Tom Skiba

My name is Tom Skiba and I would like to share with you what Regnum Christi has meant to me.

Regnum Christi members are called to be apostles. This is an important word in the world of Regnum Christi. If you associate with anyone from Regnum Christi, you can´t get into a discussion for more than a couple of minutes before a derivative of the word apostle comes up. " How is your apostolate going? " What apostolic activity are you involved in these days"? "We need more apostles to get our project off the ground!"

This word is really at the core of what Regnum Christi is all about. It is important to understand that there is a HUGE difference between a volunteer and an apostle. Volunteers are important and help out in various projects as needed. Apostles live, breath eat and sleep their apostolate. When you join Regnum Christi you do so because you are in love with Christ and you want to do all you can to accomplish great things for Him. You don´t just volunteer at the school golf outing, you start a school from scratch and turn it into a premiere Catholic educational institution. You don´t just attend a bible study group, you develop a series of classes that teaches the Catholic faith, take it into parishes and develop it into an international program. You don´t just volunteer to drive your teen-ager to catechism class once a week. You develop a series of boys clubs and girls clubs that make the Catholic faith an integral part of all interested teenagers´ lives.

Before I joined Regnum Christi I was a pretty good volunteer. I was involved in a lot of stuff with various church related activities. But I was missing the secret formula. Actually, it isn´t much of a secret but we all tend to forget it very easily. That formula is P + T + HW = R.

The P stands for prayer. The T stands for trust in God. The HW stands for hard work and the R stands for results. The secret is that unless you have all of the P,T and HW you will not get the maximum amount of results. True Regnum Christi members understand this. That is why you will rarely see a depressed member of the Movement. They always have a peaceful countenance despite things going on at a hundred miles an hour around them. That is because they know if they follow the formula, they are following God´s will and things will happen.

This has meant all the difference in the world for me. I was too busy volunteering to bring God into the equation. I had the HW part of the equation down pat but was missing the P & T. And I couldn´t figure out why I would often get discouraged in my volunteerism and wasn´t getting the results that I should have. I wanted to do great things for Christ but I wasn´t getting anywhere.

Regnum Christi has taught me that prayer and trust in God are the 2 most important things to remember. Jesus tells us over and over again that if we had the faith of mustard seed we could move mountains. He tells us to ask anything of our heavenly Father and he will grant it to us. Yet we rarely really believe Him. The first apostles believed Him.. they were simple uneducated fishermen and they changed the world. Read the life of any saint and you will see the same thing.. people who had no business accomplishing anything moved mountains because they prayed, trusted in God and worked hard.

Every day I see things here in the Twin Cities being accomplished. FAMILIA continues to expand, the retreat center is having an impact on people´s lives on a daily basis, the clubs are changing the ways teenagers live their faith, vocations are being fostered and our school is buying land to build its own building.

How can these things happen? The people of Regnum Christi are just like anyone else. They aren´t supermen or superwomen. But they have found the secret to success.

Sometimes I forget the formula and fall back into my old ways. I get lazy about the prayer or I start thinking again how I can accomplish plenty without the spiritual side. The great thing about the Movement is that you continually are inspired by other Regnum Christi people around you. And the Legion priests are always available for encouragement and spiritual direction. They are also there to provide a swift kick in tthe pants when it is needed. The Movement is always there to help me remember that without the formula, nothing gets accomplished.

Now I don´t want to under emphasize the HW piece of the formula. In fact since joining the Movement I probably work harder than ever in apostolic activities. The prayer and trust make us more effective. Nothing happens, however without the hard work. But you know, all the other stuff I used to spend a lot of time on, don´t seem as important as they used to. Regnum Christi has shown me that if I am not working somehow for Christ, I am probably wasting my time. So we all work harder, but because of the prayer and trust, we really don´t mind.

I think that is because we know we are on a winning team. Christ is the ultimate winner and it is fun being on a winning team. You just don´t mind the sacrifice when you know
that you will win.