The Most Reverend Stephen Chow Sau Yan, S.J., Bishop of Hong Kong has shown his concern on the Legion of Mary of Hong Kong although he is not familiar with its structure. To people who are not familiar with the Legion of Mary, what is the Legion of Mary’s image? Evangelisation? Doing assignments? We should develop the apostolate and evangelisation is a part of it. Being prayerful is essential. We pray every day, every week during our meeting and, in all our events and functions. Every time we gather, we are in an atmosphere of prayers.
Chapter 16(1) of the Handbook talks about the Pretorians. They have to (1) recite daily all the prayers comprised in the Tessera of the Legion; (2) attend daily mass and receive Holy Communion daily; (3) recite daily of an Office approved by the Church. These can even be done by older members of the Legion. The creation of the Pretorians as being part of the system of the Legionary means that we should look for more Pretorians among our members. The active work of the Legionary assignment is a participation in the official apostolate of the Church. “Pretorian membership aims at immersing him still deeper in the corporate life of the Church”. For achieving this, Mass and Holy Communion are “the central ceremonies, of the Church, renewing daily the paramount Christian act”.
The increase in number of presidia in a parish is the result of personal contacts made by members in performing assignments, such as, bereavement service, parish service group, visitation etc. All these are opportunities to contact parishioners and accumulate experience in serving the church, through which parishioners are being invited to join the Legion of Mary. We should encourage and develop more members to be Pretorians to strengthen our religious experience. “The Pretorians will lead many members onto a life of closer union with God through prayers” and “make the Legion grow in the spirit of reliance upon prayer in all its works. In fact, it will cause the Legion to realise ever more completely that its chief and true destiny is to spiritualise its members”.
Spiritual Director
Fr. Francis Tam
17 July 2022