – all because Our Lady was courageous enough to invite them! So if extension was important to Our Lady, then it should be so for us. It will be powerful, now as then!

Yet not only does the Handbook challenge us to view recruiting differently, it also demands that we view recruits differently. In this regard, the Handbook makes reference (p. 180) to Luke 10:2, Jesus’ words about the harvest being abundant, but laborers being all too few. In Jesus’ world, wheat had to be gathered from the fields within a small window of time before the rainy season arrived; wheat not taken in-time would be lost for all-time. Evoking these words of Jesus within the context of a discussion on extension seems to clarify exactly what is being sought in legionary recruits. And it is definitely NOT volunteers. A volunteer is someone who is asked to consider whether they want to help souls. What is being sought through the Legion are instruments of and coworkers with Jesus and Mary who realize how much they are needed in the fight to save souls. There are so many – too many – who need to be reached, converted, and cared for, and there is too little time left to do it! What we should appeal to in the work of extension then are heroes willing to step up because they realize this: how much their help is needed – whether they “want” to give it or not!

The Handbook says in another section that recruiting actually fulfills the Great Commandment: we “love one another” by helping each find the Legion, a great aid to the salvation of their souls and those of others. So let us love our brothers and sisters so much that we do not deprive them of the opportunity of being active or auxiliary members in our Lady’s army. Let us have the courage to invite them. Let us let them know how much they are needed!

Allocutio/18 June, 2017/Philadelphia Senatus/Rev. Frank Giuffre
Handbook, pp. 179-180 – Chapter 31, Section 1

Numerous years ago, an unusual item was placed for sale on the Internet auction site, eBay. The bidding for it began at 5 cents and eventually reached $400. What was it? The listing read “20 year-old Seattle boy’s SOUL, hardly used,” yet in “near mint condition!” The “owner,” a professed atheist, intended the posting as a joke of sorts. Yet “many a truth is said in jest,” and the truth behind this one reflects an attitude becoming more prevalent in an increasingly secular society: that the soul – its existence, its state, and its destiny – need not be taken seriously. After all (some think), if the soul is just undying energy, if human choices are neutral – never right or wrong, and if God is infinitely tolerant, then how could a soul ever really commit sin or be “lost?” It is not a surprise then that far too many, convinced of this, have fallen into habits of great neglect for their spiritual lives. In their minds, they surmise, “Why bother? All of us will end up in the same place – heaven – no matter what.”

The messages of Our Lady of Fatima challenge the world on a number of issues, but perhaps the most central truth among them is that the soul exists, the soul has great value, and the soul needs even greater attention. In the appearance which took place on August 13, 1917, Our Lady lamented that many souls were going to hell because no one was praying and offering sacrifices for them. In another on June 13, 1917, she insisted that Jesus wanted modern men and women to embrace devotion to her Immaculate Heart as the means of saving endangered souls, promising that those who do “will be loved by God as flowers placed … before His throne.” So, if (as some think) there is no soul, no sin, no possibility of eternal loss, then someone needs to inform the Son of God and the Mother of God about this!

Yet, we know that the words of Our Lady of Fatima are instead ratification from heaven that precisely the opposite is true. At a time when too many are saying the soul does not matter, we learn from the Blessed Mother that not only does it matter, but that nothing – nothing – matters more. And modern men and women need to assume habits that reflect this fact. The Mother of God wants us to go to heaven. That is why she cared enough to come and tell us the sobering realities which she related at Fatima. She knows our choices have moral and eternal implications. That is why she spoke of hell with sorrow on her face! Like any good mother, Mary does not want her little ones to play with fire! She wants us to have peace and happiness. And most of all she wants us to want it more than we do! We cannot and must not buy into the lie of modernity.

Legion members, the anniversary of the apparitions of Fatima should be for us an invitation to do something more than only promote the Rosary – a prayer which I love and which I hope will be recited fervently every day. We must also look into the face of our Mother from heaven, hear her words again, and dedicate ourselves anew to working for the salvation of souls. The truth is that, although we know from the Handbook that saving souls is one of our two principal objects (the other being “giving glory to God” – cf. H, 67), although we are taught to be “absorbed” in laboring for souls (H, 74), and although we pray repeatedly in our Concluding Prayers for the grace “to undertake and carry out without hesitation great things for … for the salvation of souls,” our fire for souls can be and is being dowsed by modern secularism and subjectivism. We must resolve instead to never forget the value of one soul, we must seek to do all we can to save souls, and we must make sure that the “difficult works” of seeking the conversion of souls are not neglected in our assignments in our praesidia. A sign that this may precisely be happening among us is a weakening of the will to evangelize and a drifting away from the works of evangelization.

Our Lady’s words at Fatima manifest how much she needs the Legion’s help. Our spiritual reading today could not say it any better. Filled with a yearning like that within Jesus and Mary, we must throw ourselves with all our might into the effort of the “harvesting of stricken souls” (H, 190) – souls whose infinite value is affirmed, not because they were bought by an auction-goer, but because they were bought by the blood of the Lamb, Jesus, our Savior! Let the anniversary of Fatima renew our will to be Our Lord and Our Lady’s instruments in fighting to save them!

Allocutio/May 21, 2017/Philadelphia Senatus/Rev. Frank Giuffre

Handbook, pp. 189-190 – Chapter 32, section 10

We must have heard about the man who walked into the human resources department of a large company and handed the executive his application.  The executive began to scan the sheet, and noticed that the applicant has been fired from every job he had ever held.  “I must say,” said the executive, “your work history is terrible.  You’ve been fired from every job.”  “Yes,” replied the man. “Well,” continued the executive, “there’s not much positive in that.” Pointing to his application, the man replied, “Hey!  At least I’m not a quitter!!”

We must have heard about the man who walked into the human resources department of a large company and handed the executive his application.  The executive began to scan the sheet, and noticed that the applicant has been fired from every job he had ever held.  “I must say,” said the executive, “your work history is terrible.  You’ve been fired from every job.”  “Yes,” replied the man. “Well,” continued the executive, “there’s not much positive in that.” Pointing to his application, the man replied, “Hey!  At least I’m not a quitter!!”

The Legion of Mary asks us, too, not to be quitters on many fronts.  One of them certainly regards the requirement which, according to the “standing instructions,” binds us to the recitation of the Catena, not just occasionally or weekly or when we think of it, but daily.  We know in fact that one of the reasons the prayer is called “the Catena” (which, in Latin, means “chain”) is to forge a sense in the member of the seriousness of this obligation as an unbreakable commitment (H, 194-195).

While blind obedience to this requirement is certainly virtuous, our fidelity to the habit might be stoked by knowing “why” we are asked to do this.  And it is curious that the first reason listed in chapter 33, section 6 is that reciting the Catena everyday creates a “link between the Legion and the daily life of all its members” (H, 194).  In other words, this prayer is to be like a “string tied to the finger”: a daily reminder that the spirit of the Legion, which is the spirit of Mary and which permeates our attendance at the praesidium meeting and on our assignment for a total of 3.5 hours each week is not intended to be left aside the other 164.5 hours which remain in that same week.  Members are supposed to be living in that spirit every day, every hour, every moment, as the proper continuation of and as the suitable preparation for what happens when we sit around our tables or go forth into the field.   This is part of what it means that members be “always be on duty,” not simply when it comes to winning souls for Jesus through Mary, but also to sanctifying their own souls through the continuous practice of those virtuous habits inculcated in the Legion, including regular prayer/Rosary, spiritual reading, reflection, and performance of the works of mercy.

Reciting the Catena daily has a second purpose: not just to keep members linked to their Legion identity, but also to keep members linked as a Legion family in the Blessed Mother.  This means that reciting the Catena mystically unites legionaries, active and auxiliary, in a “network” of prayer and support reaching members worldwide (and even beyond this world!).  Some of these may be suffering for the Faith in the missions, in lands where religion is oppressed, or in hospitals where they are offering up their physical pains for the glory of the Lord.  Ultimately that chain links us to Mary, the Mediatrix of all graces, and becomes the irrigation channel through which divine help is passed along through her to her Legion sons and daughters most in need.  Praying the Catena then is a life-support mechanism without which the Legion could “flat-line” in death.  It is the IV-drip allowing God’s own life to flow, to feed, and to sustain the work of the Legion, wherever it is being done.

So, Legion members, that is the reason why – the reason behind the Catena.  And now that we know it, let us also be sure to do it … with a fidelity that never quits!

April 9, 2017/Philadelphia Senatus/Rev. Frank Giuffre

Handbook, chapter 33, Number 6 (pp. 194-195)

We must have heard about the man who walked into the human resources department of a large company and handed the executive his application. The executive began to scan the sheet, and noticed that the applicant has been fired from every job he had ever held. “I must say,” said the executive, “your work history is terrible. You’ve been fired from every job.” “Yes,” replied the man. “Well,” continued the executive, “there’s not much positive in that.” Pointing to his application, the man replied, “Hey! At least I’m not a quitter!!”
The Legion of Mary asks us, too, not to be quitters on many fronts. One of them certainly regards the requirement which, according to the “standing instructions,” binds us to the recitation of the Catena, not just occasionally or weekly or when we think of it, but daily. We know in fact that one of the reasons the prayer is called “the Catena” (which, in Latin, means “chain”) is to forge a sense in the member of the seriousness of this obligation as an unbreakable commitment (H, 194-195).
While blind obedience to this requirement is certainly virtuous, our fidelity to the habit might be stoked by knowing “why” we are asked to do this. And it is curious that the first reason listed in chapter 33, section 6 is that reciting the Catena everyday creates a “link between the Legion and the daily life of all its members” (H, 194). In other words, this prayer is to be like a “string tied to the finger”: a daily reminder that the spirit of the Legion, which is the spirit of Mary and which permeates our attendance at the praesidium meeting and on our assignment for a total of 3.5 hours each week is not intended to be left aside the other 164.5 hours which remain in that same week. Members are supposed to be living in that spirit every day, every hour, every moment, as the proper continuation of and as the suitable preparation for what happens when we sit around our tables or go forth into the field. This is part of what it means that members be “always be on duty,” not simply when it comes to winning souls for Jesus through Mary, but also to sanctifying their own souls through the continuous practice of those virtuous habits inculcated in the Legion, including regular prayer/Rosary, spiritual reading, reflection, and performance of the works of mercy.
Reciting the Catena daily has a second purpose: not just to keep members linked to their Legion identity, but also to keep members linked as a Legion family in the Blessed Mother. This means that reciting the Catena mystically unites legionaries, active and auxiliary, in a “network” of prayer and support reaching members worldwide (and even beyond this world!). Some of these may be suffering for the Faith in the missions, in lands where religion is oppressed, or in hospitals where they are offering up their physical pains for the glory of the Lord. Ultimately that chain links us to Mary, the Mediatrix of all graces, and becomes the irrigation channel through which divine help is passed along through her to her Legion sons and daughters most in need. Praying the Catena then is a life-support mechanism without which the Legion could “flat-line” in death. It is the IV-drip allowing God’s own life to flow, to feed, and to sustain the work of the Legion, wherever it is being done.
So, Legion members, that is the reason why – the reason behind the Catena. And now that we know it, let us also be sure to do it … with a fidelity that never quits!

April 9, 2017/Philadelphia Senatus/Rev. Frank Giuffre
Handbook, chapter 33, Number 6 (pp. 194-195)