Recapturing the Vision
Of the Cursillo Founders

By Frank A. Squitteri

How can Cursillo experience self-renewal? By recapturing the vision of the Cursillo founders! What was their vision? Their vision embraces Cursillo's charism and its three dynamic models.

Let's talk about Cursillo's charism. All movements such as the Charismatic Movement and Marriage Encounter have their own special charism, their special gift of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit has given Cursillo its special charism—Spirit-empowerment through Christian community. That is why we say that Cursillo is an invitation to empowerment, Spirit-empowerment, through Christian community.

This was the vision of the Cursillo founders: a community deeply aware of its special charism, for it is the soul of our Movement. It explains why our Weekends are so powerful. It explains why we want to remain with the Movement long after the Weekend. And it explains why we want to be involved in Group Reunion and Ultreya—to encounter the Spirit through Christian community.

The other components of the Cursillo founders' vision are three dynamic models. Models are systems of interacting concepts that explain a dynamic reality. The Cursillo founders had the genius to build into Cursillo—the model of holiness (by implication), and most explicitly the model of evangelization and the model of the ideal Christian community. Along with Cursillo's charism, these models are the engines that drive the Cursillo Movement.

First, let us focus on Cursillo's model of evangelization. Note: I am calling the Cursillo tripod Cursillo's model of evangelization. This model commits us to a total approach to evangelization. The evangelization model includes three interacting concepts—the familiar Holiness, Formation and Evangelization. They represent a dynamic model, a dynamic process.

Holiness is the fire that drives the process. My holiness impacts my formation, which is my on-going search for ways to deepen my holiness; thus, my formation impacts my holiness; and together they impact my evangelization. And my evangelization impacts my holiness and formation.

Here is the key point. When we evangelize others, we evangelize ourselves most of all. In the middle of our evangelization activities, we are discovering new spiritual insights, we are finding more courage to act and to lead, and we are becoming more aware of God's presence and the Spirit's empowerment. So our evangelization transforms us into contemplatives in action. That is the spirituality of Cursillo. That is the vision of the Cursillo founders— cursillistas living the total Evangelization Model and growing as contemplatives in action.

Today we are hearing a lot of simplistic talk about evangelization. It is like a company telling a salesman whom it has raised to the position of manager: "Now go and manage." But he hasn't been trained to manage. Likewise, this simplistic talk is telling us that we are evangelizers by virtue of our Baptism: "You are born evangelizers. Now go and evangelize." Our founders were wise enough to know that evangelization is a more complex, more dynamic process that must include holiness and formation. Cursillo offers cursillistas, and the Church, a realistic model of evangelization.

Second, our founders gave us a model of the ideal Christian community. This model commits us to work at the on-going process of holiness, formation and evangelization in a growth-oriented community. The founders based this model on the formation of small Christian communities. Of course, I am referring to group reunion and ultreya, but they are only parts of a methodology until these small communities become a dynamic process. Our founders knew that it takes more than a gathering of Christians, even of cursillistas, to make a Christian community; it takes the dynamic process of people sharing their faith and growing together—empowered by the Spirit.

The ideal Christian community takes place when each one of us comes to our group reunion or ultreya with an openness to the empowerment of Christian community, with an awareness of Cursillo's charism, with an expectancy that the Spirit will empower us to grow individually and as members of our community.

This model includes three interacting concepts—myself, community and Spirit. They represent a dynamic model, a dynamic process. I interact with my community and my community interacts with me, and together we interact with the Spirit, and the Spirit empowers me and my community. That is the model of the ideal Christian community which Cursillo offers cursillistas, and the Church. A Spirit-actualizing, growth-oriented community. That was the vision of the Cursillo founders.

Third, Cursillo offers us a model of holiness. This model commits us to all the dynamics of an interpersonal relationship between God and ourselves which flourishes into a deeper relationship with others. Our founders clearly defined the models of evangelization and the ideal Christian community, but not the holiness model. However, they gave us a living model of holiness, a laboratory of holiness, a lived experience of holiness which we experienced on our Weekends. So, we can deduce seven characteristics of holiness from our Weekend experiences and the virtues that underlie these characteristics to create the following model of holiness:

1. The model asks us to be visionary. We spent the first full day of the Weekend hearing talks about the need for a vision. Most of us experienced a whole new vision of life—the Christian Vision that helped us move from an Ego-centered life to a God-centered life. The virtue we must grow in is the virtue of God-centeredness with all our relationships flowing from our relationship with God.
2. The holiness model asks us to be communal. On the Weekend we experienced very intensely Cursillo's charism of Spirit-empowerment through Christian community. The virtue we must grow in is the virtue of openness to the empowerment of Christian community.
3. The holiness model asks us to be charismatic. While we heard little about the Spirit on the Weekend, we certainly experienced the power of a Higher Power. That power was the Spirit. Further, The Fundamental Ideas of the Cursillo Movement states: "The most basic attitude of the evangelizer is an awareness that one is merely an instrument at the discretion of the Holy Spirit." The virtue we must grow in is the virtue of dependency on the Spirit's empowerment.
4. The holiness model asks us to be compassionate. On the Weekend, we experienced God's compassion and the community's compassion: God and community were experienced as being fully present, in a caring and attentive way to us. The virtue we must grow in is the virtue of compassion—being spiritually present to others and being communion to others, being bodily present to others through our body language.
5. The holiness model asks us to be action-oriented. On the Weekend we heard about Christ's Mission and our role of evangelization. The virtue we must grow in is the courage to act and to lead.
6. The holiness model asks us to be Palanca people. On the Weekend, we discovered a faith community who believes in the power of prayer and sacrifice to open others to the Spirit's empowerment. The virtue we must grow in is the virtue of faith.
7. Lastly, we are asked to follow a structured model of holiness. On the Weekend we discovered Cursillo's three models—evangelization, Christian community and holiness— systems approaches to the spiritual life. The virtue we must grow in is the virtue of discipline to live according to these three models.

It was the Cursillo founders who built into the Weekend these characteristics and virtues. Men of their spiritual insight knew that the candidates could not accomplish these virtues in one weekend. Their vision must have been to launch the candidates into a dynamic process of striving for holiness according to this model of holiness they experienced on their Weekend.

Cursillo's model of holiness can be represented by a dynamic model which incorporates the seven virtues of holiness as well as the Evangelization and Christian Community models. The model includes three interacting concepts—Vision, Values and Practice. The Vision is the Christian Vision; the Values are the seven virtues of holiness; and Practice is living the Holiness, Evangelization and the Ideal Christian Community models.

It shouldn't be surprising that this dynamic model of holiness is, in effect, our model for Christian leadership. The seven characteristics and virtues of holiness described above are the qualities that make a Christian leader, for it is through our holiness that we will help complete Christ's mission to convert the world from unholiness to holiness. That was the mission and the vision of the Cursillo founders.

One last look at Cursillo's three dynamic models. All three interrelate with one another and reinforce one another, because Christ's Spirit is present in all three. In fact, we can look upon all three models as being three approaches to holiness. The Holiness Model is our personal approach to holiness, striving to grow in its seven virtues. The Christian Community Model is our communal approach to holiness, challenging us to grow in our growth community. The Evangelization Model is our action-oriented approach to holiness, transforming us into contemplatives in action.

Let us recapture the vision of the Cursillo founders. The Cursillo community highly aware of its charism and of its three dynamic models. Only then will we appreciate Cursillo's power and glory. Only then will we experience a new spirit in Cursillo and Spirit-empowerment. Only then will we be able to complete Christ's mission to convert the world from unholiness to holiness.