The Holy Week Family Missions led by the Regnum Christi members at St. Michael in Gastonia, NC was incredibly fruitful! This was the 5th straight year! It was a great week & for the first time they were able to welcome a legionary to join them – Fr. Stephen Ellis! Thank you, Fr. Stephen! It was a Triduum of tremendous blessing with over 120 missionaries and many children and young adults! We would welcome any and all of you to join next year as we plan for more service and prayer with the community! Missionaries and families joined for whatever their scheduled allowed – 1 day, 1 activity, the whole mission, etc.. Many activities were enjoyed by all, including: Preparing 100 Easter baskets from parishioner donations for the poor, distributed BBQ sandwiches, praying right there with the people we encountered and among the missionaries, Catholic Seder Meal & Mass of the Lord’s Supper, cooking and serving dinner at the Salvation Army, visiting elderly shut-ins of the parish, meeting the homeless on the streets of Gastonia and sharing some essentials with them, participating in Living Stations of the Cross in Downtown Gastonia, and Door to door evangelization in the neighborhoods surrounding St. Michael. Please click title or image to view video testimony of this wonderful event!

The Weekend of Equipping presented and facilitated by Bart Schuchts was an event that provided a practical, spiritual and powerful means for living our mission. Please see highlights below! The Weekend of Equipping is like no other of any kind of conference or retreat because not only did participants have the opportunity to learn how to hear God, abide in Him, and pray with and for others, we actually did it. It called us to stretch ourselves out of our comfort zones to minister to others with prayer. This is a practical way of meeting the needs of those who make up our local Church! It invited us to deeper intimacy with the Holy Spirit, calling on Him in daily life, throughout the moments of our day. This is indeed a pathway to deeper conversion and how Christ intended it to be when he sent us the Holy Spirit, our Advocate. It challenged us to live the call in John 14:12 - to believe in Christ and the works He does and be open to doing what He did as the Holy Spirit wills. It demonstrated how this call to live in close relationship with the Holy Spirit is solidly founded in Scripture and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It is the call for every Catholic. It is the way we live our faith actively, intentionally, and sacrificially. We saw how vulnerability is key in seeking healing and communion with God, ourselves, and each other.

Thy Kingdom Come! Dear Regnum Christi members and friends,   Greetings and peace to you all. I received the happy news that my term is finished in Washington, DC and I am now assigned to the new Legionary community in Raleigh to continue working in Regnum Christi for all of North Carolina. Even though the official list of Legionary assignments won't be published until June 22nd, for planning purposes I want to let you know now. I have communicated this news in DC already. Given my summer duties, I will move into the LC residence at St Joseph's parish in Raleigh in the second half of August. I won't be able to attend in spiritual direction until then, as I finish my responsibilities in DC, and then visit my family in Ohio and do my annual spiritual exercises.    With regard to visiting the RC members in the Charlotte diocese, as soon as my ecclesiastical domicile is processed and changed to Raleigh, I can petition to receive faculties for ministry there. I do not know how long that may take. I will keep you informed about that. Until then, through Greg Grazen and Mary Ann Verderber, we can keep working together to coordinate monthly retreats (both on-line and in person), annual spiritual exercises and tridua of renewal, spiritual directions and other activities.  I am very much looking forward to settling in Raleigh. My assignment is for 3 years, and then we would re-evaluate to see if I should renew my assignment for another 3 year term or move on.  Thank you for the constant prayers and support, and see you in person in a couple of months. Until then, count on my prayers for you and your intentions.    Yours sincerely in Christ, Fr Stephen Ellis, LC