The Cursillo Code

If you haven’t already heard, I’m headed for Camp McDowell this afternoon, along with Russ and Lili Henderson, for Cursillo 170 in the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama.  On Thursday, Odes and Kathy Wilemon will arrive as two of 40 people who will get a “short course” (in Spanish, cursillo) on the life of a committed Christian.  The movement is called Cursillo because it started with Roman Catholic Christians in Spain in the 1950s.  Those men spent a lot of time in small groups helping each other learn how to spread the Good News within their particular cultural environment. 

Eventually, they conceived the idea of weekends to teach laypeople how to be apostles, that is, those who are “sent” by Christ into the world to help others on their spiritual journeys.  Eventually the movement made its way to the U.S.  Episcopalians who participated in some of the early Cursillo weekends with Roman Catholics then took the movement into our denomination.

The weekends can certainly be a great time of spiritual renewal.  Mine in the Diocese of Virginia was.  Back in 2001, I was not ordained.  But I heard then, as my fellow cursillistas also did, the call to be an apostle, to always be open to hear where people were in their spiritual journeys, to be their friend first, and then bring them to Christ.  It is this sense of apostleship that is at the heart of the Cursillo movement.  As profoundly joyful as the weekends can be, Cursillo is not for a weekend, and it is not principally about one’s personal renewal.  It is about a life of commitment to be one of Christ’s apostles wherever you are sent.

So, please pray for me.  I along with two other clergy will be a spiritual advisor this weekend.  Please pray for Russ and Lili who will be serving the pilgrims, among them Odes and Kathy, who should also be in your prayers.  If any of this sounds intriguing, ask me or “Ultreyamaster” David Wise.  Ultreya, by the way, is simply Spanish for “Onward!”