Within the framework of the ninth preparation for the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart to be celebrated on June 7, 2013, Fr. Sylvester Heereman, L.C., currently serving as the General Director of the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi, Gloria Rodríguez, General Responsible for the consecrated women of the Movement, and Jorge López, General Responsible for the consecrated men of Regnum Christi, send a letter inviting all members of the Movement, consecrated men and women, and legionaries to a spiritual preparation for the General Chapter and the General Assemblies to be held during the first months of 2014.
The Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi have been on a path of renewal and purification requested by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010. The Holy Father has chosen to accompany the Movement through a Papal Delegate, Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, C.S., whose mission is to guide the Legion and the Movement in his name until a General Chapter and General Assemblies are convened, during which new constitutions and statutes will be drafted.
In the letter, some concrete points are offered to facilitate the experience of this period of preparation, such as:
- Living these months as a “Lenten” time in preparation for Easter, asking the Lord to grant us a new Pentecost.
- Embarking on a personal and team or community journey of prayer, reconciliation, and openness to mission to renew love for God, for our brothers and sisters, and for our own vocation to Regnum Christi.
- Opening ourselves to God’s grace to convert from everything that distances us from the Heart of Christ, clothing ourselves with mercy to be available to meet those who feel wounded, learning to forgive and ask for forgiveness, thus seeing ourselves free of all resentment.
- A special novena of preparation for the solemnity of the Sacred Heart to be prayed individually, in families, teams, sections, and communities.
- Personal and community initiatives that help prepare our hearts to receive the gifts that the Holy Spirit wishes to bestow upon Regnum Christi and the Legion of Christ during this stage of renewal.
Below, we present the letter, which can be downloaded in pdf format at the following link.
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Thy Kingdom Come!·
MOVEMENT
REGNUM CHRISTI
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HEADQUARTERS OF THE GENERAL DIRECTION
May 28, 2013
To the Legionaries of Christ and
Members of Regnum Christi
Dearly esteemed in Jesus Christ:
We are pleased to send you this greeting with great esteem on the occasion of the feast of the Sacred Heart, in which we celebrate one of the pillars of our spirituality. The Heart of Jesus Christ, pierced on the cross, has drawn us toward Him, made us experience His merciful love and His thirst to ignite the fire of His charity in all hearts. We want to prepare ourselves for this meaningful celebration by repairing for our faults against love, comforting and accompanying the Heart of Jesus.
What does this feast mean in light of the current historical moment?
We are approaching the end of an institutional journey. In a few days, the meeting of first and second degree representatives will take place in Rome. During the summer, territorial assemblies of legionaries will review the draft of the Constitutions. After a few months, possibly after summer, the official call for the Legion’s General Chapter, the General Assemblies of the consecrated men and women, and the General Assembly of the entire Regnum Christi will be made, which, God willing, will be held in the first months of 2014. With these major events, we will conclude the path that the Church has pointed out to us as an expression of her maternal care and love for this work of God.
These external milestones we are traveling together are accompanied by each person’s inner journey. Indeed, life leaves wounds in our hearts that God heals, but which we will carry with us until we reach Him, similar to the wounds of the Passion, which Christ chose to bear always in His body, even after the resurrection, to accompany ours and to invite us to trust in His mercy. It is our task, in some way, to carry the wounds of a painful past as an institution, especially the feeling of wounded paternity and the pain caused by human errors that have occurred and have made us suffer.
In each person, the healing process has been and is deeply personal. For many of us, this situation has led to a new encounter with the Lord of our life and vocation. This touch of grace is a reason for deep gratitude to God. Others, however, have experienced new sorrows. And thus, we notice that, at least to some extent, the freshness of our vocation has been lost, we have continued to hurt each other, and mutual esteem and trust, so necessary for a family life, have declined. Added to this is the pain of those who, feeling disappointed or as a result of a personal journey, have chosen to leave the consecrated life or the apostolic commitment in Regnum Christi.
In this situation, we want to frame an initiative that we have been reflecting on and discussing among ourselves and our respective councils. We believe that the Chapter and the Assemblies deserve proper preparation by everyone. We do not want the events we will experience to be merely meetings to study and approve the text of the Constitutions and Statutes or to limit themselves to a superficial review of our life. We feel that proper spiritual preparation is necessary, a personal and community itinerary to “renew love,” and we want to begin it with the celebration of the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Cardinal Eduardo Pironio, when he was Prefect of Religious, liked to say that “a Chapter is always a celebration of Easter.” Following this comparison, we can think that Easter is preceded by Lent and reaches its fullness at Pentecost.
Indeed, to reach Easter, we feel the need to undertake a path of conversion, a “Lenten” journey that helps us all grow in sincere conversion to Christ, to better know and put into practice His Will. The renewal in holiness of the Legion and Regnum Christi depends on our ability to speak the truth about our lives and to accept with simplicity the grace of conversion to the Heart of Jesus. It would be sad if we tried to measure the fruits of the Chapter and the Assemblies by the depth and beauty of the documents promulgated there. The true fruit will rather be the conversion of our minds and hearts to joy and dedication on the path of holiness that God proposes to us.
We would like this preparation to be carried out at various levels:
- Personally, it involves opening ourselves to the grace of true renewal in love for God, for others, and for our own vocation in Regnum Christi. This presupposes prayer and supplication, supporting the grace of conversion, seeking greater identification with the merciful love of the Heart of Christ. It also presupposes availability to meet those who feel wounded or have distanced themselves. We need to cultivate the desire to learn to forgive and humility to ask for forgiveness, so as not to live imprisoned by resentment. Each one, from where he or she is, must determine before God the steps to take.
- In communities and teams of legionaries and consecrated members, in teams of first and second degree members, in localities, the goal is to renew and strengthen the union of hearts, to live a profound communion, and to imitate the life of the early Christian communities (cf. Acts 2:42-47), so that when we are seen, people can say: “Look how they love each other.” We want to unite in what is essential, commit to one another to be truly brothers and sisters in the common vocation and mission we share, reconcile where necessary, and learn to listen, understand, accept, and sanctify each other, so that we experience the truth of Christ’s words: “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18:20).
- As responsible leaders, we want to carry forward the path of renewal that the Church has marked out for us. We want to arrive at the Chapter and the Assemblies having achieved greater clarity about the gift that God makes to the Church through Regnum Christi; having matured the rules and structures that best help us safeguard the charism; and having laid the foundations to overcome what needs to be purified in our mentality and customs. We want to renew our personal and institutional commitment to arrive committed to offering our talents to serve the Church with humility, gratitude, and enthusiasm. And of course, we are determined to continue reaching out to those who have suffered the most.
From the general leadership, we will implement various initiatives and send some resources to better live this preparation at different levels. Attached to this letter, you will find a text we propose for us to unite in prayer during the novena of preparation for the feast of the Sacred Heart.
As you see, it has been decided that the means be very open to leave as much space as possible for each person’s initiative within their own sphere of action. There is no need to wait for further instructions from the general leadership to get started. Initiatives that go beyond one’s own responsibility can be presented to the appropriate authority for a decision on their appropriateness or feasibility. At the governance level, we will study with interest the proposals we receive to see which can be implemented at our respective levels or within our areas of competence.
Let us earnestly pray to the Lord to grant us a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit that transforms, heals, and renews our hearts as He did at Pentecost. May the Virgin of Sorrows accompany us, as she did the apostles, in our spiritual preparation that we now undertake, and help us to remain united in prayer, charity, and truth so that we may also generously join in the mission of extending the Kingdom of His Son throughout the world.
With our constant remembrance in prayer, we remain in the Heart of Christ,
Fr. Sylvester Heereman Gloria Rodríguez Jorge López
Thy Kingdom Come!
