Weekend at Christ's

Well I just returned from a weekend spent with God and Jesus. The Catholic church sponsors a retreat known as Cursillo. It was one of the most powerful things I've ever done in my life. My friend and mentor Carlos Barrios has encouraged me to go for over a year now and I finally see what all the fuss was all about.

I spent the weekend in San Angelo, Texas at the Christ the King Retreat Center. It is a beautiful little out of the way place on the Concho River just on the outskirts of town. I know not everyone who reads this is Catholic and may question it, but I plan to address all that in some future posts, but for right now take off your denominational hat and put your Christian hat on and stick with me.

The Cursillo was started in the 1940's in Spain by a man named Eduardo Bonnín Aguiló, after they suffered through their great civil war and the church was looking for ways to bring people back into the fold. From Spain it spread all over the world and has taken it's current form. It is offered for men and another for women. In this area they are offered in Spanish and English and many other languages around the world.

The Cursillo focuses on being in God's presence, reconciling with him, focusing on our strengths, improving our weaknesses and learning how to take the Gospel to all the people of the world. It also focuses on support groups to make sure we don't succumb to our old demons and not to get frustrated when we try to share the Gospel with a world that sometimes doesn't care.

Two topics really struck me over the weekend. One, to be a great leader you must first be a great servant. The sponsors of this event showed that by treating us like royalty all weekend. Everything from taking our bags at check-in to serving us food to taking away our dishes. They reminded us how Christ washed the feet of his own disciples. Second, they discussed what they called the tripod. Piety, study and action were the three essential things in being a Christian and showing it to others. Piety- we must live our lives in a way that is pleasing to God and not doing it just for show, but living that way because we want to. Study- we have to learn God's word. We have to know the Bible and be ready to defend our faith and have answers for the hard questions that will come. Action-we can't just talk a good game, we have to put it into action. We were given a quote from St. Vincent De Paul "It is not enough to love God if my neighbour does not love Him." Those two things really stuck with me this weekend.

For those of you that know me I don't want you to think that I've become some kind of Holy Roller that has lost his mind. I am still me. I was trying to live a good Christian life before I went to the Cursillo. Now I have come back with a better set of tools to work with to be a better father, husband, neighbor, co-worker, friend and patriot. I can only imagine where this will take me from here. If you want to know more about the Cursillo or just getting to know the Lord a little better I would be happy to help out any way I can. I'll talk to you all next week and I'll leave you with the official greeting of the Cursillistas, DE COLORES!

P.S. If you haven't ever clicked on my "Live Forever" video by Billy Joe Shaver you should really check it out. It's powerful!

God and Texas,

Jason Watson