Lay Director
Friends, it is so good to have you as companions on this journey. As Tim & Joyce Haney have shared with us in the past, ‘What a shame it would be if someone came looking for Christ and only found us! But what a blessing if they came looking for us and found Christ!!’ In this Cursillo movement, we are all striving for the latter.
From Kathy Otermat:
John Lyons and I are the new lay directors. We will be leading together. I lived my Cursillo weekend in May,1985. (I was INCREDIBLY young.) This movement has been an important part of my life pretty much ever since. I have had different positions in the movement and had an opportunity to be the lay director with my husband Scott (who’s now in heaven) some years ago. I knew the lay director position was currently open, and a couple of dear Cursillo friends had mentioned the position to me, but I did not feel that this was the right time. HOWEVER, God had a different idea. (Yay, God!)
If you are like me, this pandemic has provided me with time to pray. Thankfully, there are people online leading prayer, which helps a lot. My local church has daily Mass. There is a transitional deacon awaiting ordination who was invited by my pastor to stay with him after St. Meinrad’s closed. He already gives wonderful homilies. There was one on Easter Friday where the deacon said that we know what God is asking us to do. There are parts of our lives that we are hesitant to give to Him. He is asking us to go out and be on a mission for Him, and we're afraid. We need to figure out what this is going to look like. He encouraged us to listen to Christ's voice giving us a clear sign to move ahead. Listening to his homily, I realized that Christ’s voice was revealed through the deacon’s words. The next day, I contacted Sister Edna to say that I would like to become the next lay director. And then…
From John Lyons:
Jesus said that if we want to be the greatest, we have to serve. If we want to be first, we need to be last. And since living my Cursillo #199 back in 2001, I have grown to understand this message more and more. That is one reason that I said yes to God for this position; to serve Him and those He has put in my life. And I am not perfect. I do make my mistakes. I am trying my best to follow His lead.
So, how did this calling to lay director come about? I had felt a few months ago that God was calling me to this position. But like many others, I brushed it aside. I said, “God, if you really want me to do this then make it really known to me.” I did not feel any concrete answer. On went life. Then a few weeks ago I felt the calling again. STRONGER. OK, I hear you. Can you please send me a confirmation? Three days in a row I heard songs on the radio speak to me about doing His will. I made the first call to a very trusted friend who said to call Fr. Jim. I did. He did not answer. I left a message. Two days later after no return call, I got the nudge to call Fr. Jim. I followed through and this time he answered. Come to find out he had phone problems when I first called him. Hence no return call. After a brief talk, he said this is wonderful, but someone else had already stepped forward to fill that vacancy. Would I be interested in assistant lay director? Oh, who is the lay director? He filled me in that Kathy Otermat had said yes about a week or so ago. Yes, I can work with her!
After that I called Kathy and we talked about being co-rectors. Perfect. And here we are. Ready and willing to take on this leadership role together to continue the ongoing growth of the Toledo Diocese