by Bob Meyers
The patron saint of the Cum Christo/Cursillo Movement is St. Paul. In order to understand Cum Christo, it is important to understand the role of St. Paul. Everyone knows that as “Saul” was traveling to Damascus he was struck by a bright light and fell to his knees. This was our Lord’s way of calling Saul (soon to be renamed Paul) to discipleship. Paul was led into Damascus, where he remained blind for three days (similar to being cloistered in a Cum Christo environment for 3 days). While Saul was in Damascus, God sent Ananias to Saul with these instructions: “You must go! This man is the instrument I have chosen to bring my message to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel” (Acts 9:15).
According to Vatican II, each person (through Baptism with Christ) is an instrument for God’s plan of salvation. When Catholics come to the Cum Christo/Cursillo weekend, each one comes as a Saul and each team member has the responsibility of being Ananias to each candidate. One aspect of the three-day weekends is to provide an opportunity for each candidate to experience a conversion process. Saul underwent a conversion process. If Saul had done nothing else, following that conversion process, then that conversion would still have been successful.
However, the reason Paul became a saint is not because of what he did not do – it was because of the things that he did do. While a conversion process is one aspect of the three-day weekends, our primary purpose is to instill in each candidate the willingness and the ability to go back to their world (their environments) and transform those environments for Christ.
Cum Christo/Cursillo give us tools to help us on our journey after a weekend. Piety (holiness), study (formation) and action (evangelization) are the three legs of the tripod that help each of us to grow on our Christian journey. We in turn help others by our example and sharing of our successes and failures. Small group reunions and Ultreyas are a means of supporting our Christian growth and maturity. Perseverance is the key to success.
We have two sets of weekends currently scheduled in Eastern Montana: the men’s weekend in Sidney will be held February 11-14, 2016, and the women’s weekend for Sidney will be February 18-21, 2016. The contacts in the Sidney area include Rector Mark Brodhead (488-3607) and Rectora Jen Vaira (774-3340). The men’s weekend in Billings/Laurel will be held April 14-17, 2016, and the women’s weekend for Billings/Laurel will be April 21-24, 2016. The contacts in the Billings/Laurel area include Rector Phil Botch and Rectora Shelly VanWey. Miles City will be scheduling weekends this coming summer of 2016.
The Great Falls and Lewistown area have not been able to have weekends recently due to both lack of candidate and team applications. Neither Great Falls nor Lewistown have weekends planned due to an apparent lack of support in their communities. Soliciting candidates should be a year-round process in order to help your local Cum Christos schedule and plan for future weekends. Please continue to solicit candidates and turn those applications in promptly. Applications show us one’s intent to attend an upcoming weekend or to work an upcoming weekend. Applications can be picked up at your local Ultreyas or off our website bigskycumchristo.org. 
Please help us continue
