Sponsor Guidelines

Before you invite a candidate to apply for a Cursillo:

• Pray for guidance.
• Attend a parish sponsor's meeting with the priest to discuss your Fourth Day and the sponsor's responsibilities to candidates.
• Discuss the candidate with the priest before inviting your candidate to attend Cursillo.
• Be active in Group Reunion or a growth group, and Ultreya.
• Know your candidate well and consider yourself a close friend.
• Invite your candidate to group with you prior to the Cursillo weekend.
• Invite the candidate to an Ultreya.
• The candidate's priest must be a Cursillista.

Sponsor's Commitment:

• Explain to your candidate that Cursillo expects a Christian commitment.
• Explain the Fourth Day and its plan of continuing Christian fellowship and evangelism.
• Explain Group Reunion and Ultreya.  Invite the candidate to a Group Reunion and an Ultreya.
• Make sure that your candidate wants to attend Cursillo and is not doing this just as a favor to someone else.
• Make sure that you can transport your candidate to and from the weekend site and to the follow-up Ultreya.
• Support your candidate with prayer and sacrifice as part of your Palanca for the up-coming weekend(s), attend Sponsor's Hour, Candlelight, and the Clausura.
• Maintain contact with your candidate in the Fourth Day.
• Help your candidate find a permanent Group Reunion and encourage attendance at the Ultreyas.

Candidates

• Choose candidates who are baptized Christians and are members of the Episcopal Church.
• Choose people of a well-balanced personality who already are recognized for their natural ability and who appear to influence their environment.
• Choose people who give clear signs of drawing profit from the Cursillo method and of being faithful to the Fourth Day.
• Choose those primarily who are already active leaders in lay organizations, but also choose those who are less active who might become leaders, who are ready to Christianize their environments.
• Choose only those who seem to be living in grace already, or who are at least free of obstacles to the reception of the Sacraments.
• A candidate should have the ability and desire to live in and for a community.
• A candidate should understand that Cursillo is a way of Christian living, not just a weekend.
• A candidate should have no apparent or obvious emotional problems.
• A candidate may be single, married, divorced, or widowed.  If married, the husband and wife's applications should be submitted at the same time. (If this is not possible, contact the Lay Director).  If a co-ed weekend is offered, a married couple should attend together.

Procedures:

1. Give the applicant:
• Instructions to applicant
• What is Cursillo
• Candidate Application
2. Give the candidate's priest the Parish Priest's Recommendation.
3. Answer all direct questions about Cursillo.
4. Help candidates complete application forms.  All blanks must be filled in.
5. Collect the completed application and the fee.
6. Fill out the Sponsor's Sheet completely.
7. Report to the appropriate person the candidate's needs, such as special diet, allergies, medication, or physical handicap.
8. Give the candidate's application, the sponsor's sheet, and the check to the candidate's parish priest.  The priest will mail these with a confidential recommendation to the Lay Director, whose address is on the Parish Priest's Recommendation application form.
9. The candidate will not be considered unless all paper work is in order and the fee for the weekend is paid in full.