Auxiliary Membership Vitally Important

Why it is so important

The reason for this lies deep in the doctrinal background of Legion effort. The idea of Auxiliary membership embodies our true relationship to the Mystical Body of Christ as well as to those to whom we are sent. Once our relationship with those we visit or contact is moulded by the faithbearing structure of Auxiliary membership the life of the Mystical Body begins to be lived more intensely and vigorously by those we have won over to a fuller Christian life. This, as we know, will set up a "chain-reaction" that communicates itself to the entire People of God. The eyes of Faith see this. Our vision must be clear.

The Auxiliary member is not asked to direct his or her prayer specifically to the welfare of the Legion. Indeed, the Handbook ( 2 )

strongly recommends that it be offered as an unreserved gift to Our Lady. Needless to say, it would be unthinkable that the Legion would not benefit immensely in its active apostolate from the prayers and good works of its Auxiliary members. Comparing the prayers of its Auxiliary members to wings "the Legion can soar into the higher air of supernatural ideal and effort" ( 3 )

That the Legion relies heavily on its Auxiliary members is common knowledge. Legionaries in difficult and dangerous assignments in the apostolate bear ample testimony to the fact that they draw sustenance and support from the vast reservoir of prayer that is the principal contribution of our Auxiliary members.

Is its importance appreciated?

All this we know well enough. It is run of the mill Legion doctrine. But how well is that basic and essential doctrine being acted upon? That is the crux. If I were to ask every officer of a praesidium here today how completely and accurately, how upto-date is your register of Auxiliary members, would we find everything in order, everything as it ought to be? If not, then however much we may complain about the difficulty of recruiting new members, the fault lies on our own doorstep.

Its value to the Active apostolate

To the extent that we neglect the hidden power of Auxiliary membership we have written off success in our active work. It would be difficult to speak too strongly about this. For, at the end of the day, Auxiliary membership synthesises the whole Legion idea. There can be no substitute for it.

Auxiliary membership, as has been said often enough, is not merely a matter of taking a name, putting it in a book and forgetting about it. That is not the Legion way. That is not Our Lady's way, the way of the Mother of the Church. Mary's way is a caring way. The Legionaries' way must be no less. Indeed, the Handbook bluntly says: "The proper way of keeping in touch with Auxiliaries is by personal contact".

Let us get our priorities right. The after-care of Auxiliary members is a principal Legionary duty. It is unnecessary to repeat here what has already been so well said in the Handbook. But it is necessary to remind ourselves that "membership of the Legion's Auxiliary or praying ranks has the same power to catch the imagination that active membership possesses". Persons who would not usually say the Rosary every day find that the Auxiliary obligation gives the necessary impetus. Recently, I had a letter from a mother of a family who lived a full social life - an active and Auxiliary member of forty years standing. Request - a tessera - the old one had worn away from use. I am certain that her Auxiliary membership was reflected in the whole edifying pattern of her life. And equally that her prayers accomplished much inside and outside the Legion. Suffering and deprived persons

A particular class whose Auxiliary membership is especially valuable is that of suffering or deprived persons. Indeed, the Cross is an integral part of the Christian life. Speaking of his sufferings, St. Paul says: "I fill up those things that are wanting to the sufferings of Christ in my flesh for His Body which is the Church"( 5 )

Is there, then, something wanting in the satisfaction of Christ for us? Certainly not. The value of Christ's sufferings is infinite and is there for the taking. The taking is the difficulty. We can only partake of the rich life of the Resurrection in so far as we are inserted into the life of the Risen Christ; we can only be inserted into the life of the Risen Christ in so far as we have died to self with Him.

"If any man will come after Me let him take up his cross daily and follow Me" ( 6 )What an apostolate: To bring home to the sick and deprived that great works of evangelisation are dependent on their prayers and sufferings. To quote from the Handbook: "Accounts from different places of noble and exciting deeds done for souls fill their drab lives with the throb of those far-distant doings. Their existences have been transformed by that most inspiring of ideas, the sense of participation in a crusade. And even the holiest of lives require the stimulation of such an idea" ( 7 )

One in prayer

If you go into a Carmelite convent you will find there, I think, more concern for the apostolate and a more sensitively caring mind about the suffering and burdens of people in the world than you will find in many an active religious order. People sense this and come to them for consolation and help. The same could be true of our Auxiliary membership. The reason is not far to seek. True prayer sensitises us to the needs of the whole Christ. As in the early Church, true Christians feel for and are one in prayer, however great the physical distance or obstacles that separate them.

Let us look then to our Auxiliaries.

1.Handbook pp. 159-166 and elsewhere.

2.Handbook p. 159.

3.ibid p. 160.

4.ibid p. 68.

5.Col. 1.24.

6.Luke 9, 23-24.

7.Handbook p. 163.