trentonCURSILLO

Kathy Tucker wants all to know the REGISTRATION DEADLINE is approaching for the Cursillo Region Two Spring Virtual Encounter - English. Here are the details:

The Temple in Jerusalem was the heart and soul of the Jewish people. Inside  was a room called the Holy of Holies. Once a year the High Priest could enter  and offer sacrifice. A large curtain hung from the ceiling to the floor at the  entrance. Inside was the Arc of the Covenant which the Hebrews carried with  them from Egypt. It contained the rod of Moses, the tablets of the Ten  Commandments and some manna from the desert: reminders of God’s presence  among them. On the day Jesus visited, He found merchants in the court outside the Temple  selling doves, pigeons, and lambs to the worshipers who came to offer sacrifice.  They could not use Roman coins at the Temple, so there were bankers, money  changers, who would exchange shekels for the Roman money, for a fee. They  polluted the Temple with earthly matters. Rather than a place of worship and  encountering God, the Temple had become big business for the Priests. The  merchants and Priests profaned what God made holy. This is why Ch

The Second Vatican Council reminds us that Mary is a member of the Church who “occupies a place in the Church which is the highest after Christ and also closest to us.” (LG, #54) She is the first and the greatest of all the Disciples of Christ.  Our Lady of the Assumption is the Patroness of the United States as well as the Patroness of the Diocese of Trenton. When Pat and I went on pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to Italy, Portugal, Spain and France, we saw many images of Mary’s Assumption. In Israel, we even visited a room reported to be the place of Our Lady’s “Dormition’ or sleep. Earliest Christians believed that Mary did not die, but went to sleep and was taken up to heaven, body and soul.  Romans 6:23 tells us “The gift of God is eternal life. The wages of sin is death.”  Genesis describes the creation of Adam and Eve in the state of grace. They were living in total relationship with their Creator, walking and talking with God. There was neither sickness, nor death until they s

A dogma is an official document of the Catholic Church- In March 1948, during the Pontificate of Pope Pius XII; a new ecumenical council was called. This council would be an extremely opportune time for the proclamation of the Dogma of the Assumption of Mary. This followed the appearance of Our Lady in Fatima starting on May 13, 1917. Our Lady told the children to recite the rosary and do penance in reparation for the sins of the world. To spread the message of Fatima throughout the world, Fr. Alonzo took a statue of Our Lady of Fatima from the Capelinha in Fatima on tour to Madrid and throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In Catholic Spain, the “Miracle of the Doves” occurred. Wherever Our Lady’s statue appeared, it was surrounded by white doves hovering over it as an honor guard. Many miracles also occurred. In Heaven, Mary is the Mediatrix and dispenser of graces. She has appeared in many places and at many times to ask us to repent and to pray the Rosary daily. Many of our

Prayer: Benevolent Lord, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,   your pilgrim people gathered here this night ask for courage, the courage to live out in our daily lives the faith we profess with our lips.   Amen Last October I was asked to give a talk on Our Blessed Mother, In May we were blessed with two wonderful rollos on Our Lady by Fr. Ed and Ronnie Martella, both of which quoted the sacred scriptures and the many ways in which Mary is our model, our teacher, our spiritual guide and most of all and forever, our mother. It would seem that Cursillistas like to talk and to listen to talks about Mary.   Saturday Morning Sabatina is dedicated to Our Lady on every Cursillo weekend.   Non-Catholics just seem to wonder what all the fuss over Mary is about?   Let’s meditate on that question for a moment. This particular meditation is not an easy one. It involves the Supernatural reality of God and the spiritual realm beyond our reach but not beyond our knowledge.    These are themes which our

DeColores, This morning I had the wonderful weekly opportunity to share with Al Martella and a regular group of men who have been on a conference call weekly since the Pandemic began.   It is truly enriching. Today Al asked each of us to share how we are coping with the pandemic personally!   The responses were heartfelt, emotional, personal and prayerful. I was the last speaker, the clean up “batter” so to speak. I based my thoughts on the Tripod (Piety, Study and Action) My first step in coping with this is to continue and strengthen my own prayer life… I attend 2 weekday Masses and one on Sunday and made myself useful by assisting the Church team in organizing the return to Church effort.   I start my day with morning prayer, and do a good amount of spiritual reading.   I try to go out of the house and sit in a park, by the complex pool or outside of Dunkin Donuts (cannot give up that first Cup!!)   I am reading the biography of John Paul 2!   It is 1000 pages and I read i

You can watch the July 17th School of Leaders on YouTube at this link.

Some of you may recall that from December 2012 to December 2014, I underwent a series of medical issues that threatened to take me. I was homebound for much of that time with nursing care from my wife and visiting nurses. I spent weeks in the hospital. Many of you prayed for me and helped lift my burden. During those difficult times, I turned to God and had some of my closest moments to Christ. I knew I was not alone. My greatest concern was for my wife who had to take care of me and who worried about me. She needed our prayers as well. For most of that time I was unable to attend Mass. As a daily communicant I missed being there and receiving the Eucharist. I watched on TV but it isn’t the same. For the past three months we all experienced the loss of Mass and communion. Somehow, it was worse for me this time than when I was sick. I know Christ is still present in our lives, but I longed so much to return to Mass and communion. Our entire society has also changed during thi

National Cursillo announces "We are excited to invite you to join us for a 2020 Virtual National Encounter on July 24 and 25! We are committed to having the Cursillo Charism at the heart of our encounter. This was true for our regular in-person encounter and will hold true for our Virtual National Encounter as well! Let’s Make History Together! Live-stream Masses, Virtual Fellowship, and Breakout Sessions. Log in from your cell phone, PC, Tablet etc. YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE AGENDA FOR THE ENCOUNTER AT THIS LINK. The registration fee is $50 per person if the Encounter Registration Form is received by July 5, 2020. Registration fee increases to $70.00 per person on July 6, 2020. We are unable to guarantee attendance after July 18, 2020 MORE DETAILS AND REGISTRATION FORMS CAN BE FOUND AT THIS LINK. Please continue to pray for the success of the First Virtual National Encounter.  BTW, The National Encounter is asking for palanca. It can be sent to cursillo.ncc.palanca@gmail.com

What a joy it was to see all those who were able to join us on the Zoom call last evening for School of Leaders.      Each time we gather, no matter the medium, we are given a chance to learn and grow from each other.    We open ourselves to what God has for us, wants to tell us and give us though our time with each other and the talks.    Each talk touches on similar but different aspects of the theme for the time.   And the Holy Spirit does what the Spirit does and brings the talks together. But in addition to that is the chance for those in community to respond to the talks, ask questions, seek clarification, and deepen the discussion with their own experiences and resources that have discovered, and last night was no different.   Last night, the idea of praying our most well known prayers; The Our Father, The Hail Mary and others, using different words was presented.   What a wonderful way to break open a prayer, to really reflect on what the prayer means.   We also were told