In 2008, a year after I was baptized in the Catholic Church in Boise Idaho, a friend (Mike) approached me and asked me if I wanted to go to a Cursillo weekend with him. I asked: What is Cursillo?
Mike said:
Its a great experience that will help you grow spiritually and I think you will really
enjoy it.
I asked again, well what can I expect from the weekend? Mike said: A great experience that will help you grow spiritually and I think you will really like it. Haha, OK I get it. So you are not going to tell me.
I didnt really want to go, but I reluctantly agreed.
Fast forward 5 years: I have been grouping with Mike and 3 other Catholic gentlemen and I can say that experience shaped me into who I am today (spiritually, Mike takes no credit for my other behaviors).
Then when I moved to Canada, God sent me a friend named Matt Maddalozzo, who invited me to a Cursillo weekend. I said no because I had already been to Cursillo but I told him I would love to help run the weekend. This led me to another great group of men and we have been meeting every Wednesday morning since that weekend.
There is some bible scripture that says something like: Give back what you have been given. When I heard that scripture, I thought, Cursillo has had the biggest impact on my life. I need to focus any extra time I have on the efforts in Cursillo. So I started praying on how I could do that.
About that time my wife attended a proclaim workshop. She told me the diocese was promoting Alpha and CCO. It occurred to me that there was nothing really planned after CCO and Cursillo would fit it perfectly with the Diocese plan.
If people could make friends through alpha and CCO (or journey with existing friends), then Cursillo would be a great next step to continue that journey with friends.
Then around that time, Sister Rose Catherine said that she had been praying and me and Carla kept coming up in her prayers and she wanted to know what we thought about doing Alpha in the school. Then I told her about Alpha, CCO, and cursillo and it seemed like God was giving us a clear message on where he wanted us to take things.
So we ran an alpha course for the school and the church. From that large group, a few small CCO groups have formed and we will see where God takes us over this next few months.
