SCHOOL OF LEADERS UPDATE By Mary Weis, Assistant Lay Director

Today's School of Leaders was inspiring, enlightening, fulfilling and challenging.

We heard Sister Clara speak of Pope Francis' Joy of the Gospel chapter on evangelization. "To evangelize is to make the kingdom of God present in our world...Peace harmonizes every diversity" and the new evangelization calls us to be peacemakers.

Renewed, we then recommitted ourselves to Christ using our service sheets from the weekend. Our large group heard from Ronnie Martella and Pat Burke what the National Encounter meant to them as well as a beautiful, powerful witness from Bob Burke.

Johnny and Roe DiStefano, the dynamic duo, challenged us to be friends with God and each other. We walked away with goodie bags of "Friendship" containing helpful reminders to use along life's journey.

What a morning!

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE CURSILLO COMMUNITY

Beloved Cursillistas,

Where are your THOUGHTS?

Where do you spend your TIME??

Where do you spend your MONEY??

These three hard-hitting, yet simple questions were posed to us in the Ideal Rollo; the very first talk on our Cursillo adventure.  Seeing everyone at the picnic this past Saturday brought to light how we had all answered God’s Call in so many unique ways and how gently but persistently God reminds us of our service sheets and the commitment we made to HIM Alone on our weekends.

Recently we had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know Rick and Lisa’s son, John Klarmann and the wonderful mission The Lord has given him as a lay missionary to college students at Montclair State right here in New Jersey.  As we spoke with John the image of St. Mother Theresa of Calcutta came to mind.  No, John wasn’t going off to India as so many have, but he was serving the Lord right in his environment, in a way unique to John and the person Our Lord created him to be--working on college campuses to bring our Catholic youth to Christ.

Brothers and sisters-in-Christ, John needs our prayer support and knowing the loving and prayerful community we are, we will pray for him as he begins his two-year adventure for Christ.  Pray our Merciful and Loving God will give him the wisdom, strength, faith, hope and charity to carry out this mission in HIS Name.  John also needs our financial support.  Surely, those of us who are able to do so, will also support John financially in this most urgently needed out-reach to the future Church.  The website for the FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) is www.focus.org/goto/johnklarmann or www.focus.org to learn more about this wonderful mission which has the blessing of Our Holy Father and surely the Anointing of the Holy Spirit.

Eduardo Bonnin said when speaking of the Cursillo,  I realized that this was not a dream, or an exhortation of our youth, but a Charism of the Holy Spirit.  Surely our Merciful Lord will bring to completion the Good work HE began in John and in all of us!

Forever DeColores!

David and Mary Ann Dowd xo xo 

FOR YOUR DAILY PIETY

Matt Oleynick suggests this site that includes Daily Reflections and Online Retreats and other resources from Crieghton University.

A MESSAGE FROM OUR ASSISTANT LAY DIRECTOR, MARY WEIS

Our School of Leaders Saturday was awesome. We heard from our beloved Deacon Tony Martucci who spoke about the Pope's book Joy of the Gospel, Chapter 2. The Pope states that profits are more important than the environments, and the world suffers from a lack of ethics. As Catholics we must take the gospel and give it "flesh". We must evangelize our culture and not hide our faith in the workplace or with the family. Challenges exist to be overcome! Let us be realists without losing our joy, our boldness and our hope-filled commitment.

Pat Burke followed by confessing how much she loves this book! The Pope's book coupled with The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic by Matthew Kelly give her the formula for living a Christian life, following Christ's way, and developing a better understanding of being a true disciple.

Editor's Note: Pat shared a daily "prayer process" from Matthew Kelly that can be found at this link.

We grouped on how our fathers and our "father figures" in our lives have helped us shape our Christian faith. Tara Mika graced us with her beautiful voice in song.

There was much discussion and sharing, with plenty to take home and consider.

Please be with us for our next School of Leaders August 22,at 9:45, following the 9am mass at Epiphany in Brick.

De Colores!

A WONDERFUL REMINDER

Kathy Vlcej and Jean Santiago remind us to “Stop”
and pray for candidates and for each other. 
(Picture taken at Jeremiah House, Keyport, New Jersey in 1999)