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November-December 2007

Calendar of Events
October 27, 2007        Secretariat Meeting, 9:30am, St. Ann, Doniphan (9:00am Mass)
November 9-10, 2007 School of Leaders (quarterly reunion)-7:30pm Fri-3pm Sat, (Sacred Heart, Hebron)
December 1, 2007       Secretariat Meeting, 9:30am, Blessed John XXIII Diocesan Center
January 5, 2008           Secretariat Meeting, 9:30am, Blessed John XXIII DiocesanCenter (may change)
January 11-12, 2008    School of Leaders (quarterly reunion)-7:30pm Fri-3pm Sat, (Location TBA)
February 8-9, 2008      Practice Weekend, St. John the Baptist, Minden (Secretariat meeting to follow)
February 9, 2008         Secretariat Meeting, St. John the Baptist, Minden (following Practice Weekend)
February 14-17, 2008  Men’s Weekend, St. John the Baptist, Minden
February 17, 2008       Men’s Closing, 5:00pm (4pm Mass) St. John the Baptist, Minden, NE
February 21-24, 2008  Women’s Weekend, St. John the Baptist, Minden
February 24, 2008       Women’s Closing, 5:00pm (4pm Mass) St. John the Baptist, Minden, NE
April 25-27, 2008        Region VI Spring Encounter – Belle Prairie, MN  (St. Cloud Diocese)
July 31 – Aug 3, 2008  National Encounter, at Catholic University of America, Washington, DC

Welcome New Fourth Dayers (October 2007, St. Ann Parish, Doniphan)

Welcome to the 4th Day! *** We welcome Mary Ann Connelly, Cheryl Jones, Bonnie Kreshel, Joyce Krolikowski, and Laura Martinez to the Fourth Day!.  As each of you returned to your environments (which were just as you left them), have you found a Group Reunion? … Are you participating in Ultreya?  Just as during the Three Days, it is in being a community and sharing about your attempts to grow (in baby steps, at first) in holiness, formation, and evangelization that you will progress in the spiritual life.  Remember that Christ is counting on you, and you said that you would count on Him …  He gave you the gift of Cursillo to help you … and He wants you to use it!!

From the Secretariat …

Application Forms – In registering candidates for the upcoming Weekends, you may get the most recent application forms from the website.  From the website, you can print Application Forms, Informational Flyers, and you can request Sponsor Forms .  The current web address is: www.gpcom.net/stpatrickschurch/cursillolincoln


Precursillo Thoughts:   (Kathy Rowell, Precursillo Chairperson)
Making a List and Checking it Twice
 
    We welcome five spirit-filled women into the Fourth Day community.   I want to thank Laura, Joyce, Mary Ann, Cheryl, and Bonnie for sharing their lives with all of us.  You are on fire.  You inspire us to stretch and grow.  May God be with you forever and a day.  
 
    As I write this article, it is mid-October and I have already seen a decorated Christmas tree and other preparations for the coming holidays.  It seems our lives are bombarded by the materialism and commercialism of the secular world.  Yet, planning ahead and starting early seems to work very well in a commercial world.  The Cursillo Movement might do well to note the promotional enthusiasm and anticipation and zeal that works so well in promoting secular objectives, and use a similar “excitedness” to achieve Cursillo’s purpose of building God’s Kingdom here on earth. 
 
    According to Webster’s Dictionary, a holiday is “a day of freedom from work”.  Think, for a minute, about the Three Day Weekend in the context of a holiday (just as Christmas is the beginning of Christ’s living Presence among us, the living of our Three Day Weekend is the beginning of a life of Fourth Days, full of potential and possibilities).   Just as we use Advent to prepare for the Christmas holiday (the coming of Christ), now is the time to begin planning/preparing for our Cursillo’s next “holiday” (the February Three Day Weekend).  Where should we start?  We begin by making a plan.
 
    Holiday Season.  I can’t imagine starting Christmas shopping without making a list.  Who goes on my “gift” list?  Is it family members?  Friends?  Co-workers?  Anonymous recipients?  How do you decide who goes on the list and what to give each person?  Do you wait until the week (or day) before Christmas, and in a panic, go to the store frantically looking for something … anything … in the hope you might find something the person might want or need.  Or do you plan ahead, give it some thought, talk to others to get some ideas, go in with others to get a special gift that is beyond one person’s ability to give?  Or maybe you put off the task, hoping they will understand how busy you are and how hard it is for you to do some things (like invite to a Cursillo Weekend), and also hoping that someone else will get them the gift that they truly need and desire (though they may not know it until they get it).
 
    Cursillo Three Day Weekend   Do you have an “Invite to Cursillo Three Day Weekend” list?  There must be a friend or a family member or a co-worker who could be a candidate on a future Weekend … there’s no time like the present.  It is time to talk to Jesus now about your friend.   Don’t wait till the last minute or think someone else might invite this person.  As you pray for your friend, it is your gift to that person.  Then, when that person accepts the invitation and lives the Weekend, it is their gift to Jesus (and to the rest of us).  I guess you could say that Cursillo is the gift that keeps on giving and giving on into each Fourth Day.
 
    Don’t leave this until the last minute.  Don’t assume someone else will do the inviting.  Let’s be like the big commercial stores in their promotional activities – let’s show them what we’ve got (by living lives of holiness, formation, and evangelization), and that’s God!!  Let’s all work together to give Our Lord Jesus Christ the best Christmas present possible – more fired-up souls to make Him better known in the world.
 
    “Your great contribution to the evangelization of your own society is made through your lives. Christ’s message must live in you and in the way you live and in the way you refuse to live…Your lives must spread the fragrance of Christ’s Gospel throughout the world.”  Pope John Paul II – Meeting with Laity, San Francisco, 1987

De Colores!!

Men’s – February 14 - 17, 2008  (St. John the Baptist, Minden, NE)
Women’s – February 21 - 24 2008  (St. John the Baptist, Minden, NE)

It’s NOT too early to be inviting and preparing candidates!!


During the month of November, we celebrate the Communion of the Saints: the Church Triumphant (the saints in Heaven); the Church Suffering (the poor souls in Purgatory); and the Church Militant (those Baptized persons who are still pilgrims on earth, working out their salvation here on earth by responding to God’s grace).

On November 1, we observe the Solemnity of all of the Saints.  Throughout the Church year, according to the liturgical calendar, the Church sets aside many days on which we reflect on the lives of men and women who have lived holy lives here on earth and are officially proclaimed by the Church to be with our Lord in Heaven.  On November 1, in addition to the canonized saints, we reflect on the many hundreds of thousands of saints who don’t have a particular feast day during the liturgical year.  We ask these saints to pray for us that we might be open to the grace of God, live good lives, and one day live in Heaven for all eternity with our Triune God and all of them.

Then, on November 2, we remember to pray for the poor souls in Purgatory.  This is a very important doctrine of the Church and there are many people who don’t understand it correctly.  The Catholic Catechism says the following about Purgatory:  (CCC 1030 – 1032)

 “All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.

The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.  The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent.  The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire:  (cf. 1 Cor. 3:15; 1 Pet 1:7)

As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire.  He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come.  From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come. (Mt 12:31)

This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: ‘Therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.’  From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God.  The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead:

Let us help and commemorate them.  If Job’s sons were purified by their father’s sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation?  Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them.”  (Job 1:5)

Especially during the month of November, but even throughout the year, the Church encourages us to remember to pray for the poor souls … our brothers and sisters in Christ … our friends … who have died … that they might be purified and enter into Heaven. 

     As part of the Communion of the Saints, we the Baptized (the Church Militant) ask the saints in Heaven and the souls in Purgatory to pray for us.  So, in a very real way, our prayer for the poor souls, our imitation of the saints, and our asking both the saints and the souls to pray for us, is another way of living out that familiar phrase:  “Make a friend, be a friend, and bring your friend to Christ.”  May all of us remember the great gift of our friends in the Church and our friends in the Cursillo Movement, and really desire with our words and our actions to share eternity in Heaven with all the saints … our friends … Remember Christ is counting on you (and the souls in Purgatory would appreciate a few prayers, too!!).      

De Colores!! ……Fr. Mark Seiker

Come, Holy Spirit, Fill the Hearts of Your Faithful!

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome the new Fourth Dayers to the Fourth Day community!  It truly is a blessed moment to see the glowing faces of those going from Three Days and entering into the Fourth Day, totally filled with the spirit of love.  It is always a joy-filled moment to see the Spirit at work, alive and enthusiastic.

It seems as though it was only yesterday that I entered my Fourth Day.  Reflecting on that time reinforces in me the importance of passing on a Method, which, if exercised, can build up and sustain our Faith each and every day.  Looking at how I have been different in my Fourth Days from having lived the Three Days reinforces in me the importance of doing the work of Cursillo and passing on what I learned to all who will listen.  A gift, given by God, that, if lived, will assist us in maintaining that glow that comes from being filled with Grace (Christ’s love in us).

What a plan -- Making a friend, being a friend, and then bringing that friend to Christ!  Making a friend isn’t just for those we have never met … it’s also for those we already know who don’t know Christ as they should … it is for everyone!  Part of the Method, too, involves those who have already lived their Weekends – Ultreya is an opportunity to renew old friendships with those we don’t see as often, and Group Reunion is a means of weekly strengthening on-going friendships.  And is it ever possible to have too many friends (especially friends in Christ)?  I don’t think so!  God puts people in our paths each and every day.  And each crossing of paths, no matter how brief, is an opportunity to make a friend, be a friend, and/or bring a friend to Christ.  And these “path crossings” don’t just happen – they are part of Gods’ plan.  With each crossing, we are given a chance to cooperate with God in His plan and walk at the side of a brother or sister in Christ.

In a recent Gospel (Luke 10:25-37), a scholar, who was testing Jesus, asked, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”… Jesus says, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”… The scholar asks, “And who is my neighbor?”… Jesus answers with a story about a man who was stripped, beaten, and left for dead by robbers.  Three people see the man, but only the last of the three, a Samaritan, “moved with compassion at the sight”, stops to help and cares for him.  The first of the three was a priest, and “…when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side”.  The second of the three was a Levite, and “… when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side”. 

Jesus asked; “Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?”  The scholar answered; “The one who treated him with mercy.”  Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

Those who do not know Christ (or who do not know Him as they should) become our friends, when moved by our love of Christ, we plan to help them come to know Him (in the first place) or to know Him better (apostolic action).  They will come to know Him by what we say and the way we live … those God puts in our paths should see Christ in us.  May Christ be always in us … may He ever work through us … and may He be continually with us as we seek to bring others (our friends, both new and old) to Him …

Success will come as God wills (in His time … in His way) … all we need to do is persevere!  Christ never said it was going to be easy, but He does promise great things to those who are His friends.

May the Lord, our God, fill our hearts with love at the sight of our neighbor, and may we be merciful to all others, as our Father in heaven is merciful to us!  AMEN!                     

Advent Reflections and Preparation … The following is a reading Bishop Bruskewitz used as part of his homily in the closing Mass at an Advent retreat at the Good Counsel Retreat House in Waverly.  It is particularly appropriate as Advent approaches and we consider how we, personally, might prepare the way of the Lord ...  Bishop Bruskewitz pointed out that, even as St. Bernard tried to re-create the drama that must have existed in the split second between the time Gabriel asked Mary to be the Mother of God and her reply (and it must have seemed like an eternity … with all the earth hanging in the balance), so too must we think about who is waiting for our “yes” …   God gives us many opportunities each day, and we need to respond as Mary did.  Thank You, Jesus, for giving us Your Blessed Mother as our mother, and thank you, Blessed Mother, for your constantly pointing us to Christ.  We ask you both to give us the wisdom and courage to respond when called …  ‘Speak, Lord, Your servant is listening!’  Have a blessed Advent and Christmas!!
 
From a homily In Praise of the Virgin Mother by St. Bernard, abbot
[from Office of Readings; Liturgy of the Hours; second reading for December 20]

You have heard, O Virgin, that you will conceive and bear a son; you have heard that it will not be by man but by the Holy Spirit.  The angel awaits an answer; it is time for him to return to God who sent him.  We too are waiting, O Lady, for your small word of compassion; the sentence of condemnation weighs heavily upon us.
 
The price of our salvation is offered to you.  We shall be set free at once if you consent.  In the eternal Word of God we all came to be, and behold, we die.  In your brief response we are to be remade in order to be recalled to life.
 
Tearful Adam with his sorrowing family begs this of you, O loving Virgin, in their exile from Paradise.  Abraham begs it, David begs it.  All the other holy patriarchs, your ancestors, ask it of you, as they dwell in the country of the shadow of death.  This is what the whole earth waits for, prostrate at your feet.  It is right in doing so, for on your word depends comfort for the wretched, ransom for the captive, freedom for the condemned, indeed, salvation for all the sons of Adam, the whole of your race.
 
Answer quickly, O Virgin.  Reply in haste to the angel, or rather through the angel to the Lord.  Answer with a word, receive the Word of God.  Speak your own word, conceive the divine Word.  Breathe a passing word, embrace the eternal Word. 
 
Why do you delay, why are you afraid?  Believe, give praise, and receive.  Let humility be bold, let modesty be confident.  This is no time for virginal simplicity to forget prudence.  In this matter alone, O prudent Virgin, do not fear to be presumptuous.  Though modest silence is pleasing, dutiful speech is now more necessary.  Open your heart to faith, O blessed Virgin, your lips to praise, your womb to the Creator.  See, the desired of all nations is at your door, knocking to enter.  If he should pass by because of your delay, in sorrow you would begin to seek him afresh, the One whom your soul loves.  Arise, hasten, open.  Arise in faith, hasten in devotion, open in praise and thanksgiving.  Behold, the handmaid of the Lord, she says, be it done to me according to your word.