Culture

Graphic courtesy/Boston Cursillo

Catholic Schools Office

Friday, March 7, 2025Culture

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I came out this weekend with a renewed awareness that I am being called to act with love in the ordinary experiences of my life.

Eileen
McLaughlin

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War and amidst the strife of World War II, a layperson, Eduardo Bonnin, responded to the cultural turmoil with prayer, community, and action. Bonnin, responding to what was begun by Pope Piux XI's Catholic Action, enlisted the help of his friends and recruited young men of their community on the island of Mallorca on a pilgrimage in order that they might strengthen their faith. They endeavored in this work for years and it came to the attention of a local bishop, Bishop Juan Hervas, who saw value in what Bonnin and his team had begun and institutionalized it as Cursillo, a short course in Christianity. By 1957, the Cursillo movement had crossed an ocean, by way of an American Air Force pilot, who brought it to Waco, Texas, after having experienced it in Spain. In 1962, it found its way to Boston, where the Cursillo was held for the first time in our archdiocese in St. John the Evangelist's school hall in Canton. In 1978, my parents lived their Cursillo at the urging of the school principal at Our Lady of the Presentation School in Brighton -- and since then, all six of their children have lived their own Cursillo.
This past weekend, I had the opportunity to serve on the team for the Archdiocese of Boston's Women's Cursillo held at the Notre Dame Spirituality Center in Ipswich. The weekend was rooted in three questions that we pondered in Scripture, prayer, and faith sharing: "Who am I?" "Who is Christ?" and "How am I being invited to work with Christ in the world?" Talks were given by lay women, the Archdiocesan Cursillo Spiritual Director Mary Ann McLaughlin, and Father Bill Murphy. We celebrated Mass daily and encountered the four presences of Christ in the priest, the Word, the consecrated body and blood, and in the community gathered.
The goal of Cursillo over the course of 80-plus years has focused on helping people to become effective Christian leaders in their own communities. Across varied geographies and languages, the values of the movement have remained the same. Cursillo asks participants to take what they have learned and experienced on the Cursillo back into the world to work with Christ in the building of the kingdom.
I came out this weekend with a renewed awareness that I am being called to act with love in the ordinary experiences of my life. I know that Christ's love will empower ordinary experiences to become extraordinary.
Like Eduardo Bonnin's world, our world is in turmoil. In the midst of the challenges that brings, I am grateful for my faith and grateful for the grace of the Cursillo weekend that allowed me to know Christ's presence in my life and in the world.
De Colores!
(For more information about the Archdiocesan Cursillo movement, visit www.bostoncursillo.org)

- Eileen McLaughlin is superintendent of Catholic Schools of the Archdiocese of Boston.