Thy Kingdom Come!
“Life with Christ is a wonderful adventure.”
-- St. John Paul II 4/26/1997 Homily
The Christian life is an adventure with Christ. Every step brings new encounters with the Lord and with others, and the call to witness to the Lord’s love. It is an adventure lived in communion with others, brothers and sisters in the mission. A member of Regnum Christi finds all these elements in his or her vocation from Christ, to follow Him in the Regnum Christi Federation: a spiritual family, a common spirituality and an exciting mission.
The following paragraphs briefly explore each of those themes: what Regnum Christi is, what living out a vocation to Regnum Christi means, whom we live it with, and what our common spirit and mission is.
In his 1998 message for the World Congress of Ecclesial Movements and New Communities, Pope Saint John Paul II said that the "charisms recognized by the Church are ways to deepen one's knowledge of Christ and to give oneself more generously to him, while rooting oneself more and more deeply in communion with the entire Christian people."
Fr. John Bartunek writes in "What is Regnum Christi?" -- an essay Introducing the Statutues of the Regnum Christi Federation and the Rulle of Life for Lay Members:
“When God calls us to join Regnum Christi, he stirs up a desire in our hearts to renew and refresh our basic commitment to know, love, and follow Christ as a Catholic Christian. One could say that basic commitment is first made on our behalf by our parents and godparents when we are baptized. Then we make it our own in a special way by choosing to receive the sacrament of confirmation. Joining Regnum Christi is not an add on to that basic commitment but, rather, a renewal of that commitment. Through membership in Regnum Christi, our commitment becomes more concrete as we discover a clearer, more personalized path to the fulfillment of our Christian vocation." (page 80)
"This vocation occurs within the context of normal Catholic life and is presented by God as a way to live that life more fully.”
“And so, at the most fundamental level, through joining Regnum Christi we recommit ourselves to a personal and dynamic relationship with Jesus Christ, following him within the Catholic Church. But a new “yes” to God is also added on to the baptismal and confirmational commitment, a “yes” to accepting the gift of Regnum Christi as a more specific way to live it out. The communion among Regnum Christi members is a shared spirituality and mission. It is a means and opportunity for growth in holiness and mission, for a new and fuller path of Christian living. Our Christian adventure takes on a specific shape as we make concrete commitments related to the five elements of life in Regnum Christi." ~ Bartunek, John, What is Regnum Christi?, pp. 45, 8.
"We recognize it as God’s plan that the Legionaries of Christ, the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi, the Lay Consecrated Men of Regnum Christi and the associated faithful live in a profound communion and that we are to be witnesses to the love of Jesus Christ by the unity and charity among us. . . [We] share a common spirituality and mission, which each lives according to their individual identity and vocation."
~ Statutes of the Regnum Christi Federation, Article 1. Spiritual foundations, #6
These line above from the Statutes of the Regnum Christi Federation echo the words of Pope St. John Paul II in his encyclical Christifideles Laici on the multiplicity and complementarity of vocations within the Church. Though there are diverse states of life, all Christians are called into the vineyard of the Lord:
“All the members of the People of God - clergy, men and women religious, the lay faithful - are laborers in the vineyard. At one and the same time they all are the goal and subjects of Church communion as well as of participation in the mission of salvation. Every one of us possessing charisms and ministries, diverse yet complementary, works in the one and the same vineyard of the Lord.
Simply in being Christians, even before actually doing the works of a Christian, all are branches of the one fruitful vine which is Christ.” ~ Christifideles Laici, n. 55
Pope St. John Paul II continues by reflecting on the unity among the different vocations - each one is a unique manner of living out the Christian vocation to holiness through love. Regnum Christi members strive for this ideal by living out their individual vocation to the full. This is a witness that beautifully builds up the whole body of the Church and Regnum Christi.
“In Church Communion the states of life by being ordered one to the other are thus bound together among themselves. They all share in a deeply basic meaning: that of being the manner of living out the commonly shared Christian dignity and the universal call to holiness in the perfection of love. They are different yet complementary, in the sense that each of them has a basic and unmistakable character which sets each apart, while at the same time each of them is seen in relation to the other and placed at each other's service.” ~ Christifideles Laici, n. 55
This unity in diversity has always been a sign of the work of the Holy Spirit, and it works for the glory of God, as summed up by number 7 of the Statutes. “We seek to give glory to God and make the Kingdom of Christ present in the hearts of all people and in society, by our sanctification in the state and condition of life to which God has called us, and by personal and communal apostolic action.
~ RC Statutes, Article 1. Spiritual foundations, #7
As stated in #4 of the Preamble to our Statutes:
"Today this spiritual family consists of single and married lay men and women, consecrated lay men and women, diocesan seminarians, deacons, priests, and religious and priests of the Legionaries of Christ, each living according to their vocation, as members of one body (see 1 Corinthians 12:12-29), collaborating in a common mission."
These images present the Purpose and Mission of Regnum Christi, as documented in our Statutes, n. 7 - 8.