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RC DAILY MEDITATIONS
RC DAILY MEDITATIONS

May 8, 2026

26-05-10-PCOTW

A Week of Prayer for All of Our Priests and Consecrated Members: May 10th – 16th

/ 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

VanDorpe_headshot Fr. John VanDorpe, LC is from Dayton, Ohio and was ordained in 2022. Since then, his work has been focused on helping young men discern their call to the priesthood and religious life, as a regional vocation director for the Legionaries of Christ (out of Atlanta, Georgia, and New Orleans, Louisiana) and as the novice director assistant at the Legionaries of Christ Novitiate and College of Humanities in Cheshire, Connecticut.

Santos_headshotNatalia Santos is from El Salvador and has been a Consecrated Woman of Regnum Christi for 17 years (or since 2007). Having grown up in ECYD and served as an ECYD missionary, she has dedicated her life to accompanying young people in their faith and personal growth. She served 5 years at Overbrook Academy and 8 years in Atlanta as the ECYD Director for girls. Since 2024, she serves in the Washington, DC area as the ECYD Director for girls, accompanying young women in their faith and leadership.

Agudelo_headshotBr. Miguel Agudelo is from Medellin, Colombia. At five years old, he felt pulled to the priesthood, and at age 11, he entered the apostolic school in Rionegro, before joining the novitiate at age 17. In August of 2024, he made his first vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience as a Legionary of Christ, and today, he is a second-year humanist at LC Cheshire.

Sheptock_headshotBecci Sheptock is from Fort Worth, Texas and has been consecrated since 2007. After formation, she served in the D.C. area for ten years, most notably at Divine Mercy University, where she assisted with academic administration and accreditation. She is currently stationed in New Orleans Louisiana, the place where she first met Regnum Christi while a college student at Loyola University. She currently serves as the Director of Youth Ministry and Religious Education at St. Matthew the Apostle Parish.

White_headshotFr. Thomas White, LC was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and was ordained in 2023. After spending most of his formation in Europe, where he also assisted at an academy in Dublin for middle school and high school boys, he returned to the United States to serve as the dean of formation at Oaklawn Academy in Edgerton, Wisconsin. Currently, he is a member of the LC community in Dallas, where he serves as the boys’ ECYD director.

O'Keefe_headshotFr. Donal O’Keefe, LC was ordained in 1981. Recently, he was a part of the Los Angeles community where he served as an auxiliary team member of Guadalupe Radio. As of March 2026, he joined the Legionary community in Cancun, Mexico.

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: May 10th – 16th Read More »

Regnum Christi Spirituality Center Uncle Eddy

St Peter of Tarentaise

/ Uncle Eddy

Dear Pete, Your latest plea for advice reminded me of those vapid songs from the seventies, which gloat in mistaking mere feelings for true virtue.  You are an artist; you have been gifted with a keen emotional sensitivity, and God is certainly planning on putting that to good use for his Kingdom.  Nevertheless, you are still a human being, and human beings are more than mere feelings; we have something called reason, another thing called willpower, and we Christians even have the gift of faith to top it all off!  Feelings are blind – sometimes you feel like doing the right thing, a lot of times you feel like doing the wrong thing. Sometimes you feel like being kind, other times you feel like being crabby. Imagine what a monster you would be if you let all your feelings have their way all the time.  Perish the thought! I remind you that feelings are like the weather. Sometimes they can help our journey through life, and other times they can hinder it. The important thing is to keep in mind your destination (union with God through friendship with Christ) and let nothing stop you from pursuing it.  Today’s saint has a lot to say about this. At twenty Peter became a Cistercian monk.  He was so dedicated that he inspired his whole family (mom and dad, two brothers and one sister) to become Cistercians soon afterward.  He loved being a monk. At thirty he was made superior of a new monastery and worked tirelessly to turn the place into a saint factory and a beacon of Christian charity (he built a hospice next door, where he would tend the sick and house travelers for free).  Soon, however, he was appointed to the archbishopric of Tarentaise in south-central France. For thirteen years he reformed and reinvigorated the ailing archdiocese, with the aid of plenty of miracles. But he missed the monastic life so much that one night he sneaked away, went to Switzerland and became a lay brother (dedicated to manual labor) in a monastery that didn’t know him.  He was much happier there, but the people of his archdiocese demanded his return when they finally tracked him down a year later. Reluctantly, he agreed, and went on to extend his works of charity throughout France, defend the papacy against the seemingly overpowering wiles of the emperor Frederick Barbarossa (St Peter was the only person that the emperor permitted to speak freely against him – so evident was the archbishop’s holiness), and midwife peace between the quarreling kings of France and England.  If he had followed his feelings instead of his faith, Europe would have lost a mighty champion of charity and peace, and you would have lost the possibility of asking this saint for his prayers on your behalf. So keep your goal in mind, and let nothing deter you. Sincerely, Uncle Eddy

St Peter of Tarentaise Read More »

26-05-08-DM

May 8, 2026 – Love One Another

/ Daily Meditations

Friday of the Fifth Week of Easter

 

John 15:12-17

Jesus said to his disciples: “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.”

Opening Prayer: God my Father, I ask in your name for the grace to be able to pray. I do not know how to pray as I ought, but the Spirit in me inspires true prayer. I love you, Father mine, and I love your Son; let me remain in your love.

Encountering Christ:

  1. To Lay Down One’s Life: “This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father” (Jn 10:17-18). He received this command from the Father, not as an order imposed from outside by steel-tipped boots, but as the inner exigency of his love for us. For Jesus, “God’s commands are not burdensome” (1 Jn 5:3). We know this because he went to the Cross with utmost freedom. Both the Father and the Son love us with the same free and gratuitous love. “For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have come to believe that I came from God” (Jn 16:27). God’s commands should not be burdensome for us either. “Love can be ‘commanded’ because it has first been given” (Deus Caritas Est, 14).

     

  2. Appointed to Bear Fruit: Christ has chosen us to go out and bear fruit, and this means laying down our lives—suffering. “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit” (Jn 12:24). The seed which forgets itself will bear the type of fruit that remains. “Those who sow in tears will reap with cries of joy” (Ps 126:5). Our suffering is not useless; it is the source of a mysterious fruitfulness. The other component of fruit-bearing is “going out.” When the Last Supper ended, the Apostles did not remain enclosed in the Upper Room. In fact, the book following John’s Gospel is the Acts of the Apostles. These men were chosen by Christ to bear witness to his Resurrection—amidst much suffering—and thereby bear fruit.

     

  3. Love One Another: Christ does not monopolize us. His love for us and our love for him is not to be exclusive, but rather the fount of love for our brothers and sisters. Fr. Alban Goodier, SJ, in his book The Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ, makes explicit that just before Christ died, it weighed heavily on his heart that the Apostles should truly love one another. That’s why he commanded them to wash each other’s feet. His own sacrificial love for them would be the standard of their love for one other: “Love one another as I have loved you.” With every ounce of his capacity for expression, he sought to show them that night “all he would have them to be to one another” (Goodier).

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, I do not want to skim over love, but to be inundated and saturated with it. Let my love be as practical and concrete as it is deep and spiritual. Grant me the gift of loving others as you love me.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will begin a habit of daily spiritual reading, so that God can nourish the seed of love planted in me.

For Further Reflection: Watch Mother Teresa’s acceptance speech of the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, in which she tells us what it means to love one another.

Fr Erik Burckel, LC was ordained to the priesthood in 2022. He writes articles and short stories for diverse purposes and publications, and can be reached at eburckel@legionaries.org.

May 8, 2026 – Love One Another Read More »

Why Couldn’t Two Elderly Friends Have Sex?

/ Ask a Priest
Q: If an 80-something widower and a 70-something widow find their friendship developing to a higher level with commitment and more intimacy, how can any sex be considered sinful when there is no possibility of conception? To get married again at that age isn’t practical because of all the business aspects and family issues for adult children and grandchildren. Commitment, care, companionship and sexual intimacy seem natural, so why does the Church consider it sinful? — T.

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC:

A: It’s good to remember that the Church didn’t create sex; God did, for a purpose and for use within certain parameters.

God created sex with a twofold purpose: procreation and the unity of spouses.

Procreation, while important, isn’t essential in the sense that spouses who are past childbearing years or who find out they are infertile can still engage in the one-flesh union willed by God.

But that union needs to be blessed by God. Marriage between Catholics (or any Christians) is a sacrament.

To have sex outside marriage undercuts the total commitment that spouses should have toward each other.

It can also scandalize people, especially young people, who already face a culture that denigrates marriage.

You mention that getting married again at your age “isn’t practical.” It’s not clear why you would say this. Couples do, in fact, marry at this age.

You might want to take some of this to prayer, since the sin of fornication puts souls at risk.

Christians who are really in love will want the grace of the sacrament of matrimony to help them reach heaven. And the time when Our Lord will call both of you from this world is approaching.

Why Couldn’t Two Elderly Friends Have Sex? 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!