We recently attended the Cursillo Winter Retreat at King’s House in Buffalo. Fr. Jim and the staff host a wonderful retreat with great talks, masses, reconciliation, anointing, and one-on-one time with the religious team. All of these were fantastic, but there was something more on this retreat. We were there as community.
Many of the retreats at King’s House are silent retreats. Our Cursillo community is quite the opposite. We laugh. We hug. We sing. We cry. We are loud and strong in the responses during the mass. We know each other already. Some very well, but because we share the common experiences of the 3-Day Encounter, we know others as brothers and sisters in Christ. Each and every person there held a place in our hearts.
At the breakout sessions after each talk, we shared what spoke to us, what touched our hearts. Sometimes sharing brought out strong emotions of loss, family, or health problems. With experiences we have in grouping, in sharing our walk of faith, we were able to share personal situations and trust the others in the group to listen appropriately. And when the response is love, and prayer, we recognize that the Lord is present. We are gathered in His name, He is present, and this becomes much more than a nice retreat. This is a little view of heaven, much like the 3-Day Encounter.
We reflected on this sense of community, how blessed we are to have an environment where we can see God’s love for us through others. We were especially touched during the anointing, where we prayed together for each other, for healing, and for blessings.
We hope that you too have experienced this sense of community through Cursillo. As we bring friends to Cursillo as sponsors, we need to make sure that we walk with them for some time, a year is proposed, so that they become part of this community of love.
As we have studied the Charism more, we have learned that this is the purpose of Cursillo, to walk together in faith and love. The 3-Day Encounter exists to bring people to Christ through friendship groups, Ultreyas and School of Leaders, to walk the faith journey together, to share each other’s joys and burdens, to be the embodiment of Christ’s love.
We pray that the importance of grouping, Ultreya, School of Leaders and other 4th Day events is not lost on the community. We are all busy. Bring yourself, your sponsors, and groupies to these events. You will find the obstacles melt away when you are blessed by the love and friendship of a wonderful community willing to share their stories and love with each of us.
God bless you friends!
Larry & Jeanne Bendzinski
