What is Friendship? This is a word that has a different meaning to everyone, But let us look at the definition from the dictionary; Friendship is defined as: "affection"- a pure and disinterested feeling that exists between people, stemming from a mutual esteem, appreciation and empathy.

 As always, the dictionary refers to the concept, to what the word means, but it is life itself that tells us what it really is. Without any doubt the wonder of life, where it can be best captured and most valued, is inside the person, and the quality that can give them the most joy is their ability to understand, feel and spread that joyful experience of Friendship.

 When we talk friendship, we must define the two different concepts of it. First, there is the particular friend; although one can have more then one friend, we cannot forget that each one requires a different approach. In a word each friend requires a " custom-made approach". Secondly, the term "friend" is used in the generic sense. Generically, friend is a word, which like many other words has undergone a certain inflation of its meaning, which has had a affect of lowering the meaning.

 In our society, their was a distinction between "acquantance" and "friends". The first of these is rarely used now because both meanings are encompassed today together in the second word "friends". In reality a acquaintance is someone we know, but we have few details about them, we occasionally talk to them and have superficial dealings with them.

A friend is someone that we know intamate details about, we know their wives and there childern. We go out to dinner with them and we may even go to the same church as them, they are  a friend that is loveable, approachable  and close to us.

Now, putting this into the term of Cursillo, how do we get this level of friendship with someone. First, we go back to study of the enviornment Rollo. We have to see how they react in there enviornmnet, then we pray to our ultimate friend, Christ, to find the best way to reach out to the person so we can get to know them on a deeper level. Then after we make that friend, we have to be a friend, which means we have to trust them and let them into our lives and all this starts with our friendship with Christ and knowing ourselves and through the Love and grace we get from the Lord.

In friendship, what really matters is that we gradually get to understand that our friendship with Christ has to be visible and transparent in our friendly attitude towards others. It is through this concept of friendship that we will maintain the Cursillo movement and to evangelize.  It is the Good News of Jesus Christ and change the enviornments that we are in.

THE PERSON

By Jeff Williams, SOL Chair

The term “person” is undoubtedly one of the essential components, if not the prime concept of the fundamental thinking of the Cursillo movement.

So, what is a person, according to Websters Dictionary, the definition is: it is a noun, 1) A human Being, the personality of a human being. That is the basic definition of “The Person”.

So, Why is this important, The Cursillo movement had it’s beginnings 83 years ago, by our founder Edwardo Bonnin, with the first Cursillo in 1940s. Our joy is meaningful only if the movement, which was born then, and has grown to a worldwide movement that has helped over millions of people to realize the value and meaning of not only being a simple individual or just another human being, but of being a “person” of Christ.

Think back to your Cursillo weekend, what is the first thing we do after the opening? We meditate on the “person,” We do this with meditation on:

1. Know yourself- putting our lives in order.
2. Prodigal Son- We learn Gods Love.
3. The Three Glances of Christ-we learn that these glances teach us that our eyes of a person can penetrate the soul of another person.

These meditations are the start of the conversion process of Cursillo, because if you don’t know yourself, you cannot know others fully.

One of the funniest things about being Christian, is that it is a continuous chain of encounters that generate the need for further searches of oneself. We are continuously finding things at all hours everyday in all people and all places, and these encounters drive us to find new quests and new encounters, that’s how the person works as understood by Cursillo.

We believe to think better, our belief in Christ helps us think in a more precise manor, Our beliefs do not deprive us of thinking. It is valuable to mention at this point a phrase by C.K. Chesterton, which is “when you enter a church you should take off your hat, but not your head.”

The concept of a person, which is the essence and the fundamental charism of Cursillo, rejects individualism, the same way it rejects Angelism and sacrificial masochism. From here our essential conviction on how to live and to be saved “in a cluster” lies in the certainty that you only live in fulfillment with in that which you share with others.

When we think back to our cursillo weekend again, we learned that we need to Study Our Environment- this was the first Rollo written by Edwardo Bonnin, why?

Because you need to study the person you are trying to reach, this is the first step in our motto.

Make a friend, be a friend and bring a friend to Christ.

Essential Principles of the Cursillo

The essence of the cursillo is, that it is a method by which makes it possible for both men and women to live a fundamental Christian Life together with Christ, so their soul, by their own spiritual force of gravity will keep on structuring Christianity with the richness and vigor, in the mode of the beginnings of Christianity. This structure should be done in the light of the present teachings of the Catholic Church and the Pope and in the pure lines of the gospel.

The Cursillo movement, requires and facilitates all that is fundamental for living a Christian life and nothing more. This all starts with the first step, which is the cursillo three-day weekend and more importantly, later in the group reunion, which is their end realization of the 4^th day and Ultreya.

The cursillo movement is not just any one type of spirituality, but it is a movement that encompasses all types of spirituality, and it makes all types of spirituality possible to have a deeper hunger for God in the souls. The cursillo movement is just a layman’s spirituality, contrary to what some people think, but it is the only church movement that makes it possible for all souls to live a deeper Christianity in a manner completely accessible to all Baptized Christians not just the layman.

To facilitate the cursillo Christian community way of spirituality and living a fundamental Christian life that we are to achieve, the cursillo is structured into two stages. The first stage is living a cursillo three-day weekend, there in the 3 days, live a fundamental Christian life is made easy, by a series of short talks and meditations and discussions with your peers on the weekend.

The second stage is the group reunion, or 4^th day group, in which community living is facilitated throughout one’s whole life, by sharing your piety, study and action and your successes and failures with your cursillo brothers and sisters that keeps you on the path of God.

As we have seen the evidence over the long history of the Charism of the cursillo movement. This method is a proven success in achieving a growing community of fundamental Christians living a fundamental Christian life. This movement has continued a rich tradition of evangelization of our baptismal vow of carrying the good news of Christ to the World, and by making a friend, being a friend and bring a friend to Christ.

Postcursillo, group reunions and Ultreya

Everything that is done in the terms of the cursillo methodology and purpose has it’s end objective in the Postcursillo.

The precursillo and the 3-day weekend are only the preliminary steps toward the Postcursillo. As with all things in our lives, it involves a process. The Postcursillo is the means, in terms of community, which has been designed to increase and continue the conversation and the living out of what is fundamental for our being Christian, a process that begins in the precursillo and the cursillo weekend.

Within the structures of the Postcursillo the individual and the group restlessness that was brought to life on the weekend are kept stimulated so that the church and human community in which the individual and their groups are immersed and continually leavened with the gospel spirit.
If the purpose of the cursillo movement is to find, lead to conversion and sustain evangelizers in their task of evangelizing the world, then the biggest task we face is to sustain them in this task.

So, the question is, how do we sustain our cursillo community in the task of Evangelizing? We can find the answer in two of our Rollo’s, Study the environment and Total Security. Both Rollo’s led us to making a friend, being a friend and bring a friend to Christ, but they also lead us into post cursillo and the two methods there that help us sustain our movement Which is the group reunion and the Ultreya. Let us look at these two a little further.

Group reunion’s, the definition of this is, an act by which the community comes together and engages in the sharing process. As we learned on the 3-day weekend it is necessary to find a small group or 4th day group of friends, by which we share and deepen our friendship with Christ. By participating in these groups, we are forming the deepest form of living together and that is friendship. By doing this we are raising our friendships to a sanctifying level by means of grace, we then have the best way possible to achieve the Christian community. In these group reunions we live the cursillo motto- Make a friend, be a friend and bring a friend to Christ. We also live and share our piety, study, and action to build and grow our Christian faith and community.

Many of our failures in these small group reunions are due to placing too great a importance on the mechanics of our reunions and in reciting of commitments or reports to each other, as friends, we need to rely less on commitments and focus on the essentials, namely sharing our piety, study and action. If we do not do this then our groups, community and movement are going to fail.

Now let us look at the next level of our group reunions- The Ultreya. The Ultreya is a community to the degree that the permanent small friendship groups together make-up this community and are willing and able to draw new members into the living community.

The Ultreya is the driving force to the groups in the environment. The permanent groups are the driving force to the individual, both together ought to be the driving force to the work of evangelization in the world. So, as we can see the groups satisfy the basic needs and growth of the individuals in the community and the Ultreya satisfies the need for growth in the community and in the church and world.

So, for the individual the group reunion is the most important aspect of the cursillo method, but for the community the Ultreya is the most important. So, both are equally important to achieve our ongoing work of evangelization of our environments in the world.
So, let’s all make a friend, be a friend and bring a friend to Christ and keep our community growing and moving forward.