Welcome to the third, somewhat late edition
of the
monthly communique/newsletter for the Hamilton Diocese Cursillo
community.
As many of you know we have
the Women’s Weekend coming up at Mount Mary in Ancaster from April
26th, to 29th 2007. At this time there are still openings for this
weekend. Please contact me at 519-743-1067 or jjhause@sympatico.ca
for
further information.
REMINDER TO ALL ULTREYA LEADERS & CURSILLISTAS – Please note that
the closing will be at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday April 29th at Mount Mary in
Ancaster. Also please remember your PALANCA for this weekend.
SAD NEWS – I regret to inform you that we have been advised that the
Ignatius Centre in Deemerton is up for sale and is no longer available
for weekends. Unfortunately we had booked our fall weekends at this
location. Under the circumstances we have had to make changes
regarding the fall weekends.
The decision has been made that we will not have another women’s
weekend this year – in 2007. This means that if anyone is thinking
about a candidate for the women’s weekend, they will only have the
April 2007 opportunity at Mount Mary.
I have booked The Kitchener-Waterloo YMCA Outdoor Centre for the Men’s
Weekend which will be held from Oct. 11th to Oct. 14th, 2007. This is
a new location for us and three of the Secretariat members were able to
tour the centre and felt that the location would be suitable for a
men’s weekend. It was also the only location available at this late
date with an October date. The only other location available allowed
us a September date and it was felt that it would be difficult to have
all team meetings during the summer months.
Weekends for 2008 – location and dates to be announced at a future time.
Thank you for your prayers and support at this time.
Joyce Hause – Weekend
Coordinator
The first meeting of the Stoney Creek
Ultreya will be
April 21st from 8 to 9 am at St. Francis Xavier Church, 304 No. 8
Highway,
Stoney Creek. Please pray and offer palanca for the success of this
new
ultreya.
Here is some information from the Walkerton floating ultreya:
Dear Cursillistas,
This
month’s ultreya is on Sunday , April 15 at Holy Family in
Next
month the ultreya will be in Goderich on May 27th .
Hopefully you can
car pool and come up to our pretty town for that. If you are interested
in
coming to the Goderich ultreya , Phone Carol or Joe Foster at 364 -
5842 so
they can arrange car pooling.
Please
continue to pray for the sick and those in need of prayers. Jean Groh
is very
weak now and Eldon needs our prayers as well.
Have
a good Easter and April ultreya. I hope to see you in May in Goderich.
De Colores............................Eileen
This year's National Conference is being
held in
Each month a member of the Secretariat will
share his
or her thoughts on their Secretariat role. For the complete list of
Secretariat members and their roles click here.
This month's sharing is from Father Frank:
The
faith and Gospel that have been handed down to us
through 2000 years is not based on sensationalism or on crippled logic.
They
gave us and continue to give us sufficient evidence to BELIEVE: Jesus
is
Risen Lord!
The
English writer, Coleridge, is credited with the saying
that “the success of a story in literature is based on ‘the willing
suspension
of disbelief’.” The Bible, Sacred Scripture, on the other hand, is
based on the willing profession
of belief. This is beautifully and convincingly illustrated for us in
the Gospel
story events of Easter.
In the
early centuries of Christianity the enemies of the
Faith attempted to obliterate the Church by destroying churches and
shrines and
erecting pagan temples on the ruins of the former places of worship.
Ironically
this served to mark indelibly the former places of Christian worship.
One such
place in
Hence,
while modern cinematographers display a box of
bones in order to cast doubt on the belief of Christians in the
Resurrection of
Jesus, the Gospel with 2000 years history in its favor still records an
empty
tomb. Jesus, as one recent writer phrased it, came into this world
through a
portal marked by nature no
entrance [the
Virgin womb], and left this world through a portal marked by nature no exit [the empty tomb].
Peter
and John ran to and entered that empty tomb: Peter
first and then John out of deference to Peter. Peter saw the evidence.
The tomb was empty except for the burial cloths which were carefully
folded and
laid aside. John saw the same evidence; and he believed. That was the crucial
moment: “He believed”. The
tomb was
empty. Jesus’ body, Jesus , was not there. And John believed. Peter and
John returned to their brother apostles to report their findings: The
tomb was
empty.
Meanwhile,
Mary Magdalene, who had remained at the tomb,
met someone she believed to be the gardener. He called her by name and
with
that evidence she cried “rabbouni”, that is “Master”.
Each Easter Day, in fact, every day of the year, we are confronted with
the
same evidence and invited to make our act of Faith. Each day as the sun
rises,
not just at Easter Sunrise Service, we are called upon to say
“Rabbouni”,
that is, The Son is Risen; Jesus is Risen; Jesus is Lord. Alleluja.
As
members of the Cursillo movement we have our own
symbol for this: The Rooster, brightly coloured, an ancient symbol like
the
butterfly, is a re-presentation of Resurrection. It is a call to faith.
“De
Colores” is just another way of saying “Alleluja” –-
Jesus is Risen Lord! De Colores.
Fr.
Frank-X. Reitzel, C.R.
This month's witness talk comes from
Elizabeth
Dunning. Thanks
Thoughts
on the Sacrament
of Penance
I’m glad I
wasn’t that penitent.
But if I had been, I think this would be my answer.
“What have
I done in the last month
that’s so bad ? Nothing.
“You’ll
not find the great serpents of
iniquity here, Father: no cobras, no boomslangs, no adders, no
rattlesnakes. Just grubby little worms: tapeworms, roundworms,
pinworms, cutworms, slimy little worms.
“I’ll
probably bore you to tears,
Father. Not for me the gross gluttonies, the colourful hold-ups, the
all-consuming envies, the cruel abandonments, the flagrant adulteries.
Here you will find no overweening arrogance, nor towering rages, nor
daring
assassinations, nor searing libels, nor blatant perjuries. All
you’ll hear about from me, Father, are many little self-indulgences,
slight embezzlements, trivial jealousies, simple failures to serve,
tiny
infidelities. You’ll get an earful of smug self-centredness, minor
impatience, niggling resentment, petty gossip and little white lies.
“I’m not
the sort of robust sinner from
whom the devils can distill strong cognac for their infernal banquets;
they’ll be lucky if they can brew “lite” beer our of the
likes of me. But since I’d rather eat and drink at the Wedding
Feast of the Lamb than be consumed by the demons in Hell, I’ll continue
to come and lay my small sins at the feet of Jesus on the cross in
this, the
tribunal of His divine mercy: And I do so for two reasons, one
positive
and one negative.
“The
positive reason is that much has been
given to me. I have been blessed with devout parents, good friends and
a
wonderful family. I enjoy peace, freedom, prosperity and beautiful
natural and cultural environments. I have been given gifts of
character
and intellect, a superb education and a fulfilling career. Health and
(so
far) life are mine. Much has been given to me; therefore, says
Jesus, much will be required of me. So far, I haven’t done very
much for Him. The cry of the saints, “When shall I begin to do
good,” which sounds so strange from their lips, makes perfect sense
when applied to me. Now, our Lord also counsels me to be faithful in
small things for Him, if I wish to be given the chance to attempt big
things
for Him. Faithfulness in small things is hard for me, Father, and I
fail
at it all the time. That’s why you have to sit and listen to all of
these small things.
Please send me (drmilne@sympatico.ca)
any talks you think should be published so we can publish a witness
talk every
month. Please realize that I will have to use my judgment on whether
or
not a talk is published so it's possible that not every talk will get
published.
Please remember Irvin Grubb and his family
in your
prayers. Irvin was from Walkerton and the father of Gerry and Marilyn
Grubb who are also Cursillistas. He was 91 when he left this world for
a
better one.
I need your help with this section of the newsletter. Unless you tell
me
about a Cursillista's death I can't publish the news here. So please,
pass on word of any deaths either to me (drmilne@sympatico.ca)
or to any other member of the Secretariat. Thanks.
HAPPY
EASTER!!