The month of November speaks little to its origin as the ninth month in the old Roman Calendar. From the latin novem for nine, it was bumped to the eleventh month of the year in the Gregorian and Julian Calendars after January and February were added. While remembering such trivial history is not that important, I appeal here that similar not be so with Cursillo. My point in the following is that the roots of the Cursillo movement matters; how we interpret and live out today a charism born out in the 40’s an ocean away matters.

Several years ago, I was asked to give the reflection at the summer dedication of TC Cursillo officers and leaders, based on “the book” on Cursillo and Eduardo Bonnin. I counted about two dozen times that the words “far away” were used as to whom Cursillo was to primarily be directed towards. Those two words have been one of my good spiritual haunts ever since.

If we stand on the shoulder of giants, those whose prayer and wisdom we revere and refer to, then I offer a few quotes for us to reflect upon from the Cursillo Movement USA website and the 2011 National Cursillo letter:

* “Three principles become the basic guidelines of Eduardo’s Mentality: the Love of God, Friendship, and the Person; especially the far away.”

* “Cursillo directs its focus, especially, but not exclusively, to the far away, to those who do not participate in or attend parochial events as a routine, without it causing them any concern not to participate...They (Cursillo) were designed, structured and prayed upon not to evangelize the world, but to evangelize the person.”

* “The purpose that the "idea" of Cursillo seeks is not for doing things, attending events, but to grow, develop, and be Christian where God has planted each person with faith, hope and charity. This life, through its connection to Christ, can be an inexhaustible source of meaning, authenticity, and a catalyst of energy and evangelical joy in the family, at work, and at play.”

So are we especially, but not exclusively, directing our focus to the “far away?” Yes, as any good haunt will do, I came full circle this past summer while giving the reflection at a similar summer Cursillo School of Leaders. In so many words I stated that our primary mission in Cursillo is not to make individuals better Catholics, nor to bring them to the Cursillo movement. While both good goals, they are the platform and the tool respectively. The primary mission is bringing individuals, especially the far away, to a personal understanding of themselves, a relationship with Jesus, and how they therefore might impact their own environments. Put more frankly, we are not primarily to assist in the training of spiritual elites from already church going elites, but to be introducing, in an effective and powerful way, people who are lost, disenfranchised, or spiritually bankrupt to the reformation possible through Jesus. How we as Cursillistas focus on and make that primary mission matter is of course open to prayer, debate, and discernment.

Dn Mick Humbert