DIGEST CONTENTS - May, 2008

(To see list of previous Digests, click here.)

*****WELCOMING ULTREYA - 250 & 251

*****PRE-CURSILLO COMMITTEE - Oct 2008 Weekends

*****SCHOOL OF LEADERS

*****CALENDAR - Stay informed on What's Up!

*****PRAYER REQUEST - Knee time for our friends!

*****CURSILLO COMMUNICATIONS

*****UPDATE ON THE MARY STATUE CAMPAIGN

*****A MESSAGE FROM CATHERINE BARLEY

*****A MESSAGE FROM CURSILLISTA DAVE LYONS

*****UNSUBSCRIBE

*********************

WELCOMING ULTREYA - 250 & 251

Glenn Wilhite and Linda Daniels were blessed to have awesome teams and many enthusiastic new Cursillistas to add our local movement. Come meet the participants of weekends 250 and 251 at the welcoming Ultreya this Saturday.

Welcoming Ultreya

St. Brigid's Church

May 3rd at 8:30 am to 12:00 pm

*************************

PRE CURSILLO - SPONSORING CANDIDATES

Applications for the October 2008 weekend will be due August 1, 2008. October weekends are as follows... Men's Ocotober 9-12 and Women's October 16-19.

For applications contact the Pre-Cursillo Chairpersons: Patrick and Danielle McCay. They can be contacted at precursillosd@gmail.com or 858-272-7286. Be sure to use the current applications and send them to Pre-Cursillo Committee, 2025 Chalcedony St., San Diego, CA 92109

*************************

SCHOOL OF LEADERS

God Bless all of you on Teams 250 &251

As you look forward in your Cursillo journey, I look forward to seeing all of you at the Welcoming Ultreya this Saturday and would like to remind you about the upcoming School of Leaders in May.

In May, Deacon Kevin Murray is the featured speaker and this month's topic is the Beatitudes as presented in the Gospel of St. Luke! We have had such beautiful presentations each month by our blessed deacons, that we greatly look forward to Deacon Kevin's presentation. Last month, Deacon Mitch led a wonderful talk about Blessed are the Peacemakers. As always, we had so much to talk about, think about, and pray about after we heard him talk.

The School of Leaders will be on Monday May 5, 2008 at the Mission San Diego in La Sala. Or you can attend the North School of Leaders at Jim Koed's home in Escondido at 1338 Wicker Place on Thursday, May 8. Both sessions start at 6:30 p.m. Directions to both locations are on the attached flyer.

God Bless all of you as we start on our Cursillo Journey going into the Month of Mary, the Mother of our Blessed Savior!

DeColores

Glenn

**********************

CURSILLO SAN DIEGO CALENDAR 2007

* Spring Weekend's Welcoming Ultreya May 3, 2008, St. Brigid's 8:30 am.

* Fall 2008 Men's Weekend October 9-12, 2008 - Rector: TBA

* Fall 2008 Women's Weekend October 16-19, 2008 - Rectora: TBA

* Fall Weekend's Welcoming Ultreya November 1, 2008

***************************

PRAYER REQUEST

Please take a few minutes to pray for the following........

*****

Note: If one of the following prayer requests is from you, and the information can be updated, please email me at cursillocommunications@arc-socal.com with the updates. Thanks. John Sawaya

*****

Please pray for my son, John Pinachio. He has been accepted to the Naval Academy, class of 2012, pending the approval of a medical waiver. He had asthma as a child, but is no longer troubled with it. We are praying the waiver will go through, but if not, he will need prayers in order to trust and accept the other doors the Lord will surely open for him.

Thank you,

Terry Pinachio

Sent 4-18-2008

*****

Please pray for my sister Sandy. She was diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas and is on chemotherapy. Please help with your prayers.

Blessings,

Tony DePaola

Sent 4-17-2008

*****

Please pray for my 20-year old cousin Casey who is being treated for metastatic ovarian cancer.

Yesmin Saide

Sent 4/17/08

********************

BATTLING CANCER:

Susan Egan 4-11-2008 * Alyssa Pratt 4-4-2008 * Mike Stumpf 4-3-2008 * Fran Chavez Diener 3-31-2008 * Daniel Cook 3-26-2008 * Annamarie Marotta 3-11-2008 * Mickey Boggs 3-5-2008 * Sam Trozzo 2-20-2008 * Julie Anderson 2-8-2008 * Pauline Turrrieta 12-3-2007 * Dan Eaton 11-28-2007 * Rob Younkin 11-25-2008 * Anne Farrar 9-20-2007 * Michael Sprecco 9-10-2007 * Anne Marie Marotta 9-9-2007 * Carolyn Watson 8-3-2007 * Paul Mossuto 7-30-2007 * Michelle Lake 7/30/2007 * Benae & Monique 4-28-2007 * John Kammerer 4-30-2007 * Maria Roberts 12-11-2006 * Kathleen Forgione 11-6-2006 * Maria Aguirre 10-23-2006 * Mona Ohlin 10-9-2006 * Kristen Lepard 10-10-2006 * Matthew 9-11-2006 * Kristin Schwartz 9-6-2006 * Patsy E Musson 8-21-2006 * Terri Odell 8-3-2006 * Paula Scull 5-22-2006 * Rosemary Crivello 4-24-2006 * Tom Bigler 4-10-2006 * Marcia 4-7-2006 * Margie Piatkiewicz 3-23-2006 * Sheri D. Kidder 3-22-2006 * Irma Espinola 3-21-2006 * Cecilia (Joe Vina's niece) 3-10-2006 * Maria Brown 2-9-2006 * Bonnie Basener 2-9-2006 * Liz Schwartz 2-2-2006 * Friend of Yesmin Saide 1-30-2006 * Cynthia Martinez 1-4-2006 * Liz Ravenis * LEUKEMIA: Deacon Bob Fitzmorris * Roy Hubecki *

******************

SERVING IN IRAQ / AFGHANISTAN

Lt. Col. Alton Cochran USMC 1-11-2008 * Luke Spencer 78-20-2007 * David Pierce 4-20-2006 * Charlie Johnson 1-11-2006

******************

DECEASED

Jean Martin 4-15-2008 * Daniel Cook 3-24-2008 * Nancy Bernens 2/25-2008 * Phillip J. Forgione 2/8/2008 * Eduardo Bonnin 2/6/2008 * Katherine Preston 2/2/2008 * Brian Fitzgerald 1/1/2008 * George Paluso 12/22/2007 * Margaret Chambers 12/19/2007 * Dr. John Joseph Clifford 11/29-2007 * Uncle Pepe 9/15/2007 *Bill Verger * John Kammerer Sr. 10-9-2007 * Jose Mendoza 9-15-2007 * Jim Kilcoyne 6-2007 * Maureen Greer 6-29-2007 * Sgt Michael Martinez 6-28-2007 * Sokie Vasquez 6-2-2007 * Fr. Walt Vogel 4-28-2007 * Joan McBride 4-18-2007 * Brian Sperry 3-2007 * John Mazurowski 3-26-2007 * Tracy Favreau 2-2007 * Alex Perwich 2 15-2007 * JoAnn Gardo 1-16-2007 * Sally Manolovitz 12-26-2007 * Dale Haggard 12-17-2007 * Mary Mac Isaac 12-7-2006 * Henry G. Vasquez 10-9-2006 * Frank Sandoval 8-29-2006 * Seth Simpson 5-2007 * Robert Carey 8-26-2006 * Julie Gabbard's dad 8-25-2006 * Valerie Farris 8-25-2006 * Julie Shultis 8-8-2006 * Mary Peri 8-5-2006 * Janelle Darmody 7-21-2006 * Norma Carey 7-25-06 * Paul Carey 7-25-06 * Juanita Villavicencio 7-24-2006 * Clint 7-14-2006 * Bob Murphy 6-1-2006

*****************

Please don't forget...

* George Anderson, back surgery 2-28-08

* Jerry Smith, health issues 12-12-2007

* Raeleen Whitt, battling leukemia 9-9-2007

* Christina Dodd, recovering from a broken neck. 6-15-2007

* Dominic F. LaRussa, Complications from Diabetes 6-15-2007

* Marion Adams, knee problems 3-6-2007

* Doug Broding, Heart problems 1-15-2007

* Dale Amorosia, Heart Problem 12-1-2006

* Bobbi Valente , Blood disorder 11-27-2006

* Mary Beth Ekhaml, ongoing medical conditions 10-12-2006

* Teresa Marcotte, for peace and healing 10-10-2006

* Tom Drabek, diagnosed with a rare bone disease 7-17-2006

* Frannie LaRussa, battling Leukemia 4-11-2006

* Liam Hearne and family in your prayers as they continue to fight CF 2-3-2006

* Dave Pierce, Parkinsons Disease

************************

CURSILLO COMMUNICATIONS

GALLINA GAZETTE - Cursillo Newsletter Needs Help

The Gallina Gazette is the official publication of the San Diego Cursillo movement. It is sent out via US mail 2-3 times a year. The Cursillo Secretariat has decided to change it to an email format. The communications committee is looking for someone who would be interested in putting this newsletter together electronically. If you have any expertise in this or would just like to help please contact Paul Greer at (858)573-1500.

Paul Greer

Communication Chair

************************

UPDATE ON THE MARY STATUE CAMPAIGN

RESERVE THE DATE of Saturday 16 August 2008! Our heartfelt thanks to all who donated time and treasure to the successful campaign to acquire a beautiful new statue of Mary for the Grotto at Whispering Winds. On that date we will have the unveiling of the statue in its newly designed site followed by a dedication Mass. Formal invitations will be sent to all donors in early July.

Peggy and I, along with Cursillista Larry Sheehan who donated the design and landscape plan for the site, will be in Lander, Wyoming to visit the artist Beverly Paddleford in early May. We will also visit the Eagle Foundry where her work is being cast. The bronze statue is scheduled for delivery in mid June. Prior to that, Earl Flores and his son, stone masons from St. John parish in Encinitas, will construct the reinforced concrete slab and overlay it and the immediate prayer area with Pennsylvania Bluestone. Bluestone will also be installed around the altar area so that the altar and the statue sites are artistically complementary.

From now until the dedication in August work will be ongoing to develop the site following the plans that Larry has developed. For example, Todd Williams has volunteered to provide forklift services with which to install the statue. Cursillistas Larry and Ginger Schimpf are constructing and are donating a large rough-hewn wooden cross to be installed a few feet behind the statue. Cursillistas Matt and Maria Sedlock are donating the low voltage lighting system so that the Grotto may be used for evening Masses and prayer sessions. Cursillista Glenn Wilhite is donating the necessary trenching and irrigation system. And through the entire campaign, Cursillo Treasurer Susann Wilhite has been receiving all monetary donations and managing the financial interfacing with Whispering Winds.

We are looking for someone with good carpentry skills to build four prayer benches to arrange around the foot of the statue.

The funds necessary for the purchase, shipping and basic installation of the statue have been raised, thanks to all of you and especially to Terry and Barbara Caster for their successful Challenge Pledge. Any additional donations received will be utilized to enhance the Grotto site with plantings and construction materials. Whispering Winds has budgeted $10,000 for the site, but the cost of basic materials will probably exceed that amount.

All tax year 2007 and January 2008 donation and tax receipts have been previously mailed. February 2008 and beyond will be processed shortly.

Peggy and I again wish to thank all of you, not only for your donations, but also for your support in honoring Mary in this way. Thank you for recognizing the need to provide to our entire Catholic Community this visible remembrance of our spiritual heritage. It is exciting to realize that all will be ready in Mary’s Grotto for the October Cursillo Weekends.

In HIS love and service, George & Peggy Anderson

*************************

A MESSAGE FROM CATHERINE BARLEY

Rafiki Marecani,

Salama! This common greeting meaning 'peace' is one that I can readily remember when all else fails. In Tanzanian culture, the greeting ritual is of paramount importance. A common 'hello' or 'hey' in the States translates in Tanzania to: 'Habari za azubuhi.' (reply) 'Nzuri. Habari za kwako.' (reply) Nzuri, asante. Pole kwa kazi.' (reply) 'Asante sana. Na wewe!' (reply) 'Haiya.' (reply) 'Tutaonana, badai.' (reply) 'Ai, badai.' Translation: 'How is your morning?' (r) 'Good, how is yours?' (r ) 'Good, thanks. Sorry for the work.' (r ) 'Thank you very much. The same to you.' (r ) 'Sure.' (r ) 'I'll see you later today.' (r ) 'Yes, later today.'

Apologies to all you Kiswahili speakers out there, this is definitely a loose translation, but close enough to illustrate my point. When all replies (of which there are an infinite number) elude the Swahili neophyte, 'Salama' will suffice. I keep it in my linguistic back pocket at all times. Also, 'nzuri' the Swahili word for 'good or fine'. You can almost never go wrong with this one. At any one of our (LMC) distributions which take place every Friday and Saturday, you will hear this word used again and again. Never mind that the one using it may be a young mother freshly emerged from her teens (or maybe not quite), barefoot, with a very small baby on her back, another small child peeping from behind her kanga and possibly a third and fourth somewhere nearby. She is here because one or more of her children is sponsored by CFCA , the sponsoring agency LMC is partnered with. Today, perhaps she will receive maize flour (unga), beans (maharagwe), sugar (sukari), rice (mchele) and a mixture of six grains called 'super mix' washed, ground and mixed by the scholarship students at LMC specifically for the sponsored children who are at risk of malnourishment. This young mother may be HIV positive or in an abusive relationship, or tending her own child and three of her deceased sister's children. The reasons for abject poverty here are as many as the replies to 'Habari'. Nevertheless, when greeted, this young woman will smile a huge, beautiful smile and reply, 'Nzuri.' Yes today, nzuri. Her sponsored child will receive the food which will feed herself and her family, possibly for the next month. She may also receive, in place of one or more of the previously mentioned goods, a mosquito net for the bed in which the family sleeps. Maybe the sponsored child does not have a bed. LMC distributes beds to children who are taught to save ten or twenty or fifty shillings out of their monthly food allotment in order to pay for it. Or possibly, today is the day that her sponsored child will receiver her/his school uniform or shoes, or even school bus fare or school supplies. Before the actual distribution of goods takes place, a designated LMC employee will lead a meeting of the adults gathered. First, a prayer, then items of interest will be shared, possibly meeting time & location for next month or a reminder that letters are due. After announcements, a short lesson will be given about a topic chosen by the LMC staff for this month. Hygiene, nutrition, malaria detection and testing, the importance of HIV testing and community support to de-stigmatize the affliction, saving, budgeting and money managing; all are among the topics covered throughout the year. Later, after the goods are distributed and the staff is cleaning up, you will see the mothers and daughters erect and graceful, swaying off under huge sacks of flour, beans, rice, books, etc. piled on their heads. Asante sanas all around. Fifteen, twenty, seventy-five, two-hundred children and their families will eat tonight, some children will sleep under netting for the first time, some children will go to school tomorrow or simply begin to be nourished back to health with a daily diet of super-mix thanks to the generosity of sponsors willing to make a small sacrifice somewhere on the other side of the world and the hard work and dedication of the caring LMC staff.

For the LMC staff, distribution days require much preparation. Files for all sponsored children from the area to be visited are pulled. Each child's allotment for the month is logged. Amounts are tallied and ordered. Supermix is bagged and tied. When the truck arrives with the supplies on the morning of the distribution, it must be unloaded, all its contents checked with the LMC roster and reloaded to deliver the goods to the site. Staff members clamber into the supply truck or the LMC pickup and drive to the distribution site where families are already assembling. The logistics are complicated and sometimes communication gets muddled. Woody and I have become the second string supply people. When, halfway through the distribution it becomes clear that there will not be enough flour or rice or beans or all of the above, Woody and I jump into the pickup and race to restock. Sometimes supplies are at the project. Sometimes not, then we get to careen down the narrow pathways of Tageta, dodging chickens and small children, skirting vendor's vegetable displays and bouncing headlong over puddles and ruts to restock from local businesses. Then, back we go, helter skelter, a dented 4 x 4 hotly pursued by a tiny but vocal parade of children chanting "Me Do! Me Do!" (Mary Dawn! Mary Dawn!) Woody and I have become used to being called "Me Do". Well, at least, I have become used to it…

It's time to go. I'm attaching a few pictures of a typical distribution day. Pictures are always better than words…

Akubariki Mungu, never forget that you are greatly loved! Since it is now almost bedtime here I'll wish you 'usiku mwema' and 'lala salama',

Catherine

***************************

A MESSAGE FROM CURSILLISTA DAVE LYONS

De Colores, Brothers and Sisters in Christ....

The reason for this email is to ask for your help.

I am working with Martin Rosales from Whispering Winds to organize a diocesan-wide Men's Retreat weekend on Nov 21-23 (the weekend before Thanksgiving).

Our goal is to have a minimum of 80 men attend the retreat. The anticipated theme is "Welcome Home."

Here's what I am asking for your help with. I want to find all of the SD County parishes that have an existing Men's group, and to get the contact information for those groups' leaders. Names, email addresses and/or phone #s. is all I need. I'll take it from there.

I would appreciate your help in finding these men by the 1st week in May.

Any assistance you can give me is greatly appreciated....

God bless you and your families...

Dave Lyons

#248

760-271-9264

**************************

John Sawaya

Cursillo Communications

cursillocommunications@arc -socal.com

Last Updated: May 1, 2008