VOLUME 13 ISSUE 1 NUMBER 65 - Canadian Conference of ... · we deserve that miracles ... wrong, but can always be better ˛. Take another look at the Why, because this is it. A lack

VOLUME 13 ISSUE 1 NUMBER 65

1

THE NATIONAL NEWSLETTER OF THE CANADIAN CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC CURSILLOS

CONTENTS

Officers’ Corner 3 Conference News 12 Matters Spiritual 21Essay 5 Witness 13 From Eduardo 23From Our Readers 10 Around the Country 14

“Lord make sure that we don’tneed miracles to believe and actbut that our faith be such that

we deserve that miracleshappen.”

I’ve always been more impressedby the silence of God and hispatience than by the miraclesand apparitions.

Eduardo BonninSigns of Hope


2


3

OFFICERS’ CORNERIn Jeremiah 29.12-14 we read, “When you seekme you shall find me, when you seek me withall your heart; I will let you find me (-- it isYahweh who speaks).

“What a wonderful memory it is to go back toToronto, in January 1992, when I met EduardoBonnín for three days of ‘retreat’, to listen to thehistory of the origins and the spirit of thebeginnings. It was like being part of thebeginning of the Church as recounted in theActs of the Apostles. The Holy Spirit was beingmade present through Eduardo’s enthusiasmand deep faith. Inside of me, a wave of joyswelled up and a great beam of light shone inmy mind and suddenly I discovered a newimage of Cursillo. I was like a new convert. Iloved that new vision because it made completesense to me. Before that, some parts of thepuzzle were missing and I found them.Listening to Eduardo, I understood some of hiscomments: “Cursillo has yet to be tried.” Iagreed, because the Charism is not fullygrasped and lived. “What has been done is notwrong, but can always be better”. Take anotherlook at the Why, because this is it. A lack ofunderstanding of the Why will confuse and giveno precise meaning to the how, thereforecreating more confusion.”1

For many years Fr. Gaston was an integral partof the Officers Group and freely shared in thegive and take of our meetings. His advice to mewhen I was a new officer was to listen and,when I was ready to engage, to do so withoutever forgetting that what I share with othersand what I hear others sharing are merely stepsalong my road to understanding and are not tobe taken or treated as final positions. This

1 Fr. Gaston Rioux, o.m.i.: “Leaders Who Think”, Christianity in Action:

Living the Fourth Day, Canadian Conference of Catholic Cursillos 2003

Annual Conference, Saint John, New Brunswick, p. 16

understanding is at the heart of the OG. Westrive to build a consensus which respects theperson and freedom of the other by allowingpeople to share, to think out loud, without fearof being ridiculed or attacked or dismissed. TheOG is a place of learning. It is part GroupReunion, part Ultreya, and part School. There isa collegiality that is heartening, liberating, andaffirming. It is both incubator and think tankfor those who come knowing the value of theCursillo yet also knowing that they have somuch more to learn about its Charism and itsmethod. It is a place to continue in theirpersonal conversion process. It is not a place forswollen egos or for persons who think that theway they understand the Cursillo is the onlylegitimate view point and that anyone whodisagrees with them is obviously wrong.

What we do routinely as an Officers Groupmust also be done in the Schools of Leaders thatshould be at the core of all Cursillo movements.There needs to be this place, this mentality, thatensures that all of those who seek to know Godand who have chosen the Cursillo to aid andassist them in this great purpose have thechance to study, to reflect, to share, to grow, tohear their own voice, and to do so in a lovingand supportive community. By having afunctioning and authentic School we provideourselves and others with a place where we cangrow in friendship and learn to listen to God, toourselves, and to others. In this way we deepenour understanding of the Charism of theCursillo and learn to live that reality in oureveryday circumstances.

Because we begin again with each new personwho joins the group, we get to plough the sameground many times, sowing questions and, intime, reaping an epiphany or two along theway. The surprising thing about this process isthat we never become bored or jaded ordisinterested because we are all activelyengaged in deepening our own understanding


4

of the Charism. Hearing a new cursillistastruggle to convey his/her understanding of anaspect of the Cursillo has value for thepresenter and for the listener. The thoughts, thediscussion, and the sharing that is engenderedare what help each participant to add to theirown understanding of this marvellous gift.Sharing an older cursillista’s ‘eureka’ momentof ‘a great beam of light shining in his/hermind” can provide for movements who ask,search, and knock inspiration and affirmation.

As an Officers Group our primary reason forbeing is to share the fruit of our study with allof our affiliated movements. We do thisthrough the complication of resourcedocuments which, before we publish, we havereviewed by the Mallorcan Secretariat to ensurethat we have remained true to the essence,purpose, and mentality of the authenticCursillo which the Charism called intoexistence and to which the method gives shapeand direction. We do this through our quarterlyresource publication, Fully Alive, acomplimentary copy of which is mailed to theLay Director of each affiliated movement. Ourannual CCCC Conference is a further means ofdisseminating what we have learned throughour study of primary and secondary sources. Inrecent years we have also travelled to variousaffiliated movements at their invitation to assistthem in School of Leaders workshoppreparation and presentation. We are alsoavailable to Cursillistas through our websiteand through e-mail. We are presently studyingvarious forms of social media, trying todetermine ways to use this to connect withindividual cursillistas to provide them with theaccess to reliable information and to respond to

questions and concerns that they might have.This is our job and our joy.As I come to the close of my time on the OG Iam still convinced that the Cursillo, understoodand lived daily, is the answer to all of ourproblems. It provides a method rooted infriendship with self, God, and others that, as anintegral part of our daily life, make everyday agift that draws us closer to the one who hasalways loved us first. When lived as a part ofand not a part from our life, Cursillo can makeus Easter people filled with hope even in thedarkest of times. Nothing can separate us fromthe love of God and the Cursillo can provide uswith a means to actively participate in buildingthat relationship so that we become more likeChrist in our manner and action each and everyday.

James Russell Lowell, in The Vision of SirLaunfal, said

Not that which we give, but what we share,--For the gift without the giver is bare;Who bestows himself with his alms feeds three,--Himself, his hungering neighbour, and me.

Although he lived long before the advent of theCursillo, Lowell’s lines remind me of the threelifetime encounters of the Cursillo weekend.We need to inculcate the lessons that theCursillo teaches, study to make them our own,and live them authentically and with normalityin our daily lives. We need the Group Reunion,the Ultreya, and the School to inspire,encourage, and affirm us in our journey to theFather.

Ultreya!George Henry

******************************************************************************************************************

AlertIt’s not too late to book forthe CCCC annual conference.See page 12 for details


5

ESSAY“ESSAY” is a column, in which the talks and reflections from Cursillo leaders around the country (and abroad) can be sharedwith the larger audience. Hopefully these ‘essays’ will provide the basis for further discussion. If anyone cares to respond, pleasefeel free to send your commentary to Fully Alive. While these essays are subject to editing for space, clarity and subject, they donot necessarily reflect the opinions of the CCCC.

ESSENCE AND PURPOSERollo given by Sheelagh Winston at the Cursillo of Cursillos in Prince Edward Island, 2010

What is this thing called Cursillo?

I lived my 3 day weekend in 1976 and I amalmost embarrassed to admit that it wasn’t theexperience that most people have. This was in asmall way due to the way the weekend waspresented but for the most part it was me.However, obviously through God’s grace, I didsomehow manage to become involved in the4th Day and was soon asked to become part ofa weekend team. I cannot just do somethingbecause ‘that’s the way we do it’, I have toknow the Why, not just in Cursillo but in mylife also.

In retrospect, I realize that from very early inmy Cursillo journey I somehow knew whatCursillo is. For me it has always seemed veryclear that it is plain and simply a method forbringing the Good News of the Gospel into thelives of ordinary people, into the marketplace,the normality of our everyday lives. It makesthe Gospel live; it takes the words of Jesus offthe page and Him out of the tabernacle, into myreality where I can experience Him as real,alive, and close to me.

Of course I only knew all this deep inside ofme, I couldn’t articulate it, couldn’t explain it tothe other Cursillistas I was beginning to workwith. For most of them, back there in the late1970s and into the 1980s Cursillo was simply athree Day weekend; exciting, emotional,uplifting, but with very little attention paid tothe 4th Day, very little understanding, if any, ofthe purpose and almost no understanding ofthe history and origins. I used to drive themcrazy by saying, “If you only understood the

whole of it”. They would then ask me what Imeant and I couldn’t tell them. Grouping was‘iffy’ and the Ultreya was nothing more than asocial event, pleasant but not really satisfying interms of life itself.

Needless to say the movement in my diocesedied long ago for that is what happens whenwe don’t understand the gift that we have beengiven. Sometimes the demise is very rapid andsometimes it is slow and painful. The onlyremedy for this is to go back to the source,forget what we think we know and have thehumility to open our minds and hearts to thetruth.

I am only mentioning this because it seemsimportant to understand that this notion thatthere is much more to Cursillo than many of usrealized is a valid one. Cursillo isn’t a ‘thing’that we do or something that we belong to. It isquite simply something that we live. It formsour mentality as we live a method that haswithstood the test of time.. It is this method thatenables us to continue to live the 4th Day as theperennial Cursillo that it should be.

As I said, the Cursillo is quite simply a way tolive the Gospel in everyday life. Therefore it isChrist, the person and a method. The methodas we know is based on friendship and throughfriendship, which is the best means, we sharethe best news, which is the Gospel with the bestthat is in each person.

When we live the Gospel we are living what isfundamental to being a Christian and thatfundamental truth is that God love us; he loves


6

me and he loves you, and in doing so he entersinto the best that is in each of us, into our verybeing.

Deep inside each one of us is the capacity forconviction, decision and perseverance. Thetruth of God’s love impacts me, Sheelagh, deepwithin, in that place where I am really me. Itdoesn’t direct itself to what I can do, not what Ihave, not to what I know or how generous andindustrious I might be, but at my deepest level.Everything that I am flows from this place andaffects who I am. It is the place within each ofus where only God can enter. It is where myfreedom, meets God’s spirit. It is in this placethat I experience conviction, where I exercisemy God given freedom to make decisions andit is here that my will is strengthened intoperseverance.

Cursillo is a means that facilitates making thethree encounters, with ourselves, with Christand with each other; not just on the weekendbut every day of our lives.

It isn’t possible to make an authentic encounterunless we have knowledge and the Cursillo is away for us to gain that knowledge by hearingthe Good news through the lived experience ofother Cursillistas, which then leads us toconviction and that conviction propels us intolife so that we cannot help but share what wehave discovered, always by means offriendship.

The Purpose of the Cursillo.

As I said, Cursillo isn’t just anything, it issomething specific and it has a specificpurpose. Its purpose is to help us to live what isfundamental for being Christian therebybecoming fully human, fully alive.

To do this we need to:know God loves us

accept it as the truthbe convinced of it and therefore able toconvince othersallow ourselves to experience itshare it with others

This, in a nutshell, is what it is to live what isfundamental to being Christian.To understand what this is, is to understand thenucleus of our Christian faith:

That God became man in Jesus Christ andentered our history in a tangible wayThat Christ redeems us and remains withus in and through the ChurchHe is present and alive in us throughGraceThat we receive this through baptism

If we lack this fundamental Christianity thenChristianity doesn’t exist

Accepting and living these precepts is the markof being Christian. We all know people whocall themselves Christian but who don’t acceptany of this. Being Christian isn’t inherited nor isit acquired through being born in a so-calledChristian society; we are Christian because welive it

It is what all Christians agree is true (this iswhat we mean by fundamental. We all agree onthe fundamentals)

If we deny the fundamentals, it isn’t that we areless Christian but rather that we are notChristian at all.

Christianity is ours through our baptism but wemust choose to let it live and grow within us.To live it, means to live in Grace and thisenables us to see everything with new eyes, lifeitself looks different. The only way to truehappiness is the same now as it was in thebeginning and will be to the end of time. Godhas done everything possible to show us howwe are loved. He poured out His great love ingiving us a glorious creation and we blew thatthrough pride. He told us who He is throughthe words of the prophets and we killed mostof them. Finally, He sent His only Son, to showus who He is. As Jesus said, whoever has seenme has seen the Father. I am always moved bythe scripture where God seems to be lamentingover us when He says “What more could I havedone for my vineyard that I have not alreadydone?” Is. 5:4


7

We are called to accept that we are loved,loveable and capable of loving in return.We are called to this as Christians; this is at thevery heart of all that is Cursillo.

A child who knows that he or she is loved, liveshappy and free, secure in the knowledge ofbeing loved. Children who are not loved live infear for they have no security. Very often thesechildren manifest their feeling of being unlovedin anger or violence. We may not be childrenbut we are no different. In this day and age weare all very aware of the violence in the worldbut perhaps we fail to recognize that all thesmall daily annoyances can push us into violentreactions or anger. We are afraid of beingimposed upon so we snap when someone askstoo much of us; we feel ignored or snubbed sowe react by being nasty; we feel inferior orexperience jealousy so we gossip. All of thisstems from fear which has its roots in feelingunloved and therefore insecure.

What we all do when we are afraid is to runtowards something but in doing so we losesight of where we are going simply because weare looking backwards, not forwards

We try to overcome:loneliness by looking for pleasurePoverty by striving to get richOther people by seeking to be powerfulWhen we are afraid of being free we look forsecurityWe do all of this just trying to be happy.

Through Cursillo we can discover thathappiness is only found in knowing that Godloves us. We discover that truth that makes usfree, free from fear.

As I said, my own Cursillo weekend was notthe life altering experience that many of youhad but when I came home my sponsor askedme how I had enjoyed it. All I could say wasthat if I had learned anything at all it was notjust that God loves, it is that He is love, that iswhat He is; that is His essence. Whenever weare touched by love we are touched by God;whenever our hearts are moved by the beautyof creation or our spirit is stirred in any way, itis God using our senses to whisper His love. I

now know that this is the very essence of theCursillo and this is what we are trying to sharewith all those whom God sends to us.

This is what enables a martyr to face death andwhat enables me to live my life as it is. Godloves me, He has looked for me, continues towait for me, understands me, accepts me, putsup with me and my stumbling and bumbling,He cries with me, feels my sorrow, delightswith me in my joy. He is my friend. My pastor,who is a very dour and seemingly unemotionalguy surprised me last week by saying in hishomily, ‘God is crazy in love with His peopleand if we ever doubt it, sit and contemplate acrucifix for a few moments”.

The Purpose of all aspects of the Cursillo is tohelp every person believe this for themselves.God entered our reality in Jesus and Jesus callsus into discipleship, to go and share themessage that has been shared with us. Thepurpose is to have every person believe forthemselves that through God’s love, life makessense and life itself is a gift that has been givento us to enjoy. We are created as human beings,with the capacity for great love, great sorrow,great joy and great generosity. Our goal and thepurpose of Cursillo, is to help every person tobecome fully human and fully alive.

Before my Cursillo I had the feeling that it waslike God was playing a heavenly game of chesswith all of us and that He was just waiting forme to make a mistake, keeping account of mywrongdoings. I had heard something ofpredestination and not understanding, I haddecided that there was no point in trying, Healready knew where I would end up so whyshould I bother to try. I was orphaned at 11 so itwasn’t easy to believe that God loved me. I wasconvinced that God loved the world, I justdidn’t believe that that world included me. Iguess that came from my excruciating sense ofabandonment. Looking back I am convincedthat those painful years of feeling so alone werethe path that lead me to this place that I amnow in.

When we are convinced of God’s love, wevalue it so deeply that we want to share it withall those in our everyday lives in what we call


8

our environments. It’s like being in love; wewant the world to know and we want everyoneto love what we love. The difference is thatJesus, the One I love and who is my friend, alsowants to be in friendship with all those I know.

The Cursillo method isn’t just for the three dayweekend to pass on the Good News but more itis a means to facilitate a way to live in and withChrist for the rest of our lives, to live themessage of the Gospel in whatevercircumstances we find ourselves.

Eduardo’s main concern at the very beginningwas to take the Good News of the Gospel to theFaraway, those who did not know that Godloved them, or who perhaps had turned theirbacks on Him due to events and experiences intheir lives. Now this has been something of aneye opener for many of us for from theliterature that was available to us for years, wewere lead to understand that the Cursillo wasto form leaders for the Church. This was neverthe intention; it was always focussed mainly,though not exclusively, to the Faraway. If wehave a problem with this then we only have tocontemplate those to whom Jesus went. Hereached out to the sinners, the poor, those whowere without hope and it was these people whoresponded to him. These Faraway people arefound everywhere, in every walk of life, young,old, rich, poor, married, single, educated or not.The Sermon on the Mount was directed to adiverse group of people; people from everywalk of life. The focus of Cursillo is nodifferent. For this reason the message of theCursillo must be simple, easy to understand,embracing all and avoiding language that isonly understood by those who have alwaysbeen in the Church. The message is kerygmatic,meaning it is the Gospel shared through thelived witness of the rollistas.

Because we are who we are, we cannot seem toaccept simplicity; we seem to think that if wemake things more complicated then it must bebetter. For this reason in many places, almostuniversally, the method and purpose ofCursillo has often been distorted, manipulated,used to accomplish things that were never partof its original and intended purpose.

In terms of distorting the method we often hearthat we need to read the signs of the times andthe movement has to be updated. Although theproblems and difficulties we face today may bedifferent, their root is still the same as it hasalways been, selfishness, pride, greed. Thesolution also has not changed nor will it. Thesolution has always been and will always be,Jesus Christ, alive and present to His people.

Likewise the purpose is often distorted becausesome think that it is a way to recruit peoplewho are then steered into all manner ofministries, apostolates, social or charitablework. This would be the same as exploitingtheir enthusiasm and generosity.

The Cursillo is not an organization, a servicegroup like the CWL or Knights of Columbus, ithas one purpose, to help people to understandthat God loves them. What a person does withthat knowledge after they are convinced of thatfact is between them and God. Its aim isn’t toconvert people to our favourite cause or tofurnish the parish with workers or ministers ofthe Word or music.

Now that is not to say of course that Cursillistasshould not serve in these place, all these thingsare good in themselves, but it does mean thatwhatever a person chooses to do after theirCursillo is between them and God, it must besomething they choose to do, feel called to.

Apostolic Action is not primarily ministrywithin the Church, it is rather, being and livingthe Gospel in our environments. EduardoBonnin said that anyone who understands theStudy of the Environment rollo understandsCursillo and study of this rollo is extremelyhelpful in understanding the authentic purposeof the Cursillo. If we are to channel thecandidates into anything, it should be back intotheir own environments, making Jesus presentwherever we live. Not being involved in parishministry does not make one less of a Christianor Cursillista.

When Miguel Sureda gave this rollo at theCursillo of Cursillos held in Mallorca he said.Cursillo is not intended to satisfy the hungerfor God but to create a hunger for Him so that


9

we live always hungry for more of Him. We areto be happy and joyful but never satisfied.

Life makes sense when we want what weactually do, not when we do what we want orwhat we are told to do. This freedom to choosecan only flow from a genuine and personalconviction and this is what is nurtured andsupported in the Ultreya.

The purpose of Cursillo is not to bring new lifeto the existing structures that already exist inthe Church but to bring new life to life itself, toour everyday lives.

It is easier to be a Christian and to do goodthings outside of our closest environments thanit is to do good where we are called to be. In mylife at the moment I have just opened my doorto my grandson. He has just come through astage in his life where he was less than easy tohave around. He has severe diabetes and thiscan cause terrific mood swings and sometimesover the top reactions to minor things. He iscurrently on the outs with his mother, myeldest daughter, and hasn’t lived at home withher and his brother for a year. The friend withwhom he was living has gone away to school sohe asked me if he could move in with me, intomy very small apartment. I have lived alone formore than 10 years and one gets set in onesways. He is over six feet tall and a bit erratic.Knowing all this I was wishing that I livedsomewhere else but I know to what I am called.I know what it feels like to be thrust intoresponsibility when it would be much morecomfortable to remain a child with someone tolook after me. It’s not going to be easy andworking for Cursillo or doing some otherChristian thing would be a lot easier with moresense of gratification, but I am called to my ownenvironment, my grandson and whatever it is Ican give him for as long as he needs me. I askfor your prayers, dealing with a teenager againmight be a bit of a challenge.

I already mentioned how Eduardo reacted tothe young men in the barracks and wasmotivated to find a way to help them andothers like them, all people in fact, to theunderstanding that God loves us. He wasgreatly influenced by listening to a message

from Pope Pius XII2 who while addressingpriests and pastors told them that they werealso responsible for those who had lost theirfaith. He talked of studying to determine howto reach the people in the different areas of theparish. Go street by street, make an inventory.This was the inspiration behind the Study ofthe Environment rollo.

We are called to live in the world, to live reallife where it happens. We and all those we liveour lives with and those we are yet to meetneed to discover that Jesus did not come to savethe world but to save us, we the people.

We have already talked about how Cursillowas born but I think it’s important toemphasize that it is essential to go back to ourroots, to rediscover our origins, to explore thethinking of the Founder. By doing so we willabsorb his mentality, the mentality of themovement and the essence and purpose of theCursillo will gradually become clearer andclearer. If we consider Jesus as the Founder ofthe Church then by contemplating His life, His

2 Then, a book entitled “H.H..Pious XII and theCatholic Action” came into my hands. I read aparagraph which reads literally, “Of this dual aspectof his parishioners it is the duty of the parish priest,with a quick and agile look to form a clear andcarefully detailed picture, we would saytopographically, street by street, of his community,i.e. on the one hand the population of the faithful…,and on the other hand the groups that had movedaway from the practice of Christian life. They arealso sheep that belong to the parish, lost sheep, andalso of these, and even of them particularly, you areresponsible custodians, my dearest children, and asgood pastors you must not dodge any effort or workto find them and win them over again, nor must youindulge in any rest until all of them have foundasylum, life and joy in the return to the fold ofChrist.” (Address to the parish priests and Lentenpreachers in Rome, on February 6, 1940).

That letter had an unusual effect on me andbrought me to the decision that the most importantthing to start with was to have at our disposal, as thePope advised, a “detailed study” of the situation...That conclusion led me to examine each of theconstellations of individuals in the world, in myworld and in the Church that I knew and frequented.


10

teachings, we move deeper and deeper intobecoming true Christians. There is a sayingwhich has always made a deep impression onme; We become like those we contemplate.

Cursillo speaks of us being restless and Isuppose it is the kind of restlessness that weexperience when we want so much for ourchildren that we will go to all lengths to helpthem reach their potential. No good parent justsits back and allows life to just happen to theirkids, we are always willing to help, to sacrificeour own needs and desires.

The Cursillo is a movement that seeks to bringa Christian mentality to every environmentwhere Cursillistas live. This is what we meanby giving a backbone to Christianity. It makes itsomething tangible, something that can be seento be effective, it moves Christianity from agroup of abstract ideas to something that has areality. On visits to Mallorca I see the rollosbeing lived in the lives of the Cursillistas, if Iwasn’t a Cursillista I would surely want toknow what it is that they have that makes themso different.

Cursillo has always sought and through theGrace of God is on the way to achieving itspurpose of bringing the Good News into thelives of ordinary people who then come to lifeby sharing it with others in friendship.

Structuring Christianity, giving it backbone isachieved by creating a world where friendshipis the means by which the Good News is sharedin a way in which it becomes real andauthentic. Eduardo did not set out to form amovement, the movement has evolved fromthis gathering of friends who lived and actedwith the purpose of making their Friend thefriend of all. This has given birth to a mentalityand from this has come the method.

We will hear rollos on Group Reunion, Ultreya,School, Secretariat, the Three Days and we willhear how each and every one of these differentgroups is first and foremost a group of friends.

To be absolutely clear, without friendship thereis no Cursillo, The whole thing can bewonderfully organized with Group Reunions,

School, secretariat and Ultreya but if that is allit is, without friendship, there is no Cursillo.,Without friendships, everything is a lie.

In the words of EduardoCursillo is a song to life and in this song werealize

People are importantLife is beautifulAnd it is worth living

De Colores

FROMOUR

READERSPlease forward comments to Fully AliveC/o CCCC Resource Centre.

What is a Cursillo?... It is Christ… What does aCursillo aim for?...Christ…What keeps the‘Cursillistas’ on their path?...Christdoes!...Therefore the Cursillo has Christ at itscentre…If Christ is at the centre, all other thingswill fall into place”. Eduardo Bonnin.

FROM CHARLIEI just read the beginning of your 2011 Talk. Itreminded me of a story I read in the late 60’s inthe Saturday Review (I believe). It told the taleof a child prodigy from Australia who decidedto ditch his dreams of a career in Medicine topursue his musical talent. He attended theJulliard in New York and became a worldrenowned concert pianist. After a couple yearson the concert circuit he fell in love andconcluded that it would be much better tosupport and raise a family as a physician than atravelling musician. So he went back to schooland eventually became chairman of theneurosurgery department at Walter Reed inDC. Because of his prior career he stayed intouch with the world music community.


11

At the time, Pablo Casals was training youngcellists in Cuba, if I remember correctly, Theleading young cellist in the world was finishinghis time with the master and invitations wentout for the world musical community to attendhis final recital. The doctor was invited anddecided to attend. At the concert it finallycame time for the young musician to play hisfinal piece. It was one of the most difficult andbeautiful pieces for the instrument and theyoung person played it masterfully. Latermembers of the audience all agreed that it wastechnically and interpretively the bestperformance of the piece any of them had everheard. At the conclusion the hall erupted withapplause and cheers as the young person wasgiven an extended standing ovation.

The applause seemed that it would not enduntil people caught sight of the old master.Pablo was walking slowly across the stage. Bythe time he got to the performer the audience,at his signalled request, had re-seatedthemselves. Casals took the bow and Cellofrom the performer, seated himself, and beganto play the same piece. When he finished therewas no applause. The hall was dead silence.The community of world famous musicianshad just experienced the piece played betterthan anyone had ever heard or imagined andnow, the old master, had rendered it far beyondwhat they had just heard.

This experience set the doctor to thinking aboutmusic. That there must be something there thatgoes far beyond our understanding, perhaps itis the criterion. He set about to find some wayto measure the phenomenon and using hisknowledge of the human brain he developed acontraption that linked a small handheldtransducer to a computer. A musician could beseated and given a score of music to read. Ashe read it the computer sampled input from thetransducer and eventually produced agraphical representation from the session.When the graphs from different musiciansreading the same piece were compared asimilar pattern was fond. This did not vary somuch from musician to musician, though themore accomplished could be discerned fromthose with less skill. The graph did not varymuch from one selection to another by the same

composer, but selections from differentcomposers showed quite different patterns.

The deduction was that there was somethingvery basic in the brains of people that acomposer was in touch with. It coloured all orat least most of his work. Musicians in theirinterpretation of the composer’s work wereable to touch this (for lack of a better word Iwill call it criterion), and the moreaccomplished were those who could mostfaithfully do so. One of these days I am goingto try to find that article again and see if therewas ever any follow up. Nevertheless, I do sofeel that this is the spiritual experience ofpeople in touch with Jesus (we all are to someextent). In my mind He is the Criterion, theonly valid Criterion. The more faithfully I amable to “interpret” him for others the more theyexperience Him at work in their lives.

Charles GreenHouston/Galveston Cursillo1977, Wheeling, West Virginia

Editor’s note. Charlie often contacts the ResourceCentre and is an avid reader of Fully Alive and someof our resource documents that he passes on toCursillistas in different areas. He has discoveredwhat a great resource Fully Alive can be.

*************A friend is someone with whom you canthink out loud!

Open letter to Montreal Cursillo Community

In the next few weeks I will be celebrating my81st birthday. For over half of my life I havebeen living the effects of my Cursillo weekendin November 1969.

The experience of the weekend opened my eyesto the power of love and the community and itshowed me how to be myself and to live mylife to the full potential.

The subsequent trip of life, taught me thepotential of Group Reunion which gave me theopportunity to learn about myself, aboutpeople surrounding me and about life. My


12

friends in my Group Reunion, in which I havebeen a member since my weekend, carried methrough the illness and loss of my wife Helenseven years ago. For me that was one of thedarkest times in my life.

The motto: Make a friend, be a friend and bringyour friend to Christ.taught me to acceptpeople as they are and to walk a mile in theirshoes before judging them.

The Cursillo experience allowed me to analyzethe most precious concepts of my upbringing,to analyze them as a goldsmith analyzesprecious metals: by cutting, scraping, andmelting. This led me to arrive at what is theessence of my faith and my being. It allowedme to know what is real for me. In other wordsthe experience of the weekend has made mefree. Free to live, to love, to be myself.

It is therefore with great sorrow that I see thewhole structure of the Montreal Cursillofloundering as though they no longer know theway.

To my mind this is too important a movementto be allowed to die a slow death. There are toomany people who could benefit from thisexperience. But to revive the movement is toogreat a task for one person or even a smallgroup. I believe it requires commitment fromthe whole community to accomplish the task.

In that spirit I am calling everyone who feelslike I do, to consider how this task could beaccomplished.To start, the School of Leaders has to bebrought back to life to allow us to find anddetermine the way in which the Montrealmovement can be restored and fulfil its role asenvisaged by our founder Eduardo Bonnin.

Secondly, a new secretariat has to be chosenfrom the members of the school and dedicatedto the task.

And lastly a way must be found to drawCursillistas, who have become distanced,together again.

But first the call has to be made and I feel that itis my duty to call everyone to the task. At myage this may be the only thing I can do.

To this end I am sending this open letter to allmy Cursillo friends and am asking them that ifthey think this is a worthy task to pleaseforward this letter to their Cursillo friends andto consider what action may be taken.

I am leaving the results in the hands of theSpirit. Christ is counting on us.De Colores

Peter Jankowski,Montreal Cursillo #17, November 1969

CONFERENCE 2012“The Conversations, The Path to Understanding!”

Hosted by the Cursillistas of the London Area Cursillo MovementTo be held at Fanshawe College

LONDON, OntarioJune 21- June 24, 2012

Plan now to attend. Conferences are a time to go deeper into understanding the Cursillomovement, meet and/or reconnect with friends from across the country and take home a wealthof information to share with your local movements

Registration information is available on the CCCC website at:www.cursillo-canada.org or contact the Resource Centre at:

[email protected] can be arranged into the London Airport

Plan your summer vacation and experience beautiful South Western Ontariowww.ontariotravel.net. www.londontourism.ca/Things to Do

www.cursillo-canada.org

mailto:[email protected]


13

WitnessDaily we touch Him

My Band of Brothers in Christ

I have been deeply blessed after my Cursilloweekend to be able to link up with a GroupReunion and to keep that going now for over 15years. I began my Cursillo journey in GrandePrairie, Alberta attending the weekend in thefall of 1996. The three days were an awesomeexperience of God’s love for me, as witnessedand poured out by the incredible team who ledthe Cursillo. I realized how much closer I coulddraw to Jesus and wanted to keep the Spiritalive and burning in my heart. Almostimmediately I was able to join with four otherswho had made the weekend and we began avery regular and uplifting group reunion, awonderful start to the Fourth Day. The processwas interrupted for a time as our family movedfrom Grande Prairie to Sherwood Park in June1998 and I had to leave my group reunionbehind.

One of the first things that I did after settling into our new home in Sherwood Park was toinquire around about Cursillo and see if I couldfind a group reunion to join. I was fortunate tomeet a wonderful friend, Ron Stephens, whointroduced me to the Saturday morning groupreunion that meets at Our Lady of PerpetualHelp Church. So with little more than a fewmonths without a group reunion, I waswelcomed into a very warm and supportivegroup!

Since the fall of 1998 our group has met everySaturday morning at 8 a.m. ( only Jesus couldget me up that early on a Saturday morning!).The face of the group has changed a bit overtime as some men leave and others join us, butthere is a core of five or so that have made thisa regular “pit stop” in their week. This groupreunion has been a fabulous “refuelling” stopevery week for me. It is in the group that mystrength to follow Jesus has been bolstered andsupported by my brothers in Christ. I love tohear my friends talk about where they have

encountered Christ this past week and whatkinds of challenges, joys and breakthroughsthey have experienced. The group reunionkeeps me honest and accountable about myown piety, study and action as I reflect on myown journey. We have shared so much of ourlives with each other in that grouping, that wehave become very close friends. I have manyfriends that I have known longer, some sincehigh school, but I have such a deep sharing offaith with my Cursillo brothers that is notpresent in those other friendships.

We have shared our great joys when we arecelebrating the good news of God’s workings inour families and at work. We have cried witheach other as we mourn losses and sadness thatalso is a part of living. We have prayed witheach other and for each other in thesechallenging times. Through the highs and lows,I know that this is a group of men who, like me,love God and want to follow Jesus in a closeand personal relationship.

I have experienced, through group reunion, asmall glimpse of the Christian community thatPaul describes in the Acts of the Apostles “Allthe believers continued together in closefellowship..”. Because of the strengthening thatI have experienced through this small group ofChristian men, I have been more confident tobecome involved in my own Catholic parishcommunity. I have served on Parish PastoralCouncil as well as a number of ministries. Thechallenge we face in our parish because of it’slarge size, is to establish a warm, welcomingand friendly community. What I have learnedthrough group reunion is that the manyparishioners who I do not yet know, are friendswaiting to be discovered. They are my Brothersand Sisters in Christ, who I would get to knowbetter through sharing our stories together.May God grant us the opportunities to sharefaith and grow closer to each other and supporteach other in our walk with Jesus!

De Colores,Dave Kornder, Edmonton Cursillo

www.ontariotravel.net

www.londontourism.ca/Things


14

ATLANTIC

CHARLOTTETOWN,PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

Atlantic Conference September 2010

We were the host diocese for the 2010 Atlantic Conference. Instead of holding the normal AtlanticConference, National CCCC took the lead in scheduling a Cursillo of Cursillos which was held fromSeptember 16th to 19th at Cavendish Gateway Resort in the community of Mayfield, PEI. SheelaghWinston and George Henry were instrumental in setting up and facilitating this conference. Our numberin attendance was disappointing however the conference itself provided a wealth of knowledge andcomments received indicated that it was enjoyed by all. There was a great deal of work went into theplanning by the host committee and I wish to acknowledge the hard work of Secretariat and thank themfor their efforts.

NEWS FROM AROUND THECOUNTRY

ATLANTIC,Antigonish (Tri-Counties,Cape Breton East,Cape Breton WestHalifax,St. John’s,Charlottetown,Yarmouth,Yarmouth Valley.Saint. John’

CENTRALMontreal English,Spanish, Hungarian,KoreanLondon,Kent County/Chatham,Peterborough, Toronto,Hamilton, Timmins,Ottawa, Thunder Bay,Essex, Latin American

WESTERN,Vancouver,Nelson,Calgary,Edmonton,Grouard-McLennan,Native Cursillo,

My name is Leo Shea and I am the Lay Director for the Diocese ofCharlottetown, Cursillo Movement. I replaced Arlene van Diepen inJune of 2010 and so I am providing a report to you on my first year inthe position of Lay Director and our activities associated to it.

Secretariat

Our Secretariat consists of Lay Director, Past Lay Director (one yearterm), Spiritual Advisor, Pre-Cursillo Coordinator, Post-CursilloCoordinator, Secretary, Treasurer, Palanca Coordinator, CursilloWeekend Coordinator, and Special Events Coordinator. We meet oncea month with the exception of July and August.

In addition to Secretariat, we have a communications manager whoprovides updates and messages to our community at large, and awebsite manager who keeps the information current on that venue.

National Cursillo Conference -Antigonish July 2010

I was not able to attend this conference and so our past Lay Directorand another member of Secretariat attended on our behalf. There wasno report brought back to Secretariat and so I cannot make anycomment on same.


15

building bridges fromcoast to coastCursillo Fall Retreat Weekend

Unfortunately we didn’t have enoughcandidates to hold Cursillo weekends this pastFall and so Secretariat decided to have a Cursilloretreat weekend instead. The retreat was held atBelcourt Center and was almost filled tocapacity with Cursillistas from all parts of theProvince. There was a mixture of newCursillistas along with some seasoned veteransfrom many years past. Presentations on topics ofCursillo were made by both lay people and ourSpiritual advisor. There was an abundance ofdiscussion resulting and those in attendanceagreed that the retreat weekend was a success.This provided an opportunity for us to educateour community on the Cursillo movement as itshould be.

Spring Cursillo Weekends

We recently completed both men’s and women’sCursillo weekends where a total of 31 newCursillistas were welcomed into the largercommunity. In preparation for same, we heldour Team Formation workshop to preparemembers of both team for their role as leaderson the weekends. At the workshop, members onTeam heard rollos on the History of Cursillo, theElements of Cursillo, the First Day, the SecondDay and the Third Day of the weekend, andHow to Write a Rollo. Thirteen candidates onthe men’s weekend is one of the largest held inrecent years. From the candidate sharing andwitnessing heard at the Sunday invasions, it wasclear that both weekends were indeed successes.Additionally, we already have a number ofcandidates eager to make their Cursilloweekend in the Fall.

Island Wide Ultreya

We recently held our Island Wide Ultreya onMarch 27th, 2011. We had a terrific turnout forthis event. Fourth day witness talks were

outstanding and it was evident that theHoly Spirit had a presence in the selection of thetwo who presented. It was both comforting andencouraging to see that our attendance at theUltreya had grown substantially since last year.

Announcements were made to the communityregarding both the National conference in Juneand the Atlantic conference being held inSeptember, hosted by NFLD and Labrador.I also made mention of our Annual Meetingscheduled for June of this year and that threemembers of Secretariat are in need ofreplacement. I am confident that we will be ableto find three interested and hard workingreplacements for these positions.

Group Reunions and Ultreyas

At present we have 13 active Group Reunionswithin the Diocese. We have a Post Cursilloposition on Secretariat and we are working toincrease the numbers in this regard.

Over the past year, we held twelve (12) localUltreyas in different areas of the Diocese that,for the most part, were largely attended. Ournumber of Ultreyas held annually has beengrowing and so we are confident that thisimportant part of Cursillo will remain stable.

That’s my report from Prince Edward Island forthis past years activities. I regret that I won’t beattending the National Conference in BritishColumbia. After careful consideration, we feltthat it was just too costly for attendance thisyear.

I trust you will find this report satisfactory foryour needs. We will continue to pray for thesuccess of the National Conference and for theCursillo movement overall.

De ColoresLeo Shea, Lay Director


16

ST. JOHN’S ARCHDIOCESENEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR

Greetings from Newfoundland and Labrador.This year we had changes on our Secretartiat.Three of our members finished their terms, TerriBailey as lay director, Gerard Horan as PostCursillo and Isabelle Croke as Pre Cursillo. Wethank them for their past works and for theircontinued support of Cursillo.

In St. John’s have weekly Ultreya’s fromSeptember to June and a monthly Ultreya in Julyand August. Attendance averages around 30.The last Saturday of each month we end Ultreyawith a celebration of the Cursillista’s who havehad birthdays that month. We have a light lunchand birthday cake & send some extra timetogether.

The Burin Peninsula holds monthly Ultreya.They average 10-15 people.

Each summer we have a Grand Ultreya,alternating between St. John’s & the BurinPeninsula. This year we have decided topostpone this due to the September conference.We also promote fellowship with our annualChristmas dinner and dance. A very committedgroup of Cursillistas prepare an excellent mealwhich is followed by a dance. We look forwardto this each year.

This spring we had a soup supper followed by adance and later this month a BBQ and dance isscheduled.

We have focused on the spiritual aspect ofCursillo with our 5th Day Celebration andreflection sessions. .Fr. Leo English celebratedmass on November 4, 2010 for our 5th daycelebration..This year we remembered 10 of ourCursillo friends who left us last year and whoare now home with Jesus.In December 2010 we had an Advent reflectionwith guest speakers, Fr Paul Lundrigan and ourown Carol Ann Mason and in April 2011 aLenten reflection with guest speaker SisterMarie Crotty. Both of these events were wellattended and helped focus us for theseimportant times in our faith live.

Our phone tree is running well due to thededication of Isabel Croke. She reaches us byemail and then we in turn phone Cusillista’swho do not have computer access. This is usedfor prayer requests and for Cursillo news andupdates.

Our focus now is the ACCC conference whichwe are hosting at Burry Heights from September16-18.

We are very excited about this. We know thatone of the best things we can do for ourselves isto spend time with other Cursillistas. Hope tosee some of your there.

Florence HarveyLay Director

HALIFAXNOVA SCOTIA

Lay Director's Information

My name is Gary McVeigh. I am the LayDirector of the Halifax Cursillo Community. Ilived the 20th Men's Cursillo in Halifax. I sat atSt. Peter's table and we were called the 'town-criers'.

Core Group/Secretariat Information

The Secretariat is part of the Core Group of theSchool of Leaders and it is the Secretariat thatcarries out the decisions and the directives thatare made by the Core Group of the School ofLeaders. The Core Group and the Secretariatmeet together.

Following the conference in Barrie in June of2007, we developed our School of Leaders toinclude not only a discussion group but also anadministrative group. The Administrative/CoreGroup is the group of leaders who discuss theVision of Cursillo and the direction that ourmovement in Halifax is heading toward. It isalso the decision making body for our Cursillomovement here in Halifax. The main purpose ofthe Core Group is to review Ultreyas in order toensure that everything is going as it should andto make suggestions as to how to improve what


17

is taking place.

The School of Leaders discussion group meetsonce a month for an hour before the monthlyUltreya. This group meet to share opinions andideas about things that are of interest and ofimportance to Cursillistas. Some topics aresuggested by the group itself.

The Cursillo Community

The question has been raised here in Halifax asto the vitality and viability of our HalifaxCursillo Community. Is Cursillo still workinghere in Halifax? Our Cursillo Community ismade up of people who made the earlierCursillos right up to the the most recent ones.

Some Ultreyas we had as few as 6 people. Amost recent one we were excited because therewere 18 people in attendance.

Group Reunion

We have a number Group Reunions that areconsidered to be active. Being active, for themost part, does not seem to include being activein School of Leaders and Ultreya.

Ultreya

The Ultreya meets once a month, preceeded by aSchool of Leaders from 6:30 to 7:30, thenfollowed by a short break for fellowship. TheUltreya begins at 8o'clock.

The Ultreya agenda begins with GatheringMusic, the Prayer to the Holy Spirit,announcements by the Lay Director.

The next part of our Ultreya is the sharing ofwhat the Holy Spirit has been doing in our livessince the last Ultreya.

We do not choose a witness speaker. Weexperienced a lot of difficulty trying to getpeople to agree to give a witness talk. So, aftermuch prayer and discernment we decided thatwe would invite anyone who felt called andinspired by the Holy Spirit to stand beforefellow Cursillistas and to share what had beenhappening in their lives. The reaction seems to

be that this model is working well for us.

We moved our Ultreya to a different location(from Dartmouth to Halifax) and to a new day(Tuesday to the last Wednesday of the month).The reaction was positive. Our numbers haveincreased.

The Ultreya seems to be a supportiveenvironment for those who come.

Cursillo Weekends

We made a decision three years ago, not to haveWeekends so that we could work onstrengthening our Pre-Cursillo and our Post-Cursillo.

At the end of that period of time we had decidedthat if the circumstances were right, then wewould have Weekends. The circumstances forholding a Weekend would include , that aCursillista would have to be walking inFriendship with a potential candidate over along period of time. Then, after prayer anddiscernment, it was decided by theFriend/Cursillista and the Cursillo leadership,that if the candidate would benefit from aWeekend, then an invitation would be extendedto that person.

As of now, the circumstances are still not right.We will not be having Weekends in theforeseeable future. We do not have enoughpeople who are active in Cursillo to be able toform teams.

So, we wait to see where the Holy Spirit isleading us.

Other Events

Each year we have a Mass of Celebration toremember those Cursillistas who have gone onto their eternal rewards. This RemembranceMass (usually held in November) seems togather people.

This year we will continue another tradition.Over the last two years, a musical group-Heartsof Worship-who see as part of their ministry toshare their musical talents-has led us in song ,


18

praise and prayer, during Advent, to prepare usto receive the Lord into our hearts in a specialway. This event has allowed us , as well , to raisemoney to support the Cursillo Movement.

This year we have invited Hearts of Worship tolead us in a celebration of Joy at Easter. Our LaySpiritual Advisor (Barbara McVeigh) brought upfor discussion at a Core Group meeting thepoint that the church encourages us to spend theseason of Lent preparing us for Easter.

Easter Sunday comes as a day of celebration,then the Church goes right back in to OrdinaryTime.

Her point is that we do not really have much ofan opportunity to really celebrate the joy ofEaster.

So, this year we are going to have a Celebrationof Joy , after Easter on Sunday, May 1st.

Day of Prayer and Discernment

Over the last few years, we have becomeincreasingly aware that our Halifax CursilloCommunity is experiencing some pain as ournumbers are decreasing at Ultreya and School ofLeaders.

After much discussion, prayer and discernment,we decided to invite the whole CursilloCommunity to a day of prayer and discernment,to be held on Saturday, April 9th.

The process we adopted to prepare people forthis important day, included:(1) an invitation(allof these were sent out through our gmailaccount) to attend; (2) some prayer material topray about to help in their discernment and (3)the keeping of a prayer journal so as to write inwords what their prayer was telling them.

So, when people come to the day of discernmentthey will have in front of them what the Lordhad spoken to them in their prayer.

The first email to the wider Cursillo Communitypresented them with a Grace, some prayermaterial-Scripture passages-a suggestion to keepa prayer journal and questions regarding the

vision and future of the Cursillo Movement herein Halifax.

These are the questions that we were asked toconsider and to write about in our prayerjournals:(1) What does Cursillo mean to me?(2) What do I love about Cursillo?(3) What do I believe is God's dream for us?(4) What do I sense that God is calling us to

do next?

CENTRAL

MONTREALQUEBEC

The group consists of the following:

Father Jim MacDonald/Father Sunny P.Abraham Spiritual Directors

Deanna C. Wilson Taylor-Cline Lay Director

Tony Kinlough Financial Officer

Roch Lemay Pre-Cursillo

Michel Chartrand Post-Cursillo

Cynthia Beauchamp Secretary

Deanna C. Wilson Taylor-Cline Palanca

Tony Kinlough Men’s Weekend Co-ordinator

Deanna C. Wilson Taylor-Cline Women’sWeekend Co-ordinator

Roland Major Correspondence/CommunicationOfficer

As human beings continue to evolve, so do ourconceptions of God. With every step we taketoward deeper wisdom and greater compassion,our understanding of God expands throughevery aspect of life, as we live daily with allaspects of our being.


19

As I look at the history of the CursilloMovement, there was no accident when thismovement developed with a group of men whodedicated themselves to bringing the youngmen of their city, Mallorca, Spain, to knowChrist better. However, this effort becameeffective as the men who not only prayed buttogether also worked together to bring the lightof Christ to this Cursillo Movement.

The Second Vatican Council’s Decree onEcumenism explains: “For it is through Christ’sCatholic church alone, the universal help towardsalvation, that the fullness of the means ofsalvation can be obtained.” (Catechism of theCatholic Church). However, when the founder,Eduardo Bonin, saw that the CursilloMovement‘s birth was part of the renewal whichpreceded the Second Vatican Council.

The apostle Paul proclaimed “in order that Imight live for God, I have been put to deathwith Christ on his cross, so that it is no longer Iwho live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” (Gal.2:19-20). As the Lay Director, I have asked theFather to understand and experience His loveand the unchanging and deep goodness that themission of this movement brings to everyonewho has made his/her Cursillo weekend. Ibelieve we have a sure hope that God’s gracewill have the last word in this Montreal CursilloMovement.

As the Montreal Cursillo Movement continuesto work there are challenges. Everydayhappenings in families, such as sicknesses, deathof loved ones, misunderstanding amongst thefamily. From the last CCCC Conference, the tentopics of Cala Figuera has been the focus in anumber of our discussions. Despite theconversations of many of the members, wecontinue to understand what is asked of us forthe movement.

Following discussion with secretariat andcommunity members, we look at the possibilityof doing a more constructive leader school withthe community. As a result one member of thesecretariat works together with the team,planning the sessions to facilitate thecommunity.

The School of Leaders began by reading thebook “The Power of Kindness” and with thisbook, every discussion helps to work at Cursilloin Christianity and to live the gospel in thiscontext of friendship. This is held twicemonthly; following the guidelines of the‘Leaders Manual’.

Ultreyas are still a gathering that manyCursillistas look forward to with new purposesto its members. Because of the big City ofMontreal, we are divided into locations/cities.As in the South Shore every second Monday,there is an Ultreya. Third Sunday after the 11:00am Mass an Ultreya in Lasalle, Quebec, andevery third Monday our Central Ultreya inMontreal, Quebec. Two Ultreyas closed, one inChateauguay, Quebec and the other in the WestIsland. The Secretariat finds it disappointing tohave those closures, however, with the newmember to the post-Cursillo, we can only besupportive to those members and theirenvironment although most of them participatein their other apostolic activities.

As we move into the new year, it is our hope toopen with suggestions and input from alltowards activity to bring groups together. In aneffort to bring about Cursillo Charism in itsmethod to prayer, meditation and a truefriendship, we the members of the secretariatbring together our apostolic action to all; withthe intent to respect each other with our gifts asthey serve each member of the community. Theyear ahead as seen, is to focus and provideleadership skills to all.

At the same time, there has been two weekendswhich were successful; some of its members aregrouping, some continued their activities intheir various parishes with new zeal to themovement.

It is with some disappointments, frustration andgreat trials we are at the end of this year.However, I look forward to continue to renewthe commitment of Christ who is counting on usas we rely on His grace.

It is our hope that in the New Year, i.eSeptember 2011, to have some activities torejuvenate the enthusiasm with the guidance of


20

the Holy Spirit as we continue to encourage eachother.Decolores!Deanna C Wilson Taylor ClineLay Director

Editor’s note. These reports are taken from what wassubmitted from the various movements, to the CCCCannual report. They are unedited as to content. The intentis to keep Canadian Cursillistas informed of the activities inother movements. Their inclusion here does not necessarilyconfirm that CCCC agrees with the content.

WESTERN

NELSON DIOCESEBRITISH COLUMBIA

The Diocese of Nelson Cursillo Movement isgoing through an ongoing metamorphosis aswe continue to work towards becomingauthentic to the Foundational Charism.

We continued with our monthly School ofLeaders until April of this year and because ofdiminishing interest we held our last meeting inApril 2011 and will recommence in October

Our School of leaders meet on the 3rd

Saturday of the month We have Ultreya in Kelowna on the 1st

Thursday of the month and inSummerland on the 2nd Thursday of themonth.

The Secretariat meets on the 1st

Thursday each month.

We held a small women’s weekend last fallfollowed by a men’s weekend. For the first timein our movement we used the latest guide andtimetable provided by National. This resulted insome changes to what we were used to andsome things left out of our traditional weekend.The biggest difference was in the way the teamsapproached the weekend and the talks.Feedback after the weekend was positive withthe comment that it seemed far more relaxedand adapted to the candidates and that the talkswere more natural

Our biggest disappointment was the lowresponse from our main Cursillo community tothe Mananitas and Clausura.

At our School of Leaders we were reminded byone of our leaders of the importance of prayer inall our efforts for the movement. As a responseto this we hosted a Mass, followed bymeditational prayer on our call to be leaderswithin the movement. This was followed bysome personal sharing on our own 4th dayjourneys

We continue publishing a monthly newslettersent to 300 local Cursillista’s “Going Fourth”where we have a witness story, news items,Leaders School discussions and articles aboutthe Charism of the Founders.

We have spent 2 years trying to rekindle interestfrom our local Cursillistas with only limited andoften temporary results. The secretariat will belooking at ways to provide a new approach andnew goals for the coming year together with anew action plan

We ask all or brothers and sisters to keep ourmovement in their prayers

De ColoresLes Symes, Lay Director

WORKSHOPS FROM CCCC

The Officers Group and the CCCC Resourceperson have continue in the work of facilitatingSchools of Leaders workshops in variousmovements across the country.

As you will have read in the CCCC annualreport of 2011, several workshops were held lastyear and that endeavour has continued into2012. By the time this newsletter goes to print,workshops will have been held in Edmonton,Yarmouth and The Valley movements.

Any movement which is interested in havingCCCC facilitate a workshop for them shouldcontact the Resource Centre at [email protected] or any of the Officers.

mailto:cccc@cursillo-


21

MATTERS

SPIRITUAL

Reflection on Piety, Study and ActionFr. Pat O’Meara,

Assistant Spiritual Advisor to CCC

In the videotape - "God in the Dock" which invited viewers toconsider the problem of innocent suffering or why bad experienceshappen to very good and outstandingly upright people, there is ascene in which God is asked why people so full of love anddevotion for others experience such pain in their lives. In thisscene, God responds that human freedom - particularly its abuse -is one of the keys that begin to unlock this aspect of the mystery ofevil. God's interviewer comments that God is willing to risksdanger in making freedom possible for all people. God respondsby saying that God embraces this danger - not because God wantsdestruction in life but because the risk reveals the love God offerseveryone without condition - the risk reveals God's sense of piety.

Creation is a part of God's offer of love to everyone withoutcondition. God Who needs nothing insists on sharing all that Godis and all that God has with everyone. The result is the making oflight, darkness, sun moon, stars, water, dry land, plants, animalsand people. How did God feel about the divine effort known as ourworld and the people in it? How many times do we read thatcreation is good and that God was, is and will always be pleasedwith this work? Even when people as represented by Adam andEve abused creation by trying to be God, God looked andcontinued to work for the good for which people could beresponsible. Such was God's sense of piety. Even when Cain killedAbel and even at the time when Cain thought that his life wasworthless - that his life would be destroyed - God promised Cainthat his life would always be precious to God by putting a mark onCain so that anyone who would kill Cain would suffer death - suchwas the piety of God!

Will I try to see in the story of Noah and the great flood the piety ofGod Who devotes all that God is and all that God has by trying tobring out the goodness for which all people can be responsible? DoI try to see the piety of God in the story of Abraham and Sarah whowith God's help brought forth new life in trusting that God wouldmake it possible for isaac to be born from the womb of Sarah, intrusting that in offering Isaac to God that they would become theparents of many generations of people of faith? Do I try to see thepiety of God in the story of Moses when God made it possible forhim to lead our ancestors to freedom and even though ourancestors and ourselves have abused this precious gift, God nevertires of making it possible for people to be free. Nor, does God tire


22

of teaching everyone how to use the gift offreedom responsibly so that no one need be hurtbecause of this precious gift? Do I try to seeGod's sense of piety in His refusal to regret theopportunity God offers to all people?

An appreciation of God's sense of piety, of God'ssense of humour, the surprise that God willalways be comes out of a study of God'srelationship with our ancestors and ourcontemporaries. what did Adam, Eve, Cain,Abel, Noah, Isaac, Jacob, Esau, Saul, David,Ahab, Jezebel, Zechariah, Elizabeth, Joseph,Herod, Peter, James, John, Zacchaeus, theRoman Centurion, the Rich Young Man,Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, the Manborn blind, the skeptics who refused to trust thatthe Man Born blind had truly received his sightbecause of Jesus' work, the other critics of Jesuswho insisted that Jesus' miracles were the resultof the power of evil - what did all of thesepeople have in common? Jesus - and thereforeGod - never tired of bringing out of them thegood that they could share with others! If any ofthe people mentioned did not share theblessings received from God with others, searchfor the reason for this tragedy in their sense ofpiety, in their action or in their failure to act. If Isearch for the reason in the piety, the will or theaction of God, my search will be futile. May Iremember and remind others of God's workfrom which God never becomes tired ofbringing out the goodness in everyone wasexpressed very powerfully as God in the personof Jesus hanging on the Cross cried out: "Father,forgive them they do not know what they aredoing".

That great action of God is powerfully revealedin the story of Saint Paul who never tired ofsharing his conversion so that others wouldrealize the great hope God gives everyone in theResurrection of Jesus. Can anyone calculatePaul's contribution to the growth of our faith?Paul's action comes out of God's self givingwhich eye has not seen, ear has not heard of thatthe human heart can't conceive of what God canmake possible. May I appreciate the action Godis pleased to undertake - even now - for me.How grateful do I need to be to Isaiah whodescribed this action by sharing his vision of theSuffering Servant with me? How grateful need I

be to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John for theiraccount of Jesus' ministry, passion, death andresurrection? How grateful do I need to be toGod for the action God never tires ofundertaking for me in my past, in my presentand in my future?

Don’t forget to renew yoursubscription to Fully AliveRenewal forms available from

the Resource [email protected]



23

FROM EDUARDOTHE AMERICAS IN OUR PILGRIMAGE

In the joyous atmosphere at the clausura of thefirst Cursillo in history, almost 40 years ago, onthat small island that is Mallorca, situated in theancient Mediterranean Sea, one of the leadersmanifested in a bold and almost daringexpression, the certainty of success and theconviction of universality that characterized thatsmall group of laymen that were beginning“We won’t stop until we’ve held a Cursillo onthe Moon!”

It wasn’t an illusion, naivety or arrogance; it washope springing from faith. The whole methodhad been constructed – despite the lack ofunderstanding of the learned – from the personand for the person. And from that certainty rosethe conviction, never more resigned, that whathad been born had universal value; and landsand seas, borders and continents must betravelled – maybe even outer space, because nomatter where a person wanted to be happy orregretted not being so, the method and theCursillo Movement would have something tosay to him and there would be a lot to learn.

A bit later on, our hope became joy and newhope sprang to life. The Cursillos first extendedto different parts of the Spanish mainland andlater, in 1953, came the historical leap toColombia. In 1957 they would also begin in theU.S., and the following year in Mexico and soonafterwards in Venezuela and, from then on, nowunstoppable, to the rest of the Americancontinents – of the New World. And at the sametime or shortly after, to all the major places in aprocess that never ends.

For those who began the adventure of theCursillo, the Americas offered the previousimage of being “continents of colour”, of verystrong contrasts, of differing welcome, of new

vision, where as in very few other places theaffirmation of the individual and the sense ofthe other and of the group were combined.Fortunately, even though at first ourunderstanding had led Spain to carry the Gospelin a conquering way – there was more musicthan lyrics, more general echo than a sternvoice, more guidance than rules.

The Cursillos seemed to us made to measure forthe measureless Americas. That’s the way itworked out. Our American dimension, in thefirst stage, was centered essentially on prayerand written communication. We never thoughtthat we would learn so much geography inorder to be able to accurately direct our prayerstowards the faraway place where a new Cursillowas taking place, and from where someone waswriting to us with the same hope with which wedeepened our own reality.

And what we perceived there was a renewedand very clear incarnation of what we werealready living here: that when in a certain placeand time the Cursillo has a lay group rootedwithin the normality of their lives, andconcerned and devoted to their secularenvironments, in communion with a group ofpriests – or perhaps with only one – the Cursillothen stays alive, dynamic and with the vigour ofits debut. However, when the Cursillo gravitatesaround pastoral initiatives that are specificallyintra-ecclesial, to nurture or improve otherchurch work or organizations as a primaryeffort, then the Movement adopts a sacrificialovertone that makes it languish, or a closed-circle nature, where the organization eats up themysticism and where we see with sadness thatthose who used to be distanced from faith firstdraw nearer and then become stifled..


24

Now that the Cursillo is already present on thefive continents, we believe that we can affirmthat the testimony that reaches us from theAmericas is globally one of the most enriching,without being able to deny that it also has a fewgaps that the diverse and even contradictorycharacter of those attractive countries makesinevitable.

We are especially concerned that the limitationsof the Cursillo Movement in the Americas maybe the result of our defects or deficits,transferred there from the founding Spain.

For pity’s sake, let no one link the shock wave ofCursillo from Spain to the rest of the world –and specifically to the Americas – withmemories of conquest or nostalgia- TheCursillos are not from one culture, and thereforenot from one nation either; at least that is theway we wanted them to be from the start:gentiles with the gentiles.

We believe that the differences of rhythm anddirection that have been detected, that wealluded to before, that are present in all theCursillos’ geography are the transposition to ourera of the differences of accent in the message ofthe Gospel that we contemplated in the Acts ofthe Apostles, between Peter and Paul, orbetween circumcised and uncircumcised. Let’shope that we know how to create at thosecrossroads the atmosphere of Group Reunionthat pulsates in the apostolic account, andconvert those differences into creative actions,and that we can do so within the charity bornfrom respect and attention to the person that isat the deepest core of Cursillo.

In any case, the Americas have been the placefrom where the Movement has illuminated itsdefinitive unitarian and communitarianstructure: the National Secretariats, theInternational Groups and the World Office. Itsradical vocation of universality as a movementhas found its own dimension in the plural andcosmic core of the Americas.

After these nearly 40 years of presence in theAmericas, we continue to believe that they arecontinents of colour, that are still waiting forsomeone who can tell them through experience

that those are the same colours of the soul inGrace, in such a way that it can be fully itself inthe joy of the Gospel. We’ve already sungtogether some of the verses of this song, but it isnecessary that we continue singing it andmaking the pilgrimage in pursuit of the person,here and there, so that the song may becomechorale and magnificent.

And we believe that this will happen becausewe will not relinquish the idea of “givingCursillos on the Moon” – if there should besomeone there to receive them – and because webelieve – as we’ve already said before – that:

Some men, with the help of science andEconomical support, have travelledThe distance from a man’s exteriorTo the Moon;We are trying to accomplish somethingimmensely more difficult,That is, to get from the external to the innerworld of man,So as to learn more about the way to knowourselvesAnd the way to know others:To better learn to live in harmony with othermen and womenThe adventure of gradually becoming more of aperson.

EDUARDO BONNIN


25


26

CHAIRPERSONGeorge Henry (902) 678-7947 Arlene vanDiepen (902) 961 227176 Elizabeth Drive [email protected] RR2 [email protected] Kentville, NSB4N 3V8

544 Settlement RoadMorell, PEC0A 1S0

Marg Weber (519) 747-5937482 Anndale RoadWaterloo, ON

[email protected] SPIRITUALADVISOR

N2K 2S3 Fr. Syd Mifflen (902) 867 3937Box 5000, [email protected] XavierUniversity

Bernie Reilander (613) 820 2228 Antigonish, NS501-1081 Ambleside Drive [email protected] B2G 2W5Ottawa, ONK2B 8C8

ASSISTANT SP.ADV. (902) 749 6781 (cell)John Schlosser (250) 274 7007 Fr Pat O’Meara [email protected] Gordon Drive [email protected] 34 King StreetKelowna, BC Yarmouth NSV1W 1T3 B5A 2X8

For address changes, subscriptions to Fully Alive, or to submit questions or articles, please forward to:

S. Winston, Editor. CCCC, Resource CentrePO Box 46888, 2405 Pine Street

Vancouver BC V6J 5M4Ph.(250)938-4241 Fax. (514) 227-5221 e-mail [email protected]

www.Cursillo-canada.org

Fully Alive is published three times per year by the National Secretariat of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Cursilloswho is solely responsible for its contents. No article or any part of it may be reproduced without the written permission ofCCCC © CCCC 20012 all rights reserved









www.Cursillo-canada.org

Documents

VOLUME 13 ISSUE 1 NUMBER 65 - Canadian Conference of ... · we deserve that miracles ... wrong, but can always be better ˛. Take another look at the Why, because this is it. A lack