trentonCURSILLO

Scandal is nothing new to the Church or indeed to human understanding itself; it is as old as recorded history. The Old Testament is full of stories of individuals and kings from King David on, who behaved atrociously; just count how many times the kings of Israel made their children “pass through the fire”, a practice of sacrificing their children to the pagan god Moloch. At its very beginnings, the Church saw scandal in its leaders: Judas betrayed Jesus, Peter denied Jesus; all of the Apostles – except John – abandoned Jesus (probably with Peter leading the way out of town). In the 1500’s the behavior of many Catholic priests and bishops was so atrocious that an Augustinian priest decided the only way to deal with the situation was to separate from the Church. Although dedicated leaders such as St. Robert Bellarmine and St. Ignatius of Loyola led a true Counter-Reformation to address these failures, Martin Luther and others initiated the Protestant rebellion that continues to rock Ch

Prayer: Lord your Cursillistas gathered before you this day ask for courage-the courage to live out in our daily lives the faith we profess with our lips.   Amen I want you to close your eyes and think of one thing-your first love.   When you fell in love you wanted to know everything about that person.   What makes him or her happy what are the joys sorrows and most of all how to please that person.   Well, the author of those feelings, God, is no exception.   The most amazing love that we can imagine is exactly how God loves us.   Beyond our wildest dreams and he holds nothing back from his beloved.   One of the first commands he gave us was Love to  "Love one another as I have loved you"....there is no greater love than this to lay down your life for your friend."   Isn't that what we do when we forgive the hurt that someone has caused us.  We  put aside our "self-love" for sacrificial love "Christ-like love" Now it is very important