Our team is in a unique situation, close to the seminary in Cheshire yet far enough away from our hub in Rye with no other team really close by. We have more recently had to figure out, how do we grow, how do we foster our own vocations to Regnum Christi, what is the atmosphere in our area, and what are we being called to do?
In the summer of 2024, our team came together for a unique conversation. We asked ourselves questions about what drew us to Regnum Christi, what aspects of our charism weren’t present that would help us to create more zeal, why weren’t we growing? How did we see our team moving forward since we were spread out from the shoreline of CT, to the Cheshire area and up to Hartford? We were meeting via zoom and we missed being with each other in person. We recognized the dynamism that reality created. We had been through the resurrection of our movement and then we went through the pandemic. We were all serving in our own separate ways and then coming back together for our EWCs. How could we bring about more team dynamism?
Providentally, this was the time when the Legionaries of Christ and our Regnum Christi Movement were more readily accepted within the Archdiocese once more. We could now bring about our apostolic presence in the area AND with more help from our spiritual family. It really is amazing how when the family works together, we are Regnum Christi. We live our states of life as a service to each other as well as to those we are called to evangelize through the church.
Our first point was to recommit to each other within our team. We would consistently show up for each other for our Encounters with Christ. We would try to connect with each other outside of those weekly encounters even though we were spread apart and sometimes that would be a text or a simple phone call. We would support each other’s apostolates wherever possible. In order to evangelize more and create even more team dynamism we desired to create two teams, one in the north and one along the shoreline which would allow us more opportunities for the teams to meet in person. With that in mind, we cast our nets into the two areas where we had the most team members.
We began, once again, to have more local events, including a couple Morning Retreats with the LCs. With the support of Fr Francis, we began to grow our spiritual experiences; ones that met the women and the movement at large. After having these experiences, there was more desire to attend other locality events closer to Rye, including SPEX and other Morning Retreats. This bridged the gap to allow our team to come together, create unity and apostolic zeal. However, we couldn’t do it all. We had the best of both worlds; a few small local events that worked with the rhythm of our team and our individual lives, as well as the work of our beautiful section, offering additional events in their area creating a synergism within the movement.
Within these activities, Fr Francis was able to help build communion within the local parish we were serving including being available to the priest to hear confessions, celebrate Mass in times of need, as well as provide parish Lenten Missions over the past couple of years. Additionally, we collaborated with another parish and their ladies from the Legion of Mary to create a Marian Garden Pilgrimage that promoted unity as well as a way to bring the love of Mary into our family homes. Our team also provided support for the National Vocation Summit held at Cheshire being “boots on the ground” for our locality.
Our team brings with it a number of women with deep Regnum Christi experiences over the decades Each woman is involved in a mission, whether to serve locally in their parish within pro-life, St. JPII hiking club or within the RC Movement such as being a Vocation Action Network Coordinator for our locality, translating VAN materials into Spanish and working with Spanish speaking families, Challenge camp and more. Each of these efforts has created opportunities for our team to invite women in each of these areas looking to go deeper in our faith.
As we have grown together, with mentoring from within the team as well as the reshaping within the Movement, we are continuing to rebuild. After attending the Team Leader convention in February of 2025, we began to work with greater focus on our RC charism of more vibrantly living like Christ, the Apostle. We are apostles evangelizing and accompanying other apostles; not just doing apostolate. We work with less rigidity with our Case study and try to work with the Holy Spirit on our Apostolic Discernment of Reality. Connecting with our Section Director and other Team Leaders from the locale as well as nationally has created a stronger foundation for us to grow personally, as a team, and to evangelize others.
-Written by Tonya Brown
