Meet Maria Reinagel, Consecrated Woman of Regnum Christi

God’s Gentle Call…You are Meant for More!

Maria Reinagel was born in Buffalo, New York, into a family of five girls and five boys.  She was the sixth child of Ed and Mary.   Eight of the children were born there and two were born after the family moved to Tucson, Arizona, to leave the cold weather and high taxes.  Some years after moving there her family was deeply blessed and dearly tried.  Mary Grace, the ninth child, was born in June with multiple physical challenges.  Later that very summer, the oldest daughter, Paula, died of a stroke on September 8 ^th, the birth of Our Lady.  Just one year and week later, Matthew died on the feast of Our Mother of Sorrows.  Both Paula and Matthew had suffered from physical illness.  God smiled on their family the next March with the birth of Dorothy, a healthy girl who today lovingly cares for Mary Grace. In those days, the family never suspected Mary Grace would celebrate her sixth birthday—let alone her fortieth, which they honored this past June.  Although Maria was the sixth child, by the time Dorothy arrived Maria was the oldest at home, and she grew very close to her younger siblings for whom she cared as a little mother. 

Maria dates the initial intimations of a calling to her first grade, while still living in Buffalo.  The religious sister at the school told the children Jesus died for them so they should be on the cross.  Maria still holds this image in her heart.  Looking up at the crucifix, she can still recall her self-offering to be there in Jesus’ place. The idea of a vocation was often spoken of as she grew up.  She recalls how her dad would often push her to think about being a sister saying, “You’d make a great sister!”  Exasperated Maria just rolled her eyes at him, so once he conceded, “Okay, then you’d make a great mother, mother superior!”  This made it seem very natural to Maria to join a parish-run co-ed vocational group in high school.  Without realizing it, she was constantly sizing up religious life and dismissing it for one reason or another.  Part of it was the turbulent times the Church was traversing.

The group went on many retreats and one of these was to a convent in a remote area of Arizona.  It was there that she encountered cloistered nuns, who were a real contrast from the nuns with whom she interacted in Tucson.  The urban nuns had “kicked the habit” – slang for becoming more secular in their appearance.  The cloistered nuns, however, were radiant and seemed holy.  Maria found herself very drawn to them.  At her second retreat there, she picked up a stone she found and took it as a promise to Jesus: “I may not come back here, but I promise You I will think about this again.”

After high school, Maria choose to go to Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California, a small, conservative Catholic college.  Her female classmates made a parody at the beginning of the year about getting their “MRS degree,” and truth be told by the end of four years, the majority of them were engaged.  Maria stood aloof from this.  The men at the college were wholesome and trying to be holy, but something held her back as if on some level she knew she was meant for more.  For three years, she wrestled with the question of a vocation and her “decision” was more like a stalemate.  She was sure she was not called to religious life, yet she did not feel drawn to marriage and did not want to remain single!

Maria set her sights on being a good wife and mother.  She emulated a friend, Grace, who the year before had received Montessori training with the dream of using that approach to homeschool the children she hoped to have one day.  Maria decided to do the same, so after graduation she was trained in Los Angeles and then moved to Napa Valley to work at a Catholic Montessori School with her friend, Grace.  They travelled often to the Bay Area to be with other young Catholics to socialize and pursue faith formation.

On some level, Maria was still wondering about what God’s plan was for her life. In college, she felt she was growing in her faith, but out in the world the momentum seemed to flag.  Restless, she looked at different spiritualties even though the initial attraction each one held eventually faded.  Maria knew that ultimately it was up to God.  She took her question to Mary, to whom she had consecrated her life early on at college.  She asked Mary the question: “I’d like to get married this year by such and such a date, unless it’s not God’s will.”  Mary was faithful!  Although it looked for a while as though Maria would marry, it became very clear to her that she had to end the engagement. The clarity and the grace to break it off came on a Marian feast day just two weeks before the wedding!

“We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).  This rupture left Maria at a crossroads.  While the group in the Bay Area was good, she knew she wasn’t growing.  She prayed and felt God inviting her to go to New England.  She lived with friends in Massachusetts until she could find a job.  Providentially, in that circle of Catholics she met Marguerite and Eleanor Philbin, some of the first Regnum Christi members in the United States.  They were overflowing with enthusiasm that the consecrated women would be coming soon to Rhode Island.  It was not until years later that they admitted they thought Maria was called to consecrated life.  In the meantime, they invited her to an Encounter with Christ and shared the video of the fiftieth anniversary that had taken place six months prior in January 1990.   The video spurred vocational questions in Maria.  She wasn’t sure Regnum Christi was for her, but she enjoyed the friendship of the Philbins and the other RC members in Massachusetts.  A few weeks after moving there, she relocated to Warwick, Rhode Island, where God had provided a job in a Montessori school.

One of the first young men she met in Rhode Island immediately brought up the question of a vocation to her.  “You know,” he said, “if you really love the Lord, you should give your life to Him.”  She was thrown in a tailspin.  “We’ve already sorted this out!” she said to Jesus!  But the question didn’t go away.

The summer after her arrival in New England, the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi opened a formation center and the RC women with their friends threw a “shower” to provide for the practical needs of the women.  Maria joined them and was once again pondering the vocation without realizing it.  She told her friend, Sue: “Did you know they take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience? Not like ___!” (another group Maria had looked at).  She was impressed to find the house full of young women, some consecrated, many candidates and even high school girls.  All of them were so joyful and spoke of Christ as a person they knew.  Maria recalls thinking, “I am so glad someone is serving the Church!”  It was two more years before she understood that Our Lord was drawing her, inviting her to also serve the Church by calling her to be His bride.

Christ is a person.  Four years of theology at Thomas Aquinas College had not brought this truth home to Maria.  It was the living faith experience of the Regnum Christi members that touched her.  In those days, the consecrated women would take five minutes on a Saturday and visit with Our Lady. When she was visiting their house, Maria would join them. They began with an opening prayer but then, they talked to Mary as if she were there in person.  Although Mary had been so close to Maria, there was something special here – something deeper and new.  The charism began to spark fire in Maria’s heart!

In the summer of 1993 on the feast of Our Mother of Sorrows, Maria answered Jesus’ call to consecrate her life to Him. One of the first consecrated women, Mari Carmen Perochena (RIP) once said, “It only gets better!”  Twenty-four years later this still rings true for Maria, who would say to everyone: “Just keep following Christ! He alone knows how to make you happy!”
             
 
(For most of her consecrated life, Maria was a professor at Mater Ecclesiae College. When it closed in 2015, she joined the consecrated community in Greater Cincinnati.  Presently, she is the Director of Academic Excellence at Northern Kentucky Montessori Academy (NKMA) and is an adjunct professor at Chatfield College).  God is so awesome!