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Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in us the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit,
and we shall be created.
 And You shall renew the face of the earth.

Let us pray. O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, instructs the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
In this Newsletter
~ Note from the Lay and Spiritual Directors ~
~ VIRTUAL Ultreya this Friday - Register below ~


A Note from the Lay Directors...
Sue and Tom LaMondia
RESOLUTIONS

At the start of every New Year, there is always talk about Resolutions! I heard a sermon that challenged me to think about those things in our lives that might be in need of “resolving,” a twist on the root word of resolution. Most New Year’s resolutions have to do with the “resolve” it takes to make changes; the resolve to eat better or exercise more. Those are worthy intentions, but resolving has more to do with our “inside work” rather than the “outside work”. I can be a bit of a “word nerd,” so I dug a little deeper. The word resolution comes from the Latin resolutio defined as “the process of reducing things into simpler forms.” That definition hit me in a profound way. 

The past two years have been so incredibly challenging for all of us in so, so, many ways. We are all trying to have the “resolve” to keep hope for better days. The answer to doing that just might lie in that definition. What if we reduce it all to remembering the fact that we are simply God’s beloved and that beyond that nothing really matters.  

So here is my New Year’s Resolution and challenge to each of you: when we open our eyes to begin each day, remind yourself that you are God’s beloved…and that is enough for this day.

DeColores!
A Note from the Spiritual Director...
Deacon Wendell Pennell

Happy New Year and may 2022 be a Blessed Year!
 
Have you checkout the book Life is Messy? We gave it out at Christmas this year at Blessed Sacrament and ran out of books.
 
Mathew Kelly, the author, likes to pose questions. He says, “To learn things in life it’s not about having all the answers, it’s about discovering the big questions!”
 
Life is Messy proposes one of those big questions:
“Can something that has been broken be put back together in a way that makes it more beautiful than ever before?”
 
The author explains a Japanese artform called Kintsugi, a form of ceramics, as an example to answer the question. In this art form if a vase or other item is broken the owner does not just throw it away. Rather you gather all the broken pieces and bring them to a Kintsugi artist. The artist takes all the broken pieces and glues them back together with great patience and intention. The brokenness is not disguised or covered up.
 
The artist will actually accentuate the brokenness by carefully mixing golden flecks within the glue highlighting all the cracks as it is carefully put back together. The gold in the glue accentuates the brokenness and the owner of the object celebrates the imperfections. The item become more cherished for being broken.
 
Jesus is the golden glue that will accentuate our brokenness and glue us back together by healing our brokenness and making us whole. Jesus is calling us to be healed by his presence in the world and not shamed by our brokenness or our scars. He wants us to celebrate that we were once broken but are now healed. We are more beautiful for being broken and then healed by God’s merciful touch. God’s grace in our life is just like the golden glue in the art of Kintsugi. God’s plan is for each and every one of us to enter into a beautiful relationship with him and allow His precise grace to accentuate our healing. God’s love shows brightly through our beautiful cracks when we love and share our journey with others we encounter.
 
Let the golden love show in your life as you work with God to draw those who need healing into a new relationship with each other and with God.
 
Enjoy the Journey. De Colores!

January Ultreya
is VIRTUAL this Friday
Due to the Covid numbers our January Ultreya will be via Zoom. Please join us. You can see everyone’s smiling faces! Please read the email blasts monthly to see if we are Zoom or in person.

This month promises to be spirit filled!

Please join us this
Friday, January 21 - 7pm via ZOOM

You must register in advance:

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing
information about joining the meeting.
KEEP THAT EMAIL
IT IS YOUR LINK TO LOG INTO THIS FRIDAY'S ULTREYA
Any questions contact Megan at mjohnson390@gmail.com
Ready for some ACTION?
How about joining one of the Cursillo Committees? There are three different committees to join, Pre-Cursillo, Cursillo, and Post Cursillo, and all three are looking for new volunteers to join in and help our movement grow.

For more information on any of the committees contact:
Pre-Cursillo – precursillowma@gmail.com
Post Cursillo – sfmalloy61@gmail.com
Memorial Contributions & Donations

Donations can be made at any time.
Make checks out and send to
Cursillo Western Mass
PO Box 1207, Holyoke MA 01041-1207
The Cursillo Committee PO Box 1207, Holyoke, MA 01041-1207 
Spiritual Director: Deacon Wendell Pennell 
Co-Lay Directors:
Sue LaMondia slamondia@gmail.com
Tom LaMondia tomlamondia@gmail.com