Creating an Ideal Praesidium by Sister Tessie Evelyn Velicaria

Transcription

1 Creating an Ideal Praesidium by Sister Tessie Evelyn Velicaria (SF Senatus Workshop Saint Finn Barr, June 23, 2013) Good Morning Brother and Sisters. My name is Tessie Evelyn Velicaria and I belong to the Our Lady of Victory Praesidium, Church of the Epiphany, San Francisco. The topic that was given to me is a real challenge, not only because I can t put my finger on any of the many praesidia that I know that is close to being an ideal praesidium, but also because, when I would come to know what is an ideal praesidium, I and the other officers have to work harder and raise the bar (as our President nicely puts it) of my praesidium to strive to be close to being an ideal praesidium. Tell me, do we have one right now in the SFME curia or in the SF Senatus? I would like to believe that every praesidium aims to be an ideal praesidium soon, if not, in the near future. Before we start proposing the necessary requisites of an ideal praesidium, we must call to mind the object and spirit of the Legion. On page 11 of the Handbook, we read, Object of the Legion is the glory of God through the holiness of its members developed by prayer and active co-operation, under ecclesiastical guidance, in Mary s and the Church s work of crushing the head of the serpent and advancing the reign of Christ. The object is God s glory the Legionary is called like all the baptized, to be holy, holiness brought about by constant prayer and apostolic work. It is imperative that before a legionary can embark on any apostolic work he must pray constantly so that she may be filled with the Holy Spirit; only then is the Legionary equipped to crush the head of the enemy and bring Jesus, the Good News, to all. This is why in the Apostolate to the Crowd, Book-barrow, and during PPC, we approach people with confidence, determination, and joy because the Holy Spirit continues to fill us with grace to share our faith with them and listen to their stories. In like manner we go back to our respective praesidium with incredible stories of encounter. Likewise page 12 of the Handbook states, The Spirit of the Legion is that of Mary herself. Especially does the Legion aspire after her profound humility, her Page 2 perfect obedience, her angelical sweetness, her continual prayer, her universal mortification, her altogether spotless purity, her heroic patience, her heavenly wisdom, her self-sacrificing courageous love of God, and above all, her faith, that virtue which has in her alone been found in its utmost extent and never equaled. Page 1

2 In my years in the Legion, I continue to work hard to emulate Our Blessed Mother s perfect obedience and profound humility! But here I am still weak on these aspects. So maybe you can help me, and together we will soon attain these great attributes of Our Lady. The praesidium as we all know is the basic unit of the Legion of Mary. It would be good to review a few basic things: Most praesidia are parish-based, that is, these are formed in the parish with the permission of the pastor. Of course we know, from Maria Legionis magazine, that in the Philippines, for example, we have praesidia in penitentiaries and in other regions, praesidia are formed in schools and colleges. Fr. Francis Lendacky, Spiritual Director of the Philadelphia Senatus, in his book Insights of a Legion of Mary Priest, emphasizes that the parochial (parish-based) praesidium strives to operate responsibly and accountably in a three-tiered community: the parish, the council, and the praesidium. So that once formed, a) the praesidium collaborates with the pastor in the care of souls within the parish. Legionaries are to assist him (the pastor) in the capacity of their lay missionary vocation as circumscribed by the spirit and scheme of the Legion, b) the appointed officers, are to attend the monthly meetings of the higher council to which they are attached, and conduct the weekly affairs of the praesidium for the council, c) active members are to visit the auxiliary members and encourage them to persevere in their duties and grow in holiness. Sometimes people ask how many members there are in our praesidium, and we are quick to respond, We are 8. We tend to forget that both active and auxiliary members comprise a praesidium. The Legion insists that all the necessary business of the praesidium meeting should be transacted within an hour and a half. If the necessary business is always cut short, or if reports of members are not properly given the attention for fear of going beyond the time limit, the praesidium may be divided into two; here the higher council assists in realigning the active members involved. Fr. Lendacky further proposes these other necessary requisites for an ideal praesidium as follows: Praesidium must/should have: a) an active spiritual director, four good and committed officers, with at least one among its active members, a praetorian (What is a praetorian? In addition to the ordinary obligations of active membership, legionary should undertake 1) Daily recitation of the prayers in the Tessera of the Legion, 2) Daily Mass and daily Holy Page 2

3 Communion, or at least 5 6 days every week, 3) Daily recitation of an Office approved by the Church, especially the Divine Office or a substantial part of it). b) auxiliary members, with at least one of them an adjutorian (What is an adjutorian? In addition to ordinary obligation of auxiliary membership, legionary should undertake 1) recite daily all the prayers of the Tessera of the legion, 2) agree to attend Mass and receive Holy Communion daily, and to recite an Office approved by the Church daily). In other words, all degrees of membership are represented. c) active legionaries regularly engaged in six categories of works: extra-praesidium Conversion; Conservation; and Consolation; intra-praesidium concerns - the Hand Book encourages every senior praesidium to supervise a junior praesidium; it infers that a praesidium is the one unit which is best suited to maintain a Society of Patricians; and active members are duty-bound to visit their auxiliaries at certain intervals. d) Average number of active members should be 10 in order to carry out its apostolic works. Members maybe divided as follows: one team assigned to work on Conversion (towards the unchurched); second team assigned to work on Conservation (lax or lapsed Catholics with a definite plan to include visitation of auxiliaries); third team to work on Consolation, to visit the sick in homes or institution; fourth team to be in charge of a junior praesidium; fifth team, to coordinate and conduct Patricians. Only one team will be assigned to an exclusive work, the team supervising a junior praesidium. All the other teams could be interchanged to give the legionaries a wider range of experience. Through this practice the apostolic vitality of the praesidium is regularly kindled. e) Essential to the spiritual enrichment of each member are daily prayers such as the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office), the Tesserae, other Marian Prayers such as the Angelus, Litanies. Visits to the Blessed Sacrament or Holy Hour weekly are strongly encouraged. Members should undertake St. Louis Marie de Montfort s Total consecration for a fuller commitment to the Legion. f) Just like St. Paul members should be obsessed with savings souls by bringing all to Christ through the Legion s apostolic works. Thus, members should eagerly look forward and accept obediently the assigned work each week. g) Members should study the Handbook seriously. The president selects a topic and assigns each member to read beforehand; it is then read again during Study time followed by a short discussion. If not understood clearly, praesidium may refer to the Curia for an accurate interpretation or meaning. Page 3

4 h) Members should participate in all Curia activities and functions. These include ACIES, Annual Recollection, Outdoor Function, and Annual General Reunion. Since the praesidium strives to operate responsibly and accountably in a threetiered community which includes the parish, members should participate in the life of the parish through their presence in front of the Blessed Sacrament on the First Friday Devotion, participate in community Rosary in May and October, or engage in Faith-sharing as a Small Christian Community during Lent and Advent, to name a few. i) Officers should meet for a Praesidium Annual Planning. At this meeting, goals are set and schedule of Legion activities and functions, including Mass for the Deceased Legionaries. It is highly advisable that these goals are regularly reviewed during the year. j) Members must do heroic works like Door-to-Door Visitation, Apostolate to the Crowd, Prison Visitation, Book-barrow and PPC (Peregrinatio Pro Cristo). k) The Master/Apprentice system of formation should be put into practice. A veteran legionary, someone who has been in the Legion for quite a time should be paired with the newly recruited member. Page 66 of the Handbook states, The Legion idea of formation is the Master and apprentice method. This, it contends, is the ideal way of training, used by every profession and craft, apparently without exception. Master places the work before the eyes of the apprentice, shows him how it is done with comments as he proceeds. Apprentice attempts the work and is corrected in how he does the job. Out of that system emerges the skilled craftsman, the legionary. This is exactly how I was trained to do Door-to-Door by my mentor who is here in the assembly right now. I will always remember that day because it was raining and I was told to dress warm. We exchanged roles every other home that we visited. In the end I was more or less at ease but that s how it should be.. the same thing in the Apostolate to the Crowd or any other crowd contact apostolate. The little skills that I have in these Legion heroic works I owe to my Spiritual Director Fr. Martin Avila, first SD of my praesidium and to my mentor who patiently showed me how the work is done. l) Active and Auxiliary members are constantly recruited. It is possible that one can recruit many of the parishioners to enroll in the Auxiliary Roll. However, since active members are duty-bound to visit auxiliaries at certain intervals, numbers of auxiliaries should not be too disproportionate to the number of active members. The legionary s desire to recruit many auxiliaries must be tempered bearing in mind the visitations active members are to undertake. At a Legion of Mary Conference that I attended years back we were told that Frank Duff asked this question during a street apostolate when he learned that the contact is not a Page 4

5 Catholic and has never been invited to become one, In the name of Jesus and Mary, may I invite you. The Praesidium as envisioned above may be too idealistic. You would notice though that nothing has been added to the Legion scheme; everything you heard so far, you will find in the Handbook. Perhaps one praesidium in far away Fairbanks, and other cities in Idaho, Oregon and Utah are doing all the above duties, responsibilities and apostolic works. That is fine. What is being proposed is a portrait of a praesidium whose entire membership is a vibrant community manifesting the praesidium s full missionary potential as a basic unit in the Legion of Mary. It is an ideal which should not remain merely an ideal! Thank you for your kind attention. Tessie Evelyn S. Velicaria SF Senatus Officers Workshop June 22, 2013, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. St. Finn Barr Church Edna Street, San Francisco, CA Page 5