Calendar of Events
June 2, 2002                   1:30pm Secretariat Meeting at St. Joseph Church, York, NE
June 14-15,                     2002 School of Leaders Formation Retreat at St. Michael’s, Hastings.
July 11-14, 2002            12th National Encounter, Bellermine University, Louisville, KY
Sept. 12-15, 2002           Men’s Weekend St. Michael School, Hastings, NE
Sept. 19-22, 2002           Women’s Weekend St. Michael School, Hastings, NE
October 4-6, 2002          Cursillo Regional Meeting at Aquinas High School, David City, NE

SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR’S CORNER:
Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus,
    I want to invite all Cursillistas to come to the School of Leaders Formation Retreat at St. Michael School, Hastings, Fri., June 14 - Saturday, June 15.  This is a great way to deepen your understanding of Cursillo, and to get more involved in the Cursillo Movement.  A registration form is included in this newsletter.  The Cursillistas who have come to these Retreats in the past have really enjoyed them and learned a lot!
    I invite you to offer palanca for the success of QUEST #1, (for 9th-10th grades) to be held Apr. 27-28.
    I encourage you to post the palanca calendar where you will see it each day, and practice ongoing palanca for our diocesan movement & throughout the world.
    The next Cursillo Weekends are Sept. 12-15 (men) and Sept. 19-22  (women), at St. Michael School, Hastings.  The men’s coordinator is John Springer and the women’s coordinator is Kathy Springer.  Begin now to study your environments and invite people you know to prepare to be candidates.  The candidate application forms were revised 1/5/02.  Please read the sponsor guidelines carefully.  See your Ultreya Center representatives for new application forms.  Make a friend, be a friend and bring your friend to Christ!

De Colores! Fr. Mark Seiker
 

From the Lay Director:
    God is good … all the time!!  All the time … God is good!!
    The Secretariat is continuing work on revising the Cursillo by-laws for the Lincoln Diocese (to bring them into line with National) and getting the School of Leaders up and running again.  Included in this newsletter is an application for an overnight retreat on June 14-15, the focus of which will be a School of Leaders for our diocese.  Please prayerfully consider what role Our Lord is asking you to take in this important work.  Whether you feel called to be active in the School or just want to know more about it, plan to participate.  After all, Our Lord doesn’t call the equipped … He equips the called … the School of Leaders will help you better understand the Cursillo method and strategy.
    This month I would like to spend some time discussing team formation as it relates to the Three-Day Weekend.  The Fundamental Ideas of the Cursillo Movement (par. 267-269) states that “the leaders of the Cursillo cannot be just a collection of individuals; for their witness to be authentic, they must have a sense of being a community.  Long before the Cursillo, they must experience themselves as being Church, as building Church, as living Church in communal witness; they must form a team.  All are one: a small community, a sign of faith, of hope, and of charity.  Within the Cursillo, the team is the Church made visible, as it goes about accomplishing the mission of the universal Church.
    “It is not good enough that each member of the team should set a good example as an individual; it is indispensable that all the members also give the witness of being community if they are to awaken in others a capacity for awe, an awareness of God’s nearness, and a hunger for community corresponding to the particular vocation of each person.
    “Within the team of leaders are gathered together priests, religious, and lay people, in perfect harmony and complementarity.  Clergy, religious, and laity find common ground in the Cursillo; while they have different services to offer, there is among them all a unity of mission.  Their coordination and mutual collaboration should be a reflection of the diverse functions of priests, religious, and laity in the one mission of the Church.  All of them should be a living incarnation of Christian doctrine; they should all express it in a way that penetrates and ignites people’s consciousness; they should all share together, each in his or her own way, the responsibility for making the Cursillo run smoothly.”
    Further, in regard to team preparation, paragraphs 289-294  state: “Pope Paul VI, addressing himself to agents of evangelization, had this to say: ‘Careful preparation is essential for all workers in the field of evangelization, and it is especially necessary for those who devoted themselves to the ministry of the Word.  Inspired by an ever deeper appreciation of the nobility and richness of the Word of God, they whose function it is to proclaim the Word must exercise every care to ensure that their words are dignified, well-chosen, and adapted to their audience …  If this preparation is undertaken seriously, it will not only develop their self confidence but will also serve to increase their zeal to preach Jesus Christ in our times’ (Evangelii Nuntiandi 73).
    “Two kinds of preparation are needed: long-term and short-term.  Long-term preparation is necessary not only so that the evangelizers can come to know and assimilate the content and objectives of the talks, but also so that they can grow in their vital union with Christ and in the extent to which their lives meet the demands of the Word.  It is only in this way that those charged with making the various proclamations will know what to say, how to say it, and to what purpose they are saying it.
    “Of particular importance in the making of this long-term preparation are the team meetings … They should go to these meetings with the intention of uniting themselves in one technique, one atmosphere, one spirit that is to be lived communally, in anticipation of the accomplishment of a common enterprise.
    “ … The results of these prior meetings will be:
• a deepening of the commitment to spirituality and to witness of life;
• the planning and advancement of the life of prayer and sacrifice of each one of the members of the team, as such;
• the requesting of prayers and sacrifices – what we call ‘intendencies’ or ‘palanca’ – from individuals and communities, who thus support the Cursillo by obtaining from God its effectiveness;
• the uniting of judgments and wills;
• familiarization with the talks, by whatever system works best for the team members, and development of a panoramic vision of the entire spectrum of the Cursillo weekend through the assembling and interconnecting of all the partial visions;
• the distribution, in accordance with the co-responsibility there should be in the practical carrying out of every apostolic plan, of the services to be rendered by each one of the team members;
• and, by means of all of the above, the creation of an atmosphere of real teamwork, in the style of a Group Reunion, which will cause the cursillistas to exclaim, as people did in the earliest days of the Church, ‘Look how they love one another!’”
    The short-term preparation referred to in the book includes time spent in the palanca chapel prior to giving a talk, and also the team meetings held each night of the Cursillo.
    Finally, par 295 states that: “Before becoming a team member, every leader should have been given adequate long-term formation in the School for Leaders; as a rule, allowing for exceptions in certain cases, only members of the School should be called upon to participate in a Cursillo.”
    Thus, I would like to emphasize two important elements of the above discussion: (1) it is imperative that we get the School of Leaders active once again in our diocese (the June 14-15 overnight retreat is intended to begin the process of re-forming the School of Leaders); and (2) we need to pay more attention to the long-term formation of Cursillo teams.   In regard to the second point, beginning with the September weekends, the Secretariat decided there should be three team formation meetings in addition to the practice weekend to allow the Holy Spirit time to transform the team from a group of individuals into a community (some dioceses have as many as ten formation meetings prior to a Three-Day Weekend).  As discussed above, these meetings are important so that the team has formed as a Group Reunion prior to the Cursillo itself.  If you are invited to be a member of the September men’s or women’s team, please take the matter to Our Lord and ask Him what your response should be.  The commitment is more than it has been in the past, but remember that it’s God’s time … does He really ask so much of us (in comparison to what He gives)?  After all, God is good … ALL the time!!

De Colores!!    Kathy Springer, Lay Director
 
 

Name: ____________________________________________________________

Address: __________________________________________________________

City/State/Zip: _____________________________________________________

Phone: _______________________     Email: _______________________

I made my Cursillo on ________________________.

Are you able to receive the Sacraments of Confession & Holy Communion?    Yes     No

To which Organizations do you commit your time? ______________
__________________________________________________________________________

Are you living the follow-up program of Group Reunion?    Yes     No

Are you living the follow-up program of Ultreya?    Yes     No

Do you have any physical/medical/dietary conditions to be considered?_________________
__________________________________________________________________________

Your Signature __________________________________

**PLEASE RETURN THIS FORM TO John Springer, CHAIR, SCHOOL OF LEADERS, 1410 E 15th St Crete, NE 68333   NO LATER THAN JUNE 7, 2002.
 
 

You are invited to a School of Leaders Formation Retreat to deepen the understanding of the Cursillo School of Leaders; to spend time in prayer and meditation with the Blessed Sacrament; and to make new and renew old Cursillo friendships.  This retreat is for men and women, couples (if only one spouse is able to attend, that’s fine), singles, priests and religious.  You may attend the entire weekend or one day.

SCHEDULE:

FRIDAY, JUNE 14TH (Retreat Phase)
 7:30pm --- Registration
 8:30pm --- Meditation, confessions, quiet time

SATURDAY, JUNE 15TH (Explain / Discuss School of Leaders)
 7:30am --- Morning prayer and Mass, followed by breakfast
 6:00pm --- Supper (day concludes for those needing to leave)
 

Suggested cost for the weekend is $15.00 per person.  “Classic” Cursillo accommodations will be available.    Advance registrations are requested, however, walk-ins are welcome.
If you cannot be with us, we request palanca for the success of this retreat.