PHOTO COURTESY OF CURSILLO

ATLANTA—When you attend Sunday Mass and look at your fellow parishioners, you might not know that many of them attended a Cursillo weekend. Whether it’s your usher, the woman who sits in your pew or even the priest, many have journeyed down the path of the Cursillo movement and gone on to impact their community from it.  

Cursillo, meaning “short course” in Spanish, is a three-day spiritual experience that offers a deep dive into personal reflection and the Catholic faith. Dating back to Spain in the 1940’s, Cursillo is intended to help attendees develop a stronger connection to God and understand their evangelical purpose.  

The weekend workshop came to Atlanta in 1965, and since then hundreds of parishioners in the Archdiocese of Atlanta have attended Cursillo. Many have found the experience to be profoundly impactful, sensational and necessary in their faith journey.  

What is Cursillo?  

According to the Atlanta Archdiocese Cursillo website, the weekend is “more a workshop than a retreat. It is an opportunity to learn, grow and share in eucharistic prayer, adoration and personal reflection within the context of a Christian community.”  

The format of the weekend is structured around three days of small group discussions, self-reflection, prayer and learning. In Atlanta, there is a women’s weekend, March 20-23, and a men’s weekend, March 27-30. Mass is celebrated each day.  

Globally, Cursillo takes place in a serene environment, allowing candidates to be away from life’s distractions and connect deeply with their spirituality. The upcoming Atlanta Cursillo weekends will be held at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers. Both weekends start Thursday at 7 p.m., and conclude Sunday at 5 p.m.  

During the weekend, a team of religious and laypeople will present a series of talks to roughly 25 candidates. Candidates are first time attendees of the Cursillo weekend and often referred to as “cursillistas” after their weekend. The volunteers who facilitate the weekend are previous candidates who attended a weekend in years past.  

A person can only attend the weekend once in their life and must need a nomination from a sponsor to go. A sponsor is a cursillista who believes a particular person would benefit from the workshop.  

The talks are centered around the principles of the Cursillo movement, including themes of prayer, study and apostolic action. Anthony Nettuno, lay director of the Atlanta Cursillo, said the discussions and weekend overall is designed to provide candidates with certain tools to become spiritual leaders.  

“The weekend is about forming disciples so that they can go out and have an impact on their communities and environments,” Nettuno shared. “The weekend gives you the tools to do that and gives you a Christian community to help support you in that mission.”   

Walking friends to Christ 

Candidates who attend Cursillo not only leave with a deeper relationship with their spirituality, but also with new meaningful friendships. An important part of Cursillo is the group of laypeople one meets and grows close with.  

The Cursillo method is a big proponent of small group meetings after the weekend, so that one can continue discussing what they learned with a supportive group. Most groups meet at quiet restaurants, cafés and other peaceful locations. Each member updates everyone on their studies, prayers and what apostolic action they have undertaken since their last meeting. 

“It’s very much about community,” Nettuno shared. “The whole point of the weekend is to be a Christian community and find that support system.”  

Nettuno and his wife, Kimi, made their Cursillo weekend almost 10 years ago, and since then have both been active in joining the weekends as volunteers and team leaders. Along the way, the couple formed lasting friendships with other cursillistas.  

“My wife and I have built really beautiful friendships with people all over the archdiocese through Cursillo that we would have never met in a billion years,” Nettuno said.  

Kimi shared that she “gives complete kudos to Cursillo for the person that I am today,” because of the continued support and relationships the movement gave her.  

Nettuno’s Cursillo group meets every Friday in Alpharetta, and including himself consists of eight members. On Friday Jan. 17, the group met at Vintage Pizza in Milton and over a shared meal of large pizzas, they listened to each other’s moments from the holidays. 

Laughter and jokes ensued among the close friends, but the group listened attentively when it came to sharing news about their life and studies.  

Topics ranged from family trips to deep prayer study life, but one subject the cursillistas discussed was how Cursillo impacts encounters in daily life. The group called these their “closest moments to Christ” and shared their stories with everyone.  

Dennis Joseph, a parishioner of St. Thomas Aquinas Church and cursillista since 2023, shared stories of his trip to India with his parents. Pete Klovanish, parishioner of St. Michael the Archangel Church and part of the Cursillo movement since 2017, expressed memories from Christmas with his great-granddaughter. Steve Shean, parishioner of St. Thomas Aquinas Church and cursillista since 2017, shared lessons learned from his Bible study sessions.  

Glen Soafer was sponsored by Nettuno to attend the weekend. Cursillo was always something he was never sure of because of his busy schedule. Before Cursillo, work “ran my life,” he said.  

After years of being asked to go by sponsors, Soafer hesitantly said yes and went on his Cursillo weekend in 2023. Admittedly, he thought the weekend would be a small retreat. But after his encounter, he had changed his outlook entirely.  

“It blew my mind,” Soafer said. “The whole weekend lights you on fire. What I’ve learned through my studies is that we were created to seek. Cursillo sets you on that path to seek and get you where you need to be.” 

Fausto Zamorano, cursillista since 2017 and St. Thomas Aquinas parishioner, said he cherishes the impact the group had on his life.  

“Through Cursillo I learned how important it is to have these men in my life,” Zamorano said. “I know that I’m not doing this alone and I have that accountability (when it comes to continuing the movement.)”  

A motto of the Cursillo movement is, “make a friend, be a friend and walk with that friend to Christ,” Nettuno shared. Having friends walk with you on your spiritual journey is what makes the movement so inspiring, he expressed.  

A kickstart to the faith  

Penny Simmons, co-director of formation for the Office of the Permanent Diaconate and parishioner of St. James the Apostle Church in McDonough, made her Cursillo weekend in 1993. For the past 32 years, she has been involved in the movement and guiding others to make their own weekend.  

“The weekend is like a kickstart to your faith,” Simmons said. “This encounter that we have with Christ on the weekend is meant to make us go into the world and evangelize with our family, church groups, work or wherever we encounter people, so that we can carry Christ to them.”  

Simmons’ small group typically includes four other members, and they share updates of their prayer and study, and news from their daily life. Stella Ejikeme of St. James the Apostle Church joined the Cursillo movement in 2023, and shared that it had a heartfelt effect on her life. 

“I was told to just be free and allow the weekend to just happen, and to not try to imagine what would happen next,” Ejikeme said. “By Sunday, I realized that this was practical living. It’s not just about knowing Christ. It’s about living spiritually in a practical way.”  

Penny Simmons, left, prays with her small group at their weekly meeting. A sense of community is one of the many impacts that Cursillo has on its attendees.

As part of Simmons’ group, Ejikeme found that Cursillo helped her gain a sense of belonging.  

“You never feel alone, and we’re all able to come together and talk about what’s going on in our lives,” Ejikeme said. “We’ve been able to draw strength from one another.”  

An important part of the Cursillo method is to not spoil too much about the weekend, Ejikeme said, so that one’s mind is clear and open.  

“There are unique things about Cursillo that a person is better left alone to experience by themselves without someone telling them about it before,” she said. “It’s like watching a movie, you don’t want someone to spoil it for you. But you just have to trust that it’s worth the wait.”  

Ejikeme tells her candidates to come into the weekend with an open mind, and to “be ready to flow where the Holy Spirit wants you to flow.”  

Simmons always advises her candidates to, “be a clean sheet of paper that Christ can write on.” To Simmons, the weekend is not something to simply understand through word of mouth, “it must be experienced, and then you will find that in your own community or group, Christ is there.”  

Cursillo is about the days one lives after the weekend, Simmons said, because what someone does after with their spiritual tools is what the movement is all about.  

The Fourth Day 

Bishop Bernard E. Shlesinger made his Cursillo weekend in 1985 as an Air Force pilot. The experience moved him to connect deeply with his faith and had a strong impact on his discernment.  

Bishop Bernard E. Shlesinger III smiles during a conversation during a recent legislative advocacy day. Bishop Shlesinger credits Cursillo with helping him move beyond being a “private Catholic” to being able to share faith with others. Photo by Julianna Leopold

The Cursillo movement emphasizes continuing what you learned on the weekend through what cursillistas call the “Fourth Day.” The Fourth Day symbolizes everything a cursillista does after their weekend, and how they will take what they have learned and transform communities with it. Small group reunions and prayer study are part of the Fourth Day notion.  

Through his Fourth Day, Bishop Shlesinger met weekly with his group. In his reunions, he often thought to himself, “If I’m going to follow Christ, how can I get to know him better?”  

“[The Fourth Day] helped me move beyond being a private Catholic where I held on interiorly to my faith, to asking myself how I could share my faith with other people,” Bishop Shlesinger said. “It all helped me listen to the voice of God and be able to say that maybe I should be a priest.”  

Bishop Shlesinger is a spiritual director for the weekends and attends monthly gatherings. For Bishop Shlesinger, Cursillo “keeps us grounded in how we’re moving in our relationship with Christ and how we come to know him better and how we can share him.”  

Cursillo is more than a retreat, Nettuno said, and is the first step of the Catholic mission in evangelizing and sharing the faith.  

“The weekend is not Cursillo,” Nettuno said. “The weekend is just the beginning of your Cursillo experience, and the movement is an ongoing thing.”