REGION VI - 2009 SPRING ENCOUNTER
The Encounter was held in Victoria, MN. The following are comments by Mark and Wendy Mitchell, St. Paul/Minneapolis Lay Directors
Authentic Life
What a blessing it was for the Twin Cities Cursillo to host the Region VI spring meeting. It was a wonderful weekend in Victoria, MN filled with great rollos and wonderful community building time. Our thanks to all those that who made the trip and were present for the weekend.
The rollos, while they focused on Sponsoring, really addressed our life in the 4th-Day. The rollistas offered a simple view on our call to live the Gospel along with a clear message on our obligation to sponsoring future candidates. By the end of Saturday, we really understood our call to “Make a friend, be a friend, and bring a friend to Christ". It was also clear that our call was not necessarily to bring a friend to Cursillo. Reading the words carefully, one notices it says "bring a friend to Christ", not bring a friend to Cursillo.
Sponsoring is not our primary call. Our sponsoring happens as a natural result of our leading an authentic Christian life in our 4th-Day walk. Our being authentic will lead others to seek what we have. We won't find ourselves having to "push" Cursillo onto our new friends. As the friendship grows, and our friends are drawn closer to Christ, Cursillo will become a natural step for them as they seek ways to enrich their faith life. And when that happens, our invitation to Cursillo will be extended on Christ's timeline.
Prior to living our Cursillo in February of 2000, we noticed people walking around our home parish with a certain spark and life that intrigued us. We had no idea the people we were seeing had lived a Cursillo. That didn't become obvious to us until the Sunday afternoon of our respective Cursillo Weekends, and it was even more obvious when we attended Ultreya. What attracted us to those folks was their authentic life in Christ, not Cursillo.
We are not called to go and preach the Good News. Instead, we are called to go and be the Good News. God places us in specific places at specific times for His glory and gain. We are to be agents of change for Him. We are to live the Gospel for the rest of our life. Our Lord offers a retirement plan, the best in fact. What's not part of that plan is early retirement. We are to live the Gospel, in an authentic fashion, until we join our Lord in our 5th-Day.
This authentic life, shown in the sharing of our love of Christ and support of community, will impact those around us. Through our piety, study, and action we will touch hearts and bring hope to those we meet and interact with on a daily basis. We will become that agent of change that Christ wants us to be for Him And you know what, we probably won’t even notice it because it will be such an integral part of the fabric of our being. We will radiate Christ as effortlessly as we blink our eyes.
But, as we all know, some of our days are more "authentic" than others. We are on a journey and that journey is not always a straight path. The beauty of Cursillo is in the method we are given. Grouping, Ultreya, and community - all wrapped inside of God's grace - provide us the framework on which we can strengthen and build an authentic life for Him. He gives us so much and all He asks of us is to share His gifts, from our heart, with those we meet. When one stops to think about it, that's not a bad arrangement.
To Him be the glory and praise.
Wendy & Mark Mitchell (Lay Directors Twin Cities)