Sept. 18, 2019

By Jonathan Monfiletto
Contributing Writer

Cursillo means “short course in Christianity” in Spanish, but for those experiencing God’s presence during their retreat weekends, the short events have a big impact.

Ken Racette, lay director of North Country Cursillo, called Cursillo “experiencing God in your community” through encounters with yourself, with others, and with God.

With separate retreat weekends for men and women, Cursillo Weekends feature talks followed by time for participants to split up into small groups to share their thoughts on the talks. There are also prayer times, opportunities for Reconciliation, and Mass each day.

“You grow in friendship with those people over the three or four days,” Racette said. “It’s a way that people experience God’s presence in themselves and in other people in a deep way.”

The next men’s Cursillo weekend is scheduled for Nov. 21-24 at Wadhams Hall, located at 6866 State Route 37 in Ogdensburg. The next women’s Cursillo weekend is slated for Dec. 12-15, also at Wadhams Hall. Those interested in participating can contact Racette by phone at (518) 578-3056 or by email at kracette1a@gmail.com.

Along with circulating brochures and giving pulpit talks at diocesan churches, Racette said those who have participated in past Cursillo weekends help spread the word by sharing their Cursillo experiences and sharing their faith with those around them.

Typically, he noted, people who are recruited are just beginning a relationship with God or returning to the Catholic faith after time away from church. Others are those who are already rooted in the faith and wish to hone their ability to share their faith and talk to others about God.

Though people generally attend a Cursillo weekend as a participant just once, they can continue experiencing the encounter with their faith that the weekend gave them by forming a small group with other participants of Cursillo.

“That’s really, for me, the strength of Cursillo,” Racette said, noting team members at Cursillo weekends encourage participants to gather in small groups with fellow participants on a regular basis – weekly or biweekly, for example.

Small groups expand on the Cursillo weekend through participants sharing about their prayer life, their relationship with God, what they are doing to learn more about God, and what they are doing to bring others closer to God.

“The whole point of Cursillo is evangelization,” Racette said. “First, we are evangelized ourselves on the weekend. Then, we try to reach out to people to bring them closer to God. Those small groups are very powerful.”

Several small groups can get together in larger groups called Ultreyas and continue helping one another grow closer to God. An Ultreya typically includes a sharing time, a witness talk from someone who has experienced a Cursillo weekend and wants to share their personal relationship with God, and a spiritual talk from a priest or deacon.

“Those are very powerful moments for people, both the speakers and the hearers,” Racette said of Ultreyas.

“You have a small group community, and then the small groups come together and share their faith lives in a larger group community. Cursillo is all about friendship in Christ.”

Racette attended his Cursillo weekend in 1978 and has been a part of three iterations of small groups since then. The first included couples – men and women who attended their respective Cursillo weekends together. Another group was comprised of couples who lived in close proximity to one another and spent time each week praying together and sharing their faith as families.

When Racette retired and returned to the North Country, he found that Cursillo no longer had a presence in the Diocese of Ogdensburg. Along with several people interested in restarting Cursillo weekends, he attended a weekend as a team member to serve the participants there.

“Several guys wanted to get together and share in a deeper way,” Racette said, noting he formed a small group with those men that has been meeting for five years. “As friendship and trust builds, the sharing gets deeper and sometimes it’s very powerful sharing. A person is going through some kind of crisis or something difficult. …He can share that and share how that is affecting him, and we can pray with him and provide support.”

Building relationships and forming friendships are what Cursillo is all about, Racette said. Whether it’s by starting a small group with fellow participants or encouraging friends or family to attend a Cursillo weekend, it’s always with the goal of helping all participants grow closer to Christ and each other.

When Racette sees new people coming to Mass, he will greet them after the first few times to get to know them and their story and tell them his own story. After a while, he talks to them about God and eventually about Cursillo weekends.

The idea is to express that Jesus is alive, not only in the sense of His resurrection but also in the hearts of those who have grown in their faith through Cursillo.

“It’s just a way of building friendship,” he said. “Then once you start building a friendship, you can begin to talk to that person about expanding their relationship with God, and one way to do that is a Cursillo weekend.

...You don’t have to start out by saying, ‘Oh, hi, I want to talk to you about Jesus.’ You just build a relationship with the person, and then Jesus comes up, sometimes by them.

…That’s how you move from just not knowing a person to friendship to faith friendship.”