When we accepted the invitation to serve as Lay Directors for Twin Cities Cursillo, we were told there are many moving parts to support and track. How true!

In April, after learning more about the Cursillo Movement through attending a Cursillo de Cursillo weekend, leaders in the Spanish community chose to postpone their planned 2016 weekends. This is an extremely difficult decision for everyone in-volved. It will take concerted effort and much prayer to move from feeling disappoint-ment to seeing opportunity for growth, both personally and as a community. Their goal is wonderful---to have a stronger, cohesive community to bring in new 4th dayers in the future.

The English community is experiencing challenges as well. In the past, with the growth of candidate participation at an all-time high, sets of weekends were add-ed to meet the demand. We were up to 4 sets per year. The focus of Cursillistas be-came inviting candidates and serving on weekend teams, with some maintaining small group friendships for personal support. Not all new 4th dayers were integrated well into the community for ongoing progressive conversion and participation in all aspects of the Movement.

We will have only two sets of weekends per year this year and next. This opens up opportunities for our community to grow: time to work on developing those newer friendships, time to reinvest in long time friendships, and time to re-engage with the Cursillo community in activities beyond our small friendship groups. This is a time to really learn more about Cursillo and our community of believers across the Twin Cities, our Region, and our Nation.

At a recent meeting we briefly described Cursillo from the world level down to our Archdiocesan level. See the simplified diagram to the left. Surprisingly, many were not aware of Cursillo beyond the Twin Cities.

Why is it important to understand and participate in Cursillo gatherings be-yond your own small friendship groups? We are called to make friends as Jesus made friends. We are called to grow our faith while sharing our lives with others in community. There are many opportunities.

If you aren’t grouping, find a group. Bring your groupies to Ultreya regularly. Bring your Ultreya to the National Cursillo Encounter in Chicago in August. And bring your Ultreya to the Region VI Fall Encounter at Holy Name of Jesus in Medina in September. Together let’s befriend each other and grow personally and in communi-ty. Let’s allow the movement of the Holy Spirit to flow widely, and let His light shine on all.

God Bless you friends,

Larry & Jeanne Bendzinski