[SLIDE 1]Have you ever felt like you had just been drop kicked thru the goal posts of life and did not know what to do about it? I know I felt that way the time I was accused of running a red light in Houston, and because I argued about it, got to spend the night in the Houston jail. I carried that resentment for a long time, longer than I even thought. More about that later. Well, have I got the answer for you! I first used this song in my Group Reunion talk at an earlier Cursillo weekend and the companion of Group Reunion is the regular Ultreya. Group Reunion is the small group that helps us grow in Christ; Ultreya is the regular experience of the larger community. This talk is the full and final description of the Cursillo method and life in the Fourth Day regular contact with Christ and regular contact with one s brothers and sisters in Christ. While the world has not changed, you now have a new set of tools for your spiritual journey. This is not some pie in the sky by and by, but rather down on the ground, fundamentally sound, from someone who has been around! [Courtesy of Grady Nutt, Baptist Evangelist, heard at FBC several decades ago]. [slide 2] The CORE IDEAS of this talk include: Perseverance, the key to growth in Christ through the Cursillo method. The Fourth Day, the rest of your life, a pilgrimage to God in which we encourage one another by the cry, Ultreya!, Onward, upward and forward! Participation, in both Group Reunion and Ultreya, are key elements for continued Christian growth. Cursillo originated in Majorca, Spain. Catholic Action groups in Spain planed a pilgrimage to the shrine of San Jaime de Compostela. The pilgrimage was held in 1948 and was a visible sign of renewal in the Church. As the pilgrims traveled the rough terrain to the shrine, they encouraged one another with the word; Ultreya! a Spanish word derived from the original Latin, meaning Onward! or Keep on going! As the Cursillo method developed, Ultreyas became the community gatherings for support and encouragement. Page 1 of 7
[3] THE MISSION of Cursillo includes: Our baptismal covenant which calls us to: continue in the apostles teaching and fellowship, to persevere in resisting evil, to proclaim the Good News, to see and serve Christ in all persons, and to strive for justice and peace. (BCP 304). Cursillo provides a method to make that covenant a living reality in our lives. While our Cursillo weekend may give us a mountain-top experience, the biblical story of the Transfiguration (Matt 17:1-21, Luke 9:28-43, Mark 9:2-29) offers us an example of how mountain top experiences sometimes lead us into valley duty. This story of the Transfiguration is a good metaphor for our weekend. We first see that Jesus went to the foothills of Mount Hermon to ask God Am I doing your will. This question must be the foundation of All prayer, and is the foundation of the 11 th step of AA praying only for knowledge of His will for us. The Mount of Transfiguration was for Jesus a spiritual mountain peak. His exodus lay before him. Many of us can see ourselves in Peter who missed it all. Do we not all fall into the trap of doing something (the 3 alters) when instead it would be better to be silent? Peter wanted to prolong the moment. He did not want to go down to the everyday and common things. Yet, that is not life. No sooner had Jesus come down from the heavenly glory than he was confronted by an earthly problem and a practical demand (the epileptic child). We are down here in the world at the foot of the mountain where there is confusion, compromise, and impotence. And how often are we like the epileptic child s father Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief! This seems to be a contradiction, but there is none of us that does not experience both of them in himself. As our faith is never perfect, it follows that we are partly unbelievers; but God forgives us, as to reckon us believers on account of a small portion of faith. It is our duty to shake off the remains of infidelity and pray to God to correct them, flying to Him for aid. God will never forsake us, if we keep the door open for receiving His grace. [My thanks to John Calvin, 1509-1564, for some of the above] Page 2 of 7
Ultreya Lay Witness Talk (a.k.a. Fourth Day) [4] Our Cursillo weekend may have changed us, but our environments at home are still the same. I made my Cursillo weekend in 1995. While I enjoyed the weekend, my mountaintop occurred not on the weekend, but on the ride home and the following week. After the weekend, on the ride home I was reading thru the pile of letters I had received that morning. One of the letters was from a dear, but estranged, friend of Peggy s. Joan s letter, while to me, really was a message to Peggy. I don t remember the details but I do recall leaking a lot while reading the letter. Joan is again an important part of Peggy s and my lives. Our church has a nice tradition of welcoming new Cursillistas back to the community Monday night. At my first Ultreya I was asked to join a specific reunion group. I have been grouping in the same place every Wednesday at noon since then. That weekly small meeting is my regular mountaintop! For me Cursillo is about the support of community, both thru small group reunion and regular larger group Ultreyas. Cursillo provides a means by which we are able to persevere in our faith journeys and continue to be converted by the work of the Holy Spirit within us. Since my Cursillo I have continued to be active in many areas of my church community. I have served on the Finance Committee for many years, been in a choir almost all of my life, I served as Vestry Clerk for a mercifully short one year! I have been our church s WebServant since I created our first web site in 1997 except for a short sabbatical when we had a Rector who did not value lay leadership and actually thought clergy could maintain the web site! With that attitude he did not last long at St. Matthew s, and I resumed a job I love. A very large part of my personal story is how I was led to KAIROS Prison Ministry thru Ultreya. Think of KAIROS as Cursillo in the Prison Environment. KAIROS, just like the Methodist Walk to Emmaus is one of several 4 th Day movements that follow the Cursillo method. While my church classifies KAIROS as outreach I think of it as simply an extension of my Fourth Day community. In January 1999, Peggy and I attended the closing service at the Ferguson unit in Huntsville. As I entered the unit seeing the security officers brought up resentments I still held toward police officers stemming from a night fifteen years earlier as a guest of the Houston police. I left the unit resolving to never again enter a prison! But God had other plans and three angels to get my attention. The first was a member of my Sunday school class that regularly simply said, I am praying for you. The second was at a Floating Group Reunion. At the beginning of each Ultreya we Count off, Page 3 of 7
Ultreya Lay Witness Talk (a.k.a. Fourth Day) then group for 20 minutes with 3 or 4 folks with whom we do not normally group. The second angels was a lady in my floating group who just happened to talk about her work at the Del Valle Jail in Austin. Each Ultreya also has a 4 th day speaker. At this particular Ultreya the scheduled speaker was ill, and the speaker that filled in had been the Lay Rector for a KAIROS weekend. Guess what my third angel talked about! I surrendered in that Ultreya and in July made my first KAIROS weekend. Oh, and on my way home from a team meeting the fellow next to me at the salad bar was a Houston policeman in full uniform. I just saw him as a fellow traveler and had a nice conversation with him. The resentment was gone, and has been ever since. If I had not been faithful to monthly Ultreya I might still be holding on to it! [5] Being changed and transformed we are able to reach out and transform our environments for Christ. (Matt 28:19) Make disciples of all nations. I had never been effective at reaching out, certainly not to all nations, or even my neighborhood. The first time I was asked, Are you a minister, because I was wearing a KAIROS Prison Ministry shirt, was not intentional, but that opportunity to witness caused me to intentionally wear the shirt when I travel. Many times I have had an opportunity to tell folks that knowing God is about forgiveness. It is about accepting God s already given forgiveness. It is about giving up resentments and extending forgiveness to others. It is about freely sharing God s love for me by extending my love to others. I get an opportunity (remember THEY ASKED) to explain that most ministry is done by lay folks, like you and me, not by clergy (aka ministers). I get to explain that the recidivism rate of folks who participate in KAIROS drops to 15%, while the normal population has an 80% chance of ending up back in prison when released! If following the KAIROS method (which is exactly the same as the Cursillo method) can have such an effect, just imagine how following this method can improve the Spiritual recidivism rate in your life! [Pause a long time here to let it sink in]. Do you want to be one of the four out of five the goes back to your old ways, or one of the four that changes your ways and they STAY CHANGED! How would YOU bet your time, talents and treasure? Page 4 of 7
[6] WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF ULTREYA? Ultreya has four major purposes. Ultreya provides an opportunity for sharing: between individuals in the Floating Group Reunions; and with the community as a whole in listening to the lay witness talk and participating in the responses to the talk. Ultreya creates an atmosphere of enthusiasm where all can witness to their own experiences of God in worship and prayer, in the encounters with others, and in evangelizing the world. Ultreya aids in ongoing conversion of the participants. By praying, sharing, and hearing the Lay Witness talk, the participants are encouraged to incorporate new ideas and opportunities for growth in Christ into their lives. Ultreya encourages evangelization of environments with the knowledge that the individual is a part of a witnessing community of faith, and by fostering friendships that encourage personal and communal evangelization. Remember how two of God s three Angels appeared to me at that Convocation Ultreya in 1999? Floating Group Reunion and the 4 th Day Talk at that Ultreya in March are what led to my decision to work my first KAIROS weekend four years after I made my own Cursillo weekend. Another experience happened as a result of a 4 th day talk at the June 2004 Ultreya in Austin. This was yet another example of how God SPEAKS TO US thru our 4 th day speakers. The speaker was sharing with us how her own spiritual journey enabled her to transform her emotions about their unborn child having been diagnosed with Down s syndrome. Thru prayer and several God Incidents, she was able to move from an initial reaction of fear and horror to one of joy and blessing. Instead of seeing only what her child would NOT be able to do, she learned of the many special gifts that folks with this syndrome possess. She and her husband also learned that THEY were blessed because THEY had been CHOSEN to raise this special child, this gift from God! Just two days later, God sometimes strikes while the iron is still hot, we were able to share her experience with our son and daughter-in-law when they told us they might be facing the same situation with their two year old. I also learned that they had consciously decided NOT to have that testing done when our daughter-in-law was pregnant because, it would not have changed our decision. Page 5 of 7
That was a real moment closest to Christ when we both realized our son DOES get it! He and his wife know what is ultimately important in this life. [7] WHAT IS THE METHOD? The basic principles of Cursillo include: o A regular contact with Christ through prayer, sacraments, liturgy, study of scripture and spiritual direction; and o Regular contact with brothers and sisters in Christ through Group Reunion, Ultreya, as well as regular attendance at corporate worship. The Ultreya leads people to live, share, and grow in the Sprit enkindled on the Weekend. [8] The basic, suggested format of Ultreya is as follows: o Music o Prayer o Small Floating Group Reunions for sharing recent experiences of Piety, Study, and Action (20 minutes). This serves to To broaden each person s vision of ways to live in Christ and To help people seek out and discover friends with whom to form a permanent group reunion. Lay Witness Talk (10 minutes) Tells a personal story About a recent action and its result Planned with prayer and study Undertaken to bring a person and/or environment closer to Christ o Lay Response and Spiritual Director s Scriptural Response reflecting on the talk and relating it to an event or events in the life of Christ o Announcements and closing prayers. Page 6 of 7
[9] You might now be asking yourself, how do I find out when there are Ultreyas, and how might I find a reunion group. Remember those folks who encouraged you to come to Cursillo, may have brought you down Thursday, showed up this morning to help you Greet the Morning, and may be driving you home? They are called sponsors, and one of their duties is to help you find a reunion group. Another is to take you to the next Ultreya in your convocation. Some convocations have Ultreyas every month, some only after a weekend. Your convocation may even have a website that has schedules for upcoming weekends and Ultreyas. Some parishes have Ultreyas; my church has one the Monday after any weekend where we had candidates from our parish. ASK YOUR SPONSOR. IN CONCLUSION: Recall that the word Cursillo means, short course. As the short course in Christianity concludes its first-level course, we are encouraged to continue our learning and growing in Christ. Group Reunion and Ultreya are the primary tools offered by the Cursillo movement for continuing our growth in Christ and improving our Spiritual recidivism rate. We can have confidence as we face our future in faith that Christ and I are an overwhelming majority, and we have a community we can count on. If we will follow the basic plan of the Cursillo movement we will be able to live and share what is fundamental for being a Christian, part of the definition of the Cursillo movement. The Cursillo movement s intent is to never leave anyone stranded. Ideally, everyone can find a place to grow in Group Reunion and Ultreya. ASK YOUR SPONSOR!!! Dedication to Christ with these tools will allow our faith to become that which it is intended to be: deeply felt, lived in daily life, and spread by love in word and deed. ULTREYA! Page 7 of 7