The dinning room used during the foundation

January 1941. The missionaries and their founder sleep on the floor during the first months, until they had enough money to buy beds. The winter is cold and it is hard to fall asleep… to keep out the dampness they cover the floor with newspapers, spread their sheets over the papers and there lay down to sleep, well wrapped up in their sheets or in their cloaks (zarape).

From January until May, the month in which they would move to another house, Mrs Natalia Retes, «Talita» invites the young group of boys to dine at her house: beans, rice soup and for dessert, sapodilla plum (a rich tropical Mexican fruit) mixed with sugar and orange juice, which was inexpensive and a favorite of the apostolic boys. Marcial, even though she didn’t want it, paid her 25 centavos per boys per day, so that she could cover the expenses.

Of his sentiments on that January 3, 1941, Fr Marcial spoke in 1981 to the Legionaries of Christ in Salamanca, Spain: «The only thing I could do was to to to the tabernacle and say to the Lord: ‘Don’t you see that this just can’t be? It’s too much for me…» I felt that I didn’t know what I should do—but I had his company; I had him. I had someone to talk to, someone to speak with… Time and time again I went to pray in the chapel, always saying the samething… It occurred to me to open the Gospel, the missal… and I read this phrase: ‘Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him, and he will act’ (Ps 36:5). So I said, «if this is your answer: here I am. I am your instrument: act through me! I will do everything I can, but you are going to be the one who carries the baton”. That brought me tranquility» (from the book The Legion of Christ: a History)

64 years at the service of God and his Church. The Legionaries of Christ and the apostolic movement Regnum Christi want to continue offering their service for others. We invite all our readers to join in on this thanksgiving to Our Lord. May He help us to follow joyfully the call to extend His Kingdom according to the charism we have received: that all may come to know of God’s love and share it with the others.