Highlights from The School of Leaders - November 3

Every month, the Twin City Cursillo sponsors a School of Leaders on the first Tuesday of the Month. The School of Leaders provides a place for new and time-tested Cursillista’s where they can 1) Learn more about Cursillo, 2) grow in spirituality, and 3) grow in Cursillo leadership knowledge and skill. Jesus says “Come follow me”. We say: “‘Yes Yes Lord’, because we have been to Leader School”.

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This November, Mark and Wendt Mitchell invited Kathy Springer from Crete Nebraska to talk to us on sponsoring new candidates. Kathy presented this same topic at National as a ½ day workshop and condensed it down to 2 hours to meet our Leader School Schedule. I happen to have 3 pages of notes and a 1 page handout which I will now attempt to condense into this summary. You get the best of the best.

Kathy began by reiterating one of the main messages from last month; i.e., the purpose of Cursillo is to save our own life and those around us and to build the Christian communities we are participating in. This lead Kathy into discussing the sponsors roles and responsibilities in Pre-Cursillo (look for the “Diamonds in the ruff”), during the Cursillo (be there and pray), and in post-Cursillo (on-going support). A condensed summary of sponsoring can be describes as: move those “diamonds in the ruff” to true leaders, love those Cursillo students, commit yourself to the individual (God has always been patient with us), prepare the candidate foe the weekend, God will always give you the time you need to do His work, show the candidate how to be a Christian, the sponsor needs to be practicing the Cursillo method of group reunion and Ultreyas, authenticity by the sponsor in his Christian and moral life,

Kathy expanded upon this “authentic Christian Cursillo Sponsor” by emphasizing Making a Friend, Being a Friend, and Bringing that friend to Christ with special emphasis on personal contact; email and voice mail are not the preferred tools here! We were left with these questions to ponder our skills in being an authentic Christian sponsor: Do we really believe what we preach? Do we live what we believe? Do we live as we believe? If no or maybe, then we need more study. And all this action is backed up by true Palanca. We have heard at past Leader School sessions about speaking to God about our Candidate before speaking to our candidate about Cursillo. We are also encouraged to do Palanca for our candidate even before that candidate says yes to a weekend.

Kathy went on to mention who should go on a Cursillo Weekend (potential leaders), who can go (active practicing Catholics), and who should not (those who are experiencing temporary stress or substantial life changes in their lives). We all measure stress (trauma to severe to minimal) and respond to it differently. Knowing the candidate and patience are good virtues here.

Over the past few years, Twin Cities Cursillo message on married couples has been 1) the husband should go first, and 2) both should go or none should go. The message we were truly left with was this: God is really calling the candidate and we are His instruments. It is possible that God maybe calling one of the married partner and not the other. If after explaining Cursillo to both partners, and if the two are comfortable with one being a Cursillista and the other not, we should not stand in the way of letting this individual participate in Cursillo, and letting the Spirit call us individuallly

As a final thought, you, as a sponsor should: know the Cursillo method, read the sponsors booklet and explain it in detail to the candidate, know your candidate and pray to God about your candidate, be an authentic witness to your candidate, provide your candidate with a copy of the Cursillo Movement What is It? – these are available thru your Cursillo section representative, spark the desire for a hunger for God and make it grow; promote an attitude of conversion, , provide the Secretariat and PreCursillo section and Team all the relevant facts about the personality and disposition of the candidate (candidate applications work for these details). And finally, take responsibility for the perseverance of the candidate until they are fully incorporated into his/her own Cursillo Christian community ensuring the new 4^th dayer is living their “tripod” and evangelizing their environments.

Mixed into her talk, Kathy provided a few examples of her witness for Christ. As a teacher for a local University, she expressed numerous occasions to help students with their difficulty in understanding the homework along with taking moments to pray for understanding in educational and other areas of the student’s life.

Would you like to learn more about this topic? I would recommend that you read Chapter 7 “Pre-Cursillo”, in the Cursillo Leader’s Manual. If you don’t want to purchase a copy right now, please contact your Ultreya rep. I have been in the process of getting this book in the hands of all the Ultreya Reps.

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At our December Leader School, there are two (2) main topics on our agenda in addition to our usual grouping and prayer activities. First item on the agenda will be commissioning of our new Lay Directors and Rector/Rectora for our next set of weekends. Second, will be a “year in review” by our out-going Lay Directors

Apostolate without Prayer is empty; Prayer without Apostolate is a lie.

Jim Harasyn WE#007, Your School of Leaders servant

Upcoming School of Leader Events

December 1 – Year end wrap up and Commissioning for our new Rector/Rectora and new Secretariat members.

January 5 – Doctrinal talk presented by Fr. Glen Jensen.

February – Still working on this.