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Newsletter
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Mar/Apr 2008 Newsletter |
Contents
From the Lay Director
This Newsletter is coming to you a wee bit later than usual because we wanted to be sure to include the names of the team and candidates that will be experiencing Weekend #53. Please look elsewhere in this issue for those names. Then pray and do Palanca for them and come to Send Off and Clausura! Our erstwhile 4th Day Coordinator is putting together a Holy Spirit Team to put John Wesley Ranch back together while the men are in the chapel and during the first part of Clausura. If you are looking for a palanca opportunity, this could by your chance. Give Kathy Woodring a call and sign up to help!
As I’ve announced at the last few Ultreyas, my second term as your Lay Director ends in June. According to our By-Laws, I MUST leave the position then. If you think the Holy Spirit is calling, nudging or in any way trying to get your attention to consider taking on this job, or the job of 4th Day Coordinator as Kathy Woodring’s term ends then, too, please pray and pray and pray some more. Then let someone on the Secretariat know and we’ll pray, too. Neither of these jobs is particularly difficult, but they both require a commitment to service to the movement, attendance at Secretariat meetings and Ultreyas/SOLs, and a Newsletter article now and again. Think about it. Pray about it. Ask your groupies to pray about it. Let us know.
Elsewhere in this Newsletter you’ll find information about the National Encounter being held in late July through early August at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC. The theme for the Encounter is Christ is Our Light. Further information and an application may be found on the National Cursillo website or by contacting me.
Our annual Cursillo picnic (does anyone have any idea how many of these we’ve had?) will be on Sunday, August 3rd at Black Forest Regional Park. It’s a little later this year in response to your input. Sure hope to see bunches of folks attend!
So…we have three upcoming “special” events plus our regularly scheduled Ultreyas and Schools of Leaders. And did you know there’s a fledgling Ultreya at Holy Family in Security the first Saturday of each month following the 8:00 o’clock Mass. I’m planning on checking that one out! I want to thank Mary Carew for answering my call for team folders from the past. Mary's been involved in Cursillo in Colorado Springs for some time and added invaluable treasures to our historic account. THANK YOU, MARY!
Candy Milberg
Lay Director
Easter Sunday has come and gone. Behind us are the Easter Vigil, the C&E Catholics sitting in our place in the pews, the colored eggs and chocolate bunnies. But Easter and the celebration of Easter are far from over.
A wise father of the early Christian Church, Athanasius, wrote: “The fifty days from Easter Sunday to Pentecost are celebrated in joyful exultation as one feast day, or better, as one ‘great Sunday’.” We continue the celebration at Mass. For a week we end Mass with the double “Alleluia”, our song of joy. Through the Easter Season, the paschal candle, a symbol of the presence of the risen Christ among the people of God, remains near the altar and is lit for all Masses.
While the Easter Season ends at Pentecost, we can never stop celebrating and rejoicing over what Jesus did for each of us at Easter.
Deacon Ray
Spiritual Advisor
Candidate Application Status:
Women's Candidate Applications to date – 11. We need four more to schedule a weekend, so get your applications in!
Men's Candidate Applications - There are ten (10) confirmed "YES's" for the upcoming Men's #53 Cursillo Weekend which is scheduled for April 3rd through April 6th 2008, at the John Wesley Ranch in Divide, Colorado.
If you have identified a Candidate for either a Men's or Women's weekend, please take some time to fill out and mail the application to the Colorado Springs Cursillo P.O. Box (25655), OR get them to me (Ruth Snyder) by any means possible. Remember, Christ is counting on you!
Please be aware that if you have a candidate that would like to go, but cannot afford it, we do have partial and full scholarships available. Never let the cost be a reason why a candidate does not attend a weekend!
Candidate Applications are available On-Line. If you have any questions at all concerning Cursillo sponsorship, candidate selection, application forms, etc., please email me or call me at 200-3136.
Please make sure to give your candidate the booklet "The Cursillo Movement - What Is It?.” If you don't have any of the booklets, please let me know and I'll make sure you get one.
Your Sister in Christ,
Ruth Snyder, Precursillo coordinator
Letter From the Rector (#53)
We have a Team!! For the past 8 weeks these guys (1/2 of them are fairly new to this Movement) have really been working hard to ‘learn the ropes’, and open themselves up to the Holy Spirit so the Rollos become what God wants. Here is a list of the Candidates (we NEED your Letters of Palanca – please remember what it meant to you on your weekend):Jason Keas
Steve Elliott
Jim Helms
Jeff Ford
Ed Achtenberg
Jim Morton
Don Schneider
Rich Mantz
Dave Murphy
Joe Matiatos
Members of the Team:
Gary Grove
Dick Koprowski
Keith Woodring
Tom Smentowski
Terry Vice
Michael Fitzsimmons
Derek Garcia
Deacon Ray Milberg
Randy Kunkel
Deacon Ken Huard
Brandon Coco
Father Vu
Bart McDonough
Deacon Nehemias Ruiz
Jake Fugate
Greg Palka
Remember that the Send-Off is at 5:30 on 3 Apr, and the Clausura’s Abrazzo line starts at 4:30 on 6 April.
Your Brother In Christ,
Michael Fitzsimmons
Greetings fellow Cursillistas!
There seems to be some confusion about what the School of Leaders is about (Some keep trying to add more ‘stuff’). Generally, the following is what the School is for:
- Spiritual formation ChL, 60 We are all called to grow continually in union with God
- Doctrinal formation ChL, 60 There is an urgency for learning the Doctrine of our Religion. We call ourselves Roman Catholic, but what does that really mean?
- Formation in human values AA, 29 The lay person should have a totally balanced formation and should be a member integrated into contemporary society and its culture.
Formation of Human values includes:
These points of formation lead us closer to where we should be. It is about loving all in the world-wide church (include our brethren in Al-Qaeda). We learn some of the ‘head stuff’ (Study), then have to get it into the heart (Piety) – and then take some loving Action (Evangelization).
- Formation of a social conscience ChL, 60 A study of the social teachings of Christ is indispensable in assisting Cursillo Leaders to form themselves.
- Formation for the apostolate AA, 29 ChL, 62 The School prepares the leaders for their apostolate through formation in the Cursillo philosophy, method, strategy, and operational structures. Note that r u l e s were not mentioned – it is all about the mentality/criteria rather than rules FI, 4
The School of Leaders has the following schedule:
9:45 - 12 Apr - "Finding Your Charism" (2nd Half) implemented by Ruth Snyder
10 May - "Catherine of Siena Institute" presentation by Father Mike Fones, O.P.
9 Jun – (Hopefully we will have a presentation by Bishop Sheridan on Faithful Citizenship through an informed conscience.)
Your kin in Christ
Michael & Melody Fitzsimmons
The 18th National Cursillo Encounter will be held July 31-August 3, 2008. The Encounter will be held at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC. Cost for the Encounter is $325.00 if registration is received by the National Cursillo Center by May 31, 2008. The cost increases to #375.00 for registrations received between June 1 and June 30, 2008, and to $425.00 for those received between July 1 and July 11. After July11, those running the Encounter can’t guarantee lodging. The registration fee covers transportation to and from Regan International Airport only, three nights lodging, dinner on Thursday evening, three meals on Friday and Saturday and breakfast on Sunday morning. Lodging capacity is 600 persons. Accommodations are two persons to a room and two rooms share a center bathroom. There are NO single rooms. There are three or four floors for each hall with stairs only. No elevators. There are a limited number of first floor rooms and a limited number of wheelchair accessible rooms. Lodging will be assigned on a first come, first served basis. < p> If you want to room with a specific person, the two Registration Forms must be mailed in the same envelope. If you want to see the layout of the Catholic University of America campus, check out their website at: http://visitors.cua.edu/CUAmap.pdf. The keynote speaker for the event is the Most Reverend Francisco Gonzalez, S.F. and the theme for the weekend is “Christ is Our Light.”
Social time: 7:45 am to 8:00 am. Ultreya: 8:00 am to 9:30 am.
Central (April 12, May 10, June14, 2008) South (April 5, May 3, June 7, 2008)
Next Secretariat meeting: Monday, April 7, 2008 at 7pm in the Community Center at Divine Redeemer Church. All Cursillistas invited/welcome.