Cursillo Newsletter

Tulsa Diocese Roman Catholic Cursillo           Volume No. 1      Issue No. 2                August 2003

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Contents

Advice From Spiritual Director Fr. Gaalaas

Cursillo #33 Plans

A Word From Our Lay Director

Welcome to our new Cursillistas from Cursillo 32!

Always Converting

Advice From Our Spiritual Director

Fr. Patrick Gaalaas

No doubt about it, the recent scandals have made the work of Evangelization more difficult – and, at the same time, they have made it more necessary than ever.  How to accomplish this always-important (because God-given) task in the face of this present challenge?  It will surely require both extra faith and extra holiness.

Faith and holiness are graces from God and not our own doing.  But we can pray for these gifts and open ourselves to receive them.  Along that line, let me suggest two items for our Formation and two items for our Holiness.

If you are looking for some solid spiritual reading, I suggest two recent publications by Pope John Paul II.  The first is his Apostolic Letter on the Rosary, Rosarium Virginis Mariae.  The title is in Latin, but the text I have is in English.  You can download it by going to www.nccbuscc.org and clicking on “statements.”  At that same address, and under that same heading, you will also find the Pope’s recent Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia.

In his letter on the Rosary, the Pope offers us a very deep, but very readable, meditation on the meaning of this traditional Catholic devotion.  He proclaims this to be “The Year of the Rosary” and gives the Church five new mysteries to contemplate.  He calls them the Luminous Mysteries.

His encyclical on the Eucharist is fairly brief and very deep.  Its final section on Mary as the Woman of the Eucharist is especially rich.  Important also are the paragraphs that promote Eucharistic Adoration.  Both of these documents are great Formation for cursillistas.

Kevin Sartorius will serve as coordinator of  the men’s weekend which will be held at St. John the Evangelist Church in McAlester,  Sept. 25-28. You may contact Kevin at 2516 Ithica St., Broken Arrow, OK 74012.  Kevin’s home phone is (918) 630-9891.  Email:  Kevin@vsstech.com

The women’s weekend coordinator is Martha Peters.  The women’s weekend is scheduled for Nov. 6-9 at Our Lady of Sorrows Convent in Broken Arrow.  Applications may be mailed to Martha at 2003 Tanglewood, Muskogee, OK 74403.  Home phone: (918) 683-0465  Email: tanglepete@starnetok.net

Applications are available on the website at www.tulsacursillo.org

A Word From Our Lay Director

Thanks for your prayers and the palanca offered for the success and safety of all attending the 13th National Cursillo Encounter in Cinncinnati, OH at Xavier University, July 17-20th.

Our diocese had 6 attendees: Gail Hobbs, Mary Sadler, Kevin Sartorius, Larry Rubalcaba, Fr. Paul Amalari  and Steve Krause. There were 650 attendees representing most all dioceses in United States, with 50% English, 40% Spanish and the rest, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean and Portuguese. It was a true representation of the universal church ... the Body of Christ. The Mass celebrations were quite an experience with 39 priests and deacons, two bishops with multiple languages used for prayers, readings, homilies and songs. Fortunately they provided multiple translations via headsets. (It reminded me of the United Nations)

The theme of the Encounter was "Being Christian.” There were 10 talks given that uncovered the original inspired charisms, thoughts and thinking of the founders of Cursillo. The topics were: Person, Freedom, Love, Friendship, Conviction, Sincerity, Criterion, Life, Normality, Joy. These original topics transformed into the meditations, rollos and methods for Cursillo about Being Christian and living what is fundamental for a Christian and transforming environments.

We were able to record the 10 talks plus the opening keynote address by our new National Episcopal Advisor, Bishop James A. Tamayo (from the diocese of Larado, TX) and Wrap up talk by Victor Lugo our National English Coordinator. We will be sharing the topics and concepts of the Encounter through our Ultreyas, School of Servant-Leaders, newsletters, emails, team meetings and conversations. We want to share the wealth of information, insight and inspired teachings with all of you.

Being around Cursillistas for 3 days is a wonderful experience. The sharing of experiences of our individual diocese helps us learn from each other. I feel certain that our Movement in the Diocese of Tulsa is moving in the right direction.
Christ is Counting on us ... and us on Him!

For 38-year-old Scott Moyer, conversion doesn’t mean switching religions.  It means drawing closer to Christ.

A cradle Catholic, Moyer says that, after he got involved with his San Francisco parish’s young-adult community, he stepped beyond his childhood faith to ask questions about how  to put his faith in motion, such as, “What does it mean to work in the world?”

Moyer also decided to observe Lent more closely so that he could experience Easter more fully. “I wanted to challenge myself in all aspects of my faith,”  he recalls.

At a Dominican conference, he says, he realized what it means to be “called to participate in Christ’s work.”   Examining his conscience, he saw that he had been living his faith from a self-centered set of expectations.  Now he was being converted---again. 

“That [realization] struck a chord in me,” he says.  “”We do the work with Christ and we do bring Christ into the world, whether we know it or not---whether in positive or negative ways, from the people we encounter every day to the life choices we make.”

Speaking in Rome recently, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger put it concisely:  “Conversion never ends.”

The catechism tells us that baptism is the occasion of our “first conversion.”  But, it goes on to say, “Christ’s call to conversion continues to resound in the lives of Christians. This second conversion  is an uninterrupted task for the whole  Church” (no. 1428).

The first full week of Lent is a fitting time to consider this teaching and ask: What is conversion, anyway?  And what do I need to do to undergo it?

Faced with those questions, Dominican Father Michael Sweeny, director of the Catherine of Sienna Institute in Colorado Springs, Colo., points to Jesus’ instruction to “repent and believe the good news.”

Note well that things couldn’t be the other way around, Father Sweeney says.  “Our Lord doesn’t say , ‘Believe the good news and repent.’” First repentance calls for us to turn away from all that would keep us from God;  then the good news---the Gospel---calls for us to turn to everything that is of God.  “Jesus put two tasks in front of us,”  adds Father Sweeney,  “Sometimes as a Catholic people we tend to forget the second.”

After the first moment of conversion, when we repent and turn toward Christ, we need to put on Christ, as St. Paul puts it (Romans 13:14).

“Our conversion is very much incomplete,” says Father Sweeney, “if we’re just concerned about sin in our life.”

Most Catholics are aware of the need to do penance and struggle against sin, especially during Lent, says Father Sweeney--- “but the second part, putting on Christ and therefore doing his work, often gets overlooked.  To be truly converted is to enjoy the same relationship with the Father as Jesus does.”

As St. John the Evangelist says:  [A]s he is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17). “We’re putting in Christ,” adds Father Sweeney. “We’re living his life; we’re taking up his mission and living it.”