Welcome to
Part One: The Spiritual Life
The spiritual life is the first element of life in Regnum Christi.
Regnum Christi’s charism, like all other charisms in the Church, is rooted in a specific mystery from Christ’s life which inspires a unique spirituality. Our spirituality is centered above all on Jesus Christ and born from a personal experience of his love.
We seek to respond to our Friend and Lord with a personal, real, passionate and faithful love. The core of a Regnum Christi member’s life is to know Christ’s love, love him deeply in return, and share that love with others.
Lay members of Regnum Christi embrace a call from God to live their baptismal commitments in the midst of today’s world, according to the charism of Regnum Christi. They live a dynamic relationship of love with Jesus Christ through prayer, the Word of God, and the sacraments.
The Regnum Christi Prayer Book is available free online, in the RC English App, and in audiobook podcast on all major podcast platforms. It’s available for purchase in print in the RC Store.
7 Suggestions for Growing in the Life of Prayer
from the Regnum Christi Lay Members' Prayer Book
- Place yourself in the presence of God, be aware of what you are about to do, prepare your heart. Become attentive to the fact that it is God before whom you stand. Seek interior and exterior silence. Try to give your prayer meaning and pray with all your senses. Ask the Holy Spirit for help, so that he guides your mind and fills your heart.
- Go to the Word of God, Sacred Scripture, that constant dialogue between God and man. When we begin our life of prayer, it is best to learn from the one who prays best, the Lord himself. Try to pray with the same sentiments of Jesus, that it may be Christ who lives, works, and prays in you. The RC Daily Meditations on the day’s Gospel, delivered to your inbox every morning, are a great way to do this. Sign up here.
- Contemplate the words and signs of the Liturgy, the privileged place of encounter between God and his people, in which the action of God joins the action of man in perfect synergy.
- Meditate occasionally on the vocal prayers. They are an expression of faith, but they also nourish faith. Learn to savor and renew their meaning, recognizing how they relate to your life. Try to reflect on the spirit behind the words and how they speak to your heart. To remember is to return back through the heart.
- Let him lead you. It is not about what we do in prayer, but what he wants to do with us. You could feel nothing, fail to find answers, and nevertheless have prayed well. Even if “we do not know how to pray as we ought” (Rom 8:26), he knows and is with us.
- It may take you a while to enter into prayer. That is all right. Remain in silence and listen to his Word. You may come out of prayer unexpectedly. It is not unusual. Don’t worry about it. Try to reenter into prayer.
- Before ending, try to bring your prayer to day-to-day life. Come up with a small resolution that you can practice relatively quickly. Let it be simple, realistic, and firm.
Suggested Spiritual Practices for RC Lay Members
Learning to pray and developing a relationship with God through prayer happen gradually over time.
The spiritual practices suggested in the prayer book for lay members of Regnum Christi are ways to integrate the prayers the Church has always recommended to the faithful and the spiritual traditions of Regnum Christi in order to live a prayerful life, but they are not meant to be a checklist, or to exclude other forms of prayer.
Your spiritual director will help you to discern what is helpful for you as you grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ through your spiritual life.
Sundays
On Sunday we practice how to live each day of the year in a holy way. Regnum Christi members
- participate in the Sunday Liturgy
live the day as a celebration and time of rest; a family, cultural, and social day
Daily
Throughout our day we endeavor to pray always, recognizing the Holy Spirit at work in us, in our lives, and in the people and circumstances around us. There are many ways to pray throughout our day, and Regnum Christi members are encouraged to live their life of prayer in freedom and in response to how Our Lord calls them. Some of the daily spiritual practices Regnum Christi recommends are:
- a morning offering
- a visit to the Eucharist, spiritual communion, or Mass
- a time of meditation
an Angelus or Regina Caeli
a mystery of the Rosary or a full Rosary
night prayers
Weekly
The liturgical and prayerful rhythms of each day of the week allow us to transfigure our weekly activities as we look forward in hope to the Kingdom. Ordinary joys become the joys of the Kingdom; ordinary life, life in the Kingdom. In Regnum Christi, we have the following weekly traditions:
Encounter with Christ
holy hour or adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, ideally on Thursday
practicing penance every Friday, except on feast days
dedicating a special moment to the Blessed Virgin on the first Saturday of each month
dedicate each day to a specific devotion:
Sunday – the Most Holy Trinity
Monday – the Holy Spirit
Tuesday – our Guardian Angel
Wednesday – Saint Joseph
Thursday – the Eucharist
Friday – the Passion of Our Lord
Saturday – our Blessed Mother
Throughout our lives
The rhythms of the day and week gradually forge a prayerful life. The living of the liturgical year allows us to mature in our encounter with the living Christ who walked among us. Throughout the year, Regnum Christi members:
participate actively in the life of their parish and diocese as part of the body of Christ
partake of the Sacrament of Penance frequently
have regular Spiritual Direction
attend an annual Spiritual Exercises Retreat or a Triduum of Renewal Retreat
make a devotional renewal of their association to Regnum Christi
join with the Regnum Christi spiritual family in a novena of prayer preparing for the Solemnities of the Sacred Heart and Christ the King, celebrating these feasts with a special devotion
celebrate Holy Week and the Paschal Triduum with devotion and service to others
The RC Spirituality Center
We believe that God wants to touch and transform every corner of your soul, and we want to provide quality resources to help make that happen. That’s why the Regnum Christi Spirituality Center offers materials in four key categories: pray, learn, grow, and go.
The Pray category reaches into your spiritual life and gives you tools to keep fresh your relationship with God.
The Learn category addresses your mind, trying to help you expand and deepen your knowledge of God’s plan for the world, the Church, and your own life.
The Grow category looks to move your willpower, inspiring you not only to pray and think about living life to the full, but to work hard on actually growing in wisdom and virtue.
Finally, the Go section points to creative ideas, models, and opportunities for obeying Christ’s command to “go and make disciples of all nations” – a mission that every one of us is called to join as the very best way to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Those four sectors embody what we in Regnum Christi call “integral formation.”
Where do I start?
Want to learn to pray but not sure how to start? In this video, Fr. John Bartunek, LC, offers a step-by-step guide to learning about mental prayer and how to meditate through what he calls the four “C’s.”
Into the Deep: The Spiritual Life of the Laity in Regnum Christi
God calls lay people to holiness and union with him! Mike Williams, a long time lay member of Regnum Christi, talks about the spiritual life that lay people are called to and how to grow in your relationship with the God who loves us deeply and desires us to know and love him too.
More Resources
