Patricians

From the Legion of Mary Handbook

Reverend P. J. Brophy

The Patricians is a family affair. A family conversation about what concerns us all, open, frank, and from the heart, is one of the delights of home life. We Christians, as Christ’s brothers, belong to God’s family. Thinking about our faith, talking it over, and discussing its applications in the spirit in which Our Lord and the apostles chatted about the day’s teachings at the end of a missionary day in Galilee: this is the spirit of the Patricians.

To know Christ Jesus as the wonderful, lovable Teacher, Master and Lord that He is, means that we have to soak our minds in His saving truths and feel thoroughly at home in talking about religion, just as we love to talk about our children, our home, our work. The Holy Spirit gives us all insights into Christ’s truth. These we share at a Patrician meeting with others and learn in turn from them. There we are witnesses to Christ and our hearts burn within us as He speaks to us through the mouth of our neighbour.

In and through the Patricians, God comes nearer; His Truths impress us more deeply; and the Church as our field of endeavor becomes more real to us. Minds catch light from minds; hearts glow with faith; Christ grows within us.