Calling All Cursillistas!
April 2008
The THREE STEPS to Sponsoring!
As a Cursillista, you are very special! At some time in your life – you heard and listened to Our Lord’s call! You lived the experience of a 3-Day Cursillo, and your life was enriched forever in many, varied ways.
In Cursillo, we all recognize certain phrases that bring fond memories to our hearts and empower us to continue to live a DeColores Fourth Day. One such phrase is: “Be a Friend, Make a Friend, and Bring that Friend To Christ!” As I wrote last month, STEP #1 to sponsoring is to invite a friend to Cursillo NOW. How better can we answer Christ’s call to evangelize?! Now for steps #2 and #3.
STEP #2 is to take the time to make certain that your candidate is well informed and prepared to enjoy a meaningful and appropriate 3-Day Cursillo experience. I am not speaking of describing the wonderful “surprises” we all wish for candidates to experience firsthand for themselves. I am speaking of candidates being very aware of the Cursillo 3-Day schedule and routine. Candidates need to understand the basics – before arriving for the weekend. Just to mention a few: early morning prayers, daily Mass, special spiritual talks presented each day by lay persons as well as Deacons and Priests, some sharing about the talks, evening prayers; and, of course, three very good meals. And don’t forget to describe the Marywood Hilton as it is; dormitory style with “good and new” mattresses on the floor as well as the very full time schedule that concludes – after three days – on Sunday evening! Finally, candidates should be made aware of the follow-up plan that makes the Cursillo movement so highly effective: friendship reunions and Ultreya! Let your candidate know that they will hear much more about this on the weekend.
STEP #3 for effective sponsoring is continuing in friendship with your candidate AFTER the 3-Day Cursillo. Please assist your candidate in all ways possible to truly live a DeColores Fourth Day. This is so very important! The best follow-up for each candidate will vary, of course; but the objective is the same: we want candidates to live a DeColores Fourth Day and that requires grouping and Ultreya. As a sponsor, please do your vital part!
The very best advice and guidance I can offer all sponsors comes directly from the Cursillo literature! Please be sure your candidate has read the Cursillo booklet “What is it?” and that you have recently read the “Sponsor’s Booklet.” Both are available at all team meetings or just contact Gary Gordon, Pre-Cursillo Chairperson, or me.
Thanks for taking the time to read about STEPS #2 and #3. But do remember, it all starts with STEP #1!
DeColores!
Mike Blasi
Calling All Cursillistas!
March 2008
The THREE STEPS to Sponsoring!
As a child of God, we are His chosen people and the recipients of many, many spiritual gifts during our lives. The Sacraments are most special among so many others. At the time of our Baptism, God anointed us in a special way. Among other dimensions, one powerful calling of Baptism is to live our lives as saints in this world – wherever we might be – and in all ways possible - by spreading the Gospel in what we say and in what we do. The power of this calling never ceases to overwhelm me with thoughts of high privilege and great responsibility.
Having been called to live a 3-Day Cursillo AND a DeColores Fourth Day is surely among the most profound and special gifts received of God! For me and my faith journey, Cursillo was a strong catalyst that brought together and amplified so many of God’s gifts in my daily life. It made me aware that evangelization is a natural part of Catholic life and an everyday goal.
One of the ACTIONS in my DeColores Fourth Day that brings so much joy to my heart and soul is whenever I am sufficiently motivated to reach out to another Catholic and truly “Be a Friend, Make a Friend, and Bring that Friend To Christ!” And, of course, I have found one of the very best ways to “Bring a Friend to Christ” is by inviting them to live the 3-Day Cursillo. I realize we all have many callings in our spiritual lives, but for we Cursillistas sponsoring our friend to Cursillo is surely a very huge calling that at the same time offers great personal fulfillment and reward.
I am motivated today to once AGAIN call upon ALL Cursillistas (including me) to please invite at least one friend to an upcoming Cursillo weekend. While I’m at it, might I suggest you extend that invitation NOW for Cursillos #481 and #482. You know that Paula Lynn and Oscar Valenzuela are both hard at work with all the team members preparing to be the face of Christ to all the candidates.
SO STEP #1 is to invite a friend to Cursillo now. STEP #2 is to be certain to take the time when extending that invitation that your candidate is well informed and prepared to enjoy a meaningful and appropriate 3-Day Cursillo experience. STEP #3 is continuing in friendship after the 3-Day Cursillo to assist your candidate in all ways possible to truly live a DeColores Fourth Day.
Thanks for taking the time to read about STEP #1. I hope to share some thoughts on the importance of STEPS #2 and #3 next time.
DeColores!
Mike Blasi
Calling All Cursillistas!
February 2008
Especially the Newer Cursillistas!
So you have recently been given the beautiful gift of a 3 Day Cursillo weekend…a truly remarkable spiritual experience in your very personal faith journey, I know you will agree!
Our Lord knows each of us – His children – so very well. He knows our needs and our wants. He knows of our personal talents and abilities. And he definitely has a plan for us!
For you – and for me – the Cursillista – that plan includes living a Life in Grace during our Fourth Day. So how are you doing?
I wish to extend a very warm and hearty welcome to all Cursillistas – and especially the new Cursillistas of 2007 and 2008 – and invite you to make Cursillo a central part of your faith journey. There are so many ways you can aid our beautiful Cursillo movement.
Whenever a brand new Cursillista shares about their 3 Day experience either at Clausura or at one of the Post-Cursillo Ultreyas, you provide we “experienced” Cursillistas a real spiritual shot-in-the-arm! We witness your fresh enthusiasm for perhaps a “new found” love and passion for your Catholic faith and a spirited determination to evangelize your many personal environments.
I wish to close these brief comments this month with yet again a special call to action - a call to action for ALL Cursillistas – with special emphasis for the NEW Cursillistas. Please pass the gift you have been given in Cursillo on to someone else. Surely you have a friend, a co-worker, and/or a family member that deserves an invitation to experience Cursillo. Remember our Cursillo call: “To make a Friend, Be a Friend, and Bring a Friend to Christ!” I believe Christ is urging us – right at this moment - to take ACTION in this very special way.
I look forward to seeing you at Marywood in April. We can introduce our candidates to each other!
DeColores!
Mike Blasi
Calling All Cursillistas!
January 2008
The Basics of Cursillo
SO, here we are beginning another New Year! It is the time of resolution to improve ourselves and our environments. I know that if you are reading this brief January message, you recognize the very important call of Our Lord to you and to me to strive to be saints in our everyday world. However, I don’t know about you; but I seldom feel like I measure up to the gift of my sacramental Baptism or now, in my later life, the beautiful gift of Cursillo, received some 14 years ago.
SO, I suggest a theme for the New Year by borrowing a phrase right out of the game book of so many college football teams playing their hearts out in so many bowl games this time of year…”execute the basics!” As we all go about playing our hearts out striving to live the best Fourth Day we can in 2008, how about more faithfully executing the basics of Cursillo. Now, I am speaking to myself here, but feel free to join in if you care too!
- Keep Piety, Study, and Action (PSA) at the center of your life.
- Be faithful to your weekly group reunion – it not only benefits you but also your groupies.
- Attend Ultreya regularly. I suggest you put the dates of our upcoming Post-Cursillo Diocesan Ultreyas on your calendar now: February 2, May 3, August 2, and October 25
- And while you are at it, how about the dates of our Cursillo School of Leaders: the second Saturday of every month.
- Pick one Cursillo team to join in 2008: in April, July, or October.
- Also, if not on the team, please join in supporting the candidates at the Thursday evening welcome, Mananistas, and Clausura.
- Finally, and perhaps most importantly, give the gift of an invitation to Cursillo to someone in one of your environments who can lead others to Christ if only they experience the catalyst of a Cursillo weekend.
Tall orders! Difficult resolutions! I think not because, as we all know, “Christ and I are an overwhelming majority!”
DeColores,
Mike Blasi
Calling All Cursillistas!
December 2007
Have you attended Clausura lately?
As we all well know, attending the Clausura for any men’s or women’s Cursillo weekend is a tremendously enriching and inspiring experience. While we are well aware and have witnessed so many times, the “miracles” of a Cursillo weekend, one can never tire of hearing first hand from the new Cursillistas as they share just how much the
3 days has impacted them! I offer just a few personal observations.
- No matter where the individual candidate might be in their personal life or in their faith journey before arriving at Marywood, the Holy Spirit speaks directly and personally to each and every candidate. The candidate’s sharing confirms so very often that God has reached directly into their hearts in a way possible only because He is the Creator of all His children. He knows them and what they need!
- Without exception, the new Cursillista completes the 3 days with a much more intense appreciation of the gift of their Catholic faith and the depth of Our Lord’s compassion and forgiveness.
- Most often, the new Cursillista’s sharing includes a strong pledge to strive to live a Life of Grace on their fourth day. They may not express it in these words that are so familiar…but they express it nonetheless in their own words!
- Finally, and perhaps most striking, is how deeply the new Cursillistas have felt an overwhelming outpouring of God’s love. They have seen and have felt a loving community, as never before, in all the team members and in all the candidates themselves…everyone living together in such great harmony for 3 days. They are overwhelmed by the joyful actions of the team as they witness such unselfish and dedicated love and service for 72 hours! I believe they have witnessed a real-time version of scripture,
1 John 4:8. “Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.”
I am certain that none of the above is new to any of you reading this short column. There are many more reflections you can make of how it feels to you and what you observe when sitting in the auditorium at Marywood and listening to such stirring testimony to the “success” of another Cursillo weekend. I’d love to hear your own reflections and observations. My email is always open. Just send your thoughts to mblasi@socal.rr.com.
I close this month with another special request. Please do attend Clausura as often as possible! They begin promptly at 5:30PM and conclude usually by 7:30PM. Your presence means so much to the new Cursillistas and also to you! See you in the auditorium at 6PM this January - on the 20th for the men and on 27th for the women. Let’s all start the New Year off right!
Please enjoy a blessed Advent season and a joyous Christmas!
DeColores,
Mike Blasi
Calling All Cursillistas!
November 2007YOU ARE INVITED!
As most Cursillistas certainly know, the Cursillo Secretariat is a group reunion of a very special kind! Comprised of eleven members plus our awesome Spiritual and Executive Director, Deacon Doug, all the members of the Secretariat regard Cursillo with great love and commitment and as their personal apostolate! For each member, Cursillo is considered a very special and profound gift from God so great that each of us strives diligently and to the best of our ability to provide capable support and leadership to the Cursillo Movement. However, as you can clearly imagine, the job is much too big for just the twelve of us.
You should be aware that the “working” arm of the Secretariat is a very essential and important reason for the vitality of Cursillo in Orange. That “working” arm – I hope you all realize – is the School of Leaders! Under the very capable leadership and guidance of Bill Lynn – our SOL chairperson – a large group of especially dedicated Cursillistas meet the second Saturday morning of each month. Many join together for the 8 AM Mass at St. Cecilia Parish in Tustin, enjoy a continental breakfast and some great fellowship immediately afterwards; and from 9 AM until 11 AM, we discuss and plan all things Cursillo!
YOU ARE INVITED!
Please join us at SOL! Whether you are a new Cursillista or an experienced veteran, you are needed and you will be warmly welcomed. Perhaps you might just be ready, right now to move Cursillo to an even higher level of personal commitment. Cursillo needs you! The Holy Spirit will certainly guide you! As you well know, whatever you might contribute to the good works and evangelization within our Cursillo movement, Our Lord will reward you many times more. God can not be out done in His generosity.
So please join us this coming Saturday morning, November 10 at St. Cecelia Parish…and as many Saturdays thereafter as possible! We will be looking forward to seeing you!
De Colores!
Mike Blasi
Calling All Cursillistas!
October 2007In the past four, brief columns I have written, I have tried to express my personal love of Cursillo and the joy it has brought to my life…my Fourth Day! I know that MOST, if not ALL, CURSILLISTAS have very similar feelings. I know that we are all on our own individual faith journeys…but we Cursillistas seem to have it all: Piety, Study, and Action - all wrapped up in our daily effort to live that wonderful Life in Grace. Most importantly, if I ever just might wander and forget that Jesus is in the lead and I am to follow Him alone, my weekly Group Reunion rights my direction.
NOW… as we individually act…so do our Cursillo and Catholic communities! I believe that many Cursillistas – all over the Diocese of Orange – contribute and participate in very meaningful ways to the spiritual health and good works of the Catholic family of Orange County and beyond. I don’t mention this with pride, but rather with happiness and joy, that I am but a small part of the greater Cursillo community that is doing so much good in so many corners of Orange County: whether at our beloved Parishes; the many, many related Ministries; the places of our employment; in the social gatherings of our lives; and, very importantly, in our families. Indeed, an important mission of Cursillo is to do just that: bring Christ to our environments and, as our beloved Bishop Tod Brown proclaims in his most recent Pastoral Letter - to learn, to love, and to live our faith!
I conclude this month with a very special thanks to the Cursillo teams of October (#s 475 & 476) that have excelled so greatly during their formation period these past two months and that will welcome to our Cursillo community such a large number of candidates…new Cursillistas to be…that will make our Cursillo community all the more forceful in its good works for the Diocese of Orange. I know that all of you reading this will happily join me in being there for the candidates and the team: to welcome them on Thursday evening, to give Palanca for their Day of Faith, to inspire them with your presence at Mananitas and Clausura, and to shepherd them at the Post-Cursillo Ultreya.
Thanks to everyone for ALL that you do! Keep it up! Cursillo needs you!
De Colores!
Mike Blasi
Calling All Cursillistas!
September 2007I am certain that everyone reading this short column will agree that the Cursillo Movement of the Orange Diocese is certainly a very beautiful part of our Catholic Church. For many of us, it was indeed the Cursillo experience that made our faith a more dynamic and more pragmatic part of our daily lives. Perhaps it was Cursillo that gave your faith the “critical mass” (referenced in Bishop Brown’s most recent Pastoral Letter) to enable you to sustain your faith and to keep up its practice during your Fourth Day. So, I ask, where do we go from here?
When I reflect on just how beautiful and effective is our Cursillo Movement, areas for improvement are not so obvious. Yet we all know that we must strive to improve all things worthwhile, including Cursillo. So I ask you to join me in striving to make Cursillo of Orange even better yet! How can you help?
The Cursillistas of Orange County number into the thousands. Naturally, we individually are more or less active in Cursillo at times as allowed by the other duties and activities of life. However, for most of us, Cursillo is a permanent way of life…especially if we are faithful to our weekly group reunion.
I wish – TODAY – to call upon each one of you to step forward – as your current life circumstances might permit – and to give back yet a little more to Cursillo and to our Church by volunteering some of your special talent and precious time. The Cursillo Movement is a very large “organization” with many moving parts! Whatever talent you might lend, I bet Cursillo can utilize it beneficially. You can help to make Cursillo better and more effective!
You have my open-ended invitation to call me directly and to discuss how you can contribute to our movement in striving to make it better for all us and especially for the new Cursillistas of the future. Let your imagination go strong…let’s brainstorm together…I have a few ideas I can offer to you already. Just call (714-974-5300) or email (mblasi@socal.rr.com). I am waiting to hear from you!
DeColores!
Mike Blasi
Calling All Cursillistas!
August 2007It’s Monday August 6, 2007 and I can’t help but reflect on the beauty and power of the two, just recently completed, Cursillo weekends, #471 & #472. All of us lucky enough to have been called to Cursillo in the past and having personally experienced the gift of Cursillo know that there is tremendous metanoia and spiritual effect in God’s Grace shed upon the 66 men and women candidates that will forever remember those special days of July at Marywood.
So what part did you play in God’s work these past Cursillo weekends? I venture to say that many of you reading this short column participated in some very important way. Were you a team member, a candidate sponsor, a help with the Holy Spirit team, a welcoming presence on Thursday evening or at Mananitas or at Clausura? Did you offer palanca for the candidates and team? Did you attend the Post-Cursillo Ultreya this past Saturday evening?
Whatever part - small or larger – that you might have played in fostering the miracle of the most recent Cursillo weekends…you must know how lucky you are that God called you to Cursillo and to this very important work. Receive Our Lord’s Almighty Grace and Love and Peace as you labor in His vineyard for the conversion of minds and hearts to a Life in Grace!
And if perhaps the schedule of life, with its demands on all of us to do so many “other things,” meant you could not participate in the past two weekends…perhaps God is calling you now…to participate in some way in the next, upcoming Cursillo weekends of October 11 and October 18.
Great as your efforts might be…surely we all know that God cannot be outdone in generosity …and that your reward will be greater still!
Thanks for living the life of a Cursillista and helping to make the three day experience of living Cursillo such a successful beginning to new life and renewed and deepened faith in so many. Please keep it up…the Cursillo community needs you and thank you!
DeColores!
Mike Blasi
Calling All Cursillistas!
July 2007When I received a recent update of the candidate list for the upcoming July weekends, I couldn’t help but say to myself: “Thanks be to God!” He has blessed our movement once again with the success of His call to so many candidates. How joyful it is to know that so many more will now experience the gift of Cursillo and become brand new Cursillistas.
As I so vividly recall that “famous” instruction of the Cursillo movement, “Make a friend; Be a friend, Bring a friend to Christ.”
I say THANK YOU to all the Cursillistas who, as disciples of Christ, have sponsored candidates for these weekends. AND thank you to so many others who are “making friends,” “being a friend,” and striving yet to “bring those friends to Christ” with an invitation to experience Cursillo in the coming months.
As fortunate as all we Cursillistas are to have heard Our Lord’s call at some time in our lives and said YES to experiencing Cursillo, what better way for us to make bright our love of Christ than to “Make a friend, Be a friend, and Bring that friend to Christ.” And if bringing that friend to Christ includes the acceptance of our invitation to Cursillo, we will certainly feel profound joy in our hearts as one of our brothers or sisters in Christ personally experiences the beautiful gift of Cursillo in their lives!
DeColores!
Mike Blasi
Calling All Cursillistas!
June 2007I can remember quite vividedly – and I bet you can also – those very special three days of my Cursillo weekend – for me, #251 in July 1993. When I reflect upon my Cursillo experience, I feel so overwhelmed with thanks and gratitude for being so blessed by God in this very special way. Now, I am blessed in many other ways in my life as well; but I’d like to share just a few blessings that I believe so many Cursillistas of Orange share!
- God called me, and I heard Him (not on the first call, by the way); and I said yes to attending a three day Cursillo weekend.
- The weekend was not just a three day retreat for me…thanks be to God! It truly was the start of a metanoia that fortunately has been consistent and continues to this day.
- The Cursillo focus, or spirit, of striving to live a Life in Grace really took hold of me and has changed my life for the better, forever! Truly, Cursillo has shaped my personal identity at its core and in a most meaningful way.
So do you share these blessing as well? All of us are on a very personal and unique journey of faith, no doubt. We all have a very personal and unique relationship with Our Lord. After all, God created us in His image. There is a mystery to our one-of-a-kind personalities, gifts, and our lives of faith, for sure.
However, we have so much in common as well! Especially we Cursillistas! Not many persons – really very few – are called to and respond by experiencing the Cursillo weekend, the true and deep metanoia it brings, and then actively strive to live that special Cursillo Life in Grace.
So I ask you to please reflect with me today on the huge magnitude of the beautiful gift of Cursillo to you, and to me, and to us ALL! Also, perhaps we can all ask ourselves – in the quiet of our heart and soul – why am I so blessed and how might I live my Fourth Day more gratefully?
DeColores! Mike Blasi
