From our Spiritual Director

Dear Fellow Cursillistas,

The month of June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Devotion to the sacred humanity of Christ, and to His Sacred Heart, has a long and rich history in the Church. Here is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church has to say:

"Jesus knew and loved us each and all during his life, his agony, and his Passion and gave himself up for each one of us: 'The Son of God . . . loved me and gave himself for me.' He has loved us all with a human heart. For this reason, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced by our sins and for our salvation, 'is quite rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that . . . love with which the divine Redeemer continually loves the eternal Father and all human beings' without exception." (Paragraph 478)

He knows and loves us each and all -- without exception! That He loves the Father is something we all know and readily admit; though it is something we should frequently meditate upon. But that Jesus, out of the symbolic center of His sacred humanity, from the bottom of His Sacred Heart, loves each and every one of us without exception -- that He knows us and still loves us, this also is something we should frequently meditate upon, and more intently in this month of June. And our prayer? Try this one: "Sacred Heart of Jesus, make my heart like unto Thine." De Colores! 

Please Offer Your Prayers &Palanca for

Cursillo #29 Weekends

TEAM COORDINATORS:

Men's:   Jack Forsyth 
              Sept. 27-30, 2001 

Ladies':  Monica Haggard 
               Oct. 18-21, 2001 2001 
Location: St. John's Church

NOTE: Closuras are at 3:30 p.m. Sunday but will not include Mass. Please attend Mass before coming.

A Fond Farewell from 
Diane and Jim Davis

It has indeed been our privilege to serve the Tulsa Diocese Cursillo Movement for the past 8 years, cumulatively. Jim was Lay Director for the first 5 years of reactivation of the Movement, and Diane served for the last 3 years as co-Lay Director with Dan O'Brien, and the last 6 months, with Steve Krause. Cursillo has indeed been such a blessing and has enriched our lives more than we can ever say or begin to put into words. We want to thank Fr. Gaalaas, Steve, Dan and the entire Cursillo Community for your love and support, your friendship, prayers, encouragement and guidance over the years. We miss you all so very much and only hope we will find another Cursillo community here in Houston that can measure up to our wonderful Tulsa community! Ha! The Grand Ultreya on May 18th at St. Benedict's was such a wonderful surprise. We felt honored and blessed by so many friends - thank you for the beautiful carved glass crucifix and garden stone, "Bloom where God plants you"! They are both displayed in prominent areas of our new home here in Houston and serve as constant reminders of our loving Cursillo community! You all will always hold a special place in our hearts and remain in our prayers and palanca. The last few days' scripture readings really spoke to me and I wanted to briefly share some thoughts before closing. A reading from Matthew 5:15 - "…nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a basket, it is set on a lamp stand, where it gives light to all the house…" The clear message being, that Jesus is the light for all of us, and it is our duty to hold that light up where all can see it - to see Christ's love through us. We pray that He will continue to use us, to let His light shine through us, to serve others. God bless you and DE COLORES! Diane and Jim Davis 13626 Winter Creek Court Houston, Texas 77077 Tel. (281)920-0029 email:DianeD727@aol.com

They also report they were not affected by the floods

We Need Leaders

by Steve Krause

We just celebrated the feast of Pentecost. As I listened to the second reading: 1 Cor. 12: 4-7, I thought about our Cursillo community with a wide variety of gifts and talents. "There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit."

Our Cursillo Movement has been very blessed with many Cursillistas that have a desire to serve others as they have been served. At Cursillo we are all called to be Leaders or Servants of the Lord and serve others with our own special gifts. Being a Servant of the Lord and witness to others so that God can work through us is being a Christian.

Our Cursillo community needs Leaders that are committed to the work of the movement so that we can evangelize our environments. Part of this commitment is continued Formation about the Cursillo Movement and Method. We have a School of Leaders that meets the first Thursday of the month at 7:00 pm at St. Benedicts Church in Broken Arrow. The School's objective: spiritual development, formation, community development and identification of environments within our diocese to evangelize. We are forming teams focused on Precursillo, 3-Day weekend and Postcursillo and need your help. We have also planned a Leaders Retreat on June 22-23; "Living a Life of Grace through Community --- Evangelization". Deacon Jim Braezile, one of our Cursillo Spiritual directors, will give our Retreat. For more information on leaders school and retreat check out our website: http://www.members.tripod.com/tulsacursillo/
Allison Stookey is accepting registration forms and money for the retreat.

I pray that many more will consider committing to attend Leaders School and attend these Retreats. Our Cursillo community needs your gifts of the Spirit.

Lay Director's Comments

Christ's Peace be with you.

Our Cursillo Movement has been very blessed with many new Cursillistas from Cursillo 28. After both the men's and women's weekend I sent an email message to the group asking them, "How is your Fourth Day going?" It was wonderful to get their responses. I asked them to reply to all so that they could stay connected with their brothers and sisters from the weekend. As you know they were making the transition from their small group communities on the 3 Day Weekend to their weekly small group reunions and Ultreyas. I asked one of them permission to let us share his witness (email reprint in newsletter page 3). At our Grand Ultreya on May 18th we asked our new Cursillistas to share their Fourth Day with us. We heard seven beautiful witnesses. It was a real blessing to experience the power of the Holy Spirit working in their lives. Please continue your prayers and palanca for all Cursillistas as we persevere in our Fourth Day. The purpose of Cursillo is to form groups of Christians to evangelize their environments. If you have not joined a small group please contact me or Danny and Julie Brennan to help.

At our Grand Ultreya we bid farewell to Jim and Diane Davis. Many thanks go to both of them for their time, leadership and commitment to Cursillo over the years. We will miss both of them greatly. We know God has new adventures and challenges for them to serve Him in Houston, TX. I have enjoyed serving with Diane as co-lay director over the last six months; we have worked well as a team. Fortunately, God has called other Cursillistas to help with the work of the movement. Monica Haggard will be our Treasurer, replacing Jim Davis. Our pre-cursillo team will be led by Jack Forsyth, 3- Day Weekend team led by Ed and Gail Hobbs and post-cursillo team led by Danny and Julie Brennan. We need your help as we form these very important teams; Christ is Counting on You.

I will be attending the 11th National Cursillo Encounter in St. Louis, MO on July 19-22. (All Cursillistas are welcome) I look forward to gathering information and sharing ideas with Cursillistas from all over the country. These concepts will help our Secretariat develop our Pastoral Plan for our movement over the next three years.

Thanks for everyone's help, support and prayers. Please join me in praying for our Cursillo community. DeColores!

Welcome Cursillistas of Cursillo 28!

ULTREYA

Tulsa                   1st Friday, 7 PM, St. Mary's - Beckerle Hall
                             contact Chris & Madelyn Juen
                                            918-743-5868
Broken Arrow    3rd Friday, 7 PM, St. Benedict's Commons
                              contact: Rob & Lisa Owens  
                                             918-455-5513

Cursillo's 11th National Encounter
July 19-22, 2001
St. Louis, MO
Cost: $235 /person for meals and lodging

How is My Fourth Day Going?

A Witness by Jay Cobb

How is my fourth day going? What a question. My first response is great - but patience tells me to relax, it is only going to get better, and if I use the word "great" now then what will I use later? And how do you describe the complete difference you feel inside?

I was really nervous coming back to the "real" world - in fact I was scared. I had seen people go to church camp, come back "born again" only to return to the ways of their past. I was scared for what the devil had in store for me - but I remembered, don't be afraid, Christ will strengthen me.

My first destination in the real world was my family\home environment. My wife wanted to tell me about her troubles with the boys for the last 4 days, my boys wanted to tell me about how mean mom was for the last 4 days, and I wanted to tell them about how I saw the face of Jesus for 4 days. I wanted to talk forever, but they didn't really want to listen - I was back in their world, they are not yet in mine. As the evening progressed, my boys would comment that I was a nicer Daddy, my wife would just look at me as if to say "you are different" - little did she know.

Some of you might not know, but my wife and I share a mixed marriage - she is a Mass attending, knee bending, member of the Church of Christ (she does not go to the Church anymore, but she has stated that she was afraid to be Catholic because she was afraid of what her parents would say or do). My secret mission is to quietly let her make her decision on her life, but I will conveniently discuss everything I believe and why (Evangelize). One day while I was discussing Cursillo she asked about the letters and what they represented. I stated that I would love to tell her, but that they were such a powerful part of the weekend I just couldn't. She became upset and stated "It's not like I will be ................" then she stopped. I asked "It's not like you will be what?". She just walked away. After that conversation, I feel there just might be something changing - thank you Lord Jesus.

This week has been one incredible week.
While at the Catholic Bookstore I spoke with a young man who happened to be attending Rhema - but was searching for truth. I talked to him about how wonderful the Love of Jesus made me feel and gave him one of my business cards. We discussed how Rhema was a great place to gain knowledge of the Bible - and that the Bible education he received there would be beneficial - but to come "back home". He said that he would try to attend Mass at St Benedict's on Sunday. Deacon "Lee" said for him to look him up if he went (I hope he did).

I heard a song on the radio called "Hands and Feet." I didn't know who sang it, but I knew I had to find that song. I went to a Christian Bookstore and the first CD that caught my eye was Audio Adrenaline "Hit Parade". I couldn't believe what I saw -it had that song on it. I took it to work, had it on my desk and my draftsman came in and we started discussing it, from there we moved to talking about Christ. We talked from about 9:00 until 10:45 - at the end of the discussion he told me he had been praying for a Faith partner at work. I told him I was glad to be that person.

I have read The 4th-Day book, Rome Sweet Home, Scripture from Bible, the Daily Devotionals, and Ultreya Magazine (this is a real feat from someone that has only read children's books for the last 7 years). Because of the weekend, the small Faith Group and the books (esp. "Rome Sweet Home") I have a new understanding of Christ in my life, and at Church. I see things with different eyes, I hear things I never heard before, I feel the presence of Christ with me constantly.

Several people within my environments have been very inquisitive - you have changed they say. I know I have - I don't have a favorite TV show anymore, I have not "willingly" listened to anything except Christian music, I have not felt anger, I look at Mass as something that I want to do everyday. I have changed, I like it, but I can not really describe it to anyone.

Cursillo Leaders' Retreat June 22, 23

"Living a Life of Grace through Community. --- Evangelization"

Retreat Master: Deacon Jim Braezile, one of our Cursillo Spiritual directors.
Cost: $40 per person overnight stay and meals, or Commuter $25 (includes meals).
Contact:
      Rick and Alison Stookey
      2325 W. Honolulu
      Broken Arrow, OK 74012
      918-451-0121 Fax 451-7130

In the future we will be having more retreats for Leaders so please consider attending later if you can't make it this time.

Tulsa Cursillo Web Page

John Kennington, Web Page Ministry Leader

We have formed a new web page ministry to provide another communication method for our Tulsa Cursillo community. Our web site is located at https://members.tripod.com/tulsacursillo/. If you have Internet access and have not already don so, be sure to surf over and check it out. Some in our community have even made this their home page as to start the day with a picture of Jesus on the computer screen. There are three goals for this site :

1. To provide an on-line community, a place to share in our faith journey. To help accomplish this, all the current prayer requests that go out over our email list are posted (but without last names for privacy.) We all like to read good Catholic books, and there are pages to share your latest book
discovery with others in the community, as well as pages to share your favorite prayers or other meditations.

2. Provide information about the Tulsa Diocese Cursillo Movement. The home page has a calendar of upcoming events, and there are pages for each weekend, with information from the Coordinators. We also hope to add in the near
future some pages to facilitate the sharing of Palanca in our community.

3. Provide information about the movement for all considering attending a Cursillo weekend. There are a series of pages (taken mostly from the official Cursillo booklets on the subject) explaining the Cursillo movement for those who are considering living a weekend. This is an excellent place to refer a prospective candidate to so they can get more information.

Responsibilities of Sponsorship

( reprinted from the TRIPOD, Archdiocese of Seattle )

Before the Cursillo Retreat:

1. Candidates shall be adult Roman Catholics in good standing (able to receive sacraments).

2. "Talk to God about your candidate before you talk to your candidate about God."

3. A sponsor should be actively participating in Group Reunion, and know that the mission of Cursillo is evangelization.

4. A sponsor needs to have known his/her candidate on a personal one-to-one basis for some time.

5. Because this is not a secret society or initiation weekend, please inform the candidate about the weekend: explain the silent retreat, the talks, the table discussions and posters. (Just try to keep the palanca and closure a surprise!)

6. Tell the candidate about the evangelistic purpose of the movement, and the follow-up commitments of Group Reunion and Ultreya.

7. Both husband and wife should be informed about Cursillo. It is not recommended that only one marriage partner become involved in Cursillo. If possible, submit applications together for both husband and wife.

8. Advise the candidate that a donation is recommended but not required.

9. The sponsor should have a potential group reunion for the candidate. The sponsor may invite the candidate to Group Reunion and Ultreya before the weekend.

10. Have the candidate fill out his/her section of the application. Complete the sponsor's section. Submit the application to the candidate's pastor to complete. The sponsor should mail in the application.

11. Be in regular contact with the candidate prior to the week-end. Confirm his/her attendance after the sponsor-letter is received. Notify the pre-Cursillo section as early as possible should the candidate decide not to attend.

During the Cursillo Week-end:

1. Provide palanca (prayer and sacrifice, spiritual bouquets from the sponsor and family.)

2. Provide transportation to and from the Cursillo site and attend closura.

3. Assist your candidate's family during the week-end and help in whatever manner they require.

After the Cursillo:

1. Find the new Cursillista a Group Reunion. (Ultreyas are a good place to find a Group Reunion.)

2. Bring the new Cursillista to Ultreyas following the week-end. See Schedule.

3. Continue to maintain close contact after the week-end (be a friend). Encourage the new Cursillista to persevere in the Fourth Day.

How to Get Your Candidate into Grouping 

from Ultreya Magazine

Sponsors realize that their toughest job begins with their new cursillistas' Fourth Day. Every sponsor must face the challenge of encouraging the new cursillista to find a group reunion and to go regularly.

Easy? It doesn't seem so at first, but it can be. Try this method, which is approved by the Cursillo Movement itself. For this approach to work, the sponsor must begin before the weekend. As a sponsor, you are already doing the initial steps of this method when, with much prayer and discernment, you get your candidate to agree to make a Cursillo, fill out the necessary paperwork, and settle down to wait for a weekend which can accommodate your candidate.

As the weekend nears, casually invite your candidate to "Come with me to visit my prayer group sometime." Offer to pick him or her up, introduce your candidate to everyone, and make the new person feel welcome. With the initial invitation, you might want to mention that this group differs from prayer groups which pray formal prayers the whole time. This is a group where each person tries to live Christ's law of love for God, neighbor and self. On a daily basis, each person tries to change those things in his or her life which interfere with living Christ's commandment of love. Lastly, each person does whatever he or she can to share Christ's love with others. That's what makes your prayer group unique, and your candidate should know that. It might make your candidate more willing to venture out with you to group reunion.

Hopefully, your candidate will see how the members of your group nurture each other on a spiritual level. No mention need be made about the new person joining the group after the weekend.

Then, when Sunday's talk about group reunion and its importance to each cursillista's Fourth Day is given, your candidate will say, "So that's what I saw with my sponsor! I can join a group or start one with some of my new friends from this weekend."

At the closure, the sponsor can discuss group reunion and reassure the new cursillista that they are there to help him or her find a group where they are comfortable.

At first this approach may seem "backwards" to all our previous experiences. It does not lessen any o f the impact of the weekend experiences because no connection or link is given to the future cursillistas about Cursillo and the weekend. Does this work? It certainly does. I can attest to it. My group reunion members and I have used this approach with three candidates, all of whom are still grouping after several years.

I urge all sponsors to consider this approach, and see how the Lord works to reassure new cursillistas that group reunion is easy, non-threatening, and important in one's spiritual life.