School of Leaders will meet this weekend, the second Saturday February 11 at Holy Family Cathedral, 566 South Glassell Street, Orange following 8:15 Mass.

[OC Cursillo School of Leaders]

Dear Cursillistas:

Time again for our School of Leaders to convene at Holy Family. We have a full program for anyone who is interested, and we hope to see many of you there. 

Meditation from Deacon Doug

Deacon Doug will begin with his meditation, which any of you who have attended in the past know will spiritually prepare all who are present for the work of the morning. If you've been to more than one SOL meeting in the last couple years, you know Deacon's talks have a way of setting the piety ground work for our sessions. 

Higher Ground

Following Deacon's meditation, Kevin Durkin and Joe Baldo, two long time Cursillistas, are going to talk about Higher Ground, a ministry started by a Cursillista (Joe) to help kids from some troubled backgrounds through the use of sports and fellowship. Scores of Cursillistas have worked with Joe in this ministry, and we hope to illustrate why it is such a great example of how Cursillo veterans can create a project that fosters Piety, Study, and Action through one organization's commitment to helping those whom society sometimes seems to forget. Kevin and Joe are excited to tell the story of Higher Ground; I think SOL will benefit from experiencing what their program has done over the time it has been in existence. 

Shroud of Turin

Finally, Lee Sweeney, director of the Shroud of Turin Exhibit Project for the last 20 years, will provide a program about the history of the burial cloth that is described in Mark 15:46, Matthew 27:59,Luke 23:53 and John 19:40. Lee has a presentation that will be valuable on several levels to Cursillistas. 

First, the Shroud center has been saved or preserved thanks largely to the generosity of Cursillistas. Dave Belz, who shared his Cursillo table on Weekend 21 with a candidate who was a  priest  by the name of Father Ray Skonezney, worked and struggled to get the materials a home at a place called the Santiago Retreat Center. Sound familiar? Dan and Diane Dulac, committed Curssillistas known to all of us, generously made space available for the exhibit to have a new residence for Catholics and other Christians to enjoy its message of faith and perseverence. The story of the Shroud Exhibit is a part of Cursillo History in Orange County. 

Second, the story of the Shroud's scientific testing,  and the challenges against its authenticity, are an inspiration to any person of faith. Knowing this story will inspire anyone who has ever had her faith attacked by someone who tries to put technology ahead of belief in God. Pay special attention to the person who challenged the findings of the Oxford don who said that those who believed in the Shroud were "Flat Earthers."  The answer will remind everyone of the theme for January's Men's weekend: "A Little is Enough."  

Third, Lee's talk will both inspire you and provide you with information that will help your understanding of how to use this Relic of the Resurrection as a tool for Evangelization. Personally, it gives me great confidence to be able to point to the history of the Shroud when talking to other Christians who challenge the need for a structured Church. I've learned to suggest to  them, even if they reject the Shroud's authenticity, they need to understand that it is, at the very least, a physical example of how the Church has, for two millennia,  preserved  every aspect of the treasury of our Faith, from the gradual accumulation of the messages of the Magisterium to the heroic sheltering of the Shroud of Turin. 

I believe that these two presentations will take Cursillista attendees in two Catholic directions for the morning following Deacon Doug's Meditation: from the contemporary fight to save the souls and the futures of our young brothers and sisters from forgotten sections of our community, to the  two thousand year old fight to preserve the cloth that covered Our Lord between His Death and His Resurrection. A good time to be at SOL. 

Don't forget that later that night we will be welcoming the new Cursillistas from our recent Men's and Women's weekends; Ultreya time, at Saint Justin Martyr. 

Come and See!

Don Hunsberger

For the Orange Catholic Cursillo School of Leaders