The Cursillos de Cristiandad is planning a Cursillista Renewal Retreat for Saturday, August 2, at Mount St. Francis Church in Peekskill, hosted by the Orange County Ultreya.
The gathering is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. and conclude at 5 p.m. Mount St. Francis is located at 250 South Street, Peekskill (Westchester County).
The Cursillo Movement of the Archdiocese of New York is based at Holy Cross Church in the Bronx. Father John Higgins, pastor of Holy Cross, is the spiritual director. Cursillos de Cristiandad (Cursillos in Christianity; short courses in Christianity) focuses on amicable dialogue and being loyal witnesses of the faith.
On August 17, a Summer Cursillo Picnic and Mass is scheduled from noon to 5 p.m. at Patterson Veterans Park, 65 Maple Avenue, Patterson (Putnam County), hosted by the Carmel Ultreya.
For members able to travel outside the Northeast, the movement invites the Cursillo faithful to the National Cursillo Encounter in Seattle, set for August 14 to 17 at Seattle University, which is Jesuit-run.
“These gatherings are vital so that the movement continues – the movement is characterized by the way we live, and when we meet, we share testimonies of life. We often discuss biblical texts as they pertain to what we’re living during these times,” Manuel de la Cruz, a prominent leader of the Cursillo Movement of the Archdiocese of New York, told The Good Newsroom during a July 28 phone interview. “We are a sacramental movement — to be a member, you have to have received confirmation; if you have a spouse, you have to have been married in the Church.”
De la Cruz noted that there will also be an August 17 Cursillo daylong conference (Cursillo de Campo) at the National Blue Army Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Asbury, New Jersey, hosted by the New York archdiocesan Cursillo chapter.
Cursillos de Cristiandad was founded in 1944 in Majorca, Spain, by a group of laymen led by Eduardo Bonnín Aguiló, Servant of God, who died in 2008 at age 90.
Cursillo leaders encourage members to “pray that we might lead others to Jesus Christ by the way we live our lives—ultreya, ‘onward,’ as we say in Cursillo.” The movement remains a mostly Spanish-speaking apostolic ministry of the Church that attempts to give life to the essential Christian truths in the “singularity, originality, and creativity of the person.” The Cursillo offers spiritual renewal or rebirth through a three-day Cursillo course to begin membership.
In addition to “ultreya,” also popular in Cursillo is the phrase “de colores,’ (in colors), a reminder of joyful times when God’s love is especially vivid.