The Role of the Laity at Group & Ultreya

ENKINDLE IN US THE FIRE OF YOUR LOVE: Our Role as Laity at the Group Reunion and Ultreya Greeting. Open with brief explanation of DVD or CD of Msgr. John Esseff’s very powerful talk. He was the Spiritual Directee of Padre Pio and Spiritual Director of Blessed Mother Teresa. As a Meditation, I would like to play a few tracks for you. [Play Track 13, 14, 15 and 16 (total under 12 minutes)] MEDITATION: Ask the audience to close their eyes and listen to audio of Msgr. John Esseff at SCRC talk about how he uses Cursillo to show the love of the Father is those who have no hope. Then, ask the audience,

"Who is the Laity?"

(Wait and listen for responses.) We are the laity. We each have the FIRE of God's love in us. We need to spread that fire and SPARK others with that love. In the Cursillo Manual, the layperson is someone who is sanctified by practicing, with responsibility and conscience, the task of being a person in the Church, using his or her freedom as a point of entry to transform the world according to Christ, bringing LIGHT to the darkness, sacrificing whatever is necessary in order that he or she be truly free, but without the risk of giving up his or her own free will. The layperson is called to be a living testimony of the Gospel in his or her everyday life, by means of RADIATING, GLOWING like an ember, the reality of his or her life in God's Grace in all facets of their life. So the Mission of the Laity is to personify Christ in all circumstances of life. That is to personify, or represent or be Christ to the other, in their square meter, in their environment, as an authentic Christian. Be the LIGHT of the world. You are the LIGHT of the world.

St. Josemaria Escriva, from his homily, "PASSIONATELY Loving the World" wrote this: "Your daily encounter with Christ takes place right where you work, where your aspirations and your affections are. There we must seek sanctity, in the midst of the most material things of the earth, serving God and all humankind. Heaven and earth seem to merge, my daughters and sons, on the horizon. But where they really meet is in your HEART, where you strive for holiness in your everyday lives."

And as Eduardo Bonnin said, "The spirit of Cursillo consists in bringing the essence of the Gospel to the daily lives of many." How do we transform the world for Christ? How do we bring that LIGHT to the darkness? How do we RADIATE God's love in our everyday lives? How can we shine that FIRE of God's love that Msgr. John Esseff expressed that he saw in Padre Pio and Blessed Mother Teresa?

In Cursillo, our tools for transforming the world is through 1) Ultreyas, and 2) Grouping

1) Our Role as LAITY in the ULTREYA. ACTIVITY - hand out piece of paper. Fold paper in half. Then in half again. In one quarter of paper, write down everyone (who has not lived Cursillo) whom you know at work or school. In another corner, everyone you know at home including relatives. Then everyone you know at church. Then everyone else you run into your daily lives. Total the names. Show the effect of doubling the total number. On a larger piece of paper posted on the wall, write down the numbers as they are called out. Then total all numbers. The point of this activity is to show how many people this small group gathered today can affect. The number of people we can invite…. To be a friend, get to know, invite to the Ultreyas, One of the resources from the National Cursillo website, is called "ULTREYA - The Reunion of Group Reunions" In this article, it says that the Postcursillo is designed to facilitate the nurturing of those three essential encounters that took place on the Cursillo so that they grow and develop into true friendship - friendship of the individual with himself, with Christ, and with brothers and sisters. There is no doubt that the key to this process of friendship building is the last encounter - friendship with others. Our role as Laity is to be a friend to the "other" meaning not only to invite those who have not lived Cursillo to an Ultreya, but also to be present to those who have lived Cursillo and have become intimately part of the other's conversion process. When we become a Sponsor for someone, we are their Sponsor for life. And as Pope Francis says, to bring Christ to the margins of society.

It is in the "witnessing" environment of the ULTREYA where those who have just started their conversion process can meet and develop true friendships with other, like-minded people already on the journey. It is essential to the Cursillo method that the ULTREYA remains primarily a kind of meeting place where individuals can go to make new acquaintances, to make and be friends - and develop friendships of the type that will drive, strengthen, direct, and sustain the conversion process and all its unexpected blessings.

The ULTREYA is the gathering of the Friendship Groups - the Reunion of the Group of Reunions. The Groups and their members participate in it for the same reasons they go to the Friendship Group Reunions: to share what everybody (as LAITY) and every Group lives. They do not go there to acquire knowledge nor to receive instructions. They go there to be REIGNITED in the fire of the Holy Spirit.

2) Our Role as LAITY in GROUPING is to be a CHANNEL to help share the type of Christianity which everyone lives, or intends to live. This form of living with others is friendship. To be Christ to the other person. Listening, sharing, praying, “keeping it real”, and helping each other, “check yourself, before you wreck yourself.”

ACTIVITY: This is a friendship activity. Sometimes a nice ice breaker for parties. The point of this activity is to get to know each other better. Friends ask questions, right? So here goes: get together in groups of three. Take turns to tell each other three true things about yourself and one false, in any order. The others in your group have to guess which is false. We have five minutes. [Give example of my three true statements and one false: 1) I had dinner with Ryan Seacrest once; 2) My brother-in law is Matthew Perry; 3) I got this scar from a shark while I was scuba diving in the Barrier Reef; and 4) My boss’s name is Bond, J. Bond. Guess which one is false.] I hope you found out a little more about your friends here in this room. Just imagine how much more exciting, fun, and spirit-filled sharing you can do with the others who are waiting to hear about the love of God from you. Think about those names of people you wrote down in the first activity. (So much work to do, right?) In the booklet, "The Reunion of the Group", it says:

"Reunions of the Group are not made so that there might be people to assist a Cursillo, but Cursillos are made so that there will be people who can make group reunions."

Let me repeat that again. Since no man or woman is an island, and we are called as Christians, or LAITY, to transform our environments for Christ, we can do this through our weekly grouping (or weekly reunion of the group). The reunion, has three parts in which we are called to…….. : 1. To share in the LOVE of God - the acts of Piety, the sacraments, closest moment to Christ, our study which will help continue our formation and persevere in being a saint and apostle 2. To share in the LOVE of neighbor - our Apostolic Success & Apostolic Failure; explaining apostolic failures in the group, & the manner in which they came about, gives to all the testimony of the impossibility of discouragement. It gives a new strength in handling future failures, & new experience in avoiding those we can foresee. As LAITY in the group, we are called to listen & have a supernatural love for our groupies, our brothers and sisters in Christ, without reservations or conditions, just as Christ loved us. 3. To PLAN Christian living together for the coming week - the Apostolic Plan; the plan is never of one person only, it involves all the members. When one acts, the rest form the praying rear guard, so that the responsibility and the idealism become common, shared. As LAITY we are constantly praying for each other. Conclusion. In Pope Francis' Apostolic Exhortation, "The Joy of the Gospel", paragraph 121, he says this:

"All of us are called to mature in our work as evangelized. We want to have better training, a deepening love, and a clearer witness to the Gospel. In this sense, we ought to let others be constantly evangelizing us. But this does not mean that we should postpone the evangelizing mission; rather, each of us should find ways to communicate Jesus wherever we are. (Does that sounds familiar?) all of us are called to offer others an explicit witness to the saving love of The Lord, who despite our imperfections offers us his closeness, his word, and his strength, and gives meaning to our lives. In your heart you know that it is not the same to live without him; what you have come to realize, what has helped you to live and given you hope, is what you also need to communicate to others."

Last ACTIVITY - pass out candles (as visual that they have the physical FIRE) of God's love that needs to shine, glow, burn, light in the darkness. Light candles and turn off lights. To put words into ACTION, as Laity, invite each person to say one name from the piece of paper to include in closing prayer. Open for closing prayer. De Colores!!!

DYNAMICS OF ULTREYA

ULTREYA!...ONWARD! Wednesday, October 15th—Charlie, Dynamics of the Ultreya; an echo, who is the coordinator So! Who can recall ever going to their class reunion? I remember when I got the invitation via social media, I immediately began to think of who I would love to see, who I never really gotten to speak to and would of like to establish relationships with. Oh yeah … what do they look like now? What kind of food will be there? Umm...I wonder if she’s single... LOL… I kept receiving Class Reunion reminders throughout the year. I had questions in mind which needed to be answered, and the only place I could find the answers would be at the reunion, so yeah I really got excited about it. Weren’t you guys at least excited or curious how your classmates were doing? What came to my mind was, how are my classmates truly doing? I mean yeah you see what is posted on social media or what people may tell you, but those are ways of knowing about people. But truthfully there is nothing better than personal contact or interaction. OH!... By the way sorry Baby Boomers if you can’t reference to social media in regards to your class reunion, But you still had slug mail, which means you either received a hand written or typed invitation. That in its own made it personal. Most of you might have stayed near your hometowns and were able to at least stay in personal contact with some of those classmate as well. So, what is the purpose of a Class Reunion? Think about it for a bit It’s simple;

“Class reunions can provide an opportunity to strengthen friendships and to reacquaint class members, as well as provide ongoing support and goodwill.”

S.J. Quinney College of Law/ University of Utah Wow! That statement is powerful! • They are to strengthen friendships, • Reacquaint class members • Provide “ongoing” support and goodwill But wait I got this other quote:

“Done right, reunions are about bonding, which should happen before, during and after the event. But for bonding to occur, there are two necessary ingredients: finding and communicating.”

reunionsmag.com Did you Get that? “Done right, reunions are about bonding, which should happen before, during and after the event. But for bonding to occur, there are two necessary ingredients: finding and communicating.” I hear something in these particular quote that resonates Cursillo’s Ultreya! The Rollo that I was entrusted with is:

What are the Dynamics to the Ultreya?

During my high school years, I had met several people… well either I met them or they knew about me which in turn they came and introduced themselves. As I began to meet people I noticed the commonalities we had, and I mean it was funny because we all related with each other in many aspects of our lives. For instance some of us grew up with a single parents, some had both parents, and we loved to go out, drink and what not. Our group was up to about 10/12 up to 16 people, some stayed some left the group, and eventually groups of 3 or 4 flourished. It was unbelievable though, these small groups of friends all chose there confidants, in which they felt comfortable to speak about family problems and girlfriend issues or other miscellaneous issues. And all that was shared stayed within the group and also there were no leaders we were equal. When the small groups began there were some separations, but on the long run we would come together on the weekend and celebrate together our own Tripod; Dance, Drink, Eat… I know it’s an unholy tripod but yeah that’s what it was. But it all boils down to this, we had each other. If one of the guys got kicked out of his house we found him a place to sleep for the night. We would stick our necks out for each other, and when it came to a fight we were all there. We walked together in almost all things even though we didn’t always agree with each other, and if we had a problem with someone in our groups we would talk about it and squash it. What I’m about to say might sound ridiculous to some of you, but I can’t help but to somewhat compare it to one of the Ultrey Dynamics..“Small Group Reunion.” What I have just spoken about was truly the way my friends and I were living… together trying to get through the harsh times of high school and family problems. In Cursillo group reunion,

Are Friendships established because of a three day weekend?....... I personally don’t thinks so!

I can recall seeing people speaking to each other, talking about the same subjects. I can recall for instance being able to speak about music with a rollista without even knowing he was a rollista, in which he is one of the people I group with now… several of the team members I related to because the issues I was going through… or maybe they could relate with me. What I am trying to say, God put me in that particular weekend because He knew who I as the candidate could relate to. And that by putting us together i could “Discover” my group of friends, so that in those three days I had a sense of “Stability” someone to talk to or what I can call a confidant/s. Through group reunion I found stability and discovered that I did not have to walk my journey alone. I understood that we have to come together so that we can fortify ourselves. Think of a rope, a single thread can’t hold 20lbs. but a thousand can hold 100lbs. it’s strengthen by others and all count on each other to hold that weight. All the threads are of equal strength, and there is no main thread at all. Have you ever asked yourself, why is it important to group?... Don’t answer me, answer yourself, not because you heard it in Cursillo, or read about it, but truly dig deep in your heart ask yourself, Why is it important for me to group? Why do I need these friends, what is it they have, that they give me? At times I was feeling depressed, I searched for my new Christian friends, I asked them to pray for me, but most of all some could relate to what I was going through. I would share and I would learn from them through their personal experiences and how they overcame those issues. They gave me strength. They gave me compassion. They gave a friendship that was also Christ centerd. So it’s fair to quote reunionsmag.com: “Done right, reunions are about bonding, which should happen before, during and after the event. But for bonding to occur, there are two necessary ingredients: finding and communicating.” Think of the event that is being talked about is the Pre Cursillo, wait a minute or is it the Post Cursillo! So Lets go ONWARD!.. I’m going to touchback to my school reunion ! In my case I still kept in contact with most of my school friends. And what I noticed through social media some of my classmates still hungout as well, in which some I would like to see again. So it’s fair to consider that a Class Reunion is a Reunion of Small Groups of friends coming together in one location, all who spent four years together in school with the same goal, and that was to get OUT OF SCHOOL! LOL So what happens in a class reunion? You “Reacquaint” with almost everyone. Remember the first quote? “Class reunions can provide an opportunity to strengthen friendships and to reacquaint class members, as well as provide ongoing support and goodwill.”

By the way “Reacquaint” means: 1. to make more or less familiar, aware, or conversant. 2. to furnish with knowledge; inform. 3. to bring into social contact; introduce.

We all wanna know how many kids Panchita had and how she became successful, right? And of course were gonna hear it. We want to know what Federico is doing to be successful. We hear their struggles and how they overcame them, how they persevered in those crucial moments of despair, and how at maybe at one point of their close friend a classmate who kept in contact with them might have supported them in those torments. So actually they didn’t go through it alone. In this moment they let others know that they are not alone in their struggles and that they also have a community to come to, a bunch of friends. All of this comes down to what Ultreya’s witness talk basically is. What is a witness talk? The book of Sturcture of Ideas says;

“The living experience that one gains in the Ultreya gives awareness of one’s living relationship with all Christianity… making his/her own restlessness raised by the ideas, events and happenings that are presented to the knees and generosity of all.”

As an audience we listen to the witness talk and at times can relate to some of the struggles or better yet, relate to some the joyous moments… It can be a reminder of who we once were or a possible solution to a current or future event. It is where witness shares with the community their perseverance, their persistence and their authenticity to and with the community and to themselves. I have been going through a lot if issues these past few months, physically and mentally. Physically… not literal but, I have been in party mode it’s something I am not proud to mention though… and with that you know comes lots of drinking. I found myself living and passing through a dark valley, one that I was familiar with a long time ago. I mean so many things began to take place and I was idle in that moment… meaning I actually didn’t want to stay there but I wasn’t trying to move. It wasn’t till one night I was tempted very bad that I realized I almost hit rock bottom. At least to me it was rock bottom. I even thought to myself, “AND I CALL MYSELF A CHRISTIAN?” How can I show Christ to people while I am being a hypocrite? That’s whenit became a mental thing…lol Fortunately I have been blessed with friends. I had shared this experience with my groupies and some of my other church friends who are very close and dear to me. Who I know prayed for me during my darkest hours, it was a cry for help to my friends, to pray for me. And that is one of the greatest blessing in my life, having people who love me and care for me. Truly I must say that the greatest blessing I have is, that the Lord Loves Me! He placed me with people who understand and may have been in tuff moments similar to mine, yet they overcame it, but in there way… Life isn’t perfect! Neither is being a Christian…

What is an echo?

I know I have been to Ultreyas before and at times I’m able to relate to what a witness is talking about. I have captured key points that vividly themselves in my life, the only difference is that I had gone through it a different way. I’ve notice that the witness left something resonating in my heart, soul and mind. I was able to relate and understand what they’ve experienced even though it was a in a total different way. I was able to repeat to myself what the witness had said but with the twist of my life experience. For instance, what I have just shared with you about myself you probably would be able to relate to me, just in a different way. You probably would understand what I have gone through. Or maybe you have not been there but know someone who has and be able to repeat/ echo what I said just with slight twist of you.

In conclusion,

What the Ultreya has done for me, it has lead me those who I have that great commonality of circumstances in life, and build a stronger friendship with those who are also trying to live a life in grace. That I am not the only one who has persevered or back slid. The Ultreya has been the place where I can learn from the experiences of others Piety, Study and Action. It also makes me look forward to seeing what the Lord has empowered us to do, for others through others. In the Ultreya I have built friendships that are everlasting.