Thy Kingdom Come!

To all members of Regnum Christi

September 15, 2022

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

On April 29, 2024, the first General Convention of the Regnum Christi Federation will begin. Our path to the Convention is a time of grace to live our charism with greater coherence and authenticity, to walk together in our conformation with Christ as a spiritual family and apostolic body, and to renew our mission to pray.

With this letter, we want to briefly present what General Convention is and what its objectives, challenges, and expected fruits are; announce the three phases of its development; briefly explain the first phase, which is now beginning; and urge each and everyone to pray, participate, and contribute their experience and vision of Regnum Christi throughout the process.

What is a General Convention?

This event and its preparation have a legal description (Statutes of the Regnum Christi Federation 64-75), which we invite members to consult. It details the purposes, competencies, and tasks of the General Convention and the Territorial Conventions.

A General Convention, as an event of the Spirit, always involves three actions: enlightenment, discernment, and action. See, judge and act. It’s about listening to each other and all together listening to the Holy Spirit. It is about being a synod, about walking together, and also walking according to one’s own vocation. It is a Eucharistic, communal moment of the conformation of each and every one of us in the Body of Christ. It is about praying together, united in one faith and in one mission. It is, finally, about receiving a Word from God about the needs of the Church and the world, with the aim of doing the will of the Father at this moment in history and from our charism.

Perhaps the greatest challenge for us in this first General Convention is to meet the needs of the world, to attend to the “existential peripheries” that are closer to us than we usually think. We must listen and attend to the needs of our neighbor. We begin with a perennial counsel of the Church: Let us not block the action of the Holy Spirit! We are all called to participate in this process, each in a unique way, which he or she has yet to discover.

What are the expected fruits of a General Convention? 

As an event of the Spirit, synodal, Eucharistic, and prayerful, the Convention must illuminate our Christian lives as apostles, as well as conclude with concrete decisions on the life and mission of Regnum Christi. It is a powerful moment in the life of the Kingdom, and it is about letting the Spirit blow the embers and stoke the fire of love, light, and the joy of the Gospel.

What are the phases of this process? 

The preparation for the General Convention takes place in three phases that move their focus from the local level to the territorial level and, finally, to the general level. The local phase, the pillar of the life and mission of Regnum Christi, will begin in September 2022 and will last until July 2023. The territorial phase, with a meeting between localities and a forum to address issues common to all of them, will take place in the second half of 2023 and will conclude with the celebration of the Territorial Conventions. The general phase, which involves a meeting to recognize and promote the presence of Christ throughout the world, culminates in General Convention, which will begin on April 29, 2024, and will last approximately six days.

The General Directive College (GDC) has created a Preparation Commission for the General Convention that will accompany the territories in their preparation of the local and territorial phases (DG-FRC 107-2022). There shall be direct communication between this committee and the committees set up in each territory.

From this moment, all members are invited to participate in the local phase. This consists of an apostolic discernment of reality to take place within ordinary local life: Encounters with Christ and study circles, team life, sections, and apostolate. From the General Directive College, we wanted to particularly support apostolic discernment through the Encounter with Christ (DG-FRC 109-2022), whose renewal we hope that the essay The Encounter with Christ in the life of Regnum Christi (available here) will encourage. We also encourage all localities, in communion with their territorial governances and Mission Support Offices, to be creative and dynamic, seeking other forms for the apostolic discernment of reality that illuminate the process. You can find all the materials for this phase on the website www.rcgeneralconvention.org .

We ask members of all the vocations that make up Regnum Christi to participate in these Encounters with Christ in their teams and communities. We encourage you to invite members of other vocations to these meetings. If the maturity of the team or the community allows it, and its members consider it appropriate, they can invite others to the meetings who are not Regnum Christi members but who understand and are close to Regnum Christi, or know well the realities about which we need to discern. It will be very beneficial for our discernment to understand other perspectives about Regnum Christi, the Church, the world, and the challenges of our time.

Christ comes at every moment, in every place, here and now. He calls each and every one of us to participate, with confidence and joy, in the preparation of this first Regnum Christi General Convention. It offers us a time and a path of grace to continue our spiritual and apostolic renewal. We want to welcome, announce, and project the charism and mission of Regnum Christi, and we want to do it together with all of you. Today, as always, it is a question of responding to our call to holiness and of proclaiming the Kingdom of Christ to the hearts of all men and to society.

Yours in Christ,

The General Directive College of Regnum Christi,