Hey I’m a Cursillista!!

My name is Kate and I intern here at Wake with a campus ministry called Athletes in Action, and yes I am officially a cursillista.  You might be wondering what this is if you don’t speak Spanish.  In fact you might be wondering what this is if you do speak Spanish.  A cursillista is a person who has completed a cursillo weekend, which means a small course in Christianity. Cursillo is a Catholic movement that started in the US in the 1960s and has two weekends out of every year where they hold retreats across the world.  The men and women’s retreats are separate but are held on back-to-back weekends.Although I was one of the Mud Puddles!youngest women there at a ripe age of 22, the weekend had a great impact on me.  I learned so much from being around these women of God in all different stages of life.  It was beautiful to hear the different journeys they had been on, the valleys and the mountaintops, and how they had trusted God through it all.  As priests and lay people gave 14 different talks, I began to realize how truly broken we all are.  Everyone has a story.  Someone once told me we need to scratch past the surface more, and dig into people’s lives…”we need to get in each other’s mud puddles”.  Each talk was followed by a small group discussion.  These were some of my favorite times, hanging out in people’s mud puddles, from one to the next, some seemed bigger than others but we all had one.  These women started to feel like a family to me.  This was so encouraging to experience Catholic women who were running after God and were so transparent and real with their experiences.I was fortunate enough to get to do this weekend with my amazing Mother.  My dad went through cursillo two years back and has been trying to get my mom and I to go for 729 days, so we finally said yes.I have to say I was a little nervous about the weekend.  Although, I had grown up in Catholic Church, I ran away from God in college.  By God’s grace I found myself back in church, but to my Dad’s disappointment I did not go back to the Catholic Church.  Cursillo allowed me to see the heart behind the Catholic Faith and the richness in taking part in the sacraments.  We do not only receive sacraments but we give them away; they help us to answer ‘who am I?’ and ‘who is God?’; confession is not about getting forgiveness, it’s about celebrating forgiveness; baptism tells us we belong, confirmation tells us that we matter.  This has given me a bit more clarity.  Sometimes I pray that God’s people (including me) wouldn’t be so divided, so critical, and judgmental of their brothers and sisters in Christ.  We are called to be one, one body, one church, but one day I know that we will all be reunited with our King and that gives me hope!The best part of cursillo is that they do not leave you to fend for yourself when the weekend is over.  You make spiritual goals and they connect you with a small group in your area to continue to make your journey together.  You are a part of the cursillo family now and you have a special bond with the cursillistas all over the world who devote time to pray for you specifically.  Wow that is amazing.  I encourage anyone male or female of any age to take a step or leap of faith and go on a cursillo weekend.  There is one in the fall and one in the spring, and you can find one that is close to you!  Renew your faith and encounter a mountain top experience for the valley duty ahead.