A Class Act

Theresa Perenich from Florida shares her thoughts on the summer program’s classes and formation talks. 

A large part of our schedule and formation in general here at the summer training program is the classes. We have had various people come in and teach about topics that are relevant and necessary for our training so we can make the best of our mission year. 

Our first class was taught by the amazing Lucy Honner, a consecrated based in D.C. who is in charge of the website RC Spirituality. Lucy dived into everything Regnum Christi related. She deepened our knowledge about the inner workings of the movement and focused specifically on what the charism of RC is and how we can explain it better to people.

Father Edward McIlmail, the chaplain at Overbrook Academy gave us an overview of the Catholic Catechism and how to teach it to people we will be working with. 

Joan Kingsland, a consecrated from Canada, gave a wonderful course about Christian Anthropology, which will be very useful in our own formation, and helping in the formation of others. 

Our summer program administrator, an amazing consecrated from D.C. named Helen Yalbir, delved into ECyD with us. ECyD is the youth program for Regnum Christi. Angie Hilbun, our awesome summer program director, and a consecrated from Houston, Texas, informed us with her Human Persons Class. We took the Myers-Briggs and StrengthsQuest personality tests, and learned more about our strengths and how to use them correctly. Angie also brought in special guest LaVeta Faber, a certified Gallup personality coach, to teach us more about the topic.

I enjoyed all these classes so much, especially since they are preparing me not only for my mission year, but how to live as a good Catholic for the rest of my life. My personal favorite was the Human Persons class. I loved learning about my strengths and the strengths of my teammates. All the classes so far have been so enlightening, engaging, and entertaining. I can speak for all of my fellow missionaries when I say we truly do look forward to the future classes. 

Truth vs. Lie

RCMC Missionary Amanda Keller from Houston Texas reflects on certain truths and lies people believe about God and His mercy.

Every night here in our summer program, we have the opportunity to encounter Christ in the Eucharist. It is in this moment that Christ is present to manifest His great love for us.

Two weeks ago, I was able to experience a very special holy hour with my missionaries sisters! During this hour, with the guidance of RCMC alumni Fiona Keller and Fer Galvez, we reflected on the lies that we believe about ourselves and God and the truths contrary to those distortions about God. Accompanied by prayer, I realized that the lie I came to believe was that I was never good enough for our Lord. It has been apparent in my life for as long as I can remember. With my sin overwhelming me, it truly made me think that I was completely distanced from God and that there was no way of coming back–that He didn’t want me back.

This is truly the evil one’s manipulative way of making people think that they are not worthy of our Lord and that there is no mercy for them. However, during the holy hour, I was reminded of the Truth. God revealed to me, after making my general confession, that He loved me even if I think that my soul seemed too stained and too torn for Him to be present in. Jesus reminded me of His great love for me and I felt as if my soul has now been healed from the scars of my sin.

This is a truth that many people need to realize. The proof of His love is seen on the cross and in His resurrection. He proves this love in many parts of the New Testament–my favorite is Mary Magdalene’s story. Even though she was an adulteress and held on to many sins, Jesus looked at her, met her where she was at in her life, and loved her. His gaze says it all! Our God is a God of mercy and gives his unconditional love to all, especially for those that believe that their sin has brought them too far to come back.

Let Jesus look at you and love you for who you are, not for “what you should be.” You are never out of reach from His arms of mercy. Allow Him to draw near to you and surrender yourself into His arms where you will be the happiest. Heal your soul with His authentic unconditional love. There is nothing more that He desires than to love you.

A Reflection on Womanhood

Anna Stevenson from Dallas, Texas shares another reflection on femininity and being a true woman of God.

These past few weeks have taught me so much about how to be a true woman of God. Living with 13 other women during the summer program, I quickly realized beauty has no mold. God’s beauty is apparent in unique ways in everyone and for women, some universal core qualities stand out: tender receptivity and bold, passionate acts of love.

As a tall Texan raised in a primarily male household, tender receptivity was not exactly in my range of expertise. I had to learn from Mary and her fiat to see that strength isn’t always in the “doing” but in the “not doing.” Mary is famous for her reflections, but what does that mean? She invites God into her outside circumstances and lets Him guide her — that is the heart of receptivity… to let Him in.

A powerful example of bold, passionate acts of love is when the weeping woman washes Jesus’ feet with her tears and wipes them with her hair. You may be thinking ‘bold’? But I see it as a sign of total vulnerability and dependence which is a bold move in my book. It is east to be numb and let God’s love pass us by, but this woman took charge and acted on God’s love + mercy by giving herself back to Him.

Overall, these women have shown me that beauty, love, and gratitude flow from deep encounters we have with Jesus’ own beautiful, loving, and gracious heart. Through knowledge of God, we can come to know ourselves worthy of love and to be missionaries of love.

We are RCMC Women ’17-18!

 

Conquering the Big Apple with the Joy of Christ

Excuse our absence for the past four days but we have been away conquering the city that never sleeps — NEW YORK!!!

Our biggest mission trip by far in the summer program, we planned a field trip with the children from St. Peter’s – St. Denis parish with Father Eric Nielsen, LC, visited the Yonkers Public Library to help kids from advance in their reading skills, and walked around Manhattan to share Jesus with New Yorkers.

We brought the kids from St. Peter’s – St. Denis parish to Franklin Roosevelt Park and gave them a little taste of our community life with games and sports. Through participating in various athletic activities, it was also an opportunity to share Christ in a fun and joyful environment.

“Whatever we do, even in the ordinary things like playing sports and having fun, we do it for the glory of God,” shares one missionary.

We also grew in the virtue of patience while helping children with their reading skills when we volunteered as reading buddies for kids at the Yonkers Public Library. “As volunteers,  we are not only helping the children read and comprehend better but we ourselves are enriched by their innocence and excitement to learn. Their childlike wonder is a gift to us,” another missionary shares.

In Manhattan, we were again joined by Father Eric Nielsen as well as Father Jason Smith to evangelize New Yorkers that come our way. We sang in the middle of Times Square, we handed out rosaries, asked for prayer intentions around Grand Central Station, and gave flowers and bible scriptures in Bryant Park.

“It does not matter if I am not able to reach as many people as I would have wanted to but knowing that I am able to just touch one person, and to be able to share Christ’s love to that person is already enough. One of the people I encountered at the Park told me that she needed to read the bible verse I handed to her that day, and to see that smile on her face, to recognize that Jesus loves her was already enough for me,” shares one of the missionaries.

Father Jason Smith, LC also gave a few inspirational tips for us at the steps of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral — a very New York moment for us! One thing that struck out in his talk was that as missionaries, there is no such thing as failure–that we can trust that God is always working in every situation, in every encounter, and in each of our hearts.

New York, thank you! You taught us how to open our hearts more–a lesson we’ll never forget as we go to our assigned cities in the coming week!

Prayer Mission for the Unborn

Last week, the missionaries planned another apostolic visit to the Mother of Life Center to help support its mission of giving hope and healing to pregnant women through donations and baby gifts they collected from the neighborhood.

They took a moment to pray at the center’s chapel and also adopted a spiritual baby that they will be including in their intentions as well.

As the missionaries look to the Blessed Mother and ask for her intercession, they are praying for expectant women to take inspiration from her motherhood, her fiat, her yes to God, and how she welcomed the very Life that was about to form in her womb.

 

In the Midst of Silence

“He who goes about to reform the world must begin with himself.” -Saint Ignatius of Loyola
 
It is a privilege for us missionaries to experience God and to know Him better in silence during the three-day Exercises–as it is in silence that God speaks. It is in these Exercises we contemplate the life of our Lord and ask for the grace to come to know of His infinite love and mercy, and in turn express and share that same love and mercy to people we encounter as missionaries.
 
With the guidance of the consecrated and the Legionaries, through a series of meditation on his birth, passion, and resurrection, adoration, and the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we begin to open ourselves up to our Lord so we can be unafraid to answer His call, to pick up our cross, and follow Him.
 
“I felt really close to Jesus,” one of the missionaries shared after the Exercises. 
 
“I recommend doing the Exercises every year because it is in this time, in this special silence, that I can come before the Lord and place my joys and my struggles at the foot of His cross. It is also this time that I am reminded of His enduring mercy for me.” another missionary said. 
 
This solemn experience during the Regnum Christi Mission Corps Summer Program, as Saint Ignatius of Loyola said, “draws down upon us all the graces of God in their greatest plentitude” as we prepare the Way of the Lord, which He already has set before us.

After the Exercises, Regnum Christi welcomed the newly incorporated missionaries to the movement and celebrated with a merienda cena together with the rest of the community — a beautiful way to break the silence!