August 25, 2022

Three Legionaries of Christ Make First Profession of Vows

In a Mass at the Legionaries of Christ’s Novitiate and College of Humanities August 13th, 2022, presided by General Director Fr. John Connor, LC, three Legionaries made their first vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Get to know a bit about them and keep them in your prayers.

Ever since I was a young boy, I always dreamed about being a priest. I also dreamed about being a racecar driver, so my resolution was the following: I would become a priest, lead the prayer before the race, and then get into my car and start racing. However, God had a slightly different plan. When I was eleven, I went to a camp in Nebraska, which a Legionary helped run. This was the first time I began seriously to consider a possible vocation. This led me to visit the Sacred Heart Apostolic School in 2014 which I joined at age twelve that very same year. I graduated from Sacred Heart in 2020, and entered the novitiate after the summer candidacy program. Although I stopped pursuing my dream to be a racecar driver, the race of a lifetime – with the Legion – has only begun.

I grew up in the Church going to Mass every week and attending a youth group at my parish. I joined the military as a way to pay for college and found myself at Louisiana State University studying electrical engineering and getting involved with the Catholic Center on campus.

My whole life changed when I encountered Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. I no longer needed the party scene or a relationship. I grew in my faith and confidence in the Lord.

During my senior year, I became a missionary with FOCUS—and found myself completely abandoned to the Lord. I left the prospects of a high-paying job and a relationship behind to go on mission. During two years as a missionary, I discerned that the Lord was asking me to take a leap of faith. At the Novitiate in Cheshire, I found a young, vibrant community of religious, and was attracted to the Legionary charism because of the brotherhood, adventure and mission that I found.

My father was a Legionary brother for several years and both he and my mother are Regnum Christi members, so I’ve known the Legion since I was born! In 2018, as a sophomore in High School, I went to a “Test Your Call” retreat in Cheshire, Connecticut and my journey towards the priesthood began. It left a deep impression on me and I felt drawn to the Legionary lifestyle. I still remember speaking with Father John Curran LC after the retreat and knowing in my heart that I needed to take the next step. From that point on I felt like I had a treasure inside of me, but I didn’t know what to do with it. 2 years later, after I graduated high school, I couldn’t keep the treasure contained any longer. After receiving my father’s blessing and with the support of my family I began the path toward the priesthood in the Legion!

During the professions Mass these three second-year novices made their first vows, and the second-year humanists also renewed their vows before heading off to Rome to continue their studies in philosophy. You can watch the Mass here.

https://youtu.be/fa5q5Zi42wY

Mini Meditations on the Joyful Mysteries

August 25, 2022 / Regnum Christi News

First Joyful Mystery: The Annunciation to Mary

Luke 1:28, 31, 38. The Angel Gabriel said to Mary: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women…You shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus… Mary answered, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word.”

Catechism of the Catholic Church: #461-463, 491

Reflection: In the quiet of a garden, God proposes (through an angel) and a woman accepts. Mary is accepting to walk into a mystery. She does not know what lies ahead on this new path, but she knows who is asking and she trusts in him. There are many annunciation moments in our life, and sometimes we hesitate to say yes because we cannot foresee the future or control what will happen. In this mystery, ask Mary to give you a deep trust in the one who invites you to follow. Ask her to help you trust that even if the path ahead is full of crosses, God will be walking with you. If you hold his hand in the darkness, he will give you strength, peace, and an intimate joy that nothing can take away.

Second Joyful Mystery: The Visitation

Luke 1:42-44. Elizabeth was filed with the Holy Spirit and cried out in a loud voice: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb…The moment your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe in my womb leapt for joy.

Catechism of the Catholic Church: #495-497, 717

Reflection: One of the wonders of God’s plan is that he chooses to associate souls, one to another, so that they help each other on their journey. As cousins, Mary and Elizabeth share a bond of kinship. But they also share a spiritual kinship because of how the Holy Spirit is acting in their lives, fashioning the Messiah and his prophet deep inside their wombs. During those months, Mary and Elizabeth don’t just sit around waiting. They are working, preparing for Elizabeth’s baby, quietly conversing, and praying. Together, they are like a little monastic community. In our lives too, God gives us spiritual friendships and soul-mates who help us grow closer to him. Sometimes he links our lives together for a larger purpose that will reveal itself with time. In this mystery, ask Mary to help you and your spiritual friends listen carefully for God’s voice in your lives, so that you can walk with him and with each other.

Third Joyful Mystery: The Nativity

Luke 2:6-7. “And it came to pass while they were there, that the days for Mary to be delivered were fulfilled. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothing and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”

Catechism of the Catholic Church: #437, 535-536

Reflection: All of Bethlehem was dark and quiet when the Savior made his entrance into the world, and his first home was in the protective circle of Mary’s arms. Imagine how Mary’s heart shone with a love spanning the tender, protective love of a mother holding her baby in her arms and the profound adoration of a soul adoring her Creator and Lord in the flesh. This was a day of fulfillment and joy—one of many along a path also rich in crosses. Nine months ago, she had given that first “yes” in the garden. Now it had become a life, a beautiful baby. It was so clear now that everything—even the future crosses that would be her “birth pains”—were worth it. In our lives too, there are times when God asks us to make a choice that we do not fully understand, and the blessing reveals itself only later in time. Once the blessing comes, we understand that the only way to understand God’s plan was to live it. In this mystery, ask Mary for the grace to believe in the blessings that were promised in your own life, even if they seem slow in coming. The most exquisite flowers sometimes take the longest to develop.

Fourth Joyful Mystery: The Presentation

Luke 2:22, 34, 35. When the days of her purification were fulfilled they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord…Simeon blessed them and said to his Mother, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and for the rise of many in Israel, and for a sign that shall be contradicted; and thy own soul a sword shall pierce.”

Catechism of the Catholic Church: #527, 529

Reflection: There had never been a presentation like the one that took place in the Temple that day, and there never would be again. Mary and Joseph were presenting the Only Begotten Son to the Eternal Father, in a temple that was merely the shadow and copy of the real temple in heaven. They were also acknowledging that this child was not their own, and that his first bond of kinship was to his Heavenly Father. Mary was not one to cling to her child with overprotective love, as some mothers do. Yet even she, the selfless and obedient one, was promised that a sword of sorrow would pierce her heart on the day of separation. Why does God give us such beautiful gifts and then ask us to give them up? Why does he allow a loving heart to be pierced with loss? These questions must be brought to Mary, who suffered this sword in a terrible way, more than any mother, any father. Through this mystery, she can help your heart accept what your mind cannot understand.

Fifth Joyful Mystery: The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple

Luke 2:46, 51. After three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions…And He returned with His parents to Nazareth, and was obedient to them.

Catechism of the Catholic Church: #531-534

Reflection: All of the joyful mysteries are somehow tinged with sorrow, but they are also touched with light and glory. In the precocious wisdom of a 12-year-old boy, Jesus gives his parents and the teachers a glimpse of his true stature. He knows who he is and what he came for, even as a boy. But he did not begin by teaching, just as he did not begin by commanding. He began in the humble position of one who listens and asks questions. He also began in the humility of a boy who obeys his parents. Why does Jesus listen and ask questions when he already knows all of the answers with perfect certainty? And why did he obey his mother and father when he himself had called them into existence? Perhaps Mary also reflected on these questions, wondering at the sweetness and respect with which God introduces himself into our lives, as a fellow pilgrim who lives our lives with us, whose questions make us reflect and grow, who listens to us with kindness and interest, and who perhaps has obeyed us—answering our prayers, forgiving our sins in confession, coming into our hearts in holy Communion— far more than we have obeyed him. In this mystery, ask Mary to help you see and touch this goodness of Jesus in your own life.

Mini Meditations on the Joyful Mysteries Read More »