Savanna Plunkett’s first call to the consecrated life came from an invitation from Fr. Mike Schmitz and involved eight years in a Dominican convent. Now she and four other young women enter the Candidacy program to continue to explore their vocation to become Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi.
These five women—from the United States, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico—spent the summer in the Summer Discernment Course in Monterrey, Mexico, where they followed the daily rhythm of prayer, formation, and community life, all with a single goal: to listen more closely to God’s call.
On August 9th, they each took the next step in this profound discernment process by formally beginning the Candidacy.
Path of formation toward consecrated life
The Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi are called to a profound intimacy with Christ, and to respond to this love with exclusive and total dedication to him through the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, all lived within community. As lay women, they seek to be “in the world but not of the world” (John 17:15-16), living out missions of evangelization and accompaniment, according to their own personal and unique gifts.
The path of formation to becoming a Consecrated Woman of Regnum Christi is about transformation into Christ and adequate preparation to be an apostle in the world.
The stages of initial formation begin with the Summer Discernment Course, which is a period of accompaniment designed to help clarify a possible call from God to consecrated life. This 7-week vocational discernment course runs from June to August in Monterrey and allows the participant to experience the life of the Candidacy and determine whether she is ready to take the next step in formal discernment.
That next step is the Candidacy program, a two-year period (similar to the novitiate for priests) that takes place in Monterrey, and provides the candidate with the opportunity to experience day-to-day living of the consecrated life. This stage also gives the candidate time and space to develop a deeper relationship with God and to learn more about herself and about the consecrated vocation, spirituality, and way of life.
At the end of the Candidacy program, the candidate will make her first vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, officially becoming a Consecrated Woman of Regnum Christi. She will dedicate herself to three years of study, community, and confirming her vocation before renewing her temporary vows.
During the final stage of apostolate, the Consecrated Woman continues her formation while integrating the apostolic dimension of the consecrated life, confirming her vocation and, at the end of those three years, making her final vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the Society of Apostolic Life of the Consecrated Woman of Regnum Christi.
The entire process, from entrance into the Candidacy program to making these final vows, lasts approximately eight years.
Meet Savanna Plunkett
Savanna Plunkett is one of the five candidates who has just begun the Candidacy stage of this deep discernment journey toward consecrated life (joined by Liana Almeida of Brazil, Lucía Allande of Mexico, and Mariana Segura and Andrea Rother of Colombia).
Originally from California, Savanna first heard the whispers of a vocation while attending a high school youth conference led by Fr. Mike Schmitz in Steubenville, Ohio. At the end of the conference, Fr. Mike invited anyone who might feel called to the priesthood or consecrated life to stand. At that moment, Savanna experienced, not a pressure, but a gentle invitation from the Lord to stand.
But Savanna had remained seated—at the time, she was certain that the consecrated life was not for her.
However, that first gentle invitation stayed with her, and Savanna, at 16 years old, decided to explore what this call might mean. Online, she looked up “a day in the life of a nun,” and after watching an Oprah interview of a community of Dominican sisters, at 19 years old, she entered the Dominican convent. There she remained for eight years, experiencing with joy the Dominican life, community, apostolate, and the opportunity to give herself completely to God.
But during her time with the Dominicans, Savanna noticed some desires within her heart that were not being fulfilled in the convent. “I had a deep longing for more prayer and contemplative life, and I also had a longing for an apostolate that wasn’t necessarily teaching,” says Savanna. “I felt called to accompaniment and to walking with people on their journeys, helping them in their spiritual life.”
Savanna left the community where she had spent the last eight years of her life in order to take time to more deeply discern where God was leading her. During this time of discernment, she attended a 30-day Ignatian retreat at Our Lady of Santa Clara Retreat Center, which is owned by the Legionaries of Christ, and served by the Legionary community of Cupertino, California. “It was the first time that I had done this deep discernment, figuring out what was in my heart, what was the charism there, what desires were there that were leading me to understand God’s call,” says Savanna. And it was here that she met Legionary priests, whose own charism resonated so strongly within her.
“I saw these men living what was in my heart.”
Feeling drawn to the spirituality of these Legionary priests, Savanna asked if their congregation had religious sisters, and it was then that she was introduced to the vocation of the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi. Here, a new door opened for Savanna—she felt that all the unfulfilled desires of her heart were contained there, within the Regnum Christi charism and spiritual family, and within the life, mission, and spirituality of the Consecrated Women.
Pursuing this call, Savanna attended a Come and See visit with the Consecrated Women, where she was able to spend time with the community and experience how they lived out, day to day, the charism and spirituality of Regnum Christi. More than anything, she was looking for the answers to her deepest questions: Would this be where she found fulfillment of the unmet desires of her heart? And could the contemplative and apostolic life that she was searching for be found outside of a religious community, outside of the convent?
The answers became clear to her one evening during that weekend:
We had a bonfire with the Legionaries of Christ, with some Regnum Christi lay families, and with the Consecrated Women. And seeing their vocation lived in the context of the greater family, with all its dynamics, was confirming for me that the longing I had had on my heart—for a real family, a religious family, a family in the charism, a family working together—was being met in a particular way in that moment.
This moment led to Savanna attending the Summer Discernment Course in Monterrey, where she was able to further discern her call by experiencing the daily life of the Consecrated Women:
The discernment program was just so lifegiving and fruitful for me because it was an opportunity for me to really live the life of the Consecrated Women, and ask, is this what’s in my heart? Is this fulfilling the longing that’s here? Being able to go into apostolate, go into community life, journeying with all the aspects of the life in a way that truly shows me what this life looks like, and ask, is this fulfilling the longing in my heart?
Savanna now continues her journey along the path of discernment—along with Liana, Lucía, Mariana, and Andrea—as she begins the two-year Candidacy program with openness and trust in God’s plan.
Feeling a deeper call?
To learn more about the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christ, visit their website at consecratedwomen.org or follow them on Instagram or Facebook.
To find out more about the vocation to consecrated life, visit their Discernment Resource Center, or chat with Jacquie Lustig, assistant vocations director for North America, at (470) 835-7082 or email jlustig@regnumchristi.net. You can also check out this playlist of the Stages of Discernment with the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi on YouTube.
The Come and See weekend with the Atlanta community of Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi is a great way to experience the daily life of the consecrated vocation. The next event will be held October 23–26, 2025, and includes time for prayer and reflection, daily Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, opportunities for confession, spiritual direction, an interview with the vocations director, and the chance to learn more about the vocation and mission of the Consecrated Women. Find out more here.