Saturday 3 November 2018

My 4th day after Geneva Cursillo in 2014

I was asked to sign up for an hour of palanca. It should be a form of a prayer or a sacrifice that can give a lever to the Cursillo participants and enable them to achieve more or even beyond their expectations during the 3 day retreat. This time I was trying to reflect on what was my take-away from the Cursillo weekend.

It all began in Switzerland. My Cursillo weekend was in November in 2014. Tony Shave, whom I got to know at CERN during my internship in 2012, was my sponsor and invited me to take part in the event. I had never heard about such a movement before but was encouraged by Tony to attend the Cursillo weekend. Back then, I lived in Lausanne and came to Geneva on Thursday. I was expected a retreat and spending 3 days in calm atmosphere filled with prayers. It occurred to be a special time that is imprinted in my memory. I was surprised that there is such a place in Geneva, surrounded by trees and in the middle of a green circle, where you can feel as if you were outside of any city and far away from any traffic noise. From the very first moment, I had an impression that it was not a typical retreat but that people there, with God's help, wanted us to experience the life in God's grace. On Thursday's night, the introductions were held. We were paired and had to learn as much as possible about another person, then instead of presenting ourselves, we had to present our partners. This was a very effective way to get to know each other. Early in the morning on Friday, I was woken up by a small choir. Of course, I yearned for a little bit more sleep, however, probably this was the most gentle way of waking somebody up. We started early in the morning and the day was filled with activities. We had rollos, the way of the cross and really interesting conversations in my group. We were talking about priorities in our lives. Thankfully enough, I had a very good mnemonic that learned from my housemate, Richard Holt. You should remember about 3Ms, they are: Master, Mission and Mate. Master represents God, Mission is your main goal in life, and Mate is your wife or best friend. This is almost in line with the Gospel. Interestingly enough, this very Sunday, we will here what Jesus thought us as the 2 most important commandments, that are kept in unity: "The first is this: 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." This was a good start from the fundamentals. The rollos were going deeper into the life in faith. Jamie Antonelli gave an excellent presentation on how to become an effective Christian leader and be more involved in the Church community. I think that nothing is more persuasive than his own involvement in music ministry with his wife Nicole. The talk about the science and faith was the closest one to my heart. In computer science community, we are always insisting on the fact that the universe was created when God pressed Enter :) When I consider this topic more seriously, the first thought that comes to my mind is about the encyclical "Fides et Ratio" ("Faith and Reason") promulgated by Pope John Paul II. When I delve deeper into this theme, my life as a researcher was always filled with the scientific beauty of reasoning and the confirmation of natural laws by experiments. However, would you test your best friend many times to verify if he or she is your best friend? I suppose, not really. Similarly, we cannot or should not test God. The entrance into the beauty of Jesus' teaching is through the gate of faith. The one act of believing in Jesus opens the door to the abundant love and life in His Kingdom. This unity of Christians in the Kingdom of God was what I encountered during Cursillo. I come from Poland, where most people, officially more than 90%, are Catholics, and attending masses on Sundays is very natural. I was exposed to lack of any religion during my studies in Denmark in Copenhagen. On the other hand, Cursillo was the time when different denominations met under the same roof and people from diverse religious backgrounds found a common ground. Our Saturday's meditations, the quieting, mystical experience of Taizé prayers were even more conducive to the ecumenical encounter. This was an excellent preparation for my 4th day, my PhD in the US at the University of Chicago. I live in Hyde Park, a district in the southern part of Chicago. We have as many denominations here as you can imagine. To name a few: Holy Trinity Church, Saint Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church, Augustana Luteran Church, First Unitarian Church of Chicago, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,  and so on. The knowledge about other denominations that I gained during Cursillo opened me more to the beauty of Christianity in its richness of endeavors to be closer to God. I found a leaflet about Taizé prayer in Hyde Park Union Church. I had no hesitation in going there and found fellowship and reflections on the Word of God that allowed me to see Jesus from a different perspective. 

I made many friends during the Cursillo weekend. For me, the the unity within group of people from different denominations that can learn from each other and support each other in was the main message home. Above all, this was time when my friendship with Jesus Christ was strengthened. A few months after Cursillo weekend, Tony took me to Taizé in France. There is a beautiful icon of friendship there. I received a replica of the icon from Tony and found a prayer on the back of the icon in many languages. We pray to God in so different ways, using various words and languages, we walk to Him from many paths of Christian denominations. We are all friends in faith.

"I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father." (John 15:15).