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Dear Friends in Christ,

From the earliest history of our Church, we hear from Sacred Tradition, and read in Sacred Scripture, that the followers of Christ depended on one another for inspiration, and for courage. They understood full well, that the Church is a communion of spirituality and action - a communion first, of human individuals with God through Jesus Christ, and second, communion with one another, to form His mystical body on earth.

Immediately after our Lord ascended, telling the Apostles they would be "his witnessesÉto the end of the earth," we read in Acts this description of what was perhaps the first Apostolic Society in our Church's history:

...they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

They had gathered, perhaps in fear, and surely with uncertainty about what they should do next. So they drew together, as a family, as one body in Faith, and prayed. And then, like an infant, stretching out its hand for the first time, these twelve men, and Mary, presided over the first action of a new-born Church. Under the leadership of Peter, they proceeded to restore their twelve-fold integrity by the election of Matthias to replace the betrayer Judas. Then, their collegiality restored to the sacred number of twelve, the number by which Jesus Christ had formed them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and upon Mary - their fear, their uncertainty vanished forever. And without hesitation, with Mary's prayers to propel them, the Apostles went into the marketplace, embarking upon the mission by which the Church - our Church - would unfold throughout history - the living means by which the Good News of salvation would be handed on to every generation, until time shall end.

When Father Macial shared with the world, the charism God had given him, and especially, when he announced the beginning of the movement Regnum Christi, surely, it was again an example of the Holy Spirit being moved by the faith of good people, by the prayers of a repentant and expectant Church. From that moment, two strong forces became ceaseless in working for the sake of all souls - the members of Regnum Christi, working in tandem with the Legionaries of Christ, to serve God's People wherever the need should arise. And truly, where does the need not arise?

The graces of God have appeared through the work of Regnum Christi in many apostolates - in apostolates of prayer, in institutions devoted to Catholic education, in missions to young people and to families, in courageous efforts to reform the excesses of popular culture and the secular media, in programs designed to foster vocations and strengthen the lives of working priests - and in efforts to concentrate and utilize the considerable skills and powers of Catholic women, an effort we recognize today, and bring before God at this Mass, as one of the chief gifts of Father Macial's efforts, and of the life of Regnum Christi.

This work, whose tradition reaches back to the Upper Room, to the first evangelical actions of the Apostles and Mary, now proceeds with all confidence, bolstered by God's freed Spirit, and protected in a special way, by the mantle of His Mother. And it is Mary, who protects us, and reminds us, of the maternal, and the bridal character of our Church, and what a significant part in the life of the Church, women are to play.

Added to this confidence which comes from Heaven, we enjoy as well the authority of Christ's Vicar on earth, our Holy Father Pope John Paul II, who in recognizing the critical importance of ecclesial movements, has often singled out the work of the Legionaries and of Regnum Christi, as a model for all apostolic societies throughout the world.

But, let us not be content today, with a recitation of our gifts, and the accomplishments that have sprung so fruitfully from those gifts. Rather, in this time of Lent, though gathered as one community, let us turn back the clock of our souls, and think upon that reality which came before the time of Church - the reality of Jesus Christ, with His mother close at hand, walking upon His journey, and picking, one by one, those Apostles who were to help Him. For if we are to be true followers, if we are to be true members of the Church, if we are to follow in the authentic Apostolic way, then it must be because each one of us - each man, each woman - has been made new, by Baptism, by faith, as a single entity and a single soul, called by the power, by the compassion, by the love of Jesus Christ. Let us remember, in this time of Lenten preparation, the message that Christ first spoke: "Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand."

We too, must repent - not by passively contemplating our Baptism, and resting without further ado upon the holy state which God has given us. No - we must repent by action - by taking up the cross of Christ and following in His footsteps, as He commanded. When confronting the people who had rejected Him, and who would call for His death, as we hear in today's Gospel, our Lord said to them:

If I said, I do not know [the Father], I should be a liar like you; but I do know him - and I keep his word.

"And I keep his word." This dear friends, is the essence of the Christian vocation - this is the potent idea which infuses the work of the Legionaries, and the work of Regnum Christi - that we not only call upon God, and say, "Lord, LordÉ" but that we keep His word - in our lives, in the lives we seek to change, in the lives of those who have been placed in our care. That we call upon Him, saying, "Lord, Lord, show me what to do."

May that prayer be upon our lips as we continue with this Mass, and may the Holy Spirit, by the grace of God, and the merits of Jesus Christ, ever fill the hearts of the "Regnum Christiani" with the answers they seek, and the strength they need, to keep the word of the Father, and to make it live in the world, as long as the world shall live.

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