Regnum Christi

Christ makes a deaf and dumb person hear and talk. He fulfills Isiah’s prophesy that we heard in the first reading. It must have been amazing to see Him do these miracles throughout his life. Today He continues to do these miracles, but they are harder to see. It isn’t that the deaf hear and the blind see, but rather that those of us who are blind in the things of God see, who have a hard time to recognize his voice can hear Him. And we also experience how the last part of the prophesy of Isiah is fulfilled in us, that from the desert sprouts water. Christ can bring life and redemption from us who are dry and dead. He is our Life. He is the Water that springs forth from our hearts to renew the whole world. Let Christ work these miracles in our hearts to hear his voice, to see him, and to let his life run freely through us.

I love chocolate chip cookies – could eat them every meal. I love them so much in fact, that recently I learned how to make them from scratch. Now I can have them on demand, whenever I want. And they come out good too – not quite as good as my mom’s – but still quite acceptable. Continue reading →

Giuseppe Maria Crespi — Massacre of the innocents

I was watching the nightly news roundup or what the various Presidential candidates had to say about the issues and each other.  Little will go down as great oratory.

An especially enthusiastic proponent of abortion espoused the importance of maintaining our “progress” on issues of women’s health.

“We’ve come so far, we can’t turn back.”

It sounded so sincere.  So caring.  So modern.

I felt a bit sick.

How, in light of all our medical advancements, can free and easy abortion be “progress”? Continue reading →

“Selfishness makes people deaf and dumb; love opens eyes and hearts, enabling people to make that original and irreplaceable contribution which, together with the thousands of deeds of so many brothers and sisters, often distant and unknown, converges to form the mosaic of charity which can change the tide of history” — St. John Paul II

Many years ago, while riding the subway in Rome, a polish lady pointed out her grandfather in the seat in front of her and told me that he was with St. John Paul II at his first parish assignment.  On his first day at the new parish, “Fr. Karol” arrived late in the evening and noticed that many of the parishioners were praying in the chapel.  One of the men from the parish had left that morning in a terrible snowstorm and he had still not returned, so they were all very worried.  A search party had been sent out but they had no luck.  Fr. Karol inquired the direction in which he had gone and immediately set off on horseback with a few of the parishioners to find this man.  He returned well after midnight with a half-frozen but very grateful parishioner on the back of his horse!

Merriam Webster: 1 the beliefs, customs, arts, etc., of a particular society, group, place, or time

A trip to El Escorial was a breathtaking way of being introduced to how Catholicism and Spanish culture are intertwined. King Philip II of Spain built the royal residence and monastery in the 16th century, and it remains a famous cultural site in the town of San Lorenzo outside Madrid. It amazed me to learn that the basilica was built connected to the royal residence, as I realized how here, faith and history are so closely connected. Continue reading →

God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” – Genesis 1:25-28 Continue reading →

“Tu fidelidad es grande, tu fidelidad incomparable es. Nadie como tu, bendito Dios. Grande es tu fidelidad.”

As we sang this song at Mass yesterday, it moved me deeply as I reflected on God´s fidelity after witnessing one of the consecrated women in my community renew her temporal vows, one Legionary brother renew his profession, and three consecrated women who work in Spain devotionally renew their vows after twenty-five years of consecrated life. It was a Mass full of a joyful Regnum Christi family, with all the branches joining in prayer. Hope in the fidelity of Christ Our King filled the little chapel as each one of us renewed our commitment to him together with those renewing their vows. The words of Christ echoed through each of our hearts during the Gospel: “Remain in me, as I remain in you. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain (Jn 15).”

We made our first trip to San Damaso!

As we drove along the highway, the one sitting next to me commented on how pretty soon, we will know this road very well. It was strange to think that we were actually on our way to the famous San Damaso… that we had talked about and imagined and wondered about all this past semester. Once we arrived, it was very surreal for me to see the logo that I had seen so many times on the website, documents, and papers, that seemed like an obscure little college so far away on the other side of an ocean…now on the wall of the building that I was walking into. Quite honestly, we didn´t really see much of the campus and there weren´t many people, since it´s still the middle of summer break here. But between the thick Spanish accents in the secretary´s office, I couldn´t help but hear my own thoughts telling me how crazy it was that I was actually enrolling at an ecclesiastical university in Spain to study theology. One of those crazy things that I laugh with Our Lord about, and try to hold on and enjoy the ride.

Chick-fil-A may not be able to have a restaurant in the Denver Airport because the CEO of the restaurant chain supports traditional marriage.

(Disclosure: I support traditional marriage and really like Chick-fil-A chicken sandwiches and those cute little waffle fries.)

According to an article in the National Catholic Register, the city’s Business Development Committee seems to think it has a moral obligation to keep our businesses that don’t consider all marriages to be equal. Just to be clear, Chick-fil-A’s CEO, Dan Cathy, didn’t say the restaurant wouldn’t serve gays, lesbians, Martians or Caitlin Jenner – he just favors marriage between one man and one woman. In today’s upside-down world, that puts him on the wrong side of public morality. Continue reading →

“It is very important for us to realize that love, to be true, has to hurt. I must be willing to give whatever it takes not to harm other people and, in fact, to do good to them. This requires that I be willing to give until it hurts.” Blessed Mother Teresa

Home made lasagna! My mom usually woke up at 530 to make it for 610 Mass, helped us with our breakfast and then went to teach her second grade class at school all day. She would then rush home and immediately get dinner going for the family. But every week or so, my mom would get up extra early to prepare a pan of homemade lasagna and had it all ready to go before leaving for work in the morning…this was love and the sacrifice entailed was definitely noted!