From the Rector…
Fourth and First
De Colores!
“Fourth and First” is where the Fourth Day of your Cursillo journey meets the first day of grace. As St. Benedict says, “Always we begin again.” What a beautiful truth—that each day offers a fresh start as we renew our Fourth Day and step into the first day of the rest of our lives.
The Fourth Day is the life pilgrims live after their three-day Cursillo retreat. It’s the ongoing rhythm of spiritual renewal that both refreshes and challenges Cursillistas. Through group reunion and Ultreya, we begin to see the world through grace—discovering a depth and wellspring of life we may not have known before.
If you’ve been to Cursillo, think back to when you were a pilgrim. Remember that spiritual high you felt in the weeks after? Maybe you left notes on co-workers’ desks to remind them they were loved or brought M&Ms to every potluck (at Cursillo they are calorie-free!). You couldn’t wait to share your Cursillo experience—with those who understood it and those you hoped would. But then, slowly, that feeling faded. After a few months, it felt like a memory you couldn’t quite hold onto.
Living the Fourth Day isn’t about reliving the retreat. It’s about living into grace. C. S. Lewis wrote, “I believe in Christ like I believe in the sun—not only because I can see it, but because by it I see everything else.” Cursillo helps us see everything by the light of grace.
Grace is the unmerited favor and love of God. It’s what awaits us each morning—whether we leap out of bed or struggle to untangle ourselves from the covers. It gives us the chance to begin again. It allows us to shine the light of Christ into the dark places of this world.
Robert Fulghum tells a story about asking a profound question at a Greek Orthodox monastery in Crete. On the final day of a seminar, he asked teacher Alexander Papaderos, “What is the meaning of life?” Papaderos, shaped by his childhood under Nazi occupation, answered with a story. As a boy, he found a broken motorcycle mirror and polished it into a circle. He played a game of reflecting light into dark places that the sun’s rays could not reach. Eventually, this became his life’s metaphor: “I am not the source of light. But light… will only shine in many dark places if I reflect it.”
That, I believe, is the heart of “Fourth and First.” As Christians, we are called to reflect grace into the world. And because grace begins anew each day, we never need to give up. We need only begin again. Those who have been to Cursillo share in that reminder through Reunion Groups and Ultreya as they live out their fourth day.
We would love you to be part of our Fourth and First journey. If you are interested in attending a three-day spiritual renewal retreat at Camp McDowell called Cursillo, contact Sharon Massey, Steve Frazer, or Janan hayden (our Parish Lay Rectors)—or reach out to the church. For those Cursillistas who would like to reconnect with their Cursillo journey, join us for the Rector’s Open Reunion Group on Wednesdays at 4:30 or contact our PLRs or the church.