Lucia Ruiz-Moreno, from Chile, consecrated her life to Christ in the Regnum Christi Movement in 1993.

Ten years have gone by since I consecrated myself to Christ in the Regnum Christi Movement and I can say without the slightest doubt that my vocation has been and is a way of love to give love.

I am from Chile, even though I have quite a few Argentine ties because my father is from Argentina and we lived there as a family for a number of years. I have a very close family, with five brothers and sisters that grew closer together as we moved from one country to another.

I remember when we were all very young, my mom would have us gather around the manger and sing Christmas songs to Baby Jesus; we would always go to Mass together and when it was time for the consecration, mom would let us know that this was one of the most extraordinary events of our lives: God coming to us under the appearances of bread and wine.

Ever since I was a little girl I enjoyed making plans for the future: I saw myself happily married with a family full of love and respect and a number of children. I understood very well that I would need to have my husband totally in love with me and that meant preparing myself the best I could culturally, intellectually and spiritually.

As I got older I thought that my vocation was to be a typical Christian wife and mother, showing everyone that being Catholic is the best way to be truly happy. I wanted to help Christ reach others with the testimony of my normal life.

I later studied journalism and later took a job as a daily news commentator. This was a decisive moment in my life because I saw firsthand how important it was for Christ to have Catholics in every walk of life so his message could effectively reach as many people as possible.

Shortly thereafter I met some women who were members of Regnum Christi. They invited me to a get-together and as I arrived I noticed a particular woman whom I found especially interesting, so I asked who she was. They told me that she was a consecrated member of Regnum Christi. I asked, What does it mean to be consecrated? As I listened to the explanation another question popped into my head: If she could leave everything, why couldn't I? That phrase accompanied me for two years as I constantly asked myself what God had in store for me. But for the moment I preferred to leave that aside so I could concentrate on discovering everything I could about this beautiful Movement which is Regnum Christi. I found in it everything I had been searching for: a simple, effective and secure path to help the Church in the mission of evangelization.

Together with my incorporation into Regnum Christi I took another important step in my life: I began to be more and more committed to the apostolate and this commitment continued to grow. I still went to parties and enjoyed the ordinary life in the world but this was another passion that filled my life much more profoundly.

At this same time I began seeing a young man who later became my boyfriend. As the months went by I realized that the two loves of my life complimented each other very well: Christ and my boyfriend.

One day I decided that the best thing I could do would be to give a year as a co-worker in the Movement so I could do something greater for Christ and the Church -- but the day I was going to discuss it with my boyfriend was the day that he proposed to me. He wanted to marry me the next year. I saw my dreams coming true so I decided to forget about the idea of being a co-worker. Yet deep in my heart I knew that this was not God's will for me.

A few months before the wedding I decided to work for the Movement and a few weeks later I knew that God wanted me to give a year so I decided to tell my fiance that I needed to do that. He was very upset but we said that if we continued to fight we could still get married.

But Christ had other plans. As soon as I arrived to the Regnum Christi consecrated womens' center I felt like a fish in the water. I soon realized that even though my fiance, the wedding, the world and my friends attracted me, there was still nothing that could compare with living with Christ (the Blessed Sacrament was in the house) and working for him.

I clearly saw that God wanted me to consecrate myself totally to him and even though I dreaded making all of my loved ones suffer, I knew that if this was what God wanted me to do, he would take care of my loved ones giving them the necessary light and strength to understand and accept this decision.

And that is what happened. Ten years have passed and not only has he consoled them, he has become their companion. As for me, words cannot describe what it is like to live in the company of our Lord. I sensed that following him would be an incredible adventure and our Lord didn't let me down ... he has always won in generosity.