When people ask for an explanation of Cursillo, they usually get the mystifying and unsatisfying answer: "You have to experience it to understand it." While there is an element of truth in that response, as there is in any highly experiential human encounter, I want to try to answer the question: What is the empowering experience of Cursillo?
First, let me give you some historical background. In the 1940s right after the civil war in Spain, the founders of the Cursillo Movement realized that society had turned its back on God, Christ and the Church. They were convinced that life had ceased to be Christian, because Christianity’s influence on real life was just about nonexistent, even in so-called Christian circles. Not too different from the secular, materialistic society existing today in the United States.
Their solution was a simple strategy: Christianize those people responsible for creating or influencing the structures in society; give a Christian backbone to the world.
Their tactic was to create the Cursillo Weekend, literally, a short course aimed at giving participants a new vision of how to live their Christianity and the leadership skills to Christianize society. The end result: a weekend experience, which begins on a Thursday night and concludes by Sunday evening, that is an empowering weekend experience.
In the late 1940s the first Cursillo Weekend was given in Spain and the Cursillo Movement was launched. The first Cursillo Weekend in the United States was held in Waco, Texas on May 24-27, 1957 conducted by Father Gabriel Fernandez and two airmen from Spain. All Weekends were given in Spanish until 1961 when the first English-speaking Weekend was introduced. Today, Weekends are offered in most states in the USA and in over 20 foreign countries. Pope Paul VI endorsed the Cursillo Movement in 1966; and Pope John Paul II in 1980.
Enough of history. How do we explain the empowerment of the Cursillo Weekend experience which participants feel so deeply and joyfully? Simply put, they experience the empowerment of the Holy Spirit through the offer of a Christian vision, a methodology for living that Christian vision, and an environment created by a Spirit-driven community!
All three sources of empowerment — Christian vision, methodology and community — are dynamic processes because Christ’s Spirit is present in all three. Consequently, all three dynamic processes interrelate with one another and reinforce one another.
First, empowerment comes from the Christian vision presented on the first day of the Weekend. The presentation of that vision and the invitation to live that vision begins the process of answering two very important and related questions that every human being is faced with: How do I live my life more fully? And since we don’t live in a vacuum: How do I make society more livable, more Christian?
The need for an empowering ideal to live a fully human life is stressed. An ideal focuses a person’s mind, heart and energies for successful living. The Christian ideal offered turns out to be, not just an abstraction or a material goal, but a Person, Christ’s own Spirit, with all the dynamics of an interpersonal relationship.
Theologians today tell us that Christ’s main mission was to give us the gift of His own Spirit. This means that Christ’s Spirit is our inner mentor, our inner guide, our inner force, our inner power. The Infinite Being, Whom we call God and Who is more intimate to us than we are to ourselves, wants a personal relationship with us. Living a personal relationship with Christ’s Spirit is living the more fully human life. That is the first part of the Christian vision.
The second part of the Christian vision is the call to become other Christs, to carry on the mission of Christ, to bring the good news of Christ to all people. Together, the Christian vision is the call to live an empowering, self-giving, magnanimous life. The first day concludes with a witness talk from a layperson telling how he or she has caught that vision and walked the walk. The good news is that the Christian vision works!
Second, empowerment comes from a methodology for encountering Christ’s Spirit, the Cursillo tripod of holiness, formation and evangelization. The second day of the Weekend is dedicated to the formative process for living the Christian vision, ultimately challenging participants to commit to the spiritual life and commit to becoming Christian leaders.
Holiness is my commitment to living a personal relationship with Christ’s Spirit, allotting time for prayer, meditation and other practices. Formation is living a growth relationship with Christ’s Spirit; it is living a growth process; it is our on-going search to deepen our spiritual lives. Evangelization, in general, is what happens when the Spirit sets us on fire to do Christ’s work; in particular, it is the reprogramming of our attitudes and values to put on the mind and heart of Christ so that we can become Christian leaders, working to change our environments.
The Cursillo tripod for encountering the Spirit is not a static, mechanical concept. For lack of a better term, it should be called a "dynamic tripod", because it is a dynamic process. For the Cursillo tripod to be effective, one must commit to the entire process. My holiness impacts my formation. My formation impacts my holiness. My holiness and formation impact my evangelization. And my evangelization impacts both my holiness and formation. The good news is that living this dynamic tripod works: it produces Christian leaders!
Third, empowerment comes from the Cursillo community which is capable of creating the environment for the operation of the Spirit on the Weekend. Environment is a vital element for transforming moments in peoples’ lives. Especially compassionate environments where people are fully present to one another in a caring, attentive way. Such environments enable people to change and grow, to let go and let God transform them.
On every Cursillo Weekend, despite differences in personalities and spiritualities, the entire Cursillo community comes together to create a compassionate environment for the Weekend participants. It is a miracle that happens every Weekend! It is the gift of the Holy Spirit!
Further, it takes the whole Cursillo community to put on a Weekend. There is a team of priests and laypersons, who participate in the Weekend experience, meeting for weeks to prepare the Weekend talks and form a core community. There is a whole community who storm Heaven with their prayers for the participants. Where there is self-giving, the Spirit is present and operating and transforming lives.
Both spiritual directors and laypersons give talks on the Weekend. Views and reactions to all the talks are exchanged in small groups. Participants start out as strangers in these small groups, but they quickly become a caring Christian community, further creating an environment for personal and spiritual growth. Self-giving is contagious and so is the Spirit.
So, on the Weekend, the Christian vision has been presented as well as the methodology for living that vision. Throughout the Weekend, participants have experienced the impact of a Spirit-filled community, and have in fact become part of that community.
On the final day of the Weekend, participants learn additional strategies and tactics for Christianizing their environments—their families, their parishes, their workplace and other institutions in society. They learn how to analyze their environments and develop a game plan for transforming their environments.
There is one last bit of good news for the participants. The Cursillo community they have come to enjoy will always be available to them. They are offered a post-Weekend support program in their local areas. Why? Because sharing a journey, including a spiritual journey, is more effective, more energizing and more fun than going it alone. Having companions on the journey helps one persevere in personal and spiritual growth, and in our efforts to carry on Christ’s mission of transforming the world.
Bringing about change in ourselves and in the world around us is an overwhelming task. We can’t do it alone, and Cursillo’s message is that we don’t need to. An isolated Christian is a paralyzed Christian!
In the final analysis, Cursillo is much more than a "short course" in Christian living. It is an experience that enables us to reach our innermost hearts, and when we reach that core of our being, we are more intimately at home with ourselves, more intimately united with others, more intimately united with God. The Cursillo Weekend is a gift, a gift of inner freedom, a gift of empowerment, a gift of the Holy Spirit!
Last updated: February 28, 1998