Lexington Cursillo - Lay Director

From the Desk of the Lay Director Dan Nolet

Dear Cursillo Community,

Cursillo is Changing!

As part of Pope John Paul II’s call to every movement of the church to return to their original charism, the Cursillo movement in the United States has been studying our primary focus and charism over the past several years. We are now entering into a country wide updating of our documents (Leaders Manuals, Cursillo Weekend Manuals, and everything else) and our weekends to reflect the results of this study.

Those who made their Cursillo weekend in the past 10 years or so will see this as a change. In reality, I think the Holy Spirit is encouraging our movement to rediscover it's original charism and purpose. It can be an exciting time for us as we rediscover some of the richness and depth that came from the founding days of our movement.

The primary spiritual change taking place is a stronger focus on personal and ongoing conversion (of each Cursillista) as opposed to a focus on our communities and our outreach or evangelization. The Cursillo movement still intends to change and reform the world for Christ. Our method to do this is to convert each person into a truer apostle and lead us all to understand what God would have us do in our daily lives. This includes spreading the Word (sometimes by our words, always by our example). I think the change recognizes that our outer mission will happen more easily when our inner conversion continues, while this outer mission is not guaranteed if the inner conversion is ignored. You should see increased emphasis on our prayer life from our documents and our communications, as well as an ongoing emphasis on “making a friend, being a friend, and bringing our friend to Christ”.

The outward sign of the changes for us is a return to the original Cursillo tripod of Piety, Study, and Action from our more recent Holiness, Formation, and Evangelization. There has been a huge amount of discussion on this at the national and regional levels, but to me the reasoning is simple. The old words better reflect what I myself must do in order to change my life and become a better apostle for Christ. Many of the weekend talks have changed in both title and content as a result of this renewal. Joe Lerza and Teresa Nolet have graciously volunteered to be the first users of the new Cursillo Manual, and their teams and candidates will experience the change. The new babe chicks will not recognize any difference. It will fall to us veterans to change in order to support them in their Fourth Day, and to continue to learn and grow in the Cursillo movement.

If you are interested in learning more about the changes, please contact me (noletda@alum.mit.edu). You can also search out the National Cursillo website (www.natl-cursillo.org) or order one of the new Leader’s Manuals from Kim Kovarich ($15 from Kim at kak217@insightbb.com or 2125 Rollingdale Rd., Lexington KY 40513).

Click here for questions, comments.

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