On September 15th, the liturgical Solemnity of Our Lady of Sorrows, Fr. John Connor, LC, sent a letter to the Legionaries of Christ reminding us that our Mother has accompanied us with great affection during these years of purification and renewal.
Therefore, and following the communication of 2021, in which an invitation to a greater conversion of life, to an authentic conversion of the heart to God’s new paths is made, this communication addresses a new theme that is central to our charism and mission: the apostolic legionary according to the Heart of Christ.
Below, we publish the full text of the letter.
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Thy Kingdom Come!
Rome, September 15, 2022
Our Lady of Sorrows
To the Legionaries of Christ
Dearly beloved in Jesus Christ:
Greetings with great joy on this Solemnity of Our Lady of Sorrows. Our Mother has accompanied us with her maternal love for many years of purification and renewal. She has taught us, just as she did with John and the other apostles, how to follow her Son Jesus Christ with humility, love, and hope.
A year ago, I wrote you a letter about the new man, inviting you to a greater conversion of life. An authentic conversion opens the heart to God’s new paths and helps us see with eyes of faith the providential action of God. This call to conversion includes a healthy integration of our personal and institutional history. Seeing our history with eyes of faith and a renewed heart is essential to respond freely to the Holy Spirit, “looking forward and moving forward with determination” (Letter of September 15, 2021).
Now I would like to continue the message from last year with a theme that is central to our charism and mission: the apostolic legionary according to the Heart of Christ.
The apostolic legionary in today’s culture
After visiting several legionary communities in nine countries over the past year, I have been left with two impressions. The first is that almost everyone is burdened by the culture in which we carry out our apostolate; a culture that promotes values aggressively anti-Christian. The second is that, at the same time, there is in legionaries a burning desire to live our charism, counteract secular influences of current culture, and offer people the healing mercy of Christ. As the general director, I want to encourage all of you to accept the challenge of being living members of the Church, helping her fulfill her mission. Each diocese, each congregation, each Christian has their own role in this task. God has also entrusted us with our part. How will we respond to this challenge?
Our Congregation and our entire spiritual family have gone through many years of discernment and self-analysis that have led us to a more purified formulation of our charism. All of this aims to make us more authentic and effective instruments in the Lord’s hands. As I said in my letter last year:
All this personal and community work will prepare us for the great mission ahead. The man of today and always needs to see, hear, and learn from other men who have survived life’s trials; apostles, like the first twelve, who have suffered as they did and persevered in the battle of life” (Letter of September 15, 2021).
And what a battle! It seems as if every day there are new manifestations of the evil spirit. The culture is saturated with ideologies that seek to subvert the moral, social, economic, political, and also ecclesial order. These ideologies not only question faith but human nature itself. They attempt to distort the institution of the family and deceive young people who lack the necessary formation to navigate the turbulent currents of these ideologies. They propose false solutions to real problems; they make us slaves under the pretext of making us free.
That is where the apostolic legionary comes in. God calls us to sow the values of the Gospel and to propose to the world the true humanity that Jesus Christ has revealed to us. As the Legion, which is constitutively part of Regnum Christi (cf. CLC 1, 2nd; EFRC 3), from our inception, we are part of the Holy Spirit’s impulse in His Church to make it alive and present in these times. Our role has been and is to help the Church and the Pope through the formation of apostles, Christian leaders who sow the values of the Gospel in the world according to the way of thinking, seeing, and feeling of the Heart of Christ. We want to create and grow communities of apostles through Regnum Christi and, together with them, establish institutions and undertake actions that most contribute, in depth and breadth, to building the Kingdom of Christ in society (cf. CLC 4, 2nd).
Almost two years ago, we published the six-year plan, Apostles According to the Heart of Christ, precisely to define priorities that allow us to fulfill this mission. With a strengthened and renewed Legion in its identity and mission, we can support the Church as God desires. Our spirituality, communion, and mission are part of God’s response to the deep needs of the Church and society. I am convinced that if each legionary believes in this plan of God and lives it in their environment, the spiritual battle will turn in favor of the forces of light.
Being a legionary means being an apostle in your own style
Nothing I have just written should be new to you. The programmatic horizon and priorities of Apostles According to the Heart of Christ do not contain new ideas or innovative strategies. On the contrary, the vision we wanted to portray is of a Legion that lives the essence of its identity in a purified, renewed, and strengthened way. That is, a Legion that faithfully reflects what the Church entrusted to us when it approved our Constitutions. For example, carefully read number three of the Constitutions:
- The life in the Congregation, as expressed by its name “Legionaries of Christ,” involves a total dedication to God and to men, in a united and organized body. Experiencing the love of Jesus Christ, the legionary understands and feels the urgency of:
1.º to center all their existence on Christ through a real, personal, virile, and passionate love for Him;
2.º to live authentic charity as Christ testifies and preaches in His Gospel;
3.º to announce to all the merciful love of God and lead them to the redeeming encounter with Christ.
This number speaks of key concepts for us: total dedication, unity, urgency, love for Christ, authentic charity towards others, and the mission to announce God’s mercy. Who among us does not feel passionate when meditating on these words? What more do we need to grasp the meaning of our lives?
The first chapters of the Constitutions contain the essential elements of our way of living the Gospel. I am not the one who defines or decides what the identity of the legionary should be. It is already expressed in the Constitutions and developed in the Normas Complementarias, Christus Vita Vestra, and various regulations. Each one is called to deepen, assimilate, and live – personally and in community – what God asks of us in these texts, reflecting them in our daily life and enriching them with our personal gifts and what the Holy Spirit inspires in each of our hearts.
We are all concerned about vocations. We all want our works to truly help people have a personal encounter with Jesus Christ. If we want vocations, if we want God to bless our poor apostolic efforts, it is urgent to live our call to be “another Christ” with radicality. If we are poor, chaste, and obedient as Jesus Christ, as we committed on the day of our profession, God will bless our fidelity.
During my visits to communities, wherever I go, I encourage ours to read and meditate on these key texts. I know that, for many of us, one of the risks we run is being carried away by the urgency of daily tasks, and we do not dedicate time to deepen these writings unless we have to preach about them. As the Capitular Communication 2020 states: “The challenge, then, is not in defining our identity but in achieving a deeper identification with it” (CCG2020, 20). From there, apostolic initiatives and concrete ways in which Christ will renew His Church will emerge.
The legionary is an innovative apostle
The concrete ways of evangelizing that flow from legionaries who live their identity cannot be the same as always. They should be renewed both in form and content. The human person does not change, but the cultural context of their life, their challenges, and obstacles are always changing. Therefore, our ways of “announcing to all the merciful love of God and leading them to the redeeming encounter with Christ” (CLC 3, 3rd) must always be updated without uprooting from our charism and the solid foundation of the Magisterium.
For example, I am pleased that among us there are many initiatives to evangelize the digital world. I see much creativity, art, and ingenuity in the use of these media. I see legionaries, in different parts of the world, transmitting a perennial evangelical message in an updated language. I also recognize the challenges. Sometimes I receive comments about what some publish; it is a fact that well-intentioned parents and brothers do not always find a balance between being attractive to users and, at the same time, giving a religious image. Since digital evangelization is still a new field for all of us, it must be accompanied by personal and community reflection on the modes that best suit our religious and legionary way of life.
I urge everyone to seek new ways to reveal the love of Christ, form and send more apostles in service of the Church, without falling into the extreme of living obsessed with trends, or thinking we are evangelizing when in reality we are worldly. That is why we have trained ourselves for so many years: to be better instruments of the Lord.
The effort to ensure that legionaries have solid and comprehensive formation aims to offer the Church a Legion that can respond to the challenges of the culture of each era. Men with an intellectual formation that allows them to discern the currents of human thought without disconnecting from perennial truths; a deep spiritual formation that enables them to face doubt and discouragement, which we naturally experience when going against the tide; a human formation capable of penetrating people’s hearts and conveying the message of Christ; and a creative apostolic formation that meets the needs of the Church; all within today’s context and supported by a community of apostles that makes this formation possible, sustainable, and actionable.
The legionary is an apostle among apostles
One aspect of the Apostles According to the Heart of Christ plan I would like to highlight in the context of the apostolic legionary is our purpose to “foster fervent, welcoming, and charity-filled communities” (ASCC 5.2 and 6.2).
Last year, I read a book by Thomas E. Woods, Ph.D., titled How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization. Although the work contains some debatable elements, it is an eloquent narrative of the history of the Church that helped me see with new eyes the cultural impact of communities vivified by the Spirit of Christ. From the early centuries of the Church, there were communities – groups of Christians and later religious communities – that promoted faith and fostered a Christian culture. Flowing from their contemplation of divine things and their liturgy, the evangelizing action of religious communities, in particular, gave life to many institutions and apostolic works. The ways of living the religious life have evolved throughout history and, in each era, have had a crucial impact on evangelization and the renewal of life in the Church.
I believe the Holy Spirit is calling our communities to have a similar evangelizing impact. If we live community life as described in the fourth chapter of the Constitutions and in the related parts of the Normas Complementarias and Christus Vita Vestra, we will be a source of inspiration and formation for many Christians who want to see Christ reign in society. Our community life will bear witness to what it means to be a society centered on Christ, where love prevails above all.
I remember that, when I was a territorial director, we had a particularly vibrant apostolic community. It was a legionary community of apostolate that welcomed some of our brothers who were receiving treatment at a nearby clinic. The community’s parents welcomed them with much charity and respect. I was edified by the fraternal love I found among the fathers during my visits. I knew that the legionaries I sent to that community would find the love and fraternity they needed.
A legionary community of this kind, welcoming and inspiring others, is a community I like to call “vibrant,” or, in other words, the love of Christ is so present in it that it becomes palpable. It can be said that the community vibrates with “authentic charity as Christ testifies and preaches in His Gospel” (CLC 3, 2nd). A community where the Heart of Christ truly reigns is vital for our own personal and institutional perseverance. A vibrant community is one where there is a strong sense of brotherhood and a desire to create a home with a family spirit, where everyone knows and loves each other – not just good feelings – but an authentic desire for the good of others that translates into concrete actions. In a vibrant community, there is a mutual commitment to care for one’s brother, support each other; interest in everyone’s spiritual growth; and a healthy religious discipline that fosters prayer, silence, and peace. In a vibrant community, a harmonious life is lived where prayer, community commitments, and mission mutually enrich each other, despite the inevitable tensions caused by time and space limitations. In a vibrant community, each one is convinced that if Christ reigns in their own heart, He will also reign in their community, which in turn will be light and salt in establishing the Kingdom in society.
In my visits to various novitiates, such as those in Spain, Monterrey, Brazil, Colombia, and North America, I have always left edified and renewed. Why? Because in the novitiate, love for Christ is lived intensely. These brothers, at the beginning of their formation, spend hours before the Blessed Sacrament, adoring the Lord and asking for light and grace. Then they strive to live charity through their works, experiencing it before the Eucharist. They truly want to live radically their response to Christ, their dedication to Him and others. They seek holiness in the legionary religious life, without cuts, as indicated in Apostles According to the Heart of Christ 5, 1°. They live their dedication with freshness and the enthusiasm typical of young lovers. This experience of love has repercussions in the lives of all who visit them.
It should also be so – and thank God, often is – in community life in the houses of apostolate. When laypeople see us interact, they should notice respect, esteem, and the desire for the good that each legionary has for their brother. This testimony edifies them and encourages them to imbue their own families with the same patience, understanding, mercy, and sacrifice for the good of all.
This communion should extend to the entire family of Regnum Christi. To make a Legion in our community is to make a Kingdom in the spiritual family and in society. This is how we fulfill what Pope Francis says:
Other ecclesial institutions, base communities, small communities, movements, and other forms of association are a wealth of the Church that the Spirit raises up to evangelize all environments and sectors. They often bring a new evangelizing fervor and a capacity for dialogue with the world that renews the Church (Evangelii Gaudium, 29).
Vibrant communities are an essential part of a strengthened and renewed Legion, which, in turn, will strengthen and renew our entire spiritual family. Therefore, chapter four of the Constitutions must be a source of prayer and examination for each legionary and each community.
Legionaries: apostles for today
In my letter last year, I used the example of the rectors of our university network (RIU). I shared that I was especially impressed by the laypeople with their formation received through Regnum Christi. This year, I had the grace again to be with them in Mérida, Yucatán, along with Nancy Nohrden and Félix Gómez Rueda. I was again edified. What struck me was that we did not talk about numbers, student retention, money, or administrative problems. We discussed the mission, evangelization, and the need to change culture. We talked about the essential role of legionaries and consecrated members of Regnum Christi in these institutions to carry out this mission. The rectors, mostly laypeople, cared deeply about us, about vocations, and about our formation. Three of them committed to launching a vocations promotion campaign on their university campuses. I wonder: how will we respond to this trust they place in us? What will be our response to the concerns of those who need us?
It’s not only the rectors of the universities. Many laypeople and ecclesiastics share concern about the current state of society and the Church. The presence of Christ in the Church, in our lives, and communities is assured, but this does not eliminate our concern, because we want to know how Christ wants us to collaborate with Him. It is our responsibility to deepen our spirituality, communion, and mission to discern how to act today. This is a responsibility we all share in facing today’s society and future generations of legionaries and members of Regnum Christi.
I invite you to take the themes discussed in this letter and meditate on them before the Blessed Sacrament, then bring the fruits of your contemplation to your community and share them there. Hopefully, community reflection will help you integrate this message into your lives and find the concrete and practical ways to live it out locally.
We all entrust ourselves to the maternal love of Our Lady of Sorrows. May she protect us, lead us to her Son,
