Regnum Christi

Sometimes, when talking about celibacy, religious and seminarians are asked, “So, you don’t want to get married?”

I must admit, I find that a strange question. No one assumes that when a man chooses to marry a woman, he is ipso facto not attracted to other beautiful women. How bizarre would that be! Marriage is not a rejection of beautiful women – a rather depressing way of looking at falling in love; on the contrary, marriage is the choosing of one woman to give yourself to faithfully. Continue reading →

So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a king?” 

Jesus answered, “You say I am a king.  For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” 

Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”

John 18:37-38

One of my favorite hymns is “The King of Love my Shepherd is…”  Maybe I am so fond of it because there were many years when the King of Love, of Peace and of Truth was hidden from me.  It was not He that hid from me.  He would have been so happy had I not hid from Him.  Ever willing to reconcile with us sinners, the King of Love came powerfully into my heart during my first Confession at the age of 33, as I attended the parish RCIA program early each Sunday for what was an intensive, inspiring year in 1999-2000.

I think that makes me a sort of teenager Catholic—sweet 16?  I remember telling lots of folks that I was “reading my way to the Faith.”  I read a lot in those days.  I still do. Continue reading →

Having been the guest at the table of hundreds of family dinners, I have generally observed that the eyes of a mom tend to be analytical and critical of their daughters behavior, and more admiring of their sons.  As a spiritual director for women over the years, the greatest struggle most women face is precisely their relationship with their teen-age or college aged daughters…causing some to break down in tears in my office.

A middle aged women recently described how she sees her two daughters (High School and College) in these terms:  “Fr. Michael, I guess I want to help them turn out to be like me.  Having been in their shoes as a girl and young adult, I understand them better than my boys, and I know which behaviors/attitudes will affect them down the road, so I am more proactive as a result.  It’s just the way I am wired…but I acknowledge that I do need to accept, accompany, and love them more as they get older and try not to ‘manage’ them so much.”   Continue reading →

On tiptoes and whispering, we were all trying to make as little noise as possible. We didn’t want to distract the priests and brothers praying below.

During the Rome pilgrimage in April, our Northwoods Catholic School students and families had the grace of sharing a holy hour with the communities of the Center of Higher Studies- the Legionary seminary in Rome.

I had a handful of the kids kneeling along the choir loft railing, looking out at the Eucharist exposed and down at the hundreds of men in black in the chapel below.

Little Alex was one of them. Continue reading →

I have a digital post-it on my desktop called “blog ideas.” Here´s what it says:

For the past several weeks, this list has been getting longer and my days have been somehow getting shorter. Not because it´s the time of year that the sunlight lessens, but because it´s that that time of year when EVERYTHING seems to happen. So, my blogs have taken a vacation for a few weeks. I say they´ve taken a vacation from me more than I have from them, because they´re still brewing although I don´t sit down to write them. I´ve taken out my laptop in the van on the way to class to try to diminish the list a little… anyway, exams are starting soon, and writing is one of those little things that helps me breathe amid the hours of philosophic brain work. Continue reading →

After listening to these two stories of how two people were risen from the dead by Elijah and Christ, we can ask ourselves, “Why doesn’t this happen anymore?” “Why don’t we get to see miracles?” “If only we could see a miracle, we would believe.” Faith is tough. But I think that miracles continue to happen daily around us, but we aren’t able to see them because we lack faith. God is present; even if it is night, the sun is still there. Even if we don’t get the chance to see the miracle we expect, God works miracles every day in sometimes the simplest things. Rather than wait for God to manifest himself in the way we expect, we should ask for faith to be able to recognize Him in the way He is already manifesting Himself.

The components of the Regnum Christi International Convention are simple:  Mass, pray, meet, discuss, eat, sleep, repeat for a week.

It has felt to me like a long week – and I’m not a delegate, just an observer and communicator.  Some of the bags under the eyes of delegates are getting deep and dark.  Everyone takes this business very seriously. Continue reading →

The beauty of Haiti surrounded us today! We saw a different side of the country by going out to a rural village today. Rather than the suffering that we have seen in the homes the sisters run, we were able to enter the daily life of one small village and catch a glimpse of what most of Haiti is like. We drove out to the village where we were met by Fr. Wathner, the parish priest that Mission Youth has been collaborating with over the past few years. He encouraged us to take a bit of a rest and drink water before our hike up to the even smaller village of Boucandrice, where they are building a school (with the support of Mission Youth). Let’s just say it was a physically demanding hike and the sun might have got the best of a few of us and we were quite relieved for the gentle rain and cool air on the way back down. Continue reading →

Nearly six years ago, then-Archbishop Velasio De Paolis (now a Cardinal) drew an assignment he likely was expecting:  Papal Delegate to the Legion of Christ.

It promised to be a big and rather complicated job to lead the congregation through its renewal.  And he quickly learned that with an affiliated lay movement and consecrated lay members the organization was even more complicated than initially apparent.

As a cleric in his late 70s (no over 80) he took on a job both broad and deep – at a time when most people would be laying claim to a lounge chain on a Florida beach.  But from all appearances, he took on the task with a spirit of humility, determination and obedience. Continue reading →

It was a wonderful day to be in Haiti today. We started the day off by going to the Children’s Home. Even though it was our third and fourth times visiting these kids, it never ceases to amaze us how much life and energy they have.

We got to play with them and feed them breakfast and lunch. A lot of children had their parents come visit today, and at one point there were absolutely no more babies in the cribs. This made us really happy to see every single baby being loved and taken care of.  Continue reading →