Time, Season and Change

From Our Lay Directors

Dear Friends in Christ, 

3 Ecclesiastes 3:1 For everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. 

For those of you who do not know us, we thought we would start with introductions, as Troy and I have recently taken over as Lay Directors of the Diocese of Toledo Cursillo Movement for John Lyons and Kathy Otermat; 

Troy Peebles lived Cursillo #195 in Carey, OH. Troy goes to Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Assumption, OH and lives in Lyons, OH. He is widowed as he lost his beautiful, loving, devoted wife Connie, also a Cursillista, to cancer several years ago. He and Connie had (2) children together who both live fairly close to Troy. Hello, 

I’m Karen Fritsch. I lived Cursillo #264 in Fremont at the Pines, in the fall of 2016. I belong to All Saints Catholic in New Reigel, OH and live outside of Tiffin, OH. I am widowed and had the blessing of being married to the late John Reinhart, a Cursillista, for almost (12) years. And God continues to send me blessings, as I am newly (1 1⁄2 years) married to Don Fritsch. I have a daughter in Columbus, OH and (4) stepchildren.

This verse from Ecclesiastes seems perfect for this time and season in Cursillo, as John and Kathy, pass the torch so to speak, to Troy and me. We simply ask for your patience and prayers as we discern and ask God’s wisdom, guidance and grace as we take on this new roll in the Cursillo movement. 

Other changes, like finding a new facility for our weekends, fit right into this theme, also. We have visited many places during our search for a “home” for Cursillo. One of the biggest factors though is remembering it doesn’t matter where we have our weekends, but that we stay centered on the movement of Christ in our lives and how we can continue to bring others into a deeper relationship with our Savior and Lord. The facility and set up may be different, but the presence of the Holy Spirit is with us no matter where we live the weekends! 

We continue to keep all of you in prayer, with the busy summer months in full swing. May all seasons of time and change find all our hearts open to Christ, His will for us and how we can continue to build His kingdom. 

Blessings,

KarenFritsch (kittyrg1967@gmail.com) Troy Peebles (tpeebles411@yahoo.com) 

What is Saint Luke Telling Us?

From Our Spiritual Advisor:

Most of the special celebrations of the Church year are over and done. The Advent wreath is on a high shelf in the sacristy with a dust cover over it. Margarine tubs with ashes are put away in a drawer. The Paschal candle has been dethroned from its prominent place and exiled to the sacristy, where it will help welcome new baby members into the light of Christ.

However, Ordinary Time is special in its own subdued way. I’ve always told kids that “ordinary” doesn’t mean “boring” or “useless.” The Church is simply recognizing our human condition. We can’t permanently exist at a high emotional pitch. “It can’t be your birthday every day,” I would tell them. “Everybody would get sick of ice cream and cake. They’d get tired of having to buy you presents.” To which kids always say that it would be OK to have their birthday every day, and as far as all that ice cream and cake – bring it on!

They’ll find out differently when they get older. We need quiet time. We need an opportunity to relax and reflect on who we are in God’s plan, what our calling is in our families, in our towns and neighborhoods, and what our calling is in our Church.

Each year the Church reads a different Gospel to us to help us reflect and come to know ourselves better in our relationship to God. All summer and fall we’ll read from Saint Luke, with the exception of the feast of the Holy Cross (September 14) and All Souls Day (November 2). What will Saint Luke show us?

One of Saint Luke’s major themes is that the people who don’t count for very much in society’s eyes are important in God’s eyes. He shows us how important the poor are in Jesus’ eyes. His mother and foster father hail from backwoods Nazareth. Shepherds, the migrant farm workers of Jesus’ day, hail His birth. At the beginning of His preaching career, He quotes Isaiah 61: 1-2 (“He has sent me to bring good news to the poor”) to explain who He is. A few chapters later He says “Blessed are you poor.” In the same talk, he bursts the bubble of our romantic notions by saying “Woe to you rich.” You won’t find a PhD or a CEO among His disciples; no, He chose hard-working fishermen with the smell of fish on their hands and clothes, and a despised tax-collector. And even these people from the lower classes He told that they would have to renounce everything to be His followers.

Saint Luke’s Gospel is the gospel of prayer. Jesus prays before every major decision: at His baptism; at the choosing of apostles; before He asks “Who do people say I am?” and gets Peter’s answer; before He teaches the Our Father; and in Gethsemane when His enemies are coming after Him, prepared to arrest Him, put Him on trial, and sentence Him to death.

Saint Luke’s Gospel is the Gospel of the Holy Spirit. Mary, Elizabeth and the unborn John the Baptist are filled with the Holy Spirit. Mary conceives Jesus through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. Jesus tells His disciples that if they know how to give their children good things, “how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” (Luke 11:13) Acts of the Apostles is St. Luke’s “volume 2.” A constant theme in Acts is how the Holy Spirit guides and strengthens the Church in a hostile world.

Women are quite prominent in St. Luke’s Gospel. Mary, His Mother, is referred to frequently. Jesus heals women; He is close friends with another Mary and her sister Martha; He sees a woman putting a few pennies in the Temple treasury and bases a lesson on her; women discover that His tomb is empty and bring the good news of resurrection to His male disciples.

We will also hear stories of forgiveness. Jesus forgives a sinful woman at a banquet in a Pharisee’s home. He takes Matthew the tax collector into His inner circle of apostles. He meets Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector, receives his words of repentance, and forgives him for all his crooked dealings and extortion. When the good and holy people raise the objection, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them,” Jesus tells three stories to show God’s attitude toward sinners: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the two lost sons. (Yes, both sons were lost to the father. One went off to a far country to live “la vida loca”; the other retreated behind a wall of resentment and bitterness.) The father welcomed both back. The younger son accepted the father’s welcome; what did the older son do? Jesus leaves the story hanging. We aren’t told if he went into the party or not. I think Jesus wants us to examine our hearts about our own self-righteousness and refusal to forgive.

And this summer, we will hear a lot about Jesus sitting down at a meal. These stories begin with the meal at Simon the Pharisee’s home, where the local lady of the evening bursts in because she sees in Jesus a chance to be rid of the sin that is eating her alive. The “meal” stories then build on one another until we arrive at the Last Supper, the meal at Emmaus, and the final meal with the disciples in the Upper Room.

What does Jesus want you and me to learn this summer. First of all, He wants us to learn about poverty and materialism. He wants us to ask what we put ahead of God, and what we put ahead of God’s people. It’s a pretty uncomfortable question. He wants us to ask about how much effort we devote to prayer. If we use words that come from the great masters of prayer, like the Our Father or Hail Mary, are we just mouthing words, or are we lifting up our hearts to God? Do you and I acknowledge our need for the Holy Spirit, or do we insist on bulldozing our own way through life’s problems? Do we realize the joy that can be ours in the life of the Holy Spirit? Is there anyone in our life whom we refuse to forgive? Do you and I admit that we need to be forgiven? Do we treasure our welcome to the Lord’s table, and do we welcome other people to that banquet above all others?

I’ve met so many faith-filled, Spirit-filled people through Cursillo. Many of them hardly need to answer these questions. But a review of our lives never hurts. There is always room for growth.

De colores!

Fr. Tom

Humility a Virtue to Grow

From our Spiritual Advisor: 

We are called to witness Christ to others and bring them into relationship with Him.  More specifically, we are called to make a friend, be a friend and bring a friend to Christ.  If we want to succeed at that, we must be focused on Jesus and others and less on ourselves.  That means we need to continually be working on the virtue of humility. 

In one of the Sunday gospels just before Easter, we heard the story of the Pharisees who were intending to stone a woman who had been discovered in adultery.  In their lack of virtue and prideful, judgmental perspective, this was the only thing to do.  Their hearts of poison and narrow, arrogant attitudes caused them to judge others but blind to their own sinfulness and arrogant behavior.  Jesus taught them a lesson by telling them that whoever was sinless among them should cast the first stone.  As we know, they dropped the stones and walked away.  And Jesus, showing how He desires us to live, forgave her.  God is love and mercy. 

All of humanity has a large disfigurement from birth called original sin.  It causes us to have something very ugly – human pride.  It is the most fundamental of sins and the mother of all vices.  It feeds all other sins, worst among them being envy and pride.  We need to seek virtue and work daily to rid ourselves of these sins, or our pride will ultimately destroy our spiritual lives, and eventually bar us from eternity in heaven with the Holy Family. 

Pride is the most horrible of human vices and inherently against of human nature of God given goodness and ultimately makes us anti-human and destroys our souls.  It blinds us and fools us into thinking we are above God and all others.  If we want to grow in holiness, we must start by working to eliminate self-pride. 

This is a spiritual improvement project that we must all work on.  Continuously.  When you recognize this in yourself (we all have it), pray about it and seek God’s help.  He is always there to assist you in seeking virtue.  Pray the Litany of Humility often.  The Holy Spirit works powerfully through that prayer.  Do not always look to be first.  Look for ways to serve others.  Be extra patient with others.  Examine your thoughts and actions daily before bedtime, looking especially for that behavior in your life that day.  Go to confession often. 

Most of all, remember always that God created us, loves us and in His endless, tender mercy, forgives us if we but ask Him.  His spirit is always there to assist us as we seek to grow in His likeness. 

DeColores,  

Deacon Denny Scherger, Cursillo 115