At the June 15, 2019 Secretariat meeting a policy change was announced. Effective July 1, 2019: Any person can apply to make their Cursillo in the Erie Diocese at their discretion.

As the new Cursillo President, Todd Beckes, takes office this month he has a message to share with all his fellow Cursillistas about our great movement. [Click the Title to Read More]

With the Nov. 8 election approaching, the Knights of Columbus have released a novena addressed to Mary, the Immaculate Conception, who is the patroness of the United States. “Pope Francis has said in reference to the U.S. election that we should ‘study the proposals well, pray and choose with your conscience,’ and this novena is designed to help Catholic Americans do that.”

Is America becoming overwhelmingly less religious? This article from TheAtlantic digs into some of the statistics around this and has makes some good points that we, as Cursillistas, can learn from. Some examples are listed here but click on the link to see the full article. [Click on the header to see the blog entry]

Ben Daghir (Cursillo #230), from Elk County, was just accepted into the seminary. Ben wrote an open letter to Cursillistas sharing how Cursillo has touched his life and issuing a challenge to all Cursillistas to help guide our youth and fill the gap in their lives that our society and culture do not. [Click on the Title to read the entire letter]

If you could change the world right now, would you? Do you believe in the power of prayer? I’m going to make the assumption that if you are reading this, you do. Do you believe there would be power in all Cursillistas praying the same prayer at the same time every day? What if everyone in Erie County prayed at the same time? What about everyone in the entire Diocese? Now, imagine if you could get a million people to pray the same prayer, at the same time, twice a day. THAT would be kind of like a prayer revolution! I recently came upon this concept and wanted to share it with my fellow Cursillistas. [Click the Title for the Full Story]

It was remarkable, really. If you do not feel loved by God, or loved in life, or have trouble loving yourself, Cursillo swaddles you in love, attention, and caring. The idea is that God’s love comes to you through others, in this case, Cursillistas who are with you all weekend as well as those checking in from places far beyond. [Click the Title to see the full article]

I had no desire to make my Cursillo. My parents had made it and my boyfriend at the time and many of his RCIA friends had made it and man (Cursillo) and I thought they were crazy. I loved my religion and I was good with God. No need (for Cursillo) here. So what changed that ended up changing my life forever? It’s probably not what you would think… Click the title to read the full article and find out.

How is Lent going? Have you broken down on your Lenten penance? You are probably getting this edition of the Cursillo Newsletter on the same week you hear the account of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman. She was stunned to think Jesus treated her with respect and mercy. Men in that time and even today in many Mid-Eastern countries do not talk to women in public let alone have an intimate conversation as the one between Jesus and the Samaritan (a woman and non-Jew). [Click the Title of the article to read the full story]

We all have redemption experiences in our lives. We may not even recognize them. Read all about Fr. Dan's recent redemption experience and how it relates to Cursillo. What an experience! [Click on the Title to read the full article]

Patience is the willingness to suffer for the welfare of another. Christian patience has a note of mercy within it. Mercy is love’s readiness to be seized by the suffering of another. We call patience a virtue because it is not ours by nature. It does not come to us easily or instinctively. It is learned behavior. Usually, we learn to be patient if we have patience modeled for us by our parents. The idea of patience is expanded far beyond our immediate family to our larger family as we move from the home of our parent’s to the home of our citizenship. When we correctly identify our citizenship as a participation in the Kingdom of God, our patience likewise becomes an option for us in Christian charity... [Click the link to see the full article]

This is the last in a series of three articles in which I have been exploring patience as a virtue that is characteristic of Cursillistas. Patience is a hard virtue to profess because it means we absorb the consequences of other’s acts of immaturity or ignorance because we believe in the transformative power of love. As Fr. Richard Rohr often reminds his readers, pain that is not transformed will be transmitted. When injustice or inhumane practices become legalized and then institutionalized, it takes a very long time to see it for what it is. (Click the heading to read the full article)

When you are experiencing bad times in your life, do you pray to God in desperation or defiance? One type of prayer shows that you have not given up hope in God, the other is a divorce from your relationship with God. Read Fr. Dan's second part of "Cursillo Patience" for this insightful look at patience.

Wow People! Ultreya was once again awesome! Here are a few little tid bits this person was reminded to do...

The reality of non-fiction love is demonstrated every day in the presence of trust and the absence of the need for escape mechanisms (ripcords). Fr. Dan explores this further in his latest blog entry.

Msgr. Dan Arnold talks about the principles that help to describe our spiritual life in the latest Cursillo Chat Blog entry. "There are some principles that help to describe our spiritual life. One that is non-negotiable is that familiarity with the cross of Christ always precedes familiarity with the crown of glory. The reason for that has to do with the fact that people can only exhibit the graciousness of God to the degree that it exists within them. A crass analogy would be to say that only someone who has practiced and...