CHRIST IS COUNTING ON US by RICK KLARMANN

FROM SCHOOL OF LEADERS (MAY, 2024)

Recall at the end of your Cursillo weekend there was a commitment ceremony. During the ceremony you received your Cursillo cross with the Spiritual Advisor saying, “Christ is counting on you.” Then you replied, “I am counting on Christ.”

As I was preparing for this School of Leaders, those words were on my heart and mind. “Christ is counting on me, and I am counting on Christ” but for what? What is He counting on me for? What am I counting on Him for?

The obvious answer is a general one—we call it the great commission—spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. But what specifically does He have in mind for me? This book and where I am in life have caused me to consider not only what I am doing but why. Jesus says in John’s Gospel. “I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) I realized that getting back to basics—making sure I had a good foundation—was just as important at the beginning of my Fourth Day as it is today.

Before I go on, Kathy will recap some of the material we have covered at School of Leaders so far.

I made my weekend in 1981 and my memory of how I lived my Fourth Day immediately after my weekend is a little fuzzy (for good or bad). I recall the fellowship, the Palanca, our chapel visit, the cross ceremony and many other aspects of that weekend. But I do not recall having a clear understanding of what Jesus was asking of me or what I was expecting of Him. I knew it had to do with the “great commission” but what that meant specifically, I wasn’t sure. So, I did what came naturally; I started doing. Sometimes I did the right thing and sometimes I’m not sure.

Last month Kathy spoke about a Venn diagram (SCROLL DOWN TO SEE DIAGRAM BELOW) and that image has haunted me. Yes, haunted.

I must confess that I am not a reader, but I have been reading a lot of Cursillo material—the Leaders Manual, the Articles of Operations from the National Cursillo website and other documents—lately. I know I need to better understand our Movement. So, I was researching Precursillo. If I were to ask you what you believed Precursillo was responsible for, I wonder if you answer would be the same as mine; that Precursillo was concerned with sponsors, candidates, and applications, but the more I read the more I realized that Precursillo is so much more.

 We’ll get into that in the coming months but leads me to the Venn diagram and the haunting. I started seeing the connections, overlaps, and individuality in the three sections. We use the tripod to help us understand our Piety, Study, and Action; that all three components must be present and in balance—not focusing on one or two areas at the expense of other areas. The Venn diagram helps me visualize the connections, and if my focus is on one area over another, the balance is off.

 Let me give you an oversimplified example. Let’s say we need three ingredients—flour, eggs and milk—to make bread. If you have milk and eggs but no flour you have scrambled eggs but not bread. If you have milk and flour but no eggs you have paste—sticky glue. I’m not sure what you get with just eggs and flour, but it can’t be tasty. My point is everything is necessary and in the right proportion. I will NEVER forget Pharisaical Phil who is so heavenly minded that he is no earthly good.

This book has been asking me (us) to reflect on our Movement and our place in it. And Kathys inspiration about the Venn diagram helps me, a visual learner, to see the connections and overlaps in Cursillo.

So, let’s back up to our Weekend. There were three encounters—first with Jesus, then ourselves, and finally with others. The first encounter causes us to ask some tough questions, “Who am I? Why am I here?

Throughout the day I am asked to consider if my life, with all of the good and bad in it, were a movie, would it be something I would want my spouse, children or loved ones to see? Day one had the Ideals talk, Grace talks, and ends with Piety. Everything happening on this day reminds that a life of Holiness is possible (” …with God all things are possible.” MT 19:26)

Having encountered myself, the next encounter was with Christ. The question “Who I am (to Him)?” is further explained as we were reminded that we are loved by a God who would do anything for us so we could be with Him. Throughout that day we were guided to know Him better (Study) and His gifts for us the Sacraments.

Then after another short sleep, we begin the third encounter—with others. No, I’m not talking about being wakened by singing but that we have a mission to be the Good News for everyone we meet. Mary Ann would call it our moveable square meter or the hula-hoop effect. All the talks taught us that this apostolate we call Cursillo is not something we should be doing from time-to-time or when we have time, but it should become part of our lives (Action).

As we continue this year at School of Leaders, my hope is that we will all see the three encounters as the heart of our Piety, Study, and Action as well as the heart of all that we do in Precursillo, Cursillo, and Postcursillo.

The lever that helps us do the impossible is prayer, Palanca. Recall as we were preparing for the last weekend, David spoke to us about Palanca. He reminded us that we are supposed to be people of Palanca—not just in preparation for a weekend but all the time. We pray for our Movement, our leaders and all of the special intentions we are aware of. Therefore, as we approach Pentecost, I ask that each of you commit to praying the Prayer to the Holy Spirit for nine days (your personal Novena to the Holy Spirit) asking the Holy Spirit to pour out His Grace, His Gifts on the Cursillo Movement in the Diocese of Trenton to:

•  Discern His will and give us the strength to do it.
•  Bring about a deeper commitment to the Cursillo apostolate.
•  Be a living invitation to join us in the Cursillo apostolate.

In June and July, the School of Leaders will dive deeper into Precursillo in the form of a Friendship and Sponsors workshops. We will try to keep the workshops to about two hours, but they might go over a little. We are not restricting any potential candidates from attending these workshops but realize these two sessions will be geared more for community than candidates. Please join us.

 

 

 

 

Deacon Tony Martucci Homily for the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Times

A.M.D.G. 6th Sunday of O.T

As a Christian Community, we try to always see and feel and experience what is
happening in the world and in our own personal life against the background of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. So, we are a people of hope, a people of joy, a people of action. As a Christian Community, we gather together to celebrate the Good News of Jesus Christ: that God loves us and wants us for His own. Together, we continuously raise the question, "How do we respond to this Good News? What do we do about it? How do we apply it for our life, make it our own?"

Students of the New Testament know that the teaching is divided into two parts. One is
the "kerygma," which is the announcement of the Good News. The other is the "didache," which is the instruction on what we do about it. Often the language of the New Testament Lessons sounds confusing to us. We hear the "kyrygma" announcement of the Good News that God loves us -- we understand it perfectly. The language is clear. But when we hear the "didache" -- the instruction on how we are to respond -- the message sounds garbled. It has no more meaning for us than baby talk, or babbling. One point at which this is likely to occur is when we hear Jesus' introduction to the Sermon on the Mount. This is part of the "didache," the instruction.

Jesus, assuming that we have heard the announcement of the Good News, is telling us how to apply it for our life, how to make it our own. He is telling us how to become fulfilled, "blessed" persons because of it. Christ begins each Beatitude with the word "blessed." What does it mean? The New Testament Greek word for "blessed" is "makarios." The Greeks called the Island of Cyprus  "Makarios Island" because its climate was so good and the growing conditions were so right that a person could live a fulfilling life there. How blessed you will be, how complete you will be, how whole will you be, how fulfilled you will be, Jesus is saying in the Beatitudes --if you do certain things in a way that can make God's Presence real in your life. You will be a blessed person, Christ says in the first Beatitude, if you are poor. What does that mean? Luke's version of this Beatitude says it directly: "Blessed are you poor; the Reign of God is yours" (Lk. 6:20). But we're fighting poverty these days. We don't want to be poor. Someone has said, "During the course of my life I have been rich and poor, and I can tell you from personal experience that rich is better."

Down deep inside we believe that. The word Jesus uses for poor is a heavy one. It
means absolute, total destitution: utter poverty. That becomes a problem, until we realize that Christ is not telling us to aspire to total, utter destitution. Matthew's version of the Beatitude reads, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven" (Mt. 5:3). Jesus is saying that everything in life that has any meaning to us is ultimately dependent on God, the Source of life. And the person who is most blessed is the person who recognizes how poor, how empty she or he is apart from God. This instruction, even when it is made clear to us, does not go down easy. We are a proud people. We are proud of our self-reliance, proud to be called "self-made" men and women, proud of our dream of winning at any cost. Therefore, when we
hear Jesus saying that it is necessary for us to admit our poverty, our helplessness, our
emptiness, there is something inside that cries out "No! I am not conditioned that way. I am the master of my fate." But if Christ is to be believed, the only way we can begin to find wholeness of life is to empty ourselves of self-centeredness, egoism and pride and throw ourselves upon the Power and the Love and the Grace of God.

Blessed are the poor ... blessed are the poor in spirit ... blessed are those who acknowledge their dependence on God for their life and their way of life, both; the Reign of God is theirs. We might help ourselves to understand this teaching if we think about an ostrich egg. Ostrich egg symbols are hanging from the ceilings of most of the Christian Churches in the Middle East. The story of the symbolism is that when the mother ostrich lays her egg, she buries it in the sand, and very carefully covers the spot, disguising it so that none of her enemies will be able to find it. The trouble is, the egg is so well hidden that if the mother ostrich takes her eye off the spot, she too will lose it. So she stands staring with absolute, undistracted attention at the spot where she has buried her egg. The life of the baby ostrich depends totally upon her doing this, and nothing short of killing her will force the mother ostrich to look away. Thus, the ostrich egg symbol is placed in the Churches in order to remind the worshippers why they are there. They are there to look at God with absolute, undistracted, undivided attention. Nothing Is to cause them to look away from God. Jesus will not let us use    anyone or anything as an excuse for taking our eye off God. Jesus will not let us use our spouse or our children as an excuse. Jesus will not let us use our career or our job as an excuse. Jesus will not let us use our longing for passing pleasure as an excuse. Jesus will not let us use our ambition for security as an excuse. Poverty of spirit is to will one thing. Just as that mother ostrich looks at the place where she buried her egg so we will look at God and nothing will pull usaway.

And the Reign of God will be ours! The Kingdom of Heaven is ours! That is Christ's  clear, unadulterated message. And if it still sounds strange to you, if you are still hearing it as so much "baby talk, or babbling," there is something in your life that is pulling you away from the Lord God Almighty.

    

THE CELEBRATION CONTINUES!

Over thirty-five individuals gathered on Sunday, September 18^th for an afternoon of piety, study and action and to celebrate the Cursillo movement.

The afternoon included opportunities for singing, praying, sharing and playing a trivia game that reminded us of the beauties of our faith. The questions provided lots of laughter along with reflection on the questions asked. There were also great snacks!!

A highlight of the day was grouping on these two questions:

• Our closest moment - When was I most aware of Christ’s presence and why?
• What are the joys that have come from living a Cursillo weekend? 

How would you answer these questions?

Ronnie and Al Martella thank Robert Lauricella, Bob Morris and Secretariat for their support and encouragement for this day.

Thank you to Luis Quinto for his reflection on Cursillo, Bob Morris for his witness and Rick Klarmann for his guitar playing!

We also thank David and Alice Riggio for their hard work on publicizing the day and everyone who helped with setup, cleanup and providing yummy refreshments!

It was wonderful to see old friends reconnect and new friends in Christ made. We can’t wait to see what the Holy Spirit has planned for our next get together!

DeColores, Ronnie and Al Martella

REGION TWO FALL ENCOUNTER COMES TO NEW JERSEY!

Donna Valenti of Region 2 reminds us that their are only SIX weeks left to register for the Cursillo Region Two Fall Encounter to be held in Kearny, NJ (a close drive away!) on Saturday, October 22, 2022. It's going to be a great day! Bobbi Lavoie, National Secretariat Executive Committee Chair, will be joining us!

Cost of the day is $55. You can register at THIS LINK. Here is the agenda:

Agenda at the St. John Paul II Youth Retreat Center, 499 Belgrove Dr, Kearny, NJ 07032

9:00-10:00AM - Registration; breakfast
10:00AM - Welcome
10:15AM - Morning Prayer- please bring your Pilgrim’s Guide
10:30AM - Spiritual Meditation- Becoming the Jesus We Profess- Sr Barbara Bayzik
10:50AM - Spiritual Rollo- Friendship with Christ - Deacon Joaquim Pereira
11:20AM - Breakout into Language Groups
11:30AM - Cursillo Leaders: Consciousness of Their Mission – Bobbi Lavoie/ Discussion groups
12:30pm - Multi-language Rosary – all language groups
1:00PM - Lunch
1:50PM- Breakout into language groups
2PM – The Founder’s Tripod: Christ, the Person and Friendship- Terri DiBacco, R2 English Coordinator- Discussion groups
3PM - Ultreya (Mass will follow the Ultreya)
6PM – Dinner-grab & go option/Departure

A MESSAGE FROM ROBERT LAURICELLA, LAY DIRECTOR 7.18.22

 

Dear Cursillistas,

Hope everyone is having a restful peaceful summer. The summer is one of my favorite seasons. Love going to the beach and sitting and reflecting and praying.
 

We have some dates to keep in mind:

• Looking ahead to September - Friday September 9th is our Diocesan Mass at 7pm held at St Rose of Lima Chapel in Freehold N.J.
• Also in September, Ronnie and Al Martella have been working on an exciting program for Sunday, September 18th from 2 pm to 4 pm called "The Celebration Continues." It will be held at Epiphany R.C. at Thiele Road in the back room. I am encouraging everyone to attend this event. Old friends who have lived a Cursillo weekend as well as new friends who may want to learn about Cursillo are welcome to join us.
• Saturday, September 24th, School of Leaders will be held in the back room in Epiphany. I encourage all those that would be able to make the 9am mass can please do so. After careful consideration and prayer, School of Leaders is moved back to Saturday mornings due to community having issues with night driving. I will send the dates for sol once they have been all finalized.

Also please let Kathy Tucker know what you will be bringing to the picnic which is being held on Saturday August 6th at 10 Harte Ct. Freehold N.J.

 

Enjoy the rest of your summer!
 

DeColores,

Robert Lauricella, Lay Director