Regnum Christi

Last Saturday I officiated at my second wedding, and it was beautiful. Well, except for the fact that the wedding was at 6pm, and the priest showed up at exactly 6pm. And the rest of the story is…

I was trying to make good time as I drove from Chicago to Cinncinati, but an Ordination I attended earlier in the day went a little longer than planned. The GPS said I would arrive at 5:30, not exactly an hour early as I had hoped for, but still respectable.

During my morning prayer time earlier that day I had been reading one of my favorite authors, Ruth Burrows. She was talking about how we need “constant watchfulness for the call of God,” and how “we miss countless opportunities when he is there offering himself because we don’t notice him, we are not really looking for him.” Continue reading →

Luke tells us the greatest desire of Christ’s heart – to start a fire. Fire which is God’s love in us. Christ burns with love for us and His desire is that we know this and experience first hand His love. The baptism with which He needed to be baptized was the cross, which was the place where He showed us how extreme His love is. We can help Christ set fire to the world by first letting His love penetrate our hearts. This fire needs to blaze and once it is blazing it can do nothing but spread. God is burning for us. His love doesn’t leave us inert, but urges us on. We won’t remain the same after having encountered Him, but changes us and gives us a new identity free from any other constraints to be be able to be totally available to His loving touch. Heart of Christ, inflame our hearts with love for You!

It finally died.

Six years of faithful service.

It was the same red pen that I first received when I arrived to our formation center in Greenville, RI: Mater Ecclesiae College, entering consecrated life in Regnum Christi. I found it on the desk assigned to me in the “first years’ classroom”, along with a black pen, a blue pen, and a 3-ringed binder.

The black pen probably ran out of ink within the month…especially thanks my intense Sacred Scriptures class and “Introduction to Christian Anthropology.” Continue reading →

Millions of women have had abortion – some more than one.

This isn’t a happy fact.  It is sad, horrible, sinful.  But rather than condemn these women (and the men who were part of their story), we are called to forgive.  There is no human failing that God cannot heal.  And we must ask him to help us show mercy.

Keeping all that in mind, there are pro-abortion groups that sorely test my mercifulness.  Recently moving to the top of my list of dark forces is “We Testify.”

The group sells clothing for women with bold slogans like, “I had an abortion.”  And for men, tank tops that say, “I fund abortion.” Continue reading →

We all love to be called out by someone. When we are called by someone we feel special. The Psalm tells us, “blessed are those who God calls to be his own.” We are the ones that God has called to Himself. How blessed we are to be His. This gives us the confidence to not fear to be open to knowing that we belong to Him. Saturday I was ordained a deacon with six others. It was a special day, but above all it was an experience of belonging totally to God. We are His and gives us confidence to do all God asks from us.

The seven Legionaries ordained: Andrew Gronotte LC, Andrew Kolenda LC, Peter Krezalek LC, Aaron Loch LC, Daniel Rolczynski LC, Ryan Richardson LC and Brett Taira LC. They were ordained at Notre Dame Catholic Church in Michigan City, Indiana by His Excellency, Donald Hying, Bishop of Gary. Please keep them in your prayers!

Pope Francis hit a raw nerve among transgender advocates this week by suggesting that children should not be taught that they can select their gender.

I expect some readers will read that opening sentence a couple times; I don’t know how to more clearly explain the conflict.  But that won’t stop me from trying…

There are folks in the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender community who believe children need to be educated in gender theory so they can knowledgably decide what gender they are.  The Pope suggests this is a terrible idea and he supports the Catholic idea that God created man and woman and it is God’s decision which gender each of us will be. Continue reading →

The following day we all woke up early to prepare the final Mass with the Holy Father. The translators had the blessing to have breakfast with the bishops who were going to concelebrate. Also, before Mass I saw the General Secretary of WYD walking around with a group from Panama and right away I figured out where will be the next WYD.

During the homily the Pope invited the young people to be courageous like Zacchaeus who did everything to be able to meet Jesus, the true treasure of our lives. At the end of Mass, Pope Francis announced that the next WYD in 2019 will take place in Panama.

After Mass they transported us by bus to a hockey arena where we would have a special encounter with the Pope and all the volunteers. On the way to the arena, we saw the endless crowds of young people marching back to the city. Despite the tiredness and the heavy rain, you could see the joy and excitement in their faces. Continue reading →

I just came from Poland. The last days of WYD were intense and I wasn’t able to post. We received so many graces!

We had the Prayer Vigil with the Pope on Saturday. The Vigil took place in Campus Misericordiae, “Field of Mercy”. This big piece of land is located a few miles away from the city center of Krakow. The WYD tradition is to go walking by foot to the vigil venue, like in a real pilgrimage. It wasn’t an easy walk. The weather was really warm and there weren’t shades on the way. Continue reading →

July 22 was the day of peace, the Friday between the end of the Republican convention and the start of the Democrat convention.

If you watched the Republicans, you likely are torn between moments of hope and despair, wondering if there is no common sense left in this troubled world.  The Democrats produce similar emotions.

In the past months the terrorist attacks, shootings of apparently innocent souls and savage murders of police are too numerous to list.  I expect most news organizations now have a standard news story format something like: Continue reading →

This evening the buses that usually bring me home were not working. As I was walking back, a total of 45 minutes, a car stopped by me. A local family offered a ride. This is Polish hospitality and the kind of spirit we are all living here in Krakow. We are all a big family in Christ.

Speaking about our family, today we had the Regnum Christi Mass. All RC groups gathered in a big parish called St Jan Kanty. It was wonderful to see the church completely full with young people from all over the world. The Mass was in Latin and the homily was delivered by Fr Andreas Schöggl in different languages. After the homily, eight young men and women from Mexico were incorporated into the Movement. We were all wearing our RC T-shirts, which said in the back “meRCy”.

After that we had the Stations of the Cross with the Holy Father. Each one of the fourteen stations was related to a work of mercy. During his speech, Pope Francis asked “where is God in so much suffering in this world”. He said that Jesus answers us telling that God is present in all those who suffer.

Tomorrow we have the Vigil with the Holy Father in the “Field of Mercy.” I invite you to join us praying for the whole world and celebrating the divine mercy!