Sing
and rejoice, O daughter Zion! Now, I am coming to dwell
in your midst—oracle of the LORD. Zechariah 2:14
And
how does this happen to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting
reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was
spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”
Luke 1:43-45
Piety
Cursillo Leaders' Prayer
Lord, grant that we may understand the necessity for depth in our movement, rather than surface glory. Convince us of the truth that colorful programs do not constitute success. My God, give us a spirit of self-sacrifice so that we may offer everything for your cause: our time, our abilities, our health and even our lives if necessary.
Instill in us courage in our initiatives, good judgment in our choice of the right means, and that determination which in spite of failures assures victory. Move away from us the tiny rivalries, sensitivities, discourtesies, pride, everything which distracts from You, everything which divides or discourages.
Help us to maintain at a high level a meaningful supernatural and mutual charity among ourselves, so that each one will seek by preference the most humble tasks and will rejoice at the good performed by others so that all our spirits united in a common purpose will have one single sprit, Yours Jesus, and that this spirit may let us see Your attractive goodness marked in all our faces, Your warm accents in all our words, and in our lives something superior to the world, something that proclaims Your Living Presence among us. Amen
St. Paul, Patron of Cursillo - Pray for us.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patron of the Americas - Pray for us.
Study
Fr. Joe often writes about the Sacrament of the Present
Moment reminding us of a long tradition of Catholic thought. Despite this tradition and these reminders,
we still spend a long time wishing we were elsewhere and otherwise. We
want a new job, a new house, a new car.
The future images may cause us to miss out on what is happening here and
now.
Not Elizabeth.
Elizabeth has a close moment with the Lord and He is not even born
yet. But his presence as the blessed
fruit of Mary’s womb caused the baby in Elizabeth to stir.
In this season of “busy-ness,” our rushing around maybe
is even more pronounced. For the time
being, we have to put our to-do lists, shopping lists, wish lists, and lists of
lists aside in order to leave space for the reason we celebrate this
season.
It’s easy to fall into the culture trap of
sweetness. But the arrival of Jesus was
the farthest we can get from sweet. He
was born in a stinky cave to an unwed teenage mother, in the middle of land
occupied by a belligerent foreign army.
From the minute of his birth, Jesus was surrounded by outsiders
(shepherds and Magi) and threatened the status quo so much that the King had
every boy under two years old killed.
Mary was greatly troubled by what she heard from the
angel – so much so that she hastened to see her cousin. And through it all, was still able to
say: “My soul proclaims the greatness of
the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior.”
Wow. She has no
idea what she is in for. Wow. If she
does know and can still say that, she is even more amazingly awesome.
Action
On this feast day of the Cursillo patron saint, reflect
upon how you put into practice the humility of Mary and embody that in your
Fourth Day at the moment. Like
Elizabeth, we can all wonder how does this gift happen to me?
As Cursillo
leaders, we need to pray this Leaders prayer regularly and live the words of
this prayer. We need to believe the words, believe in ourselves and believe in
the Cursillo vision.
As the
Leader’s Prayer reminds us, we need to pray about, study and act upon the
Cursillo principles so we can apply the Tripod of piety-study-action to our
daily lives.
We are at an
in-between time for our movement: the
Fall weekends are over and the Spring weekends will begin formation soon. But this is when we can focus on our journey
and how we support others.
We also are
at an in-between moment in our liturgy.
The savior has not yet come but we are flooded with stories and images of
what times will be like when he does.
Yet witnesses like Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth and John the Baptist are not
living a life of waiting. They are putting
their faith into action while they prepare.
During this
season of preparation, we can live and witness the Cursillo vision by living
the Cursillo Weekend talks and make them come alive by our everyday Catholic
Action.
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