By Melicia Antonio

Melicia Antonio, a consecrated woman of Regnum Christi, wrote a long article about Mari Carmen Perochena in order to share it with her companions and other members of Regnum Christi. Here you can find some passages slightly edited for the readers of our website.

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Every

	The author took this picture in July of 2006 during a game of mini-golf with Mari Carmen at Niagara Falls.

consecrated woman of Regnum Christi from the United States or Canada knew Mari Carmen Perochena, not just as a companion, but a true friend, teacher, guide, spiritual mother and sister in Christ. Her death marks a milestone in our short history: she is the first lay consecrated member of Regnum Christi to pass away on North American soil. […]

In her lifetime, she guided hundreds of consecrated women and lay people. Paulina Sobrazo, a consecrated woman in her fourth year of formation in Rhode Island, wrote of her last year, “Mari Carmen does not have to speak much to transmit to us what a woman of Christ’s Kingdom is; she embodies it in her movements, in her way of praying, her daily surrender, her smile, her daily and ordinary life. I had the grace to have her as my spiritual guide. From the moment I met her, I was impressed by her profound adhesion to our spirituality. She could quote many texts from memory and referred to them constantly, but above all she transmitted them with her example.”

I first met her eleven years ago, while a senior at

	Mari Carmen with two of her students in October 2006.

Immaculate Conception Academy in Rhode Island. In her, I immediately perceived kindness, benevolence, sincerity, and joyful love for Christ and the Movement. I took her as a role-model without thinking twice, an example to emulate and follow. I was never deceived in my first impression.

Mari Carmen could transmit God to anyone she met and used the simplest means: a smile, a word of encouragement or praise, or a piece of chocolate. Her cancer, already in its fourth stage when diagnosed in September 2005, was another excuse for her to be an apostle. In honor of the great missionary brothers of Europe, she dubbed her lungs “Cyril” and “Methodius” and called them her “evangelizing lungs”. When she was rushed to the hospital last December for complications, she said,”Methodius wants to evangelize!” She did evangelize, letting God speak through her to the doctors, nurses, valets, and passersby, no matter what their religion, their credence, their personal situation. Her simple love allowed her to meet anyone on the level they were at. […]

The cancer came as a surprise: Mari Carmen

	After illness confined her to her room she kept in touch with family and friends through e-mail.

was a non-smoker and in good health. She accepted it fully as God’s will, as she had embraced his will all her life. The consecrated women who cared for her don’t recall hearing her complain on the outside, but she quietly waged her internal battles. The cancer took a visible toll four months before her death. She was confined to her room, then to a wheelchair, and finally to her bed. Visitors asked frequently to see her; each one received her characteristic smile and joyful greeting, no matter how tired she felt. She struggled to complete each one of her prayer commitments every day, until the cancer advanced to such a state that she had barely the strength to grasp her crucifix, her only possession in the world, and pray her rosary. […]

Mari Carmen died as she had lived:

	Mari Carmen just one month before her death She never lost her smile.

surrounded by love. Her death was a triumph, not a tragedy. That week, as the cancer debilitated her body, the consecrated women kept a constant vigil, prayed the rosary, and sang hymns to the Blessed Mother. In the presence of them and her family, she passed away on a Thursday night at 11:35pm, the moment of Christ’s agony in the garden. It was also May 10, Mother’s Day in her native Mexico; so appropriate for one who had been a spiritual mother all her life.

Thank you, Mari Carmen.