Pope Francis in an address to leaders of Lay Movements on May 18, 2013 said; “The church must step outside of herself. To go where? To the outskirts of existence, whatever they may be, but she must step out. Jesus tells us, ‘Go into all the world! Go! Preach! Bear witness to the Gospel!’ (see Mark 15:16). But what happens if we step outside ourselves? The same as can happens to anyone who comes out of the house and onto the street: an accident. But I tell you, I far prefer a Church that has had a few accidents to a Church that has fallen sick from being closed.”
The Pope goes on to say; “In this stepping out it is important to be ready for encounter. For me this word is very important. Encounter with others. Why? Because faith is an encounter with Jesus, and we must do what Jesus does: encounter others.”

As we listen to Pope Francis address to all Lay Movements to go out into the world, I believe we need to consider three parts to his call to stepping out. First, as we prepare to host our National Encounter at Chapman University, it is good for us to go outside of ourselves and meet Cursillistas from around the U.S. and to participate in this important event. Second, we must step out of our comfort zone to become involved in our local parishes. We need to use our gifts and talents to assist in all parish ministries to ‘Bear witness to the Gospel’. Finally we need to encounters others in our environment who we feel need to experience the love of Christ through Cursillo. We should consider sponsoring a person to Cursillo each year as we work to ‘Make a Friend, Be a Friend and then Bring that Friend to Christ’.
Have an awesome summer!

De Colores, Deacon Doug
Summer, 2014