Celebrate Today!

Spiritual Advisor

(Each month, a Spiritual Advisor will write an article)

Dear Precious Cursillistas,

The month of May brought us devotion to Mary, Mother of Jesus and His gift of Her to us as Mother as He hung upon the Cross. And June brought us the first day of Summer, Father's Day, graduations, etc. Now we're going into July with Independence Day and national celebrations.

We humans love to get together -- and Jesus gave us the perfect way to do that with the Creator as He celebrated His love for us the night before He died on the Cross.

We get to celebrate that weekly on the Lord's Day and any day we want to in His Spirit. We Cursillistas and our families are preciously gifted to bring faith into many aspects of life inviting people to join us in being good families, good friends , and good Catholics. I'm bringing this up to make the point on how many Catholics are not coming to Sunday Masses (80 percent).

There are a lot of factors involved, of course, but I'm proud to be a Cursillista and would like to encourage us to address the effort of asking friends to join us at Mass because we miss them, and see what conversations arise so that we can learn how to work together to be good instruments in the Hands of the Lord -- good disciples!. Being very good friends is a BIG factor we have at our disposal!!!

THESE THOUGHTS ARE FROM OUR PRIESTS' CONVOCATION NEAR THE END OF JUNE!

De Colores,

Fr Skip

Pray to the Holy Spirit

Lay Director (Each month, one of our Lay Directors will write an article.)

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth. O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

"When you pray, pray first for the Holy Spirit because when you have the Holy Spirit, you have everything." - Medjugorje April 4, 1985

"You have forgotten that through prayer and fasting you can avert wars and suspend the laws of nature." - Medjugorje Dec. 2, 1982

The language Jesus uses— “that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me”—shows us that the Father and the Son are united in love, and this love is itself the divine life. Thus, there is a Spirit, coequal to the Father and the Son. (Bishop Barron)

As we celebrated the Ascension of Our Lord into heaven today, I am transfixed as the apostles were. Imagine standing there and Jesus blesses you and then… He goes up into the clouds and beyond! WOW! It is no wonder that they were filled with joy. And Awe. And now they wait, together for the “promise of my Father upon you”. They had no idea how long they would be waiting. 10 hours, 10 days, 10 weeks, 10 years. They only knew that Jesus had promised to send them a present. And they were willing to wait by staying together as Jesus had told them. And to pray.

And so, as you wait for Pentecost, are you joyfully waiting? I am!! I am waiting for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all of us. On our nation. Come Lord Jesus Come!! Heal us. Open our hearts, our minds, our ears that we may be open to the love of God the Father, with the Son and through the gifts of the Holy Spirit, that we may love more fully those that cross our daily paths. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, may we then step out as we are called to evangelize and minister to those around us.

One more thought. Are you using your gifts to build up the Kingdom? What gifts do you have? We have some openings in the Secretariat that maybe you could help with. Pray about it. Call or text or email Kathy or myself. We would be more than happy to answer your questions or concerns. We are praying too! So don’t be surprised if you are tapped on the shoulder or get a phone call from one of us or another member of Secretariat. (We do have a fun time).

Prayers, and blessings to all of you! DeColores!

John Lyons lyons5876@gmail.com Kathy Otermat kotermat04@gmail.com

Do We Need More Clubs?

Spiritual Advisor (Each month, a Spiritual Advisor will write an article)

Dear Sisters and Brothers in the Lord,

“A Parable of the Church” by Ross Paterson

On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a crude little lifesaving station. The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat. But the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea. With no thought for themselves, they went out day and night, tirelessly searching for the lost. Many lives were saved by the wonderful little station so that it soon became famous.

Now some of those who were saved and various others in the surrounding area wanted to become associated with the station and give of their time, money and effort for the support of its work. New boats were bought and new crews trained. The little lifesaving station grew.

Now some of the members of the lifesaving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and so poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge for those that were saved from the sea, so they replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building. Now the lifesaving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and they decorated it beautifully and furnished it exquisitely. Now they sort of used it as a "club”.

Fewer members were interested in going to sea or lifesaving missions, so they hired lifeboat crews to do the work. The lifesaving motif still prevailed in the club’s decorations and there was still a liturgical initiation held.

About this time, a large ship was wrecked off the coast and the hired crew brought in boats full of cold, wet, and half-drowned people. They were dirty and sick, and some had black skin and some yellow. The beautiful new club was in chaos. So, the property committee immediately built a shower house outside the club where victims of shipwrecks could be cleaned up before coming inside.

At the next meeting, there was a split in the club’s membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club’s lifesaving activities as being unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life of the club. Some members insisted on lifesaving as their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a lifesaving station. But they were finally voted down and told if they wanted to save the lives of all the various people that were shipwrecked, they could begin their own lifesaving station down the coast. And so, they did.

And as the years went by, the new station experienced the same kind of changes that occurred in the old. It evolved into a club and yet another lifesaving station was founded. History continued to repeat itself, and if you visited that seacoast today, you would find a number of exclusive clubs along the shore.

Shipwrecks are frequent in those waters, but most of the people drown.

From Father Jim Brown:

So, we are needed not to be a club, but to be ministers of evangelization as Cursillistas!

De Colores!