From our Spiritual Director

Dear Fellow Cursillistas, An atheist at Thanksgiving time must be a truly unhappy person. No doubt, he or she will feel gratitude for many good gifts received; we all do. But the atheist will think he has no one to thank for it All. Thanks be to God, we do! And the Advent and Christmas seasons turn our hearts and minds to Him. We remember the yearning of the people of the Old Covenant for the coming of the Messiah, even as we yearn for His coming-again. This is the spirit of Advent. The spirit of Christmas is knowing that He is Emmanuel ("God with us").

We live Cursillo in the celebration of these seasons. For no cursillista can live without gratitude, yearning, and joy at the presence of God. Gratitude: "De Colores!" Yearning: "Christ is counting on me, and I on Him!" And joy: "Christ and I are an overwhelming majority!"

Happy holidays! Happy holydays!

Please Offer Your Prayers &Palanca for

Cursillo #30 Weekends

TEAM COORDINATORS:

Men's:    Grant Woldum 
               April 4-7, 2002 

Ladies':  Tracy Matthews 
               April 25-28,2002
Location: St. John The Evangelist Church,
                  McAlester

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

Notes from Cursillo #30 Coordinators

From Grant Woldum

The next Men's Cursillo #30 is now set for April 4-7, 2002 and will be held at St. John the Evangelist Parish in McAlester. We are already getting candidate submissions for this weekend and we are praying for and expecting a full house. It is not too early to begin your prayers and Palanca for a blessed weekend. Team meeting dates have not been set yet, but will announced in early 2002. We welcome all who are willing to dedicate themselves to the Cursillo #30 team. Please contact the Cursillo #30 team coordinators: Grant Woldum, via email: gwoldum@aol.com or phone: 918-688-5692. Asst. Coordinator: Kenny Longbrake: kenbeth@brightok.net

From Tracy Matthews

The Women's Cursillo Team for the April 25-28 weekend is coming together. Interested team volunteers may e-mail Tracy Matthews at ghost@cvok.net or call (918) 423-2973. Our first team meeting will be in the later part of January and will be posted on the Cursillo Web Page: http://www.members.tripod.com/tulsacursillo/  If you have not done so already, please begin offering Palanca for team and candidates. Applications can be mailed to Tracy Matthews, 2006 Cardinal Lane, McAlester, OK 74501, or if you are in Tulsa you may hand deliver them to the Asst. Coordinator, Alison Stookey. Alison's address is 2325 W. Honolulu, Broken Arrow, OK 74012 and email: rstoo24486@aol.com, phone: (918) 451-0121

Precursillo: Resources for Sponsors 
"Sponsoring is recruiting but recruiting is not Sponsoring" 
by Jack Forsyth 

What is the right way for a new Cursillista to go about bringing others to the Cursillo movement? I think most of us want to share the experience we have had with everyone we know and try to put applications in the hands of all. The Cursillo Movement has a concept of "sponsorship" that is much more than simply signing up folks and dumping them on the doorstep at St. John's on the Thursday of Cursillo. No, sponsorship is an extended, intimate process over time with important things to do before, during and after the Cursillo. Fruitful sponsorship brings to life the Cursillo phrase of "make a friend; be a friend; bring a friend to Christ" and depends on the small group reunion as a key factor in sponsorship.

Our phrase says to bring a friend to Christ, not bring a friend to Cursillo. The three day Cursillo is just one facet of a complete method of sponsorship. Fortunately, the Cursillo Movement has a great deal of experience in this area and has provided us with books and other materials to assist us. The Cursillo Movement, like the Catholic Church itself, provides us with much wisdom and sources of formation in the Cursillo Method. Instead of relying on our own instincts and "inspirations" we can depend on the Movement for sound Cursillo formation, just as we can depend on the Catholic Church for sound spiritual formation. The "official" Cursillo publication, a book entitled Lower Your Nets "… is addressed to those, who in joy and fear, have heard the call of the Lord, and ask: "What must I do?" " page 7. (Page references are to Lower Your Nets.)

The issue that we want to focus on in this article is sponsorship. Some of the discussion below out of Lower Your Nets may sound like selection of candidates is the subject. It is not selection though, it is sponsorship. What we must do is consider the following Cursillo teaching from the perspective of what we as sponsors must do.

"Some believe that once a person is gotten to a Cursillo their responsibility ends, and now all depends on the Cursillo itself….[O]nly when the candidate has been successfully incorporated into the postcursillo community can the cycle of our concern be closed." page 7. Remember those simple slogan we all heard during the Evangelization Rollo at "our" Cursillo: "make a friend, be a friend, bring a friend to Christ" and "speak to God about the person before speaking to the person about God"? Well, that is the core of our precursillo and sponsorship efforts

Sponsorship is way more than recruiting, just as the Cursillo Movement is much more than numbers of people. Cursillo is all about transforming environments, by providing the backbone for Christian life, right? page 20. Then it should make sense that the sponsorship of a candidate should tie in somehow to the conversion and transformation of some environment. Simple head counts or numbers are not part of that equation.

The Cursillo Sponsor's Booklet at pages 15 and 16 identifies types of potential candidates: 

a. "Those who cannot or should not go: individuals who have psychological or emotional disorders or who have a deep moral, drug or drinking problem. 

b. "Those who can go: simply anyone who is eligible to receive the Sacraments, the ordinary Catholic trying to live the Catholic life as best they know how. 

c. "Those who ought to go: individuals who are truly the backbone of their environments; have a deep personality and are able to make their own decisions and are interiorly motivated; and are mature, responsible, concerned about social conditions of our times and have the ability (and desire) to live in and for community (in short natural leaders.)"

Once again, the quotes above may seem to be focused on the quality or suitability of candidates when in reality the focus is on the quality of sponsorship. "[T]he work of members of Group Reunions, who in their personal contact discover potential candidates and prepare them, until they too are situated in Group Reunions"? Page 2. Sponsors are to discover potential candidates and prepare them. But the job does not stop there. How long is the sponsor to prepare the candidate? "[U]ntil they too are situated in Group Reunions."

Just as this short article cannot provide all of the guidance that a Cursillista needs in order to properly sponsor a candidate, the books discussed in this article likewise cannot provide all that a sponsor needs. Where else should the sponsor turn for guidance, inspiration and help in the precursillo effort?

Lower Your Nets urges that the precursillo plan "…be formed in common, in the midst of a Group Reunion." Page 37. By "… acting in common in a Group Reunion…we take proper counsel." Page 38. When we look at the format for the Group Reunion, this concept of our sponsorship and evangelization efforts being grounded in that small Christian community make all the more sense.

The Cursillo Movement provides us with tremendous support, guidance and know-how not only in the important area of precursillo but also in all other areas of the Movement. We do not have to go it alone or try to figure out things for ourselves. In fact if we do try to go it without turning to these resources we are ignoring the "formation leg" of the tripod of Christian life. If you do not have a Sponsors' Booklet ask about it at your Group Reunion, at an Ultreya or contact me or any Cursillista who attends the School of Leaders.

Every Cursillista who sponsors a candidate is sort of like a godparent to the person and has a responsibility to that candidate before, during and (especially) after the Cursillo. The Sponsors' Booklet will help you greatly. If you really want to do a great job in sponsorship, read Lower Your Nets too. It is a real eye opener. De Colores. Jack Forsyth

School of Leaders 

On the Cursillo weekend you learned in the "Leaders" rollo that you are called to be Christian Leaders. Are you also called to be a Cursillo Leader? These Leaders are Cursillistas that serve other Cursillistas and do the work of our Movement. Cursillo Leaders serve the Church through the Cursillo Movement as their primary apostolate.

Our School of Leaders meets the first Thursday of the month at St. Benedicts Church at 7:00pm. Here is the format of the school:

Leaders Prayer Leaders Group Reunion Doctrinal Talk - given by one of our spiritual directors Technique Talk - given by member of the school Section reports (precursillo, 3 day and postcursillo) given by member of section team Announcements Visit to Blessed Sacrament

If you have any questions contact Steve Krause, (918) 250-6007 or email: spkrause@aol.com

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

Traveling Ultreya - 2nd Sunday, 2 PM, location rotates
among the Tulsa Diocese's parishes of the Southeastern 
Region: Muskogee, McAlester, Poteau, Sallisaw, Durant, etc.
Contact :    Tracy Matthews at 918-423-2973 or
                    Marian O'Rourke at 918-682-9779

Developing Ultreyas in Idabel and Cushing: Idabel Contact: Billy and Cocoa Butts (580) 286-4106 Cushing Contact: Kenny and Beth Longbreak (918) 225-6793

25 Years Later
A HISTORY OF THE CURSILLO MOVEMENT… THEN AND NOW 
by Steve Krause

We are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the introduction of the Cursillo Movement to the Diocese of Tulsa. John and Mary Grimm from St. John's in McAlester got things started. They both had lived Cursillo #45 in Escondido, California in 1972. When they moved to McAlester, OK and discovered there was no Cursillo community in the Tulsa diocese, they got things started with some help from the National Cursillo Office in Dallas. First, Fr. Kenneth King from the Wilberton/Talihina area lived a Cursillo weekend in Springfield, MO in order to provide a spiritual director for weekends. Next, they evangelized 4 men and 4 women to live their Cursillo weekend in Little Rock, AR, followed by 16 men and 19 women living their weekend in Ft. Smith a few months later in 1976. With this new community they now had a core team to work the first weekend in our Diocese with the approval of our local ordinary, Bishop Ganter, the first Bishop of Tulsa. In October 1976 at St. John the Evangelist Church in McAlester, Cursillo #1 was held. John Grimm was the Men's Rector (team coordinator) and Mary Grimm was the Women's Rectora. Fr. Kenneth King and Fr. Elmer Toups, a Redemptorist priest from Okmulgee, were the Spiritual Directors. After several Cursillos in McAlester, the Movement slowed and there were no Cursillo weekends held during the 1980's. In March of 1990, Tim and Connie Sullivan and Jim and Diane Davis lived their weekends in Harrah, OK and rekindled the weekends starting with Cursillo #9 held in October 1990 at St. Anthony's in Okmulgee. Fr. Basil Keenan, OSB, pastor of St. Francis Xavier, became our Spiritual Director from 1991 -'96 and Bishop Beltran was our bishop at the time. As we prepare for Cursillo #30 to be held this spring, there are now 982 Catholic men and women from the Tulsa Diocese who have lived a Cursillo weekend. Today, Fr. Patrick Gaalaas is our Spiritual Advisor with the support of our Bishop, Edward Slattery.

More History - a brief overview of the Cursillo Movement 

In the 1940's right after the civil war in Spain, the founders of the Cursillo Movement realized that society had turned its back on God, Christ and the Church. They were convinced that life had ceased to be Christian, because Christianity's influence on real life was nearly nonexistent, even in so-called Christian circles. Not too different from the secular, materialistic society existing today here in the United States. Cursillo was born out of a spirit of renewal that preceded the Second Vatican Council. Bishop Juan Hervas of Mallorca, and a dedicated young lay man, Eduardo Bonnin, were the two primary leaders of the first Cursillos in Christianity. These founding fathers looked to the early Christians, the first Christian Community as a model to be used to rekindle the vitality that was missing from their present day Christianity. The Early Christians were a diverse group of people who prayed and studied together and served each other. From their preparation for a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. James the Apostle in Compostella, Spain came - the birth of the Cursillos.

The planning of the pilgrimage included groups of young people, workshops, praying together, studying together, and working together. From this planning process evolved the basic structure of the Cursillo as we know it today. The idea of a pilgrimage, following the pilgrimage to Compostella, was carried over in a new way. The physical pilgrimage would be replaced by the continuous life pilgrimage of every individual toward God.

Their solution to their un-Christian environment was a simple strategy: Christianize those people responsible for creating or influencing the structures in society - in other words, give a Christian backbone to the world. Their tactic was to create the Cursillo Weekend which is, literally, a short course aimed at giving participants a new vision of how to live their Christianity and the leadership skills to Christianize society. The end result: a weekend experience, beginning on a Thursday night and concluding by Sunday evening, that is an empowering experience.

The first official Cursillo, as we know it today, was held in 1949. The founders perfected the Cursillo 3 day weekend in those first 100 Cursillos in Spain and this same format and method has spread throughout the world. The first Cursillo Weekend in the United States was held in Waco, Texas on May 24-27, 1957 conducted by Father Gabriel Fernandez and two airmen from Spain. All Weekends were given in Spanish until 1961 when the first English-speaking Weekend was introduced. (on a side note: The day of the first Cursillo in US was the day I was born! When I discovered this fact as I did research for this article … it was a "close moment to Christ".)

Today, Cursillo Weekends are offered in most states in the US and in over 20 foreign countries. Pope Paul VI endorsed the Cursillo Movement in 1966 and Pope John Paul II in 1980.

The Lord has blessed our Cursillo Movement in Eastern Oklahoma. I feel as many of you may, that the Holy Spirit has built up the Cursillo Movement because He will use the Cursillo to bring many more men and women into a deeper relationship with God, the Church and one another for many more years in Oklahoma. Please offer palanca for the continued blessings of our Cursillo Movement; future weekends, candidates, team and the perseverance of all Cursillistas in our community living their Fourth Day. 

DeColores! 

Welcome Cursillistas of Cursillo 29!

The Advent of a Witness
A witness by Brandie Galvin

I lived my Cursillo weekend in the spring of 2000 while six weeks pregnant with my third child. While I was deeply touched by the weekend it seemed that my Fourth Day started rather slowly as I began to contemplate all I had learned. I began to study not only environments but people as well. I prayed for many individuals who I thought might be called to live a weekend. My husband and I wanted to plan cookouts and invite these "possible candidates" to our home. We began the "make a friend, be a friend, bring a friend to Christ" method. I read the biography of Saint Therese for my formation. But however good our intentions were, "our" plan for evangelization was put on the back burner - or so I thought. God had His own plan for our evangelization.

In August of 2000, we were told that our new daughter would be born with a cleft lip and palate. While I was somewhat familiar with this birth defect, I felt a great need to research information about cleft lip and palate. Advent was spent interviewing doctors and awaiting the birth of our baby. I strived for holiness by asking our Holy Mother every day to teach me to wait with patience and faith during Advent. One day I was given my daughter's name while meditating on the rosary. Gabrielle Elizabeth is in the prayer, Hail Mary. The angel Gabriel said, "Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with you." Saint Elizabeth, upon meeting Mary said, "Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus."

My daughter, Gabrielle Elizabeth, was born in January of 2001. Her condition was more severe than we expected. She had great difficulty eating and gaining weight. As the team of professionals we'd chosen to care for Gabrielle was in Dallas, her treatment required weekly trips to Dallas during the first four months of her life. I basically lived from feeding-to-feeding and appointment-to-appointment. Although the "Cursillo Method" was the farthest thing from my mind, it laid the foundation to allow God to work His wonders. The "Holiness" and prayer of the community lifted us up when we were weak and spiritually tired. My "Formation" never allowed me to ask why or become bitter. I knew it was better Gabrielle be born this way because God created her in His image. And "Evangelization," the third leg of the tripod, became part of my daily life. It wasn't something that I planned or could claim credit for its successfulness. In fact, it's only now that I see how everyday moments became little seeds of faith.

My obstetrician was once an abortionist. Twenty - five years ago he had a spiritual conversion. He now views every birth as his gift to God for all the lives he took. He is a strong supporter of Natural Family Planning and believes in being "open to life." He was deeply touched by Gabrielle's birth and is now inquiring about the Catholic Church. On my trips to Dallas, I was asked several times if the cause of cleft lip and palate was due to a lack of folic acid or other nutrients. I always shared that my husband and I practice NFP and are always open to life therefore, I keep myself in good shape and take prenatal vitamins on a routine basis. This inevitably led to a discussion on NFP. I also became friends with a woman who had gotten my name from someone in Dallas. She was expecting a child with cleft and was struggling with why God would do this. We now journey together and share the joy and heartache of surgeries. (Incidentally, on this last trip, our daughters were scheduled for surgery on the same day and we shared a room together in the hospital.) During our weekly visits, Gabrielle and I met a woman at the Dallas security checkpoint who was born with a very severe cleft that extended into the eye socket. She absolutely loved to see Gabrielle every week. After my daughter's first surgery, this woman tearfully said," Isn't God a great surgeon." She said it gave her joy to see what the surgeons could do these days. I could tell countless stories of my journey with Gabrielle. Reflecting back upon them, I now realize these were more than stories but occasions of evangelization.

It is absolutely vital to study our environment and create a plan to bring Christ to others. What had been missing in my plan was humility. God took me on this "detour" in life to show that it's not about me or what I can do - our best-laid plans can fall apart in an instant - but about what God can do. When I was at the darkest point in my life, God was radiant. When I was weak and tired, He used my daughter and me to draw others close to Him. My true evangelization began with this "detour."

What am I going to do to continue to bring Jesus to those I encounter now that my daughter is happy, healthy, and well on her way? I will once again study my environments and look for those opportunities to share God's love. Through prayer and humility, I will ask God to guide my plans. Now, as the chaos settles and as traveling ceases, I can begin a concerted effort to bring a greater awareness of Christ to those closest to me. However, I will always be ready and willing when God decides to take me on another detour. My prayer this Advent is that we, like our Blessed Mother, will always say "yes" to whatever evangelization opportunities God lays in our path.