SCHOOL OF LEADERS by KATHY TUCKER, ASSISTANT LAY DIRECTOR

Saturday we had a wonderful SOL, with an inspirational spiritual talk about Surrender from Deacon Tony Martucci. Mary Weis gave the technique talk on Beautiful Hope. If you have Hope you have Faith. 

Please take the time to read the talks below, they are truly inspiring. Come to the next SOL on November 17, 2018 for your Spiritual fulfillment!

Kathy 

+++++

"Prayer of Surrender" by Deacon Tony Martucci

Mk 10:17-30: "As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus answered him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother."

He replied and said to him, "Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth." Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, "You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."

At that statement his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!"

The disciples were amazed at his words.

So Jesus again said to them in reply, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves, "Then who can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God." 

This gospel touches all of us. This young man is seeking the way to eternal life. He is a good man, keeping all the commandments but he wants MORE. Christ asks him to give up all that he owns tn to follow Jesus. He finds that too difficult.

We often look at this story and ask what it is that we must give up to follow Christ. Our possessions? Our treasures? 

+++++

BEAUTIFUL HOPE by MARY WEIS

Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint.

And hope does not disappoint. That was from Paul to the Romans Chapter 5. I’m here to talk about hope. That’s really a tough subject. Why? Because it’s so hard, so hard to have hope! Firsthand I can tell you that these past few weeks I have had to call upon the Holy Spirit for strength and hope in dealing with the upcoming Cursillo weekend. 

I have also read and reread this book to sustain me and keep in line with God’s plan for me. It’s a wonderful book and it’s titled, of course, Beautiful Hope.  And it is beautiful and encouraging. Has anyone read it? It will definitely satisfy your Study of the tripod.

It’s an uplifting book comprised of personal stories of hope.

Kelly has enlisted the help of several people, some well known, and others who have never written anything before. All of them are American Catholics trying to live the gospel. Matthew has asked these people a few thought provoking questions as to their contributions to the book: 

What gives you hope?
What sustains your hope?
Where does your hope for the Catholic Church come from?
What are your hopes for the Catholic Church and humanity?
How do you bring hope to others?

Kelly only writes the prelude. Matthew Kelly says we need hope now more than ever before. Hope is the one thing people cannot live without. Matthew Kelly feels strong about the virtue of hope because he has based his mission of Dynamic Catholic on it. The mission of Dynamic Catholic is to re-energize the Catholic Church in America by developing world class resources that inspire people to rediscover the genius of Catholicism. That sounds like a lot of hope to me. 
The book is divided into four parts: Choosing Hope, Hope in the Church, Hope in Action, and Becoming Hope. In the first part, Choosing Hope, Sister Miriam Heidland, a sister of the Society of the Most Holy Trinity, who has written books and speaks publicly, states that for people of faith, the truest meaning of hope is not ultimately a feeling or longing toward a vague temporal goal, but rather a gift from God that orders us toward eternal goodness, truth, and beauty. For a long time she thought that hope was just wishing for something to happen or not occur. Aren’t many of our hopes like that? I hope that God will hear my prayer and I can live long enough to dance at my granddaughter’s wedding, or have good weather for my vacation or get that better job I applied for.

These are all good intentions but that’s not what hope really is. Hope is the surrender of ourselves to God’s will, accepting that realization through everything we do, knowing full well that through Him, the promise of eternal salvation will be ours. Sister Miriam talks about cracks in our foundation, cracks in our lives. Does anybody here have any cracks in their lives? Yes, we all have plenty: deceit, jealousy, shame, envy, whatever they may be, and we must face what they are. We face them in front of Jesus. It is only through Jesus Christ that we can fix these cracks. It is only through complete acceptance into God that our lives begin to build and take on structure. And we can only accept what He gives us through hope. It only occurs with hope. Hope for us is in living our lives with Christ. We must look into ourselves first before we can begin to know what hope is and bring hope to others.

What about hope in the church? Can we find hope there? We can, in so many ways: in our times at mass, sharing and making friends with our fellow parishioners, praying with our men’s or women’s groups, coming to the aid of others through Catholic Charities, a giving tree at Christmas and the unborn who have no one to speak for them. What about our exceptional priests who never ever tire of listening to our ills, problems and issues? It is only through the church and in our own methodology of Cursillo, where we survive spiritually. And it is in the church that we associate hope with generosity. I can tell you personally, it brings tears to my eyes seeing the donations pour in whenever we ask, no matter what. 

Hope comes from people such as yourselves doing extraordinary things through your charity, good will and love! None of this would happen without our church. Why shouldn’t we have hope through our church? We would certainly be lost without it. 

Having hope within ourselves and gaining hope from the Church enables us to bring hope to others. I’d like to share one of the stories that stands out for me and touches my heart.

It’s from a priest who receives a call at 9:30 at night from a young man who wants to speak with him. The priest doesn’t know the person on the line at all, but agrees to meet with him the next day at the Catholic high school nearby. When they meet, the boy could only cry. The priest, Father Meyer, told him ‘You need to talk to somebody. I don’t know what you’re going through, but people can help you. I don’t know what church you belong to but I’m available.” The young man, Will, met with Father Meyer every day for two weeks after that, finally breaking down and talking about his anxiety and frustrations of life. Encouraged by Father Meyer, Will eventually joins the youth group at the parish and starts to attend mass. He gains hope in his life to carry him into the future. But it doesn’t end there. Five years later those moments are still felt.

We can become hope in action. We can change the world by our small actions but it has to start with ourselves. As Saint John Paul II said, “I plead with you – never, ever give up on hope, never doubt, never tire, and never become discouraged. Be not afraid.” 

So now I ask you, my brothers and sisters in Christ, how are we to be hope in action? How can we be the beacons of light God has made us to be? For God wants us to be joyful and hopeful.

Again, I quote from Saint John Paul II, “It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal…the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society…” Sound like something you heard in Cursillo? 

De Colores

A NOTE FROM MARY WEIS, LAY DIRECTOR

My felllow cursillistas, once again I am asking for donations to fund our upcoming Men’s Weekend December 6-9 2018 at San Alfonso Retreat House, Long Branch. Only through your contributions is this possible. We have increased the weekend fee to $225 but we must add an additional $60 for each and every person attending. San Alfonso charges us $285 per person for the weekend (and that’s at a discount!) We also don’t turn anyone away who cannot pay.

Considering that we only had two diocesan masses this year with collections, your donations are the prime support of Cursillo. Monies we collect at School of Leaders go to food and drink.

We incur both National and Regional dues as well as a stipend to Epiphany for the use of their venue. Please be as generous as you can, anything is appreciated.  Thank you again and may God bless you abundantly! You can send your donations to our Treasurer:

JoAnne Henderson 
48 Berkshire Rd
Whiting NJ 08759

Also, Our Diocesan Mass/Team Send Off  will be Friday, November 30 2018 at 8pm at Saint John’s Church, 619 Chestnut St, Lakehurst NJ, Off Route 70. 

DeColores, Mary

GOOD NEWS FROM MARY WEIS ABOUT TRENTON 127

Mary Weis, Lay Director writes: "We are pleased to announce that Trenton will be having a Men’s Weekend in December from December 6-9 2018 at San Alfonso Retreat House, Long Branch, New Jersey.

We only have 5 candidates so we’re praying that God will provide us with more. Candidates are: 

James Monks  (Sponsor - David Riggio)
Luis Quinto  (Sponsor - Adelaide Sangiorgi)
James Walsh  (Sponsor - Dean Boturla)
Brian Morgan  (Sponsor - Marisel Kemper)
Anthony Cecala (Sponsor - George and Mary Weis)

Please pray for these candidates and for the team of Trenton 127.

TRENTON MONITOR WRITES ABOUT TRENTON CURSILLO

The September 20, 2018 edition of the Trenton Monitor includes an article titled "Cursillo members enjoy evening of prayer, renewal, fellowship."

The article, written by Rose O'Connor opens:

"The Cursillo community in the Diocese of Trenton gathered Sept. 7 in St. Raphael-Holy Angels Church, Hamilton, where they prayed and supported each other on their journeys of faith." You can read the entire article at this link. Thank you to Rose and the Trenton Monitor for this article.

DIOCESAN MASS PICTURES

Deacon Joe Moore of the Trenton Monitor staff
took 29 wonderful pictures
of Friday's Diocesan Mass
at St. Raphael/Holy Angels Church.
You can see the pictures at this link. 

 

A NOTE FROM MARY WEIS, LAY DIRECTOR

Oh, what a night! The Diocesan Mass on Friday, September 7, was such a joyous, heartwarming and emotional event. The community was blessed by having three, yes, three priests con-celebrate: Father Ed Blanchett, pastor Visitation, Brick, Father Jay Bowden and Father Jerome Guld from Saint Joseph's in Toms River. Many cursillistas came out and brought their friends, curious to know what Cursillo is about. 

Father Ed's humble and relevant talk on recent events had most of us teary-eyed. It also gave us hope and inspiration to continue in our faith and love of the Church. 

This was followed by the installation of our new Post Cursillo Section Head, Terri D'Andrea. Adelaide Sangiorgi had already extended her term on Secretariat as the Post Cursillo Head and Terri was gracious enough to say yes to replacing Adelaide. We want to thank Adelaide for her devotion, hard work and untiring efforts working with the Ultreya Heads and Secretariat. Adelaide will be missed. We also want to welcome Terri to the new position and extend our prayers and best wishes as she takes on this new role.  

To complete our dedication to Trenton Cursillo, the entire Secretariat team renewed their commitment to the community for another year.   

It didn't end there. Robert Lauricella gave a beautiful witness to why we are all here (at Cursillo), knowing we have all been touched by this personal experience as he has been and admits that he continues to be affected by Cursillo every day.

Putting us over the top was Marie Garrett who had found a touching, beautiful writing about our priests. The priests were asked to look at their hands and never forget that those hands were consecrated to Christ and able to transform ordinary bread and wine into His Body and Blood. The Church and its followers are depending upon our priests to carry out God's work on earth: "Do this in remembrance of Me". How else would we attain salvation without our priests who are so precious to us?   

It was so apparent that the congregation was on fire from the Holy Spirit, fellowship afterwards was a chorus of voices making friends, being friends and bringing friends to Christ. De Colores!

REGION TWO UPDATE by SUE WENZLICK, REGION 2 ENGLISH COORDINATOR

Hello Region 2 Cursillistas!

I pray that your summer has been going well – I know mine has gone too fast!  I was so glad to see so many familiar faces at the 28^th National Encounter last week in Seattle!  It certainly was a spirit filled group of people all gathering together in the name of the Lord.

I am sending you this email to invite you to the Region 2 Fall Encounter scheduled for October 19-21, 2018 in Vineland, NJ.  All Cursillistas in Region 2 – in all Dioceses in their respective language groups – are invited.  So please spread the word!

What is a Region 2 Encounter?  This is a joyful event in which leaders from the Cursillo movements in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, and Washington, DC gather together for a weekend of food, fellowship, learning, sharing, prayer, Mass, rosary, and mutual support in friendship towards our common endeavor of bringing our friends to Christ in our own dioceses. Cef Aguillon, National English Coordinator, will be presenting rollos at this encounter! Won’t you please join us?

The website (http://www.cursilloregion2.org/) will be updated shortly with an agenda.  Please sign up today!

29^th National Encounter in Scranton, PA 

We are pleased to announce that our Region will be hosting the 29^th National Encounter in Scranton, PA.  We will need lots of volunteers from our Region!  We also have a date and location for our Spring Encounter.  SO PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDARS SO YOU DON’T MISS OUT!

“Many hands make light work” and a successful National Encounter is the result of the service of many talented and committed people.  It is never too early to start looking for volunteers to assist us next summer.  Here are the list of the committees we are forming:

·       Registration

·       Hospitality

·       Transportation

·       Liturgy

·       Music

·       Photography/Videography

·       Equipment

·       Décor

·       Ultreya

·       Fiesta

·       Book Store

·       Support

Please review the list above and shoot me an email back if you would be interested in being on any of the committees.  THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR HELP!

I look forward to seeing you at the Region 2 Fall Encounter in October!

Decolores,

Sue Wenzlick

Region 2 English Coordinator

Wenzlick@verizon.net

SEPTEMBER DIOCESAN MASS

The Diocesan Mass for September 7th
will be held at St. Raphael's & Holy Angels Church
3500 South Broad Street, Hamilton NJ, 08610
at 8 PM

Hope to see everyone there. Please bring your respective candidates to the Mass.

Please let those know who do not have e-mail or computer access know. Car pool for those who may not have transportation.

You're their Friend, Be that Friend and bring your Friend to Christ!!

DeColores, Kathy Tucker

SCHOOL OF LEADERS UPDATE by KATHY TUCKER, ASSISTANT LAY DIRECTOR

School Of Leader was a cacophony of bells and laughter for the Bible Jeopardy was in full swing!!  It was the event we have all been waiting for: "BIBLE Jeopardy" This happening left us with more questions than answers in the style of true jeopardy!

The Master of Ceremony "The Greatest Kathy Tucker" was tongued tied at times leaving premature bell ringing, only to disqualify some ring ins.  

Thanks to all the teams that participated:

+ The Holy (aka Holly) Bell Ringers
+ Mary's Girls and Boy
+ Old and New
+ Quasimodo Bell Ringers

Can the Deacon's team defeat the Priest's team?
Can the Laity boast of defeating both the Priest's and the Deacon's team?
Can cowbells serve as true substitutes for split second buzzers?

After the dust cleared and in a bitterly contested round-- No-- seemed to be the answer to all these questions and after painstakingly reviewing the video tape, the judges decided that the final jeopardy answer was, indeed, ambiguous and the Deacon's team would live to play another day!  Lord Willing. 

Please consult your program schedules for where and when this rematch is scheduled; until that time.

Congratulations to the Winners! The Final Bible Jeopardy Winner was Mary's Girls and Boy: Janet Moscuzza, Mary Ann Dowd, Father Ed, Nereida Kringdon.

DeColores! Kathy

p.s. Please prepare by studying your bible intently with hands on cowbells
p.p.s. David our judge has resigned from his job due to the fact that the community is no longer speaking to him so we are looking for a new judge.  Applications are now being accepted.

Come and enjoy "Movie Day" at SOL on August 11, 2018 right after the 9 AM Mass.

SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST by DEACON JOHN CLYMORE

This weekend we celebrate the solemnity of Saint John the Baptist. There are only three birthdays celebrated by the church in the liturgical calendar: John the Baptist, (June the 24th) (Mary Sept. 8th) and (Jesus Dec. 25th). These integral to the plan of salvation were each born without original sin. It is for that reason that we celebrate there births as liturgical solemnities. Saint John the Baptist is so important to the life of the church that, as with this weekend, it supersedes the Sunday of ordinary time.

In my humble opinion (he is 2nd) only to Mary the Mother of God. The most powerful prophet of the New Testament, john follows the footsteps of Elijah, & Elisha. Elisha asked & received a double portion of the holy–spirit. 

John was filled with the Holy Spirit for God knew him before he was born. It was god who named him John & God who delivered him to precede Jesus. God has given our families the gift of the Baptism by water and fire. Dad’s lead there children to the Baptism of fire through living out there own baptismal promises. To be priest, prophet, and king in family life. 

In fact we have become well over two billion Catholics and the millions more of Christians baptized in faith.

God has delivered us John the Baptist to make ready the world’s children to find redemption at the feet of Jesus.

We the people of God are the Josephs and Mary’s that lead our families on the road of eternal life. 

I find it necessary to talk about life, the life given to us from conception to natural death. A journey of being human (human being that is) a life of marriage, (Catholic marriage) between man and woman to be fruitful and multiply.

The sixty-eight million Catholics in the United States and the other Christian churches that still believe in the sanctity of marriage must stay the course and fight for married life. There are many who think it is okay for two men or two women to be married before god on holy-ground but it is not!

We all have stories about our own sin the sin that has a hold on us that sin that we do daily battle with. That sin that Jesus says go and sin no more, no matter if that be addiction to drugs or alcohol or homosexuality the Lord wants us to give it up one day at a time. And so we do battle between the goodness of god and the evil of Satan.

It is through our baptism that we achieve this; it is God's grace that we should overcome sin to be eternally happy in heaven forever. It is through Jesus Christ that he forgives us again and again until we get it right. The sacraments of his church are to be used for God’s plan of salvation. John the Baptist leads us to the savior that we become less that that god become more. To be perfect as the heavenly father is perfect. The church is perfect when it leads us in truth. We become perfect through the sacraments and only in the sacraments is perfection achieved in the father. 

The father has given us these seven to attain heaven and he has given us these tools to evangelize our families and our neighbors in his kingdom. If you want to be happy for the rest of your life sing his praise to the glory of god and surrender daily to love. And who is love? It is the Lord and Peter that was lightly clad put on his garment and swam to shore. It is the Lord. Let us cloth our nakedness in love. 

If we want to be happy for the rest of our lives!

Follow truth!   

Peace be with you
Deacon John Clymore