Twin Cities Catholic Cursillo
No, not really. A vocation is defined as a strong summons to a particular course of action. If this course of action is not employment-related but person-related, your vocation will not “take a break” because it is within the core of who you are. During your Cursillo weekend you learned what it means to grow in your own faith, and
experienced how to lead others to a relationship with Jesus. That is discipleship, the vocation you hold as an active Christian in the environments where you find yourself each day.
We recently met with the rector and rectora for the July weekends. They will be disciples and Cursillo leaders on a different level. Through developing the weekend teams, they will prepare the teams to also be disciples on a different level as they work with a particular set of candidates. There is a rhythm of growth in the formation of a
team. The rector and rectora guide the process, and team members’ knowledge of discipleship and leadership expands.
In this process, Christ has plans to bring each one closer to Him in the ways they need. Their Christian vocation specifically as Cursillistas expands. The details of the weekend may change some over time, but the vital elements and messages remain and need no embellishment as the basis of all of it is Christ’s love through friendship. Each
team member, in their vocation, will be going on a three day mission trip to bring Christ into the lives of the candidates and each other.
Equally important to sharing Christ’s love within the 3-Day Encounter is sharing within the Cursillo community. Current 4th dayers simply need to be on mission with each other. This is why we have Ultreyas and other 4th day activities. Attendance supports discipleship on a different level as we interact with others who have different
experiences than our small group. Our sense of living the vocation of discipleship is expanded and elevated with each Cursillista interaction. On mission in our daily lives looks different than serving on a weekend team. Support and encouragement from each other is even more necessary than while on the cloistered 3-Day Encounter.
In addition to the support that we provide each other individually in our small groups, we need to support our broader community in a sense of service, of apostolic action, of outreach, and of mission. We are not Cursillistas only during the Weekends. Continue to practice the Method. Continue to grow in your vocation by participating
in community. We are called to continually serve each other in many ways beyond the 3-Day Encounter.
God bless you friends!
Larry & Jeanne Bendzinski
After attending the reunion for the last set of weekends, we are again struck by the sense of community. We attended mass with the parish community of Mary, Mother of the Church, and Fr. Jim Perkl gave a homily that included references to the Cursillo weekend and its mountain top experience which was very coincidental since the Gospel was the Transfiguration. A few of the apostles got a glimpse of heaven that day. The candidates and team had a similar view on the weekend.
Have you really thought about how were we able to make this happen on a 3-Day Encounter Weekend? A team of people came together, prayed a lot, and through a common focus and energy, created a view of heaven on earth. Obviously, the Holy Spirit did all the heavy lifting, but worked through the team that formed community in preparation for the weekend, and continued to form community with new Cursillistas as the weekend progressed.
It is fun to work weekends for the very reason of being on the mountaintop again. Most of the things we do in life do not involve visits to the mountaintop. Our journey is always to climb a little higher with our friends, learning from the struggles and enjoying the blessings as we go.
As Cursillistas we are called to come together, not only in our small groups, but in our Ultreyas and School of Leaders, and through the Holy Spirit form community and welcome people into our lives. That is what apostolic action is all about and how the Cursillo method works. We are called to make friends, both new people and Cursillistas, individually and through community, to accompany us up the mountain.
As we journey along, Ultreya and School of Leaders are not optional things that we do when we feel like it. They are our response to God calling us to come up the mountain, just as He called Jonah to journey to proclaim the message to Nineveh. We are graced with what we need in these places, we grace others with what they need, and God goes before us preparing the way.
Work with God’s plan, don’t run from His call. This Lent, sacrifices like fasting, penance, and almsgiving can teach you much for the journey. Please also consider giving the gift of your presence to His people regularly in grouping, attending Ultreya, and School of Leaders. Be open to the people He puts in your path, to accept and love them as brothers and sisters in Christ. We are all travelers on the journey to the mountain of heaven.
We just experienced two powerful Cursillo weekends. Candidates witnessed to the building of community and how they desired to continue to be part of the community after their cloistered Encounter. In three short days they learned about themselves, about Jesus, and about Christian community. They each moved from the way they lived life to a desire to want to know more and live more authentically in union with Christ and the Christian community. Their sponsors and team are critical in assisting them in their desire to find a group, attend Ultreya, and participate in other 4th day activities.
One of the candidates mentioned that God had it right: send Jesus and give him a band of followers to challenge and support each other on their faith journey. This is exactly the method of Cursillo. And it is designed to go beyond the 3-Day Weekend.
Our 4th Day practices parallel a weekend Encounter. We incorporate piety, study, and apostolic action into our everyday life. The main difference is we are no longer cloistered. The same questions and challenges continue to surface as on the weekend, and our personal growth and conversion continues. We support others in the Christian community in their ongoing personal growth and conversion through the methods of grouping and Ultreya, but we also have a new and very important role: introducing Christ to others who have become new friends. We should reach out to new friends just as the team welcomed the candidates to the weekend.
By following the grouping card, bringing others to know Christ though our actions, and supporting Christian community in Ultreyas, we individually and collectively move closer to the authentic person God wants us to be. Living life as a disciple of Christ becomes our primary vocation within the vocations of our individual environments. This works best when living all three legs of the stool.
Imagine a world where everyone lives as disciples of Christ. Peace, love and harmony would reign. Lofty, but necessary goals, that can only be accomplished one friend, one relationship at a time. When was the last time you, or your group, reached out beyond your comfort zone to make a friend and be a friend? Are you praying individually, and as a group, to recognize and receive the person Christ has planned for you to befriend? Is your new friend ready to be introduced to Jesus, and be brought into Christian community?
Most of us were reluctant to attend our Cursillo Encounter, and after doing so wondered why we waited so long. That mountain-top experience may not be repeated very often, but it is replaced by a deep joy and confidence in Christ’s love for each of us. We know the excitement our new Cursillistas feel. Let’s be open to bring others to that love and joy so needed in today’s world.
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.
We make hundreds of decisions every day. Most of the decisions are small: what to wear for the day, what to eat for lunch, or the best route to take on snowy day. Some decisions take a little more mental energy: how to best respond to an email, the most efficient process to reach a shortterm goal, or where your next vacation might be.
As Cursillistas, we know that God is in all the things that make up our lives, all choices, big or small. How do you know if you are actually discerning His will for your life, or simply making decisions based on your own selfish desires or priorities?
Prayer is speaking to God. Discernment is listening to God and His will for your life. There are many good methods to use in prayer. Discernment is more difficult because it requires us to be still to listen and be attuned to messages given by God in multiple ways.
In grouping, we are used to telling our stories of seeing God working in our lives. Recognizing and reporting is important. It is encouraging to those listening. Is there more? Are you listening to God beyond recognition that He is in your life? Is He calling you beyond the usual things in your life to become the person He wants you to be, to lead you further into discipleship?
From our own personal experience, we discovered what God wills for us is not usually what we would choose to do based on our own selfish desires. Even just entertaining God’s idea creates nervousness and fear. That is because we are human and He most often asks us to do something that is not in our comfort zone. What He is asking causes discomfort because it stretches us to grow toward better discipleship.
Also from personal experience, we have learned that He calms our fears, and gives us the tools right when we need them to do exactly what He wishes. A surprise we discovered is that each challenge presented is countered with unexpected blessings that bring deep joy.
Along the way, we have learned to trust and depend on God more fully. Following God’s will involves some kind of sacrifice. In giving up parts of who we think we are, we find who God thinks we are and that leads to a freedom you cannot get any other way. This is a challenge followed by blessing.
At the next School of Leaders we will hear how one Cursillista is listening to God’s will for him and how he is acting in faith to follow. Join us to start the New Year with a different perspective on decision-making.
The question kept popping up in different places: “Who has God created me to be, and what does He want me to do?” It was asked many times during the planning sessions for our 4th Day Encounter held on November 12th. We circled around it, poked at it, and dissected what it meant to each of us and what it might mean to others in our Cursillo community.
We heard Bishop Cozzens tell us about who we are in Christ and the mission that gives our lives purpose and direction. He described that our lives are a gift from God and our role in gratitude is to seek to love Him and share His love in the world. We can do this best by having a relationship with God through prayer, understanding our identity in Him as a beloved child, and seeking to do His will for us as our mission. Team member talks told specifically how they have come to know through their relationship with Christ who they are and how they are to live out their mission in their everyday environments.
Another place this concept appeared was at a retreat for liturgical ministers in our parish. We were challenged to be Christ to those folks in the pew with us. We were asked if a friendly encounter is enough to encourage a newcomer to return, or if we are following our God-given mission, the goal would be to really get to know that person and invite them into fuller Christian community. This is what we do to “make a friend, be a friend, and bring a friend to Christ” in Cursillo. It requires taking the extra steps, making the extra effort, to be a friend and not just an acquaintance by developing a relationship. With this goal as our mission, we can share the love of Christ with others.
Ask yourself these questions: do I truly believe in the very core of my being that I am an unconditionally beloved child of God despite all my human imperfections? If I truly believe this, how will I live in the world so that others can also know they are equally beloved by God?
These are not easy questions. They take us back to our 3-day Cursillo Weekend where we spent Friday encountering ourselves, Saturday encountering Christ, and Sunday encountering community. We gain a greater understanding of who Christ is through our continued study. In our ever-changing environments, we have an opportunity to discern through prayer our mission of apostolic action. How we understand ourselves in God’s plan will evolve if we are continually growing and changing.
A couple of weeks ago while I was at our parish for the Fall Regional Encounter, a gentleman there for the funeral of his mother asked me “what is Cursillo?” Being aware of his reason for being there, I was careful not to take a lot of his time but gave him a brief description of Cursillo. You never know when you will be asked, or quite what the person asking really needs to know, but it is necessary to have the words that best fit you to tell about Cursillo.
Are you able to briefly describe Cursillo to someone? The main purpose of Cursillo is two-fold: to continually develop a deeper relationship with Jesus, and to develop Christian community.
Another important component of the description is your personal story. The early disciples knew the power of personal witness in conveying the message of Jesus. With enthusiasm they willingly shared what their relationship with Jesus meant to their lives, how His friendship had transformed them to be better people. Your personal story of how Jesus is working in many areas of your life is the best way to share the blessing that Cursillo is to you.
Sharing how God is working in your life takes wisdom, courage, and practice. It is not always easy to share something that feels so deeply personal, but that is exactly what Jesus wants us to do. It is how we reflect Him that encourages others to want to know Him better in their own lives. Sharing your personal story is easier if you think about these three components: I was, He did, and I am.
First “I was”--- think about a time before your personal relationship with Jesus came about --- ask yourself these questions: What did I live for then? What was missing in my life? Was I happy and joyful? Second “He did” --- think about a meaningful encounter(s) that led you to want Jesus to become more a part of your life --- ask yourself these questions: Who is Jesus to me? Why did I want to get closer to him? Third “I am” --- think about how your life changed after Jesus became a greater part of it --- ask yourself these questions: What is my life like now compared to before my relationship with Christ? Why is this important to me?
First “I was”--- think about a time before your personal relationship with Jesus came about --- ask yourself these questions: What did I live for then? What was missing in my life? Was I happy and joyful?
Second “He did” --- think about a meaningful encounter(s) that led you to want Jesus to become more a part of your life --- ask yourself these questions: Who is Jesus to me? Why did I want to get closer to him?
Third “I am” --- think about how your life changed after Jesus became a greater part of it --- ask yourself these questions: What is my life like now compared to before my relationship with Christ? Why is this important to me?
When you reflect on these aspects, you will be able to develop a personal testimony that tells your listener truly what being a Cursillista means to you. At School of Leaders in November, several 4th dayers will be sharing their two minute “elevator speech” describing Cursillo to someone they just encountered. Come, learn, and share how we can tell more effectively what Cursillo means to each of us.
God bless you friends! Larry & Jeanne Bendzinski
The Cursillo method has many tools to help you to continue to grow spiritually. Grouping, after performing your piety, study, and action, is a significant opportunity for both growth and recognizing growth in ourselves, our groupies, and our Ultreyas.
Look at your grouping card carefully. It seems the use of the grouping card reflects a striving to produce, to be accountable and so it is easy to fall into only telling what you have done to have a relationship with Jesus. This is not a bad thing. But Jesus doesn’t have a checklist. He doesn’t want your list of items. He just loves you. All He wants is for you to love Him.
Use the grouping card as a guide to proclaim where Jesus is working in each of the areas of your life. When you do your part in each area, every leg of the stool becomes an opportunity to share a close moment and His part in your relationship is continually revealed. This changes grouping from sharing your own one-sided view of relationship
with Christ to proclaiming all the ways He works in your life and His amazing role in your relationship. Consider the following:
Piety-- Of all my piety practices this week, when did I feel most close to Christ or when did I experience a revelation from the Holy Spirit? Share the story involving it.
Study-- Of all my study this week, what led me into a deeper understanding of my faith? Share this growth from your heart.
Action-- Was I able to live as a Christian in all my interactions this week? Was I able to speak aloud to others about Jesus (apostolic action)? Tell about your successes and failures. The successes, changes, or difficulties you identify could be in yourself, in your family, in your community, or in your workplace. What would you do differently next time?
The responsibility of each group member is to listen carefully and deeply, encourage, and support what is being shared, taking into their own heart how Christ is at work through their friend. Be sure to begin and end in prayer, especially thanking God for the revelations of Himself in each person.
Grouping in this manner is very personal, and takes courage and awareness of God working in our lives. Train yourself to see the moments, and absorb into your heart the love and guidance Jesus is providing.
Sharing these moments, speaking of Jesus aloud, strengthens you to share with all people you encounter, not only your groupies or Ultreyas. Each groupie can be strengthened in their own journey and we can introduce Jesus to others by speaking of Him very naturally because we continually speak of Him in our lives. That is apostolic action as a confident Christian leader, a disciple of Christ.
We just attended the National Cursillo Encounter in Joliet, IL. The theme for this year centered on a word that states exactly what we are called to do as Christian leaders. That word is kerygma, which simply means to proclaim, to announce, to preach the Good News. Rollos expanded on how the kerygma works in and through pre-Cursillo, the 3-Day weekend, and post-Cursillo.
By virtue of baptism, we are graced to be disciples of Jesus, another way of saying we are Christian leaders. Our purpose as Christian leaders is to share the Good News with others. As Cursillistas, we make friends, live our lives as Christians, and walk along with our friends on their journey. The way we respond
to life’s events will eventually catch the attention of our friends, and then we can proclaim the Good News to them.
After we each live our 3-Day Weekend, by following the Cursillo method of grouping and Ultreya we should continue to grow. Following the method of sharing piety, study, and action through grouping allows each of us to grow in Christ, understand His will for our lives, and desire to share Him with others.
We become true evangelists by befriending those who need a friend not just those who we desire as friends.
Practicing the Cursillo method makes individuals, groups, and Ultreya communities open for God’s purposes when we are sufficiently ready and strengthened by each other. Our continuous progressive conversion leads
each of us to a more mature spirituality where we accept God’s gifts and graces and return them to Him as gratitude by our willingness to serve Him. Continuous progressive conversion leads us into full Christian leadership.
As a Christian leader, making friends is the pre-Cursillo phase of the relationship. Look around you. Who do you see that needs a friend in their life? Are you open enough to let the light of Jesus shine through you, to see Jesus in this new friend? After a time, your new friend will trust you enough to hear you sharing the kerygma. Perhaps that friend will even be able to live a 3-Day Weekend. But even if they do not, you have still been a Christian leader and shared the Good News. You also have a vital, growing relationship with your friend.
In the post-Cursillo phase of relationship, if your friend has lived a Weekend, then you will continue to be friends within the broader 4th Day community, accompanying them to Ultreya and other events, and grouping together (or finding them a group). All the while, we support each other and the community as we grow through progressive conversion by living the Cursillo method, strengthening each person as Christian Leaders to enter into the pre-Cursillo phase again with more new friends.
What does it take to be a Christian leader? How is a Christian leader different from what the world around us considers leadership? Weekends #357 and #358 are examples to us of the many ways the 4th Day community takes active roles in being Christian leaders.
The most obvious leaders were the Rector and Rectora. Each agreed to lead a team of Christian men and women in serving and reaching out to other Christian men and women. Their core team leaders agreed to assist in that role, leading sections of the weekend. The whole team showed Christian leadership in many ways--from the Rollos where they shared some of their own faith walk to the prayer warriors talking to God about the candidates and speakers to the kitchen team serving with smiles to the liaison team getting all the facility needs organized.
Deacons, deacon couples, and priests served as spiritual leaders non-stop for 3 days. Father Yanta served for the first time in this role. Two priests attended as candidates. Fr. Finnegan, pastor of Our Lady of Grace, eagerly committed their facility to host the weekends and welcomed the new 4th Dayers on Sunday afternoon. Twin Cities Cursillo is very blessed to have religious leaders who are willing to give of themselves in so many ways.
Sponsors brought their friends to the weekend to meet Jesus in a new way. The 4th Day community supported all of them in prayer, palanca, masses, and attending the closing. We were blessed to have our friends from other language groups join us.
The candidates learned more about the call to be disciples for Christ, and how they have been blessed to be Christian leaders by their baptism. They will all go back to their environments motivated to lead their family and friends closer to Christ.
In the Leader’s Rollo, we learn that baptism confers both natural qualities (knowing the ideal, living in reality, having discipline and initiative, being warm and generous) and supernatural qualities (have a living faith, have hope, love, and true humility) of leadership on the individual. Each person served with joy because they know they are living out these qualities. The Christian leader believes that God loves them and can live their lives in confidence of the power of Holy Spirit working through them. There is no room for the power, control, and recognition that characterizes much of secular leadership because as Christian leaders we understand we are living the will of God.
The 3-Day weekend is the best place to experience an abundance of Christian leadership, and the resulting love and joy that comes with it. The weekend, wonderful as it is, is only the bridge between our pre-Cursillo life and our post-Cursillo life. How are we Christian leaders in those places?
God bless you Friends,
Larry and Jeanne Bendzinski
Welcome 4th Day!
