Page 388 – Regnum Christi

Regnum Christi Mission Corps Course Inspires a Young Woman to Re-Center Her Life

November 15, 2018 / RC Mission Corps News, Weekly Message Blog

11 young women participated in a course for new Regnum Christi Missionaries in Rome. Natalia Galvez explains how transforming it was.

From July 6 to August 6, 11 young women from Mexico, Spain, Germany, Canada and El Salvador took part in the Regnum Christi Mission Corps Training Course in Rome. The first two weeks were combined with the International Formators’ Course. The last two weeks had more specific formation content for their year being Regnum Christi Missionaries.

Christ in each person’s story

Natalia Galvez, RC Missionary in Madrid, working with ECYD at Everest School Monteclaro, tells us the experience of how the workshop helped her to remember who her center is.

She explains, “Being part of the workshop of Regnum Christi Missionaries in Rome was an experience to understand who is our center. Christ’s love for me is found in the fire of a great endless candle where we have the gift to light ourselves and stay burning to illuminate the life of others. It is incredible to know how each one has a different history of how he received that light, but definitely each soul is a reflection of God’s love.”

Outline of the Course

In the workshop, the young women had formative blocks dedicated to the identity and mission of the RC Missionary, to the development of their own personality and leadership, as well as workshops which offered them apostolic tools for their year. Among other things, the young women did apostolate visiting a home for the elderly, they were able to participate in an audience of the Pope and they had moments of greater intimacy with Christ in a triduum of prayer.

Read the original on LomásRC, the Regnum Christi site in Spain.

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A Woman Clothed in the Sun | A Regnum Christi Retreat Guide With Fr. John Bartunek, LC

A Woman Clothed with the Sun: An Advent Retreat Guide on Our Lady of Guadalupe

November 14, 2018 / Retreat Guide

During Advent in the year 1531, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a native Mexican, St. Juan Diego, and asked him a favor. She sent him to the bishop with a request to have a Catholic church built on the hill where she was appearing—Tepeyac Hill—in present-day Mexico City. The bishop was skeptical. He responded to the petition with a request of his own. He asked for a sign to show that this request indeed was coming from God. When Juan Diego relayed this to Mary, she complied—she provided a beautiful, dramatic sign indeed. This sign made an incalculable impact on the evangelization of the Americas, an effect that continues to resound and spread even today. These events and that incredible impact are the subjects of this Advent Retreat Guide: A Woman Clothed with the Sun. The First Meditation will unpack the events as they unfolded, showing how they echo the meaning of Advent. The Second Meditation will explore the actual words of Our Lady in her conversation with St. Juan Diego, words that beautifully echo the meaning of Christmas. The Conference will reflect on the symbolism present in the image itself, symbolism that can help stir up the spirit of Christmas in our souls.

The Personal Questionnaire/Group discussion questions are available in the Companion Guide Book or Small Group Companion Guide. Either download the PDF Companion Guide Book or purchase it. The Companion Guide Book is available for purchase as a paperback or in Kindle at Amazon. Pause the video at any moment to go to the Companion Guide Book or continue to the next meditation. Let’s begin by turning to the Holy Spirit, and humbly asking him to guide us in this Retreat.

Video

Audio

Print Guides

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Regnum Christi Spirituality Center Ask a Priest

“Ask a Priest: Filth, Filth Everywhere, Where’s a Soul to Flee?”

November 13, 2018 / Ask a Priest

Q: I have been thinking a lot lately about today’s age and how it has been getting worse. My question is, how am I supposed to flee from sexual immorality? This immorality is especially large in the United States as it is everywhere. This immorality is on television, magazines, restaurants — literally everywhere you go there is sexual immorality. Thanks, and God bless. – B.G.

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC

A: You touch on a huge problem in our culture today. Modesty and purity aren’t respected or promoted much in the media or public life. In fact, these virtues are often ridiculed.

Perhaps a few points will help.

First, this problem isn’t new. The ancient Romans and other pagan societies weren’t bastions of purity. Yet the early Christians persevered and grew. So there is precedent for hope.

Second, purity and modesty require a lot of discipline and prayer. These virtues can be achieved, with the help of God’s grace.

To help the Holy Spirit’s working in your life, it might be good to consider some radical moves, namely:

— Severely restricting your intake of TV and movies, etc. Most people wouldn’t think to invite a guest into their home who was lewd, foul-mouthed and scantily dressed. So why allow TV shows that flaunt the same kind of behavior? Even many of the ads are awful, I’m told. Historians of the future might look back on this culture and shake their heads and wonder how it was that so many millions of families allowed such a constant flow of filth into their homes.

— Developing a program of alternative entertainment and pastimes. For instance, cultivate the habit of reading solid books. You might check out Father John Hardon’s The Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan. There are lots of fine Catholic publishers (Ignatius Press, OSV and Ascension, to name a few) whose books could keep you busy for years.

— Cultivating a love of purity through prayer, devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and frequent recourse to the sacraments.

— Housecleaning your own belongings. Get rid of anything that might compromise you or send the wrong signals to others. This includes everything from dicey videos to immodest clothes. Perhaps this isn’t a problem with you; I mention it just for the record.

— Networking with other faithful people and looking for ways to cultivate a mini culture of modesty and purity. This can be through conversations or reading of books of the lives of the saints (Maria Goretti, for one).

(For related reading see Taming the Media Monster and an article from a Washington Archdiocesan priest here.)

These are just a few ideas. With a solid prayer life, the Holy Spirit could inspire you in other ways.

Whatever you do, be prepared to be countercultural! You are going against the tide. But then, all real Christians have always done that.

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Regnum Christi 2024 General Convention Rome Italy

Fr. Eduardo Robles-Gil Letter: Solemnity of Christ the King

November 13, 2018 / Press Release

Thy Kingdom Come!

November 13, 2018

TO THE MEMBERS OF REGNUM CHRISTI

Dear friends in Christ,

As we’re about to celebrate the General Chapter of the Legionaries of Christ, the General Assemblies of the Consecrated Women and the Lay Consecrated Men, and the General Assembly of Regnum Christi, I send you warm greetings. On behalf of the participants in these assemblies, I wanted to express my wholehearted gratitude for all of your prayers for the success of our work and for the future of Regnum Christi.

It’s providential that at this important moment we will be celebrating the Solemnity of Christ the King. The Church invites us, on this feast, to contemplate Jesus Christ the Lord and his Kingdom. We consider those elements essential to our vocation and mission that shed light on our life and our decisions. I therefore invite all of us to take advantage of this liturgical event to renew our love for the Lord who must reign in our personal lives and grow in the active and ardent desire that his Kingdom come among us.

The expression “Thy Kingdom Come!” springs from the lips of Jesus Christ our Teacher, forming part of the prayer he teaches his disciples. Undoubtedly this is the prayer that is most beloved, most repeated, and most commented upon by Christians in every age. The longing it expresses is proper to and deeply rooted in every Christian heart, namely, the desire that Christ reign and that his Kingdom come among us.

We should consider well and meditate together on what we ask with this prayer and what we commit ourselves to. This petition, which Christ himself taught us, is a program for us as individuals and for Regnum Christi as a whole. As we pray it, personally and as a group, it unites us in a spiritual family and an apostolic body that has been entrusted with a particular mission.

“My kingdom is not of this world”

This year the Gospel of the liturgy for the solemnity (John 18:33-37) presents us with Jesus Christ before Pilate, at a particularly dramatic moment in his earthly life. His death on the cross is approaching relentlessly. He is about to complete the work of redemption. In this context, standing before the man who represents temporal power, Jesus Christ affirms authoritatively that he is King and that his Kingdom is not of this world.

In this way he clearly teaches us that his Kingdom is something hidden, interior. It begins in the deepest part of the soul. It is the very presence of God that needs to be received and kept in the intimacy of our hearts so that, like yeast, it can transform in turn all other realities (see Matthew 13:33). For this reason, meditating on the Kingdom makes us feel once again the call and invitation to interiority and holiness of life, the starting point and guarantee of all Christian witness and apostolate.

At this moment, faced with the work of the Assemblies and the General Chapter, we see once again that this always has to be our first priority, coming before any other activity or expediency.

“My kingdom is not of this world.” The preaching of the Kingdom of Christ is also an announcement of eternity and a reminder of the transience of earthly things. In the first reading, taken from the book of Daniel, it says: “His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away, his kingship shall not be destroyed (Daniel 7:14).”

The pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes of the Second Vatican Council also reminds us of this:

For after we have obeyed the Lord, and in his Spirit nurtured on earth the values of human dignity, brotherhood and freedom, and indeed all the good fruits of our nature and enterprise, we will find them again, but freed of stain, burnished and transfigured, when Christ hands over to the Father “a kingdom eternal and universal, a kingdom of truth and life, of holiness and grace, of justice, love and peace” (Preface of the Feast of Christ the King). On this earth that Kingdom is already present in mystery. When the Lord returns it will be brought into full flower. (Guadium et Spes, 39)

As members of Regnum Christi I invite you always to keep in mind that following and imitating the Lord, in light of eternity, is the essential priority. Let him reign supreme in your lives and reject everything that is contrary to him and his Kingdom. Always choose whatever implies greater love and virtue so as to be credible and convincing witnesses to Jesus Christ and his teachings.

“Thy Kingdom Come!” means sanctifying our life through prayer, the sacraments, and the fulfillment of his will. “Thy Kingdom Come!” means sanctifying our family, work, and environment by the testimony of an attractive life rooted in the Gospel. “Thy Kingdom Come!” means sanctifying our culture and society, not falling into the consumerist ideology that makes us fix our eyes and heart on earthly things.

His Kingdom must be preached, made present, built up

At the same time the Kingdom of Christ is not merely something internal or for the future. The Kingdom is already present among us (see Luke 17:21). The preaching of John the Baptist and of Jesus Christ himself began in this way: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).

Jesus Christ came among us to preach his Kingdom, to make it present.

The witness that the Lord gives of Himself and that Saint Luke gathered together in his Gospel—“I must proclaim the Good News of the kingdom of God” (Luke 4:43)—without doubt has enormous consequences, for it sums up the whole mission of Jesus: “That is what I was sent to do (ibid.).” (Paul VI, Evangelii nuntiandi, 6).

In the Gospel of the solemnity we find the same message: “For this I was born and for this I came to the world, to be a witness of the truth (John 18:37).”

“Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides (Matthew 6:33).” Jesus’ project is to establish his Father’s Kingdom; he asks his disciples to “make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand’”(Matthew 10:7). He knows full well that this proclamation does not come without work and great sacrifice (see Matthew 11:12) but assures us he will provide all that we need.

From this arises that which we call ‘apostolic zeal,’ our joining in the effort of the whole Church to make known that Lord who shows himself in his message, his invitations, his commandments, our desire to fulfill his command to go to the whole world and preach the Gospel (see Matthew 28:19-20), which is Christ himself. Having found Christ engenders a permanent desire to make him known.

Pope Francis affirms this in the exhortation Evangelii gaudium:

Goodness always tends to spread. Every authentic experience of truth and goodness seeks by its very nature to grow within us, and any person who has experienced a profound liberation becomes more sensitive to the needs of others. As it expands, goodness takes root and develops. If we wish to lead a dignified and fulfilling life, we have to reach out to others and seek their good. In this regard, several sayings of Saint Paul will not surprise us: “The love of Christ urges us on (2 Corinthians 5:14)”; “Woe to me if I do not proclaim the Gospel (1 Corinthians 9:16).” (Evangelii gaudium 9)

For the one who passes on the treasure he has found, the task of preaching the Gospel, of making Christ and his Kingdom known, is beautiful and filled with joy. That is why Pope Francis urges the whole Church:

Let us recover and deepen our enthusiasm, that “delightful and comforting joy of evangelizing, even when it is in tears that we must sow … And may the world of our time, which is searching, sometimes with anguish, sometimes with hope, be enabled to receive the good news not from evangelizers who are dejected, discouraged, impatient or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with fervor, who have first received the joy of Christ” (Paul VI, Evangelii nuntiandi 80). (Evangelii gaudium 10)

On the upcoming Solemnity of Christ the King, I invite you to renew the ardent desire to evangelize, that which characterizes the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi.

I am convinced this is the main reason Jesus Christ has raised up this work of his and entrusted us as a priestly people with a task, a mission. We read in the second reading for the day:

Jesus Christ [is] the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth. He loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us into a kingdom, priests for his God and Father (Revelation 1:5-6).

The certainty that he himself has called us together will guide us in these days of the Assemblies and the General Chapter. We know we have to aim all our efforts at being better apostles of Jesus Christ, better evangelizers, better witnesses to his Kingdom, that is, better witnesses to goodness, truth, and grace.

I ask you to always be apostles of Jesus Christ. As part of that mission continue praying intensely for those of us in the Chapter and Assemblies who will be finishing up the work of expressing together something of the gift we have received, certain that the Lord is accompanying us. I am grateful for the prayer initiatives at the local, territorial, and international level. I invite everyone to participate in a special Day of Prayer on November 16, the Friday before the beginning of the Chapter and General Assemblies, so the Lord might grant us the grace of doing whatever he envisages for Regnum Christi at this moment. You can find some materials for the Day of Prayer at this link.

I bid you farewell, assuring you of my prayers and asking for theirs.

Yours most sincerely in Jesus Christ,

Eduardo Robles-Gil, L.C.

Director General

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A Cyclist’s Spirituality

November 10, 2018 / Book

Spiritual Lessons Learned from Riding a Bike

St. Paul predated this booklet’s connection between sports and the spiritual life by about two millennia noting that our spiritual journey, like a foot race, entails a goal, effort, and the need for discipline (cf. Cor. 9:24-25).

The author believes the comparisons are innumerably more. Take a ride with Fr. John as he shares some of his spiritual insights gained from cycling – covering themes like bike fit, drafting, crashes, and more.

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“Ask a Priest: Is It OK to Gossip About a Troublesome Person?”

November 9, 2018 / Ask a Priest

Q: I get worried about gossiping daily. So much so that it causes me great strife. My priest has told me that talking with a close friend about my problems with a certain person is OK and can even be helpful. This has been helpful, since I was trying to keep everything bottled up and was ready to explode. My question is: When does it become sinful? Thank you. – L.

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC

A: First, it would be good to try to define what is meant by the word gossip.

One definition describes gossip as “Talk informally about someone else’s private or personal business, esp. spreading negative or scandalous information even though it has not been confirmed to be true.”

Perhaps in your case you aren’t sharing things about a person that are unconfirmed. Rather, you seem to be sharing things that seem to be confirmed, at least from your point of view.

But in common usage the term gossip can also cover things that might be true.

For context it might be helpful to quote from three numbers in the Catechism:

No. 2477 says, “Respect for the reputation of persons forbids every attitude and word likely to cause them unjust injury. He becomes guilty: — of rash judgment who, even tacitly, assumes as true, without sufficient foundation, the moral fault of a neighbor; of detraction who, without objectively valid reason, discloses another’s faults and failings to persons who did not know them.”

No. 2478 says: “To avoid rash judgment, everyone should be careful to interpret insofar as possible his neighbor’s thoughts, words, and deeds in a favorable way: Every good Christian ought to be more ready to give a favorable interpretation to another’s statement than to condemn it. But if he cannot do so, let him ask how the other understands it. And if the latter understands it badly, let the former correct him with love. If that does not suffice, let the Christian try all suitable ways to bring the other to a correct interpretation so that he may be saved.”

No. 2479 says: “Detraction and calumny destroy the reputation and honor of one’s neighbor. Honor is the social witness given to human dignity, and everyone enjoys a natural right to the honor of his name and reputation and to respect. Thus, detraction and calumny offend against the virtues of justice and charity.”

A key phrase in No. 2477 is: “without objectively valid reason.” I don’t know your full situation. Your local priest probably knows it much better than I, so I won’t try to second-guess him.

Certainly, it isn’t healthy to keep things bottled up to the point where you are ready to explode.

If you need to get things in the open, then it would be good to do it in a constructive way. The ideal would be to go to the person with whom you have the problems, and try to work things out privately.

When you speak with someone else about your difficulties, focus more on your challenges and feelings, not on the faults of the other person. That avoids turning healthy venting into destructive whining or gossip. I recommend our Regnum Christi Essay which goes in depth on this topic, “Sharpening Your Tongue,” available as a booklet or in e-book.

Another good rule of thumb might be this: Don’t complain (elaborating on another person’s faults) to anyone who isn’t able to do something about it. This doesn’t exclude speaking with, say, a spouse about problems. A spouse (ideally) could help you think through things and approach a problem constructively.

Strictly speaking, though, gossip as such is best avoided. It has a way of corroding relationships and souring the tone of conversation.

That you admit to “gossiping daily” sends up a red flag. Constructive conversations about problems lead (again ideally) to resolution. If you find yourself dredging up the same complaints day after day, that isn’t a good sign.

Perhaps this is the moment for a time-out, to refrain from speaking about the troublesome person for a while. Perhaps it would be particularly good to take the whole matter to prayer. The Holy Spirit will guide you.

A good sign that the Spirit is guiding you is that you see a growth in patience with that irksome person who, after all, is a beloved child of God.

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Jack Bisgrove: The Passing of a Regnum Christi Apostle

November 9, 2018 / Weekly Message Blog

If you were to paint a picture of a Regnum Christi apostle, you could well pick Jack Bisgrove for your model.

Jack, one of the original RC members in upstate New York, passed away November 4, at age 79. He was a man of deep, abiding faith.

Jack was the father of former seminarian, Brian Bisgrove, who founded Conquest after he was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.  Brian died in 1998.  When Jack first found out about his son’s disease, he told his RC team that “God reached down and touched our family today” and he never questioned why.  He trusted in God’s plan. After Brian died, Jack spent many years of his life carrying on his son’s legacy by launching Conquest throughout the country.

To know Jack the father, you need to know a bit of Brian the son. In each, you might experience much of the other.

As a boy, Brian loved to play sports and spend time outdoors exploring nature; he enjoyed family gatherings, especially trips to the Adirondack Mountains. His many friendships were an essential part of his life. When he was twelve, he decided to attend a minor seminary of the Legionaries of Christ. In his application letter, Brian wrote, “I am not sure that God is calling me to be a priest, but I want to be with boys who are searching for God’s plan for their lives.”

Brian completed High school at the age of 16. With the help of his superiors and his family, he discerned that God was calling him to the lay vocation, in which he could help boys and young men develop into Catholic leaders who would bring Christ to the modern world. When he returned home, he met with his friends that he had left a few years prior, and realized that many had succumbed to the secular enticements of the world. He wanted more than anything to share his joy in what he had found; a personal friendship with Christ. His utmost desire was for them to receive the gift of faith formation that he had received in the minor seminary. He began getting them together to play sports, a common thread and an activity that all enjoyed. He introduced them to his friend Jesus Christ through Gospel reflections, and the first youth program was born. He volunteered to work with a priest who was serving in Syracuse. He started four youth programs, developed a team of businessmen to support his efforts, and identified a major sports facility that could host the youth programs. After two years, at age 19, he decided to return home to work on the family farm while continuing his apostolate.

However, God had a different plan for Brian. The day he was to start work, May 1, 1996, he had exploratory surgery to find the cause of continuous sinus infections and severe headaches. The operation revealed a tumor in his sinuses. This was the beginning of his two-year struggle with cancer.

After major surgery for his sinus tumor, the doctor informed Brian of the very serious pain he would be undergoing because of the operation, and how to control it through the intravenous medication available to him, saying, “If the pain gets too great, you just push this button here for an injection of morphine, which will help.” Brian told the doctor that he didn’t want the morphine and asked to have it removed. His doctor tried to reason with him, explaining, “No, Brian, you see, you don’t understand. You are about to experience more pain than you have in your entire life. We’ll just leave it there… just in case.” Brian had another plan. He told the surgeon, “No, doctor, you see, you don’t understand: in my condition, I can no longer work for the boys the way I used to be able to; this is all I have to offer up for them; and you’re not going to take it away from me. I want it removed.”

Throughout his illness, Brian continued to develop a plan to establish boys’ youth programs called “Conquest” that would offer fun and formation, and bring young men closer to his friend Jesus Christ. He encountered many frustrations in his early efforts, but through them he became convinced that a simple starter program was needed, to get boys involved at a younger age, one that would allow fathers to work with the boys and invite younger boys to participate in the program. This led to the later concept of the first Conquest Junior Program.

Brian died on February 10, 1998, at the young age of 21. But as there was a like-minded apostle in the family, his Conquest dreams continued. Like son, like father.

Jack took up the mission of Conquest and helped form a team to institutionalize the apostolate, making it into a formal youth program that could be spread far and wide. The Conquest national team today believes that abundant graces are still being received through all of the suffering that Brian offered up for the boys and dads of Conquest. In fact, between Conquest and Challenge (its counterpart for girls) there are some 150 clubs across North America with more than 7,000 participants.

Brian wanted a specific quote placed on his funeral card, and that quote sounds like exactly what every member of Conquest strives for: “To know the will of God is the greatest knowledge. To find the will of God is the greatest discovery. To do the will of God is the greatest achievement.”

Jack, like his son, was a true believer in the power of forming young men:

“If you take a young boy and guide him through adolescence so that he doesn’t compromise himself, what you have at the end of that journey is a young man who understands who he is, has a strong relationship with Christ, and is ready to set the world on fire.”

Jack – like Brian – faced death (also from terminal cancer) with peace and faith. When he was recently asked by a family member how he was coping with the disease and its approaching outcome, Jack replied simply, “I am at the station waiting for the next bus.”

Jack was a native of Auburn, NY, and husband of Marsha Coleman Bisgrove. He was the son of the late Irene (Nolan) and John Bisgrove, Sr. After college, he returned home to work with his father and brother in the family trucking business, Red Star Express Lines, eventually leading the growing company as president & CEO. After retiring from the trucking industry, he focused his entrepreneurial talents toward his love for nature, establishing Sunrise Farm in Owasco. Always dedicated to the Auburn community, Jack served on many local boards and charitable organizations.

Jack was a member of St. Mary’s Church. His passion for the Catholic Faith was manifested in his commitment to local parishes and his involvement in Catholic education. This was evidenced by his 30-year tenure of leadership on the board of Northeast Catholic College in Warner, NH and his support for the Legionaries of Christ, especially their work with youth and the formation of priests.

Jack’s greatest love was his family. He spent many hours sharing his faith, his love for the outdoors, and his Italian heritage with his children and his 20 grandchildren. Always the philosopher and mentor, Jack loved to discuss the dignity and value of every human person, and he led by example in all his interactions. His kindness, generosity, and sincerity continue to give everyone who knew him “big shoes to fill.” He lived by his motto: “I aspire to inspire before I expire.”

In addition to his loving wife of 54 years, he is survived by a son, John Bisgrove III; three daughters, Laura (Kenneth) Boyd and their children Jeffrey, Amanda, and Brian; Sherry (Kevin) Panas and their children Sgt. Joshua, USMC, LCPL Isaac, USMC, LCPL Dominic, USMC, Paul, Angela, Matthew, Maria, Andrew, Maggie and Jack; Rhonda (Thomas) Maier and their children A1C Joseph, USAF, Johnpaul, Christopher, Thomas, Stephen, Benedict and Patrick; a brother Jerry Bisgrove; sisters Betty Jean Kinsella and Mary Lou Jones, several nieces, nephews and cousins.

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Regnum Christi Celebrates Vocation Awareness Week

November 9, 2018 / Weekly Message Blog

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) announced that the 2018 National Vocation Awareness Week would be from November 4-10. Regnum Christi members all over the North American territory have been participating this week through providing discernment tips, praying for vocations and sharing vocation stories.

Discernment Tips

The Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi have been sharing discernment tips each day, all week, on their Instagram page. They said “This National Vocations Awareness Week, we want to offer you a few tips for preparing your heart to hear God’s call to the mission he has for you.” The consecrated women have done a beautiful job helping us all prepare our hearts to hear God’s call, you can check out their tips and follow them by visiting their Instagram page @consecratedwomen_rcna

Here’s a little sample of what the consecrated women have been sharing this week:

“Get to know God. God wants a relationship with you, and this relationship of love is going to be at the center of whatever vocation he is calling you to. The better you know God, the better you are going to know who you truly are and who he calls you to be. There are two places we get to know him: Sacred Scripture and the Eucharist. Making extra time for Mass, adoration, and reading Scripture is an excellent way to start preparing your heart for the mission he has for you.”

Prayers for Vocations

In a USCCB news release, dated October 1, 2018, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, Chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations states: “Quiet reflection and prayer are essential elements for vocational discernment. It is in the interior depths of our heart where we hear the voice of Christ, where he speaks to us, and where he reveals his will for our lives.”

Please join us in a prayer for vocations.

Lord Jesus, Eternal Shepherd, in your kindness, look with mercy in this part of your beloved flock. Lord, we cry out to you as orphans: Grant us vocations! Call many of your people to be Holy Priests and Consecrated men and women.

We ask Mary, your tender, holy Mother, Our Lady of Guadalupe, to intercede for us.

Jesus, grant us priests and Consecrated persons after Your own Heart! Amen.

The USCCB also offer many additional prayers for vocations. One is to St. Juniper Serra:

O sincere and humble Saint Serra, we ask for your intercession that those called to serve our Lord through priestly and religious vocations might do so with the same obedience, zeal, and humility you exhibited as a priest, brother, teacher, and spiritual father. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Consider a Vocation

National Vocation Awareness Week is designed to help promote vocation awareness and to encourage young people to ask the question: “To what vocation in life is God calling me?”

In answering a question as big as this it’s sometimes helpful to hear how others have responded to the same question and how they heard God’s call. So, we’ve included a testimonial from each of the four vocations within the Regnum Christi spiritual family below.

Fr. David Daly, Legionaries of Christ

“I’d already been in Regnum Christi for a year or so…it kind of resonated (with me): the lifestyle, the prayers. I liked the fraternity, the brotherhood, the discipline, the intensity, and seriousness of the Legionaries I saw and the other young men in the candidacy program. I was really attracted by the clear mission and the great ideals of changing the world for Christ.” Read Full Story

Antonio Maza, Lay Consecrated Men of Regnum Christi

“God placed in my heart a strong inclination to help others at an early age. I remember working Sundays as a volunteer at a local orphanage. Later on, this inclination was transformed, through the tragic death of a friend, into a desire to become a physician. But, during my last year of high school, God changed my plans and helped me see that people need Christ more than they need a physician.” Read Full Story

Emily Roman, Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi

“My dad sent my sister and me on one of the first ECYD retreats in North Carolina. We didn’t have a choice but, after I went, I was super grateful. The way the consecrated women would speak about Christ, the way they led these different activities set my heart on fire and made me realize that they had something that I wanted. I was ready to change the world. I wanted to give my life for Christ from the first retreat.” Read Full Story

Katie and Chris Baker, Lay Members of Regnum Christi

“It was a long journey of coming to know who we are, being inspired to go deeper, and also recognizing God’s love. The more we experienced God’s love, the more we grew to trust him and encounter him in our lives, in our marriage, and in the people he was placing in our lives. We kind of both came to a point where we thought, ‘we want to give back what we’ve received,’ and that was the moment where suddenly we realized we wanted to become a part of Regnum Christi.” Read Full Story

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Using Our Gifts to Help Others – Katie and Chris Baker

November 8, 2018 / Dallas, Weekly Message Blog

Katie and Christopher Baker are a Regnum Christi couple who live in Annapolis, Maryland. Christopher works for the Archdiocese of Washington while Katie stays home with their kids: Liam, 5;, Colin, 4; Nora; 18 months; and a fourth child expected in February. Katie and Chris spoke to us about their vocation to marriage and Regnum Christi.

Where did you find Regnum Christi? Was it before or after you were married?

Katie: After we were married in 2009, we were having some family-of-origin issues and we reached out to someone who mentored us during our engagement. We didn’t know it at the time, but she was a member of Regnum Christi and suggested we see her for spiritual direction at the Springhill Center. She soon recommended that we speak with Fr. John Hopkins. And so, back in 2010 we started seeing Fr. John for spiritual direction, both individually and together. He invited us to go on a three-day Spiritual Exercises retreat; we both went on retreat and started seeing him on a regular basis for spiritual direction. I think that was the start of our vocation to Regnum Christi.

Nonetheless, it took us a while to be incorporated. For a long time, we had the gift of the formation: we went on annual spiritual exercises and regularly to monthly half-day retreats, and we had monthly spiritual direction.

Chris: We had never heard of Regnum Christi, but kept seeing “RC” and just assumed it stood for Roman Catholic; we didn’t actually know what Regnum Christi was for quite some time.

Katie: Fr. John never explicitly mentioned Regnum Christi to us, but instead he inspired us both and guided us to listen to how God was calling us, and he really let it happen in God’s time. Fr. John helped us a lot in our personal growth, laying out that foundation of growing in a relationship with God, which was really not very solid beforehand. So, it was really a long journey of coming to know who we are and being inspired to go deeper, and also recognizing God’s love. The more we experienced God’s love, the more we grew to trust Him and encounter Him in our lives, in our marriage, and in the people He was putting in our lives. We kind of both came to a point where we thought, “We want to give back, we want to give back what we’ve received,” and that was the moment where suddenly we realized we wanted to become a part of Regnum Christi.

Chris: Once we understood what Regnum Christi was, it didn’t take long to discern our calling. We had been discerning how God wanted to use us, so when we saw there was a formal commitment to join, we quickly felt at peace. It already seemed like home and family where God was asking us to use our gifts and talents to serve. It is really interesting how it all came to be. At that point, Fr. John started inviting us to events specifically for RC members, and eventually we asked him, “What is Regnum Christi?” And his response was, “You’re already living it.” It was really a special moment where we felt called. It was a great time in our life.

Katie: We also realized Regnum Christi is a way of life. We felt inspired by the Legionaries, consecrated women and lay members of Regnum Christi, and we saw that this was a way of life for them, a way of holiness for them. It was a joyful moment where we felt, “This is where God wants us.” It felt very natural. We started serving in the marriage prep program at Our Lady of Bethesda. That was a way that we felt called to help couples prepare for marriage, to understand both the hard work and the joy of marriage. We try to pass on what we have received.

Could you give us a little background on how you met each and how you got married?

Chris: So, I was working as the coordinator of youth and young adult ministry at St Mary’s in Annapolis. Katie had been a volunteer in that program before I got there and continued volunteering when I was there. I met her as part of the core team helping with high school youth ministry. At the time, I had been discerning what vocation I should follow and living with the Redemptorists. Since I was already working at the parish, they invited me to live in the rectory to discern. I lived as a part of their community for eight months. During that period, I saw Katie as a friend and knew that she was discerning studying in Ireland to finish her degree. After my time living with the Redemptorist community and having discerned marriage, I saw Katie in a new way. It was like a veil was lifted and I remember wanting to get to know her better, so we started spending more time together.

Katie: After a lot of prayer, I decided not to move to Dublin but to stay local to finish school. I had always wanted – from a young age I felt God placing it on my heart – to get married and have children. So, I was praying for my husband but not in any rush to get married, knowing it would happen eventually. Chris and I had been friends and had a mutual respect for each other, and we both supported each other in that time when we were discerning. After realizing how much we loved each other and that God was calling us to be married, we got engaged and several months later we were married on St. Valentine’s Day, 2009.

You can find out about joining Regnum Christi here.

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