Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi
Information
Mission (1+ year commitment), Mission (Short Term), Religious
Women
Active, Other
Teaching, Any form of evangelizing and forming engaged Missionary Disciples
Get in Touch!
Adrienne Rolwes is our vocation director: contact her at vocations@regnumchristi.net
Location(s)
We have 50 communities around the world, in the Americas, Europe and Manila, with Rome as our See. We are in nine English speaking cities: Atlanta, Georgia; Houston, Texas; Washington DC; Dallas, Texas, Clarkston, Michigan; Cincinnati, Ohio; Greeenville, Rhode IslandI; Chicago, Illinois and Manila, Philippines.
Patron Saints/Famous Saints of the Community
We are dedicated to the Sacred Heart and Our Lady of Sorrows. St John the Evangelist, and St Paul are our patrons, inspiring our contemplative and evangelizing charism.
Charism/Apostolate
Our vocation as Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi is a response to the real and current needs of the Church and society, especially the need for well-formed female leaders. We seek to engage the secular world and awaken individuals and families to their God-given purpose and mission in life and in the Church. We make present the mystery of Christ who goes out to people, reveals his love to them, gathers them together and forms them as apostles and Christian leaders, sending them out to evangelize people and society.
Our lay consecration to God permeates all that we are and all that we do. Impelled by Christ’s personal love, we respond with our exclusive and total dedication to him as spouses of Christ through the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience within international communities. Welcoming and accepting each person with Christ’s merciful and humanizing gaze, we help them discover their dignity, beauty, and value. With Mary as Mother and model, we seek to live out the vocation of love and true womanhood through the gift of our femininity.
We collaborate with the Regnum Christi spiritual family and the Church, accompanying and forming young people, parents, teachers, lay diocesan leaders and seminarians. The various ways we live out their mission include preaching, offering spiritual direction, leading courses, pilgrimages, missions and retreats.
History
The first groups of Lay Members of Regnum Christi began in 1968, through the invitation, formation and direction of the priestly congregation, the Legionaries of Christ, who were founded in 1941. These men and women shared one charism, one spirit and one mission, lived out in their state of life. Aware of their baptismal vocation to holiness and apostolate, they felt called to be Christian leaders and form others at the service of Jesus Christ, the Church and society.
New forms of consecration arose in the heart of Regnum Christi where lay men and women offered their lives to God to follow Christ freely and totally by embracing the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. Thus the first three women responded to this call, consecrating their lives to God within Regnum Christi. They began their formation in Ireland and were joined by another two women during that year. Over time, we grew and now have around 500 Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi in 50 communities around the world.
Today Regnum Christi is comprised of four vocations: Legionaries of Christ, Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi, Lay Consecrated Men of Regnum Christi and the Lay Members of Regnum Christi and diocesan seminarians, deacons, priests, and religious priests in the Legionaries of Christ, each living according to his or her vocation, as members of one body (see 1 Cor 12:12-29), collaborating in a common mission.
When the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi began in 1969, they were established under the governance of the Legionaries of Christ. In 2012, the Pontifical Delegate, Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, granted autonomy of government and internal life to the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi and the Lay Consecrated Men of Regnum Christi.
In 2013, the Holy See approved the statutes of both the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi and the Lay Consecrated Men of Regnum Christi. Pope Francis, on November 20, in an audience with the Cardinal Prefect and the Bishop Secretary of the CIVCSVA, approved the canonical establishment. On November 25, 2018, for the Solemnity of Christ the King, in Rome, Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo, O.F.M., secretary of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (CIVCSVA), presented the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi and the Lay Consecrated Men of Regnum Christi with decrees to canonically establish them as societies of apostolic life of pontifical right. Canonical recognition is an expression that these vocations in Regnum Christi are a gift that contribute to the mission of the Church as a path of holiness and of encounter between God and people.
Prayer Life
The experience of Christ’s personal, real, passionate, and faithful love is the foundation of our life. Our spousal relationship with Christ is what drives our deepening union with God, relationships with others, and dedication to our mission.
We encounter God as someone real in our lives. We especially allow ourselves to be transformed by him in prayer, at the foot of the cross, and in the Eucharist. We discover him in others and in the circumstances of life, receiving his strength to accompany people in their own faith journey.
Our love for Christ means we are deeply contemplative, while passionately evangelizing. Our daily prayer includes an hour of quiet mental prayer, Mass, Liturgy of the Hours, rosary, spiritual reading and a night examen. Weekly we have a community Holy Hour on Thursdays and annually we have an 8 day silent retreat.
Here is a little more about our spirituality:
The Heart of Christ Our King
We gaze upon the heart of Christ our King who came to establish his Kingdom and reveal his merciful love. We allow his love to penetrate us so that we may live with his sentiments and participate in his work of redemption as spiritual mothers. And so we say with Saint Paul, “The love of Christ impels us!”
Mary, Our Mother
Mary is our mother, friend, and companion on our journey toward union with God. Her docility and collaboration with the Holy Spirit allowed her to receive and be configured by the gaze of God. Thus, she is our model of chastity, spousal love, and spiritual motherhood. She shows us how to welcome God’s action within us, promote communion and be transformed into Christ.
Traditions
We make the evangelical vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. We devotionally renew these each year on the feast of Christ the King (the feast day of the Regnum Christi spiritual family) and February 2nd, the Day of Consecrated Life.