Warming Up

From Our Lay Directors:

I enjoy welcoming in the month of March. Although cold weather is not yet a memory, there are more than occasional sunny days and warmer temperatures to lift my heart and brighten my spirit. Crocuses and hyacinths begin to peek out from the frozen earth. For me, there’s nothing like seeing new growth emerge after the ice of recent days. 

This growth reminds me of the time in our church calendar that we are entering, the season of Lent. Many of us look at Lent as a time for growth in our spiritual lives, taking advantage of this opportunity to look for ways, new or old, to make a little progress on our journey of ongoing conversion that could possibly continue after Easter. What might it be this year? An extra weekday Mass? Watching some programs on FORMED? Downloading an app that contains some new ways to pray, or understand our prayers better? (I’ve recently begun listening to “Rosary in a Year’. Quite enlightening and helpful. And yes, I know it’s March, and the podcast started in January. 😊) Then there’s attending Stations of the Cross or parish missions or helping with some acts of service or mercy. And of course, offering prayer and palanca for the upcoming Cursillos makes such a difference for the candidates and team. 

I know that my Savior died for me to save me from my sins, that God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him. John 3:16 tells us that “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” How can we use this time of Lent so that our lives better reflect our overwhelming gratitude for God’s love for us?  

DeColores & Ultreya

John & Kathy

God Loved Us First!

Lay Director

Friends, as cold weather holds on, I am warmed by the love that I see in my brothers and sisters in Christ. As St John said, “We love because He loved us first”. How appropriate for the month of February. The time to warm our hearts and minds. To remember that Christ loved us first. If it weren’t for His love, His coming to earth to save us by dying on the cross, we would be lost! Very lost!! I can’t imagine my life without you, my brothers and sisters. Although I do remember my life before Cursillo. It wasn’t a good life. It was dark and lonely. But now that I know of Christ’s love for me, my life is much brighter. Even when the days are hard to live, to go through. I know His love surrounds me! And I see it in your lives. I invite you to read and reflect on 1 John 4. The entire chapter is 21 verses long and talks about love. It will warm your heart.

How do we get to love all our brothers and sisters? Yes, even the ones that rub us the wrong way every time we meet. I think by remembering that God loved us first. And what does that love look like? Forgiveness of my sins (70 X 7), that is a huge start. We hear that every time we pray the Lord’s prayer; and forgive us as we forgive those who have hurt us. I don’t know about you, but sometimes that hurts! OUCH! God says He will forgive me IF I forgive the guy that keeps aggravating me at work with his demeaning jokes or foul language. Or the gal that always talks above me and knows how to do it better. I’m sure you all have a person or two in mind. So, the real question is “What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?” (Romans 8:35). What does keep us from the love of God? I think in all honesty, it is our selfishness. Our pride. Our wanting to be in control. When I want to have the last word and make things turn out how I planned. And then I hear God say, do it with love. I know then that the ending has to change. My version of the story has to be different; done in and with love.

Let’s end with Romans 8:38&39. “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

DeColores & Ultreya

John & Kathy

Our Mission

Spiritual Advisor

Dear Sister and Brother Cursillistas,

As I’m writing this, it is COLD outside, but to greet you all is a warm experience. I really treasure our Cursillo Movement in my life. Probably many of you know that I lived my weekend a month after I was ordained in 1969. Fr. Charlie Ritter got me to Toledo Cursillo #16, and it’s been a favored continuing gift in my life! I added it to being a Knight of Columbus which started for me through my dad and was affirmed while in seminary, and it has taught me how precious sharing faith in close and intense company with friends helps me be the kind of person who can know, love and bring friends to Christ.

Our January 2025 ARK has affirmed and deepened in me the value of being able to ponder and even meditate on our faith as we start a new year in our lives. 2025 brings to mind 12/25/25 this coming Christmas – so I’m tuned in to a deeper way to meditate on my faith in the person of Jesus and The Body of Christ that we are in our families and parishes = our Church! I’m trying to follow up on Deacon Jerry’s beautiful sharing last month on how deep and precious our faith can be as we really let it be central to our lives and not just something we “get to do.” When we have that meditative blessing all and every day, we actually become great instruments in the hands of the Holy Spirit to build up, treasure and share the grace that flows to and through us for a better world…..

Our present political situation (along with the information that currently only about 20% of baptized Catholics are present at Mass on Sundays) gives us the call to ponder who we can be in a nation (or world) that is conflicted in the human condition alone. The Faith and Hope and Love that we share in Christ are so needed, they can’t be only thought about, mentioned and sometimes struggled with. They need to be lived! They need to be prayed about, shared through invitations of companionship, pondered together (as well as individually), trusted, affirmed and joyfully celebrated as the Holy Spirit will lead us to and we can REJOICE IN. Read the Bible daily (at least a little) and try to do that with others as the Spirit gives you chances!

Toledo Diocesan Cursillo Mission Statement: Cursillo is a Catholic Lay Movement embraced by the Diocese of Toledo to bring hearts closer to Jesus Christ in order to transform society and be of service to the whole church. It is our mission to form small Christian Communities to deepen Spirituality in ourselves and in others.

February 2025

So, let’s get a bunch of guys and gals to the coming weekends where and when all this faith can be taught, enthused, shared and celebrated – and the Spirit thanked for….!

De Colores & Happy Valentine's Day!

Fr Skip