Oxford, MI -- Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Leonard Blair told a convention of 180 Regnum Christi women from throughout North America that God wants an "intensely personal" response to the vocation he offers each of us. Bishop Blair adressed the group at a special mass during a Women´s International Formators Convention entitled, "To Know and Love the Church of Christ," held the week of April 7 at Queen of the Family Retreat Center in Oxford, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit.

Reflecting on the Feast of the Annunciation, which the Church celebrated on April 8 instead of March 25 because of Holy Week, Bishop Blair urged the women to think of Mary´s fiat, her "yes" to the angel Gabriel, as an example today of what God wants from them.

"Think of it!" Bishop Balir said. "The woman Mary´s fiat (fiat meaning ´let it be´ in Latin), her ´yes,´ is the most important and decisive answer ever uttered by one of God´s creatures for as long as time shall last. Without her womanly ´yes´ there could be no conception and birth of the eternal Word, no fulfillment of God´s plan for our redemption. You and I are caught up in the ´yes´ that Mary gave. Not only do we reap the benefits of her answer, but we too have to say ´yes.´

"But ´yes´ to what?" the Bishop asked. "There are many ways to answer that question. Obviously we say ´yes´ to the gift of life; ´yes´ to God in Christ; ´yes´ to our Catholic faith; to what the church believes and teaches. If we were baptized as infants -- as most of us were -- it was our parents and godparents who first said ´yes´ for us. As we grow up, we have to learn to make that baptismal ´yes´ our own," he explained.

"Our ´yes´ to God only becomes fully mature when we understand, like Mary, that what God wants of us is intensely personal. Each of us has a unique vocation and mission from him: a vocation and mission to be someone and to accomplish something in this world. What God wants is our ´yes´ to the vocation and mission he wills for our salvation and for our role in the salvation of the world.

"You might think of it this way. What we are saying ´yes´ to is God´s ´holiness plan´ for us: his personalized, unique vocation and mission plan for us. We have no way to know from day to day what life will bring. Just as Mary, on the day of the Annunciation, could not possibly have known what lay in store for her. Yet in faith she said ´yes´, and we have to do the same."

To help the Regnum Christi women understand God´s "holiness plan" for them, the convention offered four different tracks: one for women who help others grow in the Regnum Christi vocation, one for women who help others grow in their spiritual lives, one for those who work with youth programs, and one for young people who go on missions.

The convention drew attendees from as far north as Alberta in Canada and as far south as Florida. "Part of the fun is the different personalities that women from different regions bring to the convention," said Mary Pieczynski, one of the event´s organizers. "The women from Louisiana, for instance, quickly became known as a fun, high-spirited group."

Bishop Blair said it´s important to put that spirit of joy at the service of the Church.

"In the ´yes´ of countless women like yourselves, all of us -- men and women -- learn how to bring about the Holy Father´s vision of a ´civilization of love marked by a radical affirmation of the value of life and the value of love.”