What is Cursillo?

To explain Cursillo to someone who has never experienced Cursillo is at best, difficult. Often, for those who have experienced Cursillo it is still somewhat mystifying. This is not because the Cursillo Movement is a "secret" organization. The reason behind the mystery is God. No one can fully explain how God touches each person in His special/unique way throughout the various elements of the Cursillo Movement. This article cannot explain the mystery of God. It will; however, attempt to explain the human aspect behind the Cursillo Movement. You will find references to concepts that at one time seemed foreign to Catholics.

Evangelization is probably the one that comes to mind first. For many years Catholics looked upon evangelization as "something the Protestants did." Today, in Church, we hear a great deal about evangelization. Still for some of us, we automatically think of going out two-by two (with Bible in hand) and knocking on people's doors. Nothing could be further from the truth. In the Cursillo Movement we approach evangelization as a very natural act of being Christ-like within each of our daily activities. We realize that while most people would like...to live their lives in a Christ-like manner, the pressures of the world often make this difficult.

The Cursillo Movement provides a method and a technique to provide each of us with the tools, the mentality, the strength, and the support to make this natural type of evangelization possible. Sometimes Cursillo uses other statements that are basically the same as evangelization. Statements such as: 1) proclaiming the Gospel, 2) fulfilling our Baptismal responsibility (some of us were not even aware that our Baptismal responsibility required us to do something), 3) leavening the environments, and 4) living what is fundamental for being a Christian. We should not allow these statements to scare us off. These are nothing more than by-products of living our lives in a fully Christian manner. The Cursillo Movement can assist each of us in developing a deeper understanding of what it means to be fully Catholic by being fully Christian.