Little Flower Parish at 204 1st St. N.W., Browning, MT 59417 US - We are a Cursillo Parish

In 1979 some of our people visited a neighboring parish to experience the CURSILLO. This is an international Catholic movement meant to renew the Catholic Church through teaching about the faith and the power of the Holy Spirit. They liked what they experienced and brought it home. Today we have over 2500 people on this reservation who have made their Cursillo. This experience has formed all our leadership in the parish and much of the community at large. More than that, the Blackfeet Catholics have taken the Cursillo to nearly all the Native American tribes in the western third of North America. Over the years we have had huge teams of our people invited to go and put on a Cursillo for other Native American Catholic communities. This is a great source of joy for us. Besides all this, our people instructed by the Cursillo experience, in 1985 developed the PILGRIMAGE movement. This movement, built around the Sacraments of the Church and the Twelve Step movement, effectively works against drugs and alcohol on our reservation. This three-day weekend experience names Jesus as our higher power and asks Him to heal us, using the Sacraments of Healing, and to feed us and strengthen us with His Body and Blood. There is much sharing about alcohol/drugs and what it has done to us. Also there is much witnessing about Jesus and what He can do for us. These are great spiritual events. Easily over 1500 people have made a Pilgrimage on our Reservation. More over, our people then, again, took The Pilgrimage to many of the tribes of the western third of North America. We are humbled that the Lord has chosen to use this movement for so many people in so many different places. Our people love the Cursillo. Many voiced a desire to develop a way in which we could go through it again. In 1992 our Cursillo Core Group began to design a three-day weekend, which would cause a deeper experience of the Catholic faith. By 1993 we had in place the prototype of what is today for us THE SECOND STEP CURSILLO. We call it THE STEP TWO CURSILLO. All the talks are theological talks and must be researched, using Catholic material dated after the Second Vatican Council. These talks should be written out and submitted to the spiritual director for approval. These talks theologically root the Cursillo person in the Body of Christ. The high point of the Step Two Cursillo is when we ask the Holy Spirit to empower us to be worthy members of the Body of Christ in the Church. The goal is to do well what Cursillo people call the Fourth Day. This experience for us has become as good as our first Cursillo. We have about 500 people who have made the Step Two Cursillo. In May 2001 we heard that the Helena Diocese Cursillo Core Group is also looking for some follow up experience. They are sending members to our November Step Two Cursillo. This is an exciting prospect to us.

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