Listen

Introduction

The Church suggests a specific practice or devotion for every day of the week to remind us that ordinary time is already filled with the supernatural life. Sunday is the first day of the week, the day dedicated to the Most Holy Trinity. Monday is dedicated to the Holy Spirit, to implore his help as we begin the labors of the week. On Monday we also pray for the holy souls in Purgatory. Tuesday turns our attention to the angels, and especially our Guardian Angel. Wednesday is devoted to St. Joseph, a holy death, and the martyrs. Thursday is traditionally reserved for special devotion to the Eucharist, both in the Body of Christ, exalted sacramentally on the altar, and in the Holy Hour, accompanying the Lord in Gethsemane. On Friday we remember the Passion of our Lord Jesus through penance and abstinence. Finally, on Saturday we turn our gaze and our hearts to our Blessed Mother. 

 In Regnum Christi, we have the following traditions: coming together as a team once a week for the Encounter with Christ; praying a Holy Hour or adoration before the Blessed Sacrament on Thursday evening; practicing penance every Friday, except on feast days (the Episcopal Conference of each country will give specific guidelines); and dedicating a special moment to the Blessed Virgin on the first Saturday of each month. 

 These liturgical and prayerful rhythms of each day of the week allow us to transfigure our weekly activities as we look forward in hope to the Kingdom. Ordinary joys become the joys of the Kingdom; ordinary life, life in the Kingdom.

Listen

Encounter with Christ

“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18:20). In Regnum Christi, the Encounter with Christ is an activity where teams or communities prayerfully read the Word of God and discern the reality around them in order to pray together, obtain lights from the Holy Spirit, see life from the eyes of God, and respond to his call to love in a specific apostolic commitment. In this way, the team, gathered by the Lord, lives a life of communal prayer where Christ forms them and sends them out to the mission that they embrace together with God to make his Kingdom present in the hearts of all people and of society.

“The Encounter with Christ is the center of team life. In it, the lay members, as a community of faith, by the light of God’s Word, examine their Christian life, discern what the Lord expects of them in evangelizing the reality of the world they live in, encourage each other in their following of Christ, and enkindle their apostolic zeal” (RL 15).

Opening Prayer

We begin this activity with a prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to enlighten our understanding, move our wills, and enkindle our hearts.

It is appropriate to add a Hail Mary or other prayer to invoke the Blessed Virgin, a Glory Be, and the invocations proper to Regnum Christi which seal our prayer by pointing to the goal of all our life and actions – the glory of God.

Prayerful reading of the Gospel

We seek to encounter him in the Gospel in order to place ourselves in an attitude of listening, so that faith and charity will guide our reflections, order our values, and orient our discernment.

A passage of the Gospel is chosen. It could be from the previous or next Sunday, or another passage that is appropriate to the needs of the team.

Apostolic Discernment of Reality

After we have encountered Christ through his Word, we undertake a communal discernment of what he expects of us as a team or community in the circumstances of life in which we find ourselves. Consequently, we will observe the reality in which we are immersed with the desire to discover the best way to carry out our mission of evangelization within it.

Choice of a case study

A true situation or event from real life that helps the team or community to discover the message of God for them in their current situation should be chosen.

The closer the case is to the lives of the members and the social reality in which they live, the better it will facilitate the apostolic discernment of the team.

Analysis of the Case

Done in three elements: to see, to judge, and to act.

TO SEE:
We want to see the case as God sees it, learning to observe life with objectivity and depth, with reason and faith, discovering how God is present in it.

  1. In relation to this case, what is happening around us? What do we see? What elements – positive or negative – most grab our attention and resonate most strongly in our hearts?
  2. How is God working in the hearts of the people involved and in their environment? Why did this happen? What are the causes?
  3. What are the consequences of what happened?

Bridging into the time of “judging,” what signs of good and evil do we discover in this case? Are we involved in it? How? How do we react to it?

TO JUDGE:
After we have become more aware of the presence of the wheat and the weeds in the case we have chosen (see Matthew 13:24-30), we want to discern how Jesus judges or interprets our presence, participation, or attitudes before this case, and, consequently, understand what he hopes for from us.

  1. What values or anti-values do we see in this case?
  2. What Gospel passages does it remind us of? What do they tell us about this case? Considering the Gospel, what would Jesus do in our place? What is he asking of us?
  3. What requirements does this case bring to light for us if we are to follow Christ as missionary disciples?

TO ACT APOSTOLIC COMMITMENT: This is the moment to choose what actions of conversion and apostolate we are called to in light of what we have discerned that Christ is asking of us. We seek to respond to the invitation from the Lord that we received through the Gospel judgement with our own evangelizing initiative. In this way, we aspire to transform reality with the criteria of the Gospel.

The members suggest possible actions to carry out regarding themselves, with the goal of their own conversion, and regarding the reality affected by the case, with the goal of evangelization. In response to the call experienced in the “to judge” element:

  1. Considering our case analysis, how can we collaborate with God in his work of making the Kingdom grow?
  2. How can we support and foster God’s action in hearts and in society, according to the changing reality of our environment?

Closing Prayer

The Encounter with Christ concludes with a prayer of thanksgiving by one or several members.

The prayer closes with the two invocations to Christ the King and the Virgin Mary proper to Regnum Christi.

Listen

Holy Hour

It is the tradition of the Church to dedicate at least one hour a week, on Thursday evenings, to a personal or communal encounter before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Sometimes the context of this Holy Hour is the request of Jesus in Gethsemane: “My soul is sorrowful to the point of death; remain here and watch with me” (Mt 26:38). At other times, Eucharistic adoration celebrates the incarnation of the Word and his living presence among us today in the Eucharist.

Regnum Christi members seek to share weekly a face-to-face encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist in a Holy Hour. The priest exposes the Blessed Sacrament in order to dedicate at least an hour of adoration to him and thus grow closer to him in silence and listening, in an intimate and prolonged dialogue, without haste and without an agenda. It is a singular occasion to know Jesus better and to love him more deeply, to atone for our sins, to thank him for his witness, to offer him our life for the sake of his Kingdom and to ask him for the needs of the Church, of our family and for our own.

We should come to meet him with an open heart, ready to adore him and receive infinite graces from him. Some attitudes help us to live this encounter better:

  1. Recognize that we are before Jesus, body, blood, soul, and divinity.
  2. Thank him for the blessings he has given us.
  3. Ask him for our intentions, especially for our conversion and the salvation of all people.
  4. Make an act of reparation for sins committed, our own and those of others.
  5. Make acts of faith, hope, and love.

In this personal dialogue with Christ, we can combine different means of prayer:

  1. Personal or guided meditation.
  2. Spiritual reading.
  3. Silent contemplation: “He looks at me and I look at him.”
  4. The Rosary or other vocal prayers.
  5. Take note of the lights we receive.
  6. Songs of adoration and praise.