March 20, 2026

A Week of Prayer for All of Our Priests and Consecrated Members – March 22nd

March 20, 2026 / pray weekly, Regnum Christi News

Regnum Christi invites our entire spiritual family and all our friends to join us in praying especially for our brothers and sisters living the consecrated vocations of Legionary priests, Consecrated Women, and Lay Consecrated Men in our territory.

Each week throughout the year, we will pray together for a different group of Legionaries and Consecrated, spanning all the communities across the territory, as our “Priests and Consecrated of the Week.”

Our Consecrated members are men and women who have said yes to Christ’s call to follow him, leaving everything behind to dedicate their entire lives to him and to join him in the mission of building his Kingdom. We come together to support them with our prayer, asking our Lord to strengthen them, hold them close to his Sacred Heart, and give them his deep joy as they live their mission each day.

This Week We Pray for

Br. Jose Luis LaPorta is from Mexico City, Mexico and is a second-year humanist at LC Cheshire. Although he felt the first stirrings of a vocation as a child and young teenager, it wasn’t until years later, hearing God’s call again during a retreat, that he decided to give a year to Regnum Christi Mission Corps in Madrid. Knowing that God had been calling him to the priesthood all along, he entered the candidacy program the next summer, and in August of 2024, he made his first vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience as a Legionary of Christ.

Fr. Frank Formolo, LC was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and was ordained in 2003. Since then, he has worked in promotion and chaplaincy at two Legionary schools in Texas and served as vice rector and administrator of the LC community in Dallas as well as Chaplain of the Highlands, CRC, and director of women’s section. He also served at the Center of Formation in Thornwood, New York. He has also served as superior and administrator of the Edgerton LC community in Wisconsin and as vice rector of Sacred Heart Apostolic School in Rolling Prairie, Indiana. He achieved an executive master’s degree in nonprofit administration in 2019 at the University of Notre Dame, as well as working as territorial administrator for the Legionaries of Christ in North America.

Katie Tuttle was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. She met the Consecrated Women on a Regnum Christi mission trip to Mexico for Holy Week during her senior year of high school. She began discerning her vocation while studying at the University of Dayton and was consecrated in 2003. Since then, she has worked as an assistant secretary in the office of the territorial director, and as a mentor and formator for the young women in the Immaculate Conception Program in Michigan. In 2016, she moved to Houston to work in young adult and vocation ministry. She is currently the director of the consecrated community in Houston and has been a member of the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi Territorial Council since 2023.

Fr. Thomas Murphy, LC was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. He entered the Legion of Christ in 1997. He was ordained to the priesthood in 2009. After ordination, he spent 9 years in youth ministry serving in Conquest and ECYD in Ontario, Canada. Currently, he is now working at Sacred Heart Apostolic School in Rolling Prairie, Indiana, where he accompanies students in their integral formation and helps them grow in their friendship with Christ, so they can properly discern and respond freely to God’s call in their lives.

Rachel Peach grew up in Hartville, Ohio and was consecrated in 2010. She served in Texas in the area of youth ministry, working with ECYD and Regnum Christi high school groups, and supporting Catholic schools and parishes across the archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. In 2020, she moved back to her home state and currently lives in Cincinnati, where she serves as the ECYD girls director in the Ohio Valley.

Fr. Thomas Flynn, LC was born and raised in Washington, D.C. and was ordained in 2011. His apostolic work has included seminary formation, youth work, school chaplain, retreat director, and spiritual director. Fr. Thomas currently serves as assistant chaplain for the Ohio Valley Regnum Christi Women’s section, and as chaplain at Mercy Health Hospital in Anderson and Clermont, Ohio. He also ministers to inmates for their sacramental and spiritual care at Warren Correctional Institute, and serves as the chaplain of Mater Filius Queen City, a nonprofit maternity home in Cincinnati that provides housing and resources for pregnant women and mothers experiencing financial difficulties and homelessness. Fr. Thomas is an avid painter and regularly gives artist retreats in collaboration with the Called to Create apostolate in Cincinnati.

Prayer for Priests and Consecrated Members in Regnum Christi

God our Father,
We thank you for our spiritual family of Regnum Christi, and for those within it that you have called to total consecration as Legionaries of Christ, Consecrated Women, and Lay Consecrated Men.

We ask you to renew their encounter with your Son Jesus Christ,
who goes out to meet them and reveals the love of his heart to them.
Deepen their personal love for Christ
and their trust in his love for them.
Gather them close to him,
form them,
and send them out accompanied by your Son,
in the mission of forming apostles and Christian leaders who make your Kingdom present in hearts, in families, and in society.

Send your Holy Spirit to sanctify and strengthen them,
And to help them respond generously and courageously to their mission each day.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

A Week of Prayer for All of Our Priests and Consecrated Members – March 22nd Read More »

Regnum Christi Spirituality Center Uncle Eddy

St Cuthbert

March 20, 2026 / Uncle Eddy

Dear Bert, I get the distinct impression that you are using the same process to choose a seminary as you did to choose a college. I wonder why. Following a vocation to the priesthood is hardly the same as going to college. Your steps to discern which seminary to enter will be guided primarily by supernatural criteria (faith, prayer-life, Eucharistic life, fidelity to the Magisterium…), whereas choosing a college was guided by natural criteria (academic prestige, weather, location, extracurricular opportunities, etc…). If you ignore this and start viewing your vocation as “your” vocation, and not as “God’s plan for my life,” you will handcuff the Holy Spirit; he’ll have to cater to your own likes and dislikes, which will not always coincide with God’s will. That would be unfortunate. Much better to focus on God’s action in your soul and follow his lead humbly and courageously, consciously asking yourself what he would prefer. Then you will fly speedily along the path to holiness, as did today’s saint. Cuthbert grew up in the north of England. He was healthy, energetic, playful, and the leader of the other boys in his town. They spent their days playing in the beautiful lowlands of Northumbria – Cuthbert outdid them all in every sport. One day, while they were at their normal frolics, a companion burst into tears, saying, “Oh, Cuthbert, how can you waste your time in idle sport – you whom God has set apart to be a priest and a bishop?” The question struck deep in his heart, and he began from then on to think about what God would have of him. He spent his teenage years plying the trade he had learned as a boy, shepherding. He spent long days and nights with his sheep out in the open country, and had plenty of time to reflect and pray. The conviction of his vocation to become fully consecrated to God slowly took root, and after spending some time fighting against the Mercian invaders, he arrived at the Abbey of Melrose on horseback, brandishing his spear and asking to be made a monk. Thus began his years of training under St Eata, with whom he eventually founded another monastery at Ripon (all in northern England). When King Alcfrid rearranged the abbeys, however, Cuthbert was set loose from the monastic life and began his famous walking missions, which took him back and forth throughout the lowlands, preaching the gospel in houses, cottages, castles, towns, and everywhere in between. At the same time, he began tending the sick and looking after the poor (God granted him the gift of healing), who were ravaged by war and plague. He took a special interest in the villages far off the main roads since they received little attention from the missionaries. He eventually became an abbot himself, and a bishop, but always preferred to spend his time between walking missions and retreats on a desolate island near the island Monastery of the Lindisfarne. Through it all he championed Church unity, resolving many quarrels between Christians of the ancient Celtic tradition and the disciples of St Augustine of Canterbury, who espoused the Roman dating of Easter. (In fact, his last words included an exhortation to unity, but not at the expense of unorthodoxy: “Be of one mind in your councils, live in concord with the other servants of God, despise none of the faithful who seek your hospitality; treat them with kindly charity, not esteeming yourselves better than others who have the same faith and often live the same life. But hold no communion with those who err from the unity of the Catholic faith.”) He was a one-man revolution, purifying his people of their last remaining superstitions and giving continuity to the steady flow of holiness from the British Isles that enriched the Church for centuries. But he did it all on God’s terms, discovering and embracing – unconditionally – God’s plan for his life. If you do the same, I can guarantee that you won’t have any regrets. Your devoted uncle, Eddy

St Cuthbert Read More »

40 Days to Peace and Union with God: Day 31 – Conflict and Contradiction

March 20, 2026 / Lent 2026, Regnum Christi, Whole Territory

“When we consider that Christ is the true light far removed from all falsehood, we realize that our lives too should be lit by the rays of the sun of justice, which shine for our enlightenment. These rays are the virtues.”

- ST. GREGORY OF NYSSA

READ: JOHN 7:20–36

“Why do you want to kill me?” The crowd replied, “You are mad! Who wants to kill you?” Jesus answered, “One work I did, and you are all surprised by it. Moses ordered you to practise circumcision — not that it began with him, it goes back to the patriarchs — and you circumcise on the sabbath. Now if a man can be circumcised on the sabbath so that the Law of Moses is not broken, why are you angry with me for making a man whole and complete on a sabbath? Do not keep judging according to appearances; let your judgement be according to what is right.” Meanwhile some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Isn’t this the man they want to kill? And here he is, speaking freely, and they have nothing to say to him! Can it be true the authorities have made up their minds that he is the Christ? Yet we all know where he comes from, but when the Christ appears no one will know where he comes from.” Then, as Jesus taught in the Temple, he cried out: “Yes, you know me and you know where I came from. Yet I have not come of myself: no, there is one who sent me and I really come from him, and you do not know him, but I know him because I have come from him and it was he who sent me.” They would have arrested him then, but because his time had not yet come no one laid a hand on him. There were many people in the crowds, however, who believed in him; they were saying, “When the Christ comes, will he give more signs than this man?” Hearing that rumors like this about him were spreading among the people, the Pharisees sent the Temple police to arrest him. Then Jesus said: “I shall remain with you for only a short time now; then I shall go back to the one who sent me. You will look for me and will not find me: where I am you cannot come.” The Jews then said to one another, “Where is he going that we shan’t be able to find him? Is he going abroad to the people who are dispersed among the Greeks and will he teach the Greeks? What does he mean when he says: ‘You will look for me and will not find me: where I am, you cannot come?’ ”

YOUR THREE-STEP GUIDE TO DAILY MENTAL PRAYER

REFLECT

A touch of sadness seems to color Jesus’ words when the guards show up to arrest Him. The time for His Passion has not yet arrived, however, and so they do not arrest Him. But their arrival makes Jesus think ahead to what He knows will happen in just a few months. He is painfully aware that His time is limited. We can hear the longing in His voice as He alludes to His Ascension — He wants people to believe in Him before their hearts become too hardened to believe. Jesus still longs for us to believe in Him, to trust Him, to accept Him. Life is so short; time is so limited. God showers every soul with His graces and invitations, but still many souls refuse to believe.

Christ: You are a comfort to me. You have listened to my voice in your conscience, and you have followed me. You have trusted me. You have let me heal you and guide you with my grace. I am preparing a place for you in my Father’s house. But I wish I could describe to you how it pains my heart to see so many souls turn their backs on me. What more could I have done for them? Each one of them is looking for me, but they keep looking in the wrong places. And the farther they distance themselves from me, the less distinct my voice becomes. Go to them and tell them that I am what they are looking for. I will be with you.

RESPOND

Keep my heart open to You, Lord. It’s so easy to go to the right or to the left, to fall into legalism or laxity, like the Pharisees and the Sadducees, those leaders of Jerusalem who tried to destroy You. Keep me on the right path, Lord. Teach me to do Your will. Teach me to keep striving to love You with all my heart and to love my neighbor as myself. Push me, Lord; draw me closer to You.

I praise You for Your gentle love. You come to me in the simple things of life. It delights You to show Your love and Your majesty in the quiet beauty of a sunset, the simple joy of a child’s smile, the embrace of a loved one, the refreshing caress of a cool breeze. Teach me the wisdom I need to live in constant contact with You, so I can be a channel of Your grace.

REST

I know I have only a little time left on this earth. I want to do so much. But my job is not to save the world — that’s Your job, Lord. All I have to do is fulfill Your will with trust and love. I ask only that You make Your will clear to me each day and then give me the strength to carry it out with love. When my last day comes, I want to be able to say: I love You Lord, and that’s why I always sought to do Your will.

RESOLVE

How can I carry this encounter with me into the day? (Write / Journal)

CLOSING PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING

Most Blessed and Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, thank You for Your love and Your grace in allowing me this time of prayer with You.

The world, the flesh, and the devil will all propose things I should focus on and run after today. I beg You to fill me with Your Holy Spirit and help me instead to know and embrace Your will. Help me to see what You desire of me each moment of this day. Give me the wisdom, strength, and fortitude I need to avoid distractions, discern Your will, and focus on and carry out that which Wisdom reveals. Help me to work and live at a pace of peace and prayerfulness, always attentive to You, able to hear Your voice and to say no to anything that hinders my journey to You and a complete yes to every Holy prompting from You.

Help me to humbly and purposefully live, light, and lead others to the path of union with You and to tell everyone about this way of life. Amen.

About the Author

Fr. John Bartunek was ordained in 2003. He has taught moral theology at various ecclesiastical institutions at the graduate and undergraduate levels, and has authored many books, including the Gospel companion, The Better Part, and Inside the Passion, the only authorized behind-the-scenes look at the film, for which he provided on-set spiritual support. His online retreat guides are available in multiple formats at RCSpirituality.org. Fr. John currently resides in Atlanta, where he is serving as territorial vicar for the Legionaries of Christ.

40 Days to Peace and Union with God: Day 31 – Conflict and Contradiction Read More »

March 20, 2026 – Do You Know Him?

March 20, 2026 / Daily Meditations

<a href="https://rss.com/podcasts/rcdailymeditations/2628247/">March 20, 2026 – Do You Know Him? | RSS.com</a>

Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent

John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30

Jesus moved about within Galilee; he did not wish to travel in Judea, because the Jews were trying to kill him. But the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near. But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, he himself also went up, not openly but as it were in secret. Some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said, “Is he not the one they are trying to kill? And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him. Could the authorities have realized that he is the Christ? But we know where he is from. When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.” So Jesus cried out in the temple area as he was teaching and said, “You know me and also know where I am from. Yet I did not come on my own, but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.” So they tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand upon him, because his hour had not yet come.

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, enlighten the eyes of my heart, to see you for who you truly are: the Son of Man, the Savior of the world. Give me the strength to be able to cling to you. Lord, give me the courage to proclaim you even in the face of persecution.

Encountering Christ:

Do We Know Where He Is From?: The inhabitants of Jerusalem—the ordinary people—saw Jesus preaching openly, and it confused them. “Is he not the one they are trying to kill?” they asked. “Could the authorities have realized that he is the Christ?” they wondered. They thought they knew where Jesus was from. They were curious but rudderless, looking for guidance from their leaders about Jesus. Jesus cried out, “You know me and you also know where I am from.” Was he appealing to the simple and pure of heart in the crowd? Asking them to attend to the movements of the Spirit in their hearts as they heard him preach? Inviting them to believe that the Father sent him? Jesus extends the same invitation to us. He asks us to cut through the noise and moral confusion of the culture and really tune into his words by reading and meditating on the Scriptures. This allows the Spirit to imbue us with understanding and a holy desire to draw ever closer to the Father.
Fearless Proclamation: At the beginning of the Gospel passage, Jesus didn’t go to Judea because he knew the Jews were hunting him there, that they wanted him dead. However, he ended up going. Why? Fulfilling the Father’s will was infinitely more important to him than potential persecution by men. He foresaw the Cross, but he was secure in the knowledge of his Father’s love for him, and this love led him to love in return by proclaiming the Good News to all in Jerusalem. Let us ask the Lord for a deeper knowledge and assurance of his love, that we too may be able to go out and boldly share his love with others.
“His Hour Had Not Yet Come”: The primary objective of St. John’s Gospel was to illuminate Our Lord’s divinity. John wrote that when the Jews tried to arrest Jesus they couldn’t. Why? Because Jesus was in complete control. He knew his hour and would surrender his life according to the divine timetable—not one minute sooner. As children of God, we can draw great consolation from the divine traits of our Redeemer. He guides us with his incomparable wisdom, heals us by his compassion, rescues us by his might, and loves us with his limitless capacity of divine charity.

Conversing with Christ: Lord, please cut through the confusion in my mind and bless me with a renewed understanding of your divine power and might.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will spend an extra moment reflecting deeply on my favorite passage from the Gospel.

Maribeth Harper celebrated paying the last tuition bill for her kids’ college by writing a book for parents who have college-aged young adults: A Spiritual Toolbox: Tips for Parenting through the First Year of College. She is a wife of thirty-five years, mother of four, and grandmother of twelve and counting.

March 20, 2026 – Do You Know Him? Read More »

Ask a Priest: “Does God Literally Speak to People?”

March 20, 2026 / Ask a Priest

Q: I’m an 18-year-old who has recently started going to Bible study after years of not going to church. I was raised Southern Baptist, but I never really understood the difference between the other denominations. Lately I’ve been wondering: How come people say they can hear God? Do they mean it literally? How am I supposed to hear him? Or is it a metaphor? I also hear about people having conversations with God and I don’t get it. How does that work? I can’t hear anyone in my head besides my conscience, which I’m assuming is God leading me to the path of righteousness. But I always thought of “listening to God” as a metaphor for spiritual discipline, not an actual phenomenon. Am I a bad Christian if I can’t literally hear him? — Toni

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC:

A: It’s good that you are going to Bible study after years of not going to church.

That is a sign that the Holy Spirit is trying to nudge you closer to himself.

As to your questions:

Could God communicate through a voice? He does it, after all, at the baptism of Jesus, for instance (Matthew 3:17), and at the Transfiguration (Luke 9:35).

But God’s normal way of “speaking” to us is through the words of others or through events or through the little inspirations he sends during the day.

So, while Ask a Priest can’t say whether some of your acquaintances have heard God speaking to them, it would be good to take that talk with a grain of salt.

People might be using the term hearing in a metaphorical way. Or they might really be talking to themselves and thinking it’s God’s voice (“Go ahead and cheat on your taxes — Jesus knows you need the money”).

In short, don’t think of yourself as a bad Christian if you don’t “hear” God’s voice.

God does communicate to us through our (correctly formed) conscience.

Our Lord might have “spoken” to you when you followed an inspiration to join that Bible study. He often works in gentle and subtle ways.

Here are two quick hints for discerning when it might be God speaking to us:

First, he tends to do it in moments of calm. If ever you feel anxious or pressured, that’s probably not the moment when the Spirit is trying to communicate with you.

Second, God won’t contradict what the Church teaches. Here, of course, I’m thinking of the Catholic Church.

If the Church teaches one thing, the Holy Spirit isn’t going to inspire someone to do something that contradicts that teaching. God simply doesn’t work like that.

You can help to provide fertile ground in your heart by dedicating time to prayer and Scripture and works of charity.

To help your prayer life, you might consider the four C’s of Christian mediation. Check out my colleague Father Bartunek’s video or essay on the topic.

And if you want to learn more about the Catholic faith, get a copy of the Youth Catechism.

Count on my prayers.

Ask a Priest: “Does God Literally Speak to People?” Read More »

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A Week of Prayer for All of Our Priests and Consecrated Members – March 22nd

This Week We Pray for

Prayer for Priests and Consecrated Members in Regnum Christi

St Cuthbert

40 Days to Peace and Union with God: Day 31 – Conflict and Contradiction

YOUR THREE-STEP GUIDE TO DAILY MENTAL PRAYER

CLOSING PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING

About the Author

March 20, 2026 – Do You Know Him?

Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Ask a Priest: “Does God Literally Speak to People?”

The Regnum Christi Identity

4 Vocations: 1 Spiritual Family

The Regnum Christi Mission

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Prayer Resources

Media

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March 20, 2026

A Week of Prayer for All of Our Priests and Consecrated Members – March 22nd

This Week We Pray for

Prayer for Priests and Consecrated Members in Regnum Christi

St Cuthbert

40 Days to Peace and Union with God: Day 31 – Conflict and Contradiction

YOUR THREE-STEP GUIDE TO DAILY MENTAL PRAYER

CLOSING PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING

About the Author

March 20, 2026 – Do You Know Him?

Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Ask a Priest: “Does God Literally Speak to People?”

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