I bring you a message of hope! In these challenging times – layered with difficulties, struggles, and strains of all sorts – we know God has not abandoned us. Our loving God is here. God is ever stable. God is so GOOD. In these times when you’ve been given a special share of Our Lord’s cross, we can say that God is actually EXTRA close and that the animating presence of the Holy Spirit is alive and well. ‘The Lord, the Giver of Life’ is one of my favourite titles for the Holy Spirit and His presence has not vanished, it is not dormant, IT IS MOVING!! In a lifting and propelling way, our Advocate and Life-Giver has been revitalizing our local Cursillo Movement during this pandemic, helping us to creatively connect in the present and plan for the future.
It has been an honour to serve as the chaplain / spiritual director of Cursillo Vancouver since the Fall of 2019 and I feel so blessed to have been given the opportunity to minister to (and be ministered by) so many faith-filled Catholic Christians in our local movement. Our group sharing has been extremely powerful, the witness talks have been over-the-moon inspiring, and the momentum of the whole movement within our Archdiocese has been building.
I pray that anyone who has ever been associated with Cursillo will come to reappraise the beauty and power of our community and that many more new faces will be drawn to Cursillo through our friendships. As we radically rely on the Holy Spirit and as we make that concerted effort to go that extra mile to connect and cooperate in Our Lord’s work, we can be certain that the future that awaits us is bright and blessed.
May the peace of Christ be with you all. May our Blessed Mother and St. Joseph protect you and all your loved ones. And may the example of our patron, St. Paul, inspire us to bravely respond to the Holy Spirit and to boldly reach out to make friends, to be a friend to others, and to bring these new friends closer to Jesus.
God bless you all,
Fr. Mark McGuckin
