The Leaders School of The Cursillo Movement

Of The Savannah Diocese

Savannah, Georgia

Post-Cursillo is the third of the 3 stages of the Cursillo movement. The other stages of course are Pre-Cursillo and the 3-Day experience – the Cursillo.

The purpose of the Post -Cursillo:

The basic purpose of the Postcursillo is to renew, accelerate and continue the conversion of each individual who has experienced the 3-Days. Its objective is the ongoing transformation of the environments for which those individuals are responsible, especially:

• their families,
• neighborhoods,
• places of work,
• associations and
• other secular situations.

The Post Cursillo section has the responsibility to educate themselves first of all on the purpose of the post-cursillo and then to educate others through the Leaders School and the Ultreyas. Post Cursillo is responibile for helping groups form, making Ultreyas meaningful and authentic. The spiritual formation of the Cusillistas is also the respnsibility to the post-cursillo through days of recollection, retreats, Diocesan Ultreyas, etc. [LM p36] [SOL p 36]

This Post-Cursillo stage consists of and is responsible for

• Group Friendship Reunion
• Ultreyas
• Spiritual Formation

Everything that is done in terms of the Cursillo methodology and purpose has the Postcursillo as its end objective including Precursillo and the Cursillo Weekend. The purpose of the three days is to bring people from the Precursillo into the Postcursillo.

445 The Cursillo Movement, through the structure and dynamic process of the Postcursillo, offers lay people the means they need to carry out what is required of them as members of the Church:

461 The basic purpose of the Postcursillo is to renew, accelerate, and perfect the conversion of each individual who has lived the experience of a Cursillo." Postcursillo is designed not to search out new environments or apostolates for those who have made a Cursillo, but rather to help them develop an apostolic mentality and attitude, making available to them the means they will need to evangelize the places where they are already spending most of their time their own environments - by way of environmental groups. 22

463 "The sharing of what is fundamental for being a Christian and life in community do not make the Cursillo Movement an organization. Committed Christians do not need legal contracts to carry out their vocation to holiness, to share in Christian friendship, or to evangelize from within the context of the Postcursillo. The important thing about the Postcursillo is that it should provide an atmosphere and a format enabling one to actualize one's full potential for becoming a saint and an apostle, according to one's own charisms. And so the cursillistas should each dedicate themselves to carrying out their own secular commitments, as a responsive way of being where God wants them to be. ²³

465 Within the Postcursillo there are two basic means for growing and persevering in the Christian life: the Group Reunion for individuals, and the Ultreya for the community.

466 A Group Reunion is a group of persons who are, or at least want to be, friends and Christians, and who come together (reunion) to become better friends and better Christians.

467 Groups are a human necessity. Human beings social by nature, have always formed groups for the achievement of their mutual perfection: families, societies etc. Groups are also a Christian necessity. The Church is communal in its very essence; no one can be a member of it without being vitally connected to all the other members. The basis for this is not of human origin; it comes out of the very heart of Christianity, from the God who is Three in One and from the Communion of Saints .²⁴

469 On the Cursillo weekend we discover that the way to live as a Christian in the world to the highest degree possible is to be part of a small group of friends with whom we can share our lives, the life each of us is leading as an individual Christian. So the first thing a person needs to do after making a Cursillo is to find such a group of friends. We should, of course, define what we mean by the term "Group Reunion."

470 It is possible for reunion to create friendship. It is certainly true that the Postcursillo reunion process is the key factor to discovering, achieving, solidifying, deepening, and sustaining friendship within the Group.

472 "The Group Reunion promotes Living the Christian life in friendship with others. This entails the planning and carrying out of apostolic endeavors,' including those necessary for each Group member to fulfill his or her apostolic obligations. The Group Reunion is vital to this growth process." It is a group of people who commit themselves to one another so that together they can be transformed in Christ.

498 The Ultreya is the Cursillo community gathered together, making itself visible as community in a reunion. It is a community of people who have an attitude of ongoing conversion, who feel united in one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and who therefore feel the need to come together to share their lives.

499 The Ultreya will be a community to whatever extent the different friendship Groups can come together and form one community, and to whatever extent they are able and willing to attract new members, thus keeping the community alive and vibrant. It is a joint Reunion of all the Groups.

502 The purpose of the Ultreya should be understood in context of the purpose of the Cursillo Movement as a whole. And that purpose is to create groups of evangelizers - groups made up of people who are capable of living, together with other people, what is fundamental for being a Christian.

504 The Ultreya is to environmental evangelization what the heart is to the body. The heart gives life by concentrating, purifying, and oxygenating blood - not for its own sake, but so that it can immediately speed healthy blood to all parts of the body. And so the true mission of the Ultreya, far from being exhausted in the event itself, is to transform every family, every environment, and every social structure into a small Ultreya: a community of faith, hope, and love.

513 Just as a team is what makes the Cursillo weekend possible, it is also a team that makes the Postcursillo possible. The immediate objective of leaders in the Postcursillo is to motivate and help new cursillistas take part in Christian community.

514 The leader in the Postcursillo has a double role to play:

The role of the leader in the Postcursillo program is to make Group Reunions and Ultreyas come alive, and to foster the friendship that makes this possible.

519 The success of the Ultreya depends not only on the sharing and witnessing of those who take part in it, but also on the attitude of its leaders. They should serve everyone as simply and humbly as they do on a Cursillo weekend, giving personal attention and making a concerted effort to create and sustain an evangelizing community made of love.

520 Leaders have an important role in the Ultreya. To promote solidarity and apostolic activity, they

• foster a spirit and atmosphere of sharing, get ring everyone to share with everyone else;
• establish personal contact;
• stimulate those who as yet do not have a Group to belong to;
• encourage those who are in a Group to persevere in their friendship;
• make a commitment to continue outside of the Ultreya the personal contacts they establish during it;
• accept the responsibility of taking the initiative prompted by grace in each situation-, and
• joyfully communicate the grace of God by acting as servants to all.

521 The leaders should use their talents to the utmost to keep the spirit and atmosphere of each Ultreya at the highest level possible.

522 The important thing is not to persevere in the Cursillo Movement but to live an authentic Christian life, to build up the Church and construct a better world. Many of the people who have made a Cursillo are not now making use of the specific methods of the Postcursillo, and yet they are living a life that is authentically Christian.

525 The Postcursillo fulfills the expectations the Church has for her lay faithful. To discover and carry out their specific vocation and mission, the lay faithful should find their balance in the harmony that should exist between being a member of the Church and being a citizen of the world.

526 Christian existence should not be split into two parallel lives - the one being something called "spiritual life" and having its own values and requirements, the other going by the name of "secular life" and comprising family life, employment, social relationships, political and cultural enterprises, etc." They should form one whole the faith in life. Life in the faith.