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December 27, 2024

Regnum Christi Spirituality Center Ask a Priest

“Ask a Priest: Is It OK to Invite Back the Jehovah’s Witnesses?”

/ Ask a Priest
Q: I am homebound and recently had two Jehovah’s Witnesses knock on my door. We spoke at the door for a while, and I agreed to have them come back later and discuss the Bible. I have been going through some difficult times, and I have prayed to God to bless me with someone with whom I could discuss some spiritual issues. I have tried to reach out to local Catholic parishes, but it hasn’t worked out. Is it a sin for me to accept the visit from the Jehovah’s Witnesses? I am not interested in seeking to join another church. I believe that the Catholic Church is the one and only true church. Thank you. — Elizabeth

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC

A: I’m sorry to hear that you haven’t been able to get help from any Catholic parish. It must be hard to struggle with issues while you are homebound and probably feeling isolated.

While it’s good that you were polite with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, it’s probably not a good idea to invite them back, no matter how friendly they seem.

Their aim ultimately is to persuade you to join their sect – at the price of abandoning your Catholic faith.

Unless you are deeply knowledgeable about the Bible and your faith, it’s not easy to take on two JW’s who are trained to promote their own interpretation of Scripture.

And make no mistake: some of their key beliefs are incompatible with Catholicism and Christianity in general.

For one thing, Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t believe in the divinity of Jesus. They think he was a created being. But we know him to be God, the Second Person of the Trinity.

Nor do Jehovah’s Witnesses believe in hell. You could learn more about their other faulty ideas at this Catholic Answers post.

It would be better to try to reach out to a parish again and see if a parishioner could visit you. You don’t want to jeopardize your faith through interactions with Jehovah’s Witnesses (for more pointers, see this post).

In the meantime, you might try looking at videos by Father Mike Schmitz and Bishop Robert Barron. They will offer more solid teaching. And stay close to the Blessed Virgin Mary through the rosary.

Count on my prayers.

 

“Ask a Priest: Is It OK to Invite Back the Jehovah’s Witnesses?” Read More »

Regnum Christi Spirituality Center Uncle Eddy

St John the Evangelist and Apostle

/ Uncle Eddy

Dear Jean,

Having received no greeting from you in quite a while, I can’t help wondering if you may be slipping a bit.  Especially during vacation and all – usually, we tend to revert to self-indulgence, laziness, and old patterns of interpersonal roughness, especially with family members.  If on the off chance you may be experiencing something like that, then today is a very important feast day for you, so I hope you read this email.

St John, author of the fourth Gospel, the Book of Revelation, and three canonical Letters, is one of the most endearing figures in the New Testament – at least, Christ thought so: he let the young Apostle lean right up against his chest when they were reclined for the Last Supper in the Upper Room; he also included John on the few special excursions when he went off only with three of his disciples.  And then, when he was dying on the cross, he entrusted his mother to John’s care, and John to his mother’s care – something special going on there. Of course, John also refers to himself in his Gospel as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” Since he alone of the Twelve accompanied Christ on Calvary (the others were hiding in fear of the Jews), we could also refer to him as “the disciple who loved Jesus.”  That mutual love of God in Christ and the individual Christian soul, and its overflow into the love of one’s neighbor, is the great motif of all his inspired writings. In fact, St Jerome tells us that when St John was advanced in years and so weak that he couldn’t even walk by himself, they used to carry him to the assembly of Christians in Ephesus (the community founded by Paul in modern-day Turkey, where St John lived and died after returning from an exile – under Emperor Domitian, who attempted to execute him for being a Christian by boiling him in oil, but John was miraculously saved; he hopped out of the cauldron and went on his way, the guards and magistrates so dumbfounded that no one dared obstruct him – on the Island of Patmos, where he wrote the Book of Revelation), and whenever they gathered around him, all he would say was, “My little children, love one another.”  After a while, the community got a bit perturbed by his repetition and asked him why he didn’t say anything else. He answered, “Because it is the word of the Lord, and if you keep it you do enough.”

And that also is my word to you.  Return to the way of love, of serving those around you, of finding ingenious ways to bring everyone you know closer to Christ.  Now’s the season to do it, and St John is the perfect patron to do it under. Count on my prayers.

Your loving uncle, Eddy

St John the Evangelist and Apostle Read More »

ECyD in Washington, DC

/ APP News Feed, ECYD News, Regnum Christi News, Washington DC

Fr. Vito Crincoli, LC, became a member of ECyD back in 1992 – 30 years later, he is back as the Director of the Leadership Training program in Washington, DC.

A year after becoming a member of ECyD over 30 years ago, Fr. Vito entered the minor seminary of the Legionaries of Christ, and professed his first vows in 1999. Since then, he has studied and served in Rome and Mexico, returning to the United States in 2021 to become the Director of Leadership Training Program in Washington, DC, a program designed to equip youth with the tools to integrate leadership skills with a Christian worldview in order to make a positive impact on society.

Building on the strong foundation that the previous Legionary priests and consecrated women in DC had already built, Fr. Vito realized that much of his ministry in ECyD would involve working with the parents as much as the kids and young adults, and in his role as the Boys’ ECyD director, this meant engaging the fathers. He soon noticed that what truly inspired the dads involved was not to simply act as supervisors of the boys, but to be real participants in the mission, and to see their service to ECyD as a true calling.

“There’s a mystique being created here, that this is not just about being a chaperone – the dads are responding to a vocation,” says Fr. Vito. “A big part of my ministry here in the director’s role is to accompany the dads in understanding the importance of their vocation to fatherhood.”

 

ECyD in Washington Article
ECyD in Washington Article
ECyD in Washington Article
ECyD in Washington Article
ECyD in Washington Article
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ECyD in Washington Article
ECyD in Washington Article
ECyD in Washington Article
ECyD in Washington Article

The recent Top Gun Father & Son Camp was an excellent opportunity to invite the dads to become more engaged in the mission and community of ECyD. In October, 40 fathers and sons came together for a weekend of faith-filled activities. In full commitment to the theme of the camp, special guests included Top Gun pilot, Commander Adam Farber, and Midshipman Alex Mills, both of whom spoke on the topics of faith and fortitude, and had a tremendous impact on the fathers and sons throughout the weekend. At the end of the weekend, the dads were presented with their own set of wings by Midshipman Mills, which they then passed on to their sons.

Another recent opportunity to involve both the ECyD boys and their families was the Faith and Football event with the Washington Commanders. Earlier this year, Fr. Vito unexpectedly received a phone call from Roman McLane, a representative for the team who offered the ECyD group the chance to attend a game and then spend time with some of the players and directors of the team, including cornerback Michael Davis, team president and former NFL player, Jason Wright, and team alumni, Tim Hightower and London Fletcher.

About 25 ECYD boys and parents had the opportunity to meet the players and alum and hear how they have integrated their faith into the game of football and into their lives. This was followed by a time for questions and autographs.

“It was an exposure to good role models who showed the boys that you can love Jesus Christ, and you can love football, and be dedicated to your career.”

ECyD also recently hosted a Flag Football retreat and High School Metro Mission serving and evangelizing those on DC’s metro lines. On the weekend of the Feast of Christ the King, Mission Youth DC organized a downtown mission that included four different tracks. One group of families went door to door asking for prayer requests, another group prayed outside of an abortion clinic and volunteered at a crisis pregnancy center in Virgina, and a group of college students and adults served hot meals to the people of Anacostia. And one group of high school students, most of whom were LTP or Challenge and Conquest leaders, went on the first DC metro mission, going into the metro lines to ask for prayer intentions and hand out cookies and drinks to those in need.

One of ECyD’s largest events in the DC locality is the Christmas Toy Drive, hosted by the LTP and Conquest and Challenge groups. Working with local schools, the group is collecting new, unwrapped toys for children in the community, and then the groups and parents will gather at a local parish on December 14th to host a free “store” where families in need can come and shop for Christmas gifts while their kids are cared for and entertained by older ECyD members. This year, the Christmas Toy Drive is expected to serve about 200-300 people struggling to make ends meet during the Christmas season.

To find out more about all of the exciting things happening in ECyD in the DC locality, visit their website at LTP in DMV, or follow them on Instagram.

ECyD in Washington, DC Read More »

December 27, 2024 – Love Lends Us Wings

/ Daily Meditations

 

 

 

 

Feast of Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist

 

 

John 20:1a and 2-8

 

On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we do not know where they put him.” So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed.

 

Opening Prayer: Dear Lord, I want to take this time to open my mind and my heart to whatever it is you want to say to me today. I know and believe you are present to me. You are the living God. Like St. John, may my life be one of constantly seeking to know you, finding you, and following you.

 

Encountering Christ:

 

  1. They All Ran: Knowing, truly knowing Jesus brought an eagerness to the disciples’ hearts that pushed them to physical exertion trying to discover what had become of his body. Mary ran in her excitement and bewilderment to share that Jesus’ body was missing from the tomb. At the news, John and Peter ran with great anticipation, despite the danger of being arrested. Jesus wants us to run to him with eager hearts as did the disciples. When we truly seek him and his truth we always discover more than we initially imagined. How many times in life has Christ beckoned us, “Come to me”? How God’s love has changed us! In this holy season of Christmas, how might we run to the Lord with greater enthusiasm? Let us ask the Lord to increase our longing to discover him in all the ways he shows up in our lives.

 

  1. John’s Reverence: John bent and saw the burial cloths but did not enter. He would not enter the tomb first because he deferred to Peter, knowing that the Lord had given Peter a leadership position at the service of the Church. John knew Peter well, both his strengths and his weaknesses. John knew of Peter’s denial during Christ’s Passion. Many times, the Lord places someone in leadership over us who is not perfect. Trusting in God’s ways, we are sometimes called to defer (provided that doing so would not be sinful). Because we are all incorporated into the Mystical Body, the Church, and called to live our own unique vocation within it, we build up the body of Christ when we put aside our own judgment and humbly acquiesce to someone else’s leadership for the glory of God.

 

  1. He Saw and Believed: Although the Resurrection was foretold by Christ, John did not know exactly what would happen. This “disciple whom Jesus loved,” the one who laid his head on Jesus’ chest at the Last Supper, and who accompanied Jesus closely throughout his Passion, was able in an instant to view the evidence present in the empty tomb and believe that his Lord had risen. What thoughts might have crossed John’s mind and heart as he stood there holding burial cloths? Was he recalling the raising of Lazarus from the dead? Jesus’ proclamation, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (Jn 14:6)? Moments from the Last Supper when Jesus instituted the Eucharist and Holy Orders? Jesus’ last words from the cross, “It is finished”? In an instant, the fragments from the life of Christ that John witnessed fell into place painting an undeniable portrait of a God who loves us beyond telling. John would spend his last years striving to share with all of us just how much God cares for each of us with an infinite, personal, and unrepeatable love.

 

Conversing with Christ: Dear Lord, just as John was a beloved disciple, so I am also called to run to you with eager expectation and discover just how much you love me. In this season of Christmas, as I contemplate you in the manger where your body is wrapped not in burial cloths but swaddling clothes, I ask for the gift of seeing and believing.

 

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will pause before you wrapped in swaddling clothes, thanking you for living, dying, and rising for love of me.

 

For Further Reflection: Say the Nicene Creed slowly and deliberately.

December 27, 2024 – Love Lends Us Wings Read More »

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Alex Kucera

Atlanta

Alex Kucera has lived in Atlanta, GA, for the last 46 years. He is one of 9 children, married to his wife Karmen, and has 3 girls, one grandson, and a granddaughter on the way. Alex joined Regnum Christi in 2007. Out of the gate, he joined the Helping Hands Medical Missions apostolate and is still participating today with the Ghana Friendship Mission.

In 2009, Alex was asked to be the Atlanta RC Renewal Coordinator for the Atlanta Locality to help the RC members with the RC renewal process. Alex became a Group Leader in 2012 for four of the Atlanta Men’s Section Teams and continues today. Running in parallel, in 2013, Alex became a Team Leader and shepherded a large team of good men.

Alex was honored to be the Atlanta Mission Coordinator between 2010 to 2022 (12 years), coordinating 5-8 Holy Week Mission teams across Georgia. He also created and coordinated missions at a parish in Athens, GA, for 9 years. Alex continues to coordinate Holy Week Missions, Advent Missions, and Monthly missions at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Cumming, GA.

From 2016 to 2022, Alex also served as the Men’s Section Assistant in Atlanta. He loved working with the Men’s Section Director, the Legionaries, Consecrated, and Women’s Section leadership teams.

Alex is exceptionally grateful to the Legionaries, Consecrated, and many RC members who he’s journeyed shoulder to shoulder, growing his relationship with Christ and others along the way. He knows that there is only one way, that’s Christ’s Way, with others!