[The following is an excerpt
from Reverend Francis G. Lendacky’s talk on the Legion “work assignment.”]
The work assignment given each
week highlights the apostolic feature of the active legionary. If a disciple is
one who learns, then the apostle is one who is sent and you can’t be sent
without being given an assignment. The work assignment given by the president
and received and accepted by the members is very important because that keeps
the apostolic feature of the Legion of Mary apostleship. The giving of the
assignment continues the fact that the work is a shared mission. It is
ultimately Christ’s mission and if we are assigned that work in that spirit,
then we are doing not our own work but the work of Christ whose apostles and
disciples we ought to be. Without someone giving you that assignment, that
continuity may be broken. You may not have in your own spiritual makeup that
kind of feature that would say: “this is really Christ’s work.” But you are
reminded of it at every praesidium meeting when the president assigns you that
work because it is a continuation of that shared mission which is Christ’s
mission through the Bishops, through the Pastors to the lay person.
All of us committed to Christ
are laborers in his vineyard and it is not our own personal enterprise. This
element of the assignment brings us to the dignity of the work we are doing.
There is a tendency that if we feel that we are doing the things we like, things
that come naturally and easily for us, then maybe we’ll say we’re doing our own
thing.
In apostleship you can’t just
do your own personal thing. In apostleship you’ve got to be sent by the one
whose mission you are sharing and that is Christ Himself. The receiving and
accepting of the work assignment by the member is founded primarily on obedience
to Christ – NOT on one’s own convenience or one’s avocation but is something
that a person is assigned to do in spite of the fact that it might not be all
that pleasant or attractive. Why do you think people all over the world are
continuing to go the poorest of the poor? Perhaps they’re doing it simply
because there’s a president back there saying, “That’s your assignment for the
week. It’s Christ’s work among the poor.” And with motivation, we can assume
our work assignment in the weekly course of our life with a better attitude.
The parameters of the legion
assignment have a benefit to the member and to the praesidium. It is not only
your own excellence that you’re going to build but the excellence of your
praesidium. The work assignment with a team member will be done at a definite
time for a specific goal.
You ask, why do we have to go
in twos? One of the basic reasons is if you line up with a partner there is a
better chance it will be done than if we just decide on our own. You may say,
I’ll go Saturday afternoon. Saturday afternoon comes, visitors come and you
can’t go on your visitation. But if you’re going to meet with a person, you
have a responsibility to that other person to be there on time. Two of you
meeting make that assignment more definite. Remember the gospel idea about two
or three gathered in My Name, there I am in the midst of you. You’re not going
alone and you’re doing Christ’s missionary work.
The work assignment will be
reportable because of two reasons: there has to be accountability of yourself to
the praesidium and an accountability of the praesidium. There are two sources
of accountability here. The praesidium is responsible for what it assigns to
each member and then you are responsible to give a report back to that praesidum.
It makes the whole missionary effort an integrated mission, and integrated work,
that is formation for the apostolic way of life. And you can’t send yourself.
You have someone to send you on Christ’s work.
Each member should report only
on the work assigned. It you’re assigned a work for a two-hour capacity, you
can mold your mind and your report to report on that two-hour assignment.
Father Lendacky has given us
this prospective on the Legion assignment to make us think of ourselves as
missionary apostles for Christ, who are responsible and accountable for what we
are assigned to do as Marian apostles in the Legion of Mary.
Amen +