The Tribune

By RODNEY WILLIAMS

Pray for candidates. Candidates chosen for a Cursillo weekend should be baptised, confirmed Anglicans who can be counted on to return to their environments for the purpose of witnessing to the power of the Holy Spirit in their own lives. It is a sponsor’s job to clearly explain what the weekend will contain. Nothing is secret. It is important that candidates understand that they should attend Cursillo with mind and heart open to what the Holy Spirit will bring. Sponsors should make sure the candidate knows it is an individual journey.

The team will care for the candidate’s needs during the weekend. Sponsors should explain that candidates need not be concerned about what they are leaving behind at home or at work. Sponsors should also explain that Cursillo is a time to give everything to God and not think about anything else. Invite your candidate to your own group reunion, and to Ultreya. Explain that Cursillo is really all about the Fourth Day (life after the weekend). It is the sponsor’s job to guide their candidate into the world after Cursillo, and it helps to involve them as soon as possible into some of those activities.

Cursillo sponsorship is both the gateway and the guide for the journey of the weekend and beyond. To be a sponsor to someone about to take the Cursillo journey – a pilgrim on a road of faith – is to follow Jesus’ command to go out and spread the Good News, and to actively recruit others. It is an important role, an example of living an apostolic life while strengthening the Cursillo method of “make a friend, be a friend, bring a friend to Christ.” The more involved the sponsor is in the entire process, the more likely the candidate will have a positive experience and respond to the commitment of Fourth Day living.

A sponsor’s first and foremost responsibility is to pray. The sponsor prays for discernment in the invitation to attend the Cursillo, continues to pray through the Cursillo itself, and through guiding the candidate to their commitment to the Fourth Day. Once the invitation has been accepted, the sponsor should help the candidate in filling out the application, and also submit their own sponsorship application. Discerning the Invitation means realising the truth of the Biblical passage: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

Through prayer, sponsors discern and ask potential candidates to consider the journey. The weekend is a time of renewal and discipleship, and sponsors should guide, not pressure, anyone to go to a Cursillo weekend. The invitation should be personal, and the sponsor should take care to determine that there are no obstacles to their candidate having a successful Cursillo. It may not be the right season for Cursillo if someone is going through divorce, chronic illness or any other serious life challenge. The sponsor should also make sure the candidate knows assistance is available if there is a financial barrier to attending the Cursillo weekend. The sponsor should not feel obliged to pay registration fees for a candidate.

Palanca

Sponsors should prepare Palanca. Palanca is a Spanish word denoting a lever which the Holy Spirit can use to aid in the conversion of a candidate into a Cursillista. Palanca is prayer and sacrifice, not gifts. A palanca letter is a testament to love, praise, spirituality, support and guidance in the form of a prayer, and honest communication, thereby lifting a candidate to realise the living out of a more Christ-centered life.

Encourage other Cursillistas to write palanca letters to the candidate. It is appropriate to write palanca letters to all of the participants of the Cursillo the candidate attends, including team members. Sending palanca letters to everyone is not mandatory, but encourages the entire group to a more successful Cursillo. Sponsors drive the candidate to the weekend and that is a good time to answer lingering questions the candidate might have. Remember everyone’s Cursillo is different. Sponsors can explain everything a pilgrim will do, but the missing element in their explanation is always the pilgrim’s reaction to the weekend.

During and after the weekend

Pray during the Cursillo weekend. And be available to help the pilgrim’s family at home. Sponsors must pick the new pilgrim up from weekend, attend the closing, and encourage other Cursillistas to attend. At the end of the weekend the new Cursillistas will need time to wind down, to decompress, and begin to re-enter the world. The drive home from Cursillo will begin the process.

A sponsor should make sure the new Cursillista is welcomed by the entire Cursillo community of their church. Welcome home dinner parties can be an overwhelming show of love and support. Continue to lift up the new Cursillista in prayer, that they may continue the journey they began on the weekend. After the Cursillo Weekend the new Cursillistas needs as much personal contact as they received before and during the Cursillo weekend. Probably even more! This is when the real work begins.

The Cursillista has been ignited and has begun a spiritual transformation. The time after the Cursillo weekend is when they will mature in their faith, deepen their Christian commitment and take their apostolic place in the world. They will do this first by attending the ‘Day of Deeper Understanding’, to which the sponsor should take them.

Then, they will continue their journey through group reunion and Ultreya, and through the ministries they will accept as God calls them. Pray for them, encourage them, and help them to get into a group reunion as soon as possible.

Jesus’ command, “Go and make disciples of all nations” will be the natural outcome of the Cursillo weekend if everyone remembers that the weekend is the path, not the goal. That is why the sponsor’s job is so important. Sponsorship is the one element that begins before the weekend and continues beyond. It is a sponsor’s responsibility to keep in mind the larger goal of the Fourth Day and remember that everything done for the candidate should be done to encourage a renewed life in Christ that gains strength and purpose after the weekend.

Prayerfully consider being a sponsor; look around you for potential environments, and for candidates in those environments who can be agents of change. Consult the candidate’s priest and follow his advice in choosing a candidate. Contact your parish representative or the Mount Olivet Retreat Centre office for an application form. Contacts for the Retreat Centre are 324-8099 or 677-0601, or e-mail molivet@coralwave.com.