By Amy White
The Texas Catholic
After the Cursillo Center of Dallas opened its doors about 60 years ago, a question soon arose within the community: Could the transformative spiritual formation that the center offered to individual retreatants be brought into the home — that is, into the family — too? This year marks the 50th anniversary of the center’s resounding answer: the Jornada Familiar and Jornada Juvenil retreats.
Originating in Spain, Cursillo is a movement within the Church that seeks to bring Catholics to Christ through the medium of friendship, according to Fray Luis Arraiza, OFM Cap., spiritual director at the Cursillo Center of Dallas.
“You make friends and you bring those friends to Jesus,” the friar said, “and with those friends, you create a small community.”
These communities of friendship first form during weekend retreats. The center offers three kinds of weekend retreats: the Cursillo retreat, for individuals seeking to grow spiritually; the Jornada Familar retreat, for couples desiring to grow in their love of both God and each other; and the Jornada Juvenil retreat, for young adults looking to live out their faith among peers. Each retreat offers participants formation in fundamental matters of faith, Fray Arraiza shared, noting that the name of the movement itself, “Cursillo,” which means “brief course,” alludes to this focus.
“A little course in what is essential in being a Catholic,” he said, “that’s a Cursillo weekend.”
In the 50 years since the couple and young adult retreats began, the Cursillo Center of Dallas has hosted more than 200 Jornada Juvenil retreats and more than 300 Jornada Familiar retreats, the friar added.
Following the initial retreat experience, “Cursillistas” — those who have lived out their Cursillo weekend — are invited to carry on their formation among friends through weekly meetings. In those gatherings, participants continue to walk alongside each other in faith, offering mutual encouragement while also receiving ongoing education.
“In the case of the couples, we try to let people know about the nature of the sacramental life of marriage, and we talk about different topics: from intimacy in matrimony, how to deal with children, to finances,” Fray Arraiza said. “With the youth, it’s topics that have to do with self-esteem, have to do with drugs, addictions, have to do with their relationship with their family, have to do with: Who is Jesus Christ?”
Some Cursillistas have been going to these meetings for months, some for years, and some for decades, according to Cursillo Center volunteer Alex Perez, who is herself a longtime member of the community.
It was 25 years ago, Perez said, when she and her then-fiancé, Tony, arrived at the Cursillo Center of Dallas for the first time to attend a Jornada Familar weekend retreat. Inspired by the witness of the Catholic couples she encountered there, Perez discovered that a happy, holy marriage is possible — through the grace of God, the support of friends, and the formation offered at the Cursillo Center. This year, the Perezes mark the silver anniversary of both their marriage and their involvement in the Cursillo community.
“Sometimes people ask, ‘Why do you continue doing this?’ or ‘Why so long?’” said Perez, who along with her husband serves as co-coordinator of Jornada Familiar. “There is no reason to stop knowing God or to stop growing in our marriage or continue working to be happy to each other, to love each other, because that’s what we’ve been learning in there.”
In her years with the Cursillo Center, Perez has seen numerous instances of deep spiritual nourishment that mirror her own experience of the movement — including many “miracles in marriages” that were previously faltering.
“There have been couples that have been having issues in their marriage … The weekend transforms their life,” the volunteer said. “Now they can have a happy marriage, because they’ve been willing to know God and let God change their life.”
The young adults who take part in the Jornada Juvenil formation are also often transformed by the experience, which allows them to form both a likeminded community and a personal relationship with God from an early age.
“The friendship element, I think that helps create a deeper bond,” Fray Arraiza reflected. “When you do know the other person and when the other person has shared their life with you, I think that it’s a deeper sense of relationship.”
Although the Cursillo Center campus itself is simple — a chapel, meeting room, kitchen, cafeteria, and dorms — the fruits of formation that have grown there are profound, Perez said; and as the community looks back on “this beautiful 50 years of changing lives” through the Jornada Familiar and Jornada Juvenil retreats, it also looks toward a future filled with more graces to come.
“It’s changing lives and families one by one,” Perez said. “I hope that there will be more than 50 years ahead of us!”
Cutline for featured image: A woman and man process with the offertory gifts during the celebration of a Mass marking the 50th anniversary of the Jornada Familiar and Jornada Juvenil retreats at the Cursillo Center of Dallas, which was celebrated by Fray Luis Arraiza, OFM Cap., on June 6. (MARÍA OLIVAS/Special Contributor)
