An Update from the Cincinnati Legionary Community

The Spring and Summer of 2020 were not an average couple of months for the Legionary community of Cincinnati with Churches closed and so many of our camps and retreats canceled due to COVID-19 but we were able to continue to serve the Regnum Christi members of the Ohio valley in all kinds of new ways.

Fr Lucio began holding virtual youth clubs and even hosted two weeks of virtual summer camps. Fr Matthew took his retreats and men’s ministry online and began giving virtual retreats, formation courses, and encounters. Fr John also hosted online retreats and meetings as well as finishing his soon to be published book, “A Heart Like Jesus’s” (stay tuned for more information in the coming months).

Fr Jesus continued to serve the Royalmont community with daily Gospel reflection videos, virtual family meetings, house blessings and more. Fr Thomas attended many, many people in virtual spiritual direction and preached some virtual retreats as well. Br Ryan continued to work to update and improve our home and to provide virtual accompaniment to the young men preparing to enter the Legionary seminary this year. 

We also were able to use this time to make some needed improvements to our home. Fr Jesus, Fr Thomas, and Br Ryan worked together to re-landscape our front and back yards as well as to repaint our porches, doors, and other areas of the house which needed a touch up. Br Ryan and Fr Thomas also made all kinds of small repairs and improvements around the house to get our home in tip-top shape.

As the summer progressed, we were blessed to be able to return to person to person ministry and soon camps, retreats, evenings of reflection, and other minstries began again. It was so great to be able to meet in person and provide each of you with the sacraments again after so long.

We were also blessed to each be able to take some time off this summer to make our annual 8-day silent retreats in order to recharge or spiritual batteries for another year of serving the Regnum Christi family of the Ohio Valley. This year it was a virtual retreat due to COVID-19 preached here at home on Zoom by Fr Bruce Wren, LC, but it was still a moment of many graces for each of us and we look forward to sharing the fruits of this retreat with each of you in the months to come.

The summer came to an end with three more moments of grace for our community. First the priestly ordination and first mass of one of our own local Legionary vocations, Fr Christopher Gronottee. It was a special moment for all of us to be able to accompany Fr Christopher and his family in this moment of joy for the whole Church and for the Ohio Valley Regnum Christi family in particular. We were then able to take a week and half of community vacation hosted by Br Ryan’s family. These days of rest and relaxation were a great moment to spend some much need time together as a Cincinnati Legionary Family. After that we returned to celebrate the diaconate ordination of 4 of our brother Legionaries including Deacon Vinh Pham who served the Ohio Valley region during his apostolic internship just a few years ago. 

These past months have been a time of so many graces for our community despite the challenges brought on by COVID-19 and we are ready to embark on yet another year of preaching the Gospel here in the Ohio Valley. Count on our daily prayers for each of you and please keep each of us in your prayers as well. Blessings…