4th Day groups are a gathering of small groups of Cursillistas who meet regularly to share, connect and support each other as Christians. 4th Day groups form strong bonds, build trust, and foster a deeper union with Christ in our lives and hearts.
There are many existing 4th Day groups within the Marin Cursillo community. After you make Cursillo, a great way to join a 4th Day group is to start you own group with candidates or team members you may have met during your weekend, or with members of your church community,or other Cursillistas you may know. Also, your sponsor can help you find a 4th day group. You can view a list of existing 4th Day groups by clicking the“View 4th Day Groups” button and you are invited to contact any one of them as well.
The basic format of a 4th Day group is to start and end your meeting with prayer. Included in the meeting should also be a discussion of a spiritual reading or topic (the gospel for the upcoming Sunday is a common choice) and then share your thoughts on the subject and how it relates to our everyday lives. In addition, the element of social time and support for one another at your 4th Day meetings is essential. There are many possibilities of the 4th Day formats and each 4th day can choose what works best. Options might be meeting for breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee, house rotations, walks, book clubs, or whatever appeals to your group.
4th Day groups provide an amazing way to enhance our Christian lives, and they are also lots of fun! We encourage you to start one or join one. If you have questions or need advice on joining a 4th Day group, always feel free to contact your Rector or Rectora, or any team member or your sponsor. They would love to help! Contact Jean Nelson (Boccemom@gmail.com) or Info@MarinCursillo.com to share details (where, when, contact info).
We are all praying for you. Join us! De Colores!
4th Day Group Activities:
Fourth Wednesday Fourth Day
From the editor: We’ve asked this long-functioning 4th Day group to describe their format, programs, and outreach activities as an example of the variety of opportunities for fellowship, prayer, and outreach services that are available in our Marin County community.
Our fourth day group was formed in 2005, and many of our existing members were in the original group. We meet monthly on the fourth Wednesday, rotating among each others' houses and bringing a bag lunch. After so many years of monthly meetings, we truly cherish our time together. Pictured in the front row is Stacy Bischoff who we lost in 2022. We will always hold Stacy in our hearts.
Back Row: Tehani Mosconi, Joanne Spotswood, Linda Leach, Linda Bell, Mary DiSanto, Onnie Blackburn, Susan Fischer, Peggy Pugh
Front Row: Madeline Egan, Kathy Ferretti, Ruth Baney, Rita Moore, Stacy Bischoff (deceased), Janie Burtch, Jan Grimes
The format of our meeting begins with social visiting, brown bag lunches and then our program. Most recently we have discussed “The Breath of Soul” and “The Gift of Years,” both by Joan Chittister, but often we use other reflections. Over the years we have
discussed books that include Terri Roberts’ “Forgiven” and Rev. Christoper Martin’s “Restoration Project.”
Other activities, to mention just a few, have included the following:
Good Friday Services
Camino de Santiago Presentation (4th Day members Janie & Onnie) Santa Sabina Days of Prayer on Dominican’s campus
Nativity’s Crab Feeds & High Tea
Dan Schutte Concert
San Rafael Street Chaplaincy sponsored plays
Outreach projects have included:
Contributions to Central American Mission school supplies
Warm Wishes backpacks assembly
Ritter House warm socks and toiletries
Unhoused families of San Rafael
Bloom in San Rafael donations (new t-shirts and underwear)
Walk To End Alzheimer’s
Loaves & Fishes Food Bank
Marin/SF Food Bank
Nativity Crab Feed
Girl Scouts warm coats and
Community Action Marin rain gear collections
Marin Downtown Street Teams (997 pairs of socks)
Last, but by no means least, we continued to support our greater Cursillo Community with weekend meals, Palanca, Bocce, Halloween Parties (past years), Ultreya’s etc. We welcome hearing ideas from other Fourth Day groups.
4th Day Walkers Gathered on July 12th
“4th Day Walkers” began shortly after their 2015 Cursillo. Many of the original Cursillistas still attend an others have joined in.
After a walk at the Indian Valley Road trail, we met with the non-walkers at Dr. Insomniac’s, where we reflected on the scripture passage of the upcoming Sunday’s gospel, shared, and then directed our attention to the reading of our Prayer List. This is our ministry and it has evolved. Over the years our list has expanded to 85 requests counted recently. It is now in small type, single-spaced and into a third page. Although the need for prayers is extensive, we give praise and thanks to God for the wonders He works.
We have noted some major improvements – not to mention miracles!
There was a woman, severely debilitated by depression who is now on her own, painting, kayaking, and more. The person who asked for our prayers told us that the difference in her friend is “truly miraculous.” There was a woman diagnosed with advanced kidney cancer who is now cancer free! A young man with Hodgkin’s lymphoma is cancer free. Another woman’s brother received a diagnosis that offered him weeks, maybe a few months, to live. That was over a year ago!
Generally, 4th Day Walkers meet on the second Friday of the month to walk and/or gather at a coffee shop. On the fourth Friday of the month, we gather via zoom.
2024 Winter Ultreya Recap: The Marin Cursillo community's Ultreya on Friday, February 2, 2024 was a blessed gathering with approximately 80 attendees at St. John's Episcopal Church, Ross. Rev. Jim Ward gave the opening prayer and homily in the church to the theme of 'Lent: An opportunity to reflect on and grow God's love in our lives' which was the genesis for breakout groups to reflect on 'what will you add to enrich your Lenten experience?'. Two recent cursillistas, Teressa Di Parma and Sean Ticknor added to the evening with beautiful reflections on their experiences of God's unconditional love in their Cursillo weekends in 2023. The Ultreya was enriched with experienced musicians Teressa Di Parma and Bill Mullen, under the direction of Johann Anderson, leading favorite Cursillo songs. A meet and greet was followed in Haslett Hall with a sumptuous variety of potluck foods. The evening concluded with a rousing De Colores in a circle of love.
Three Cancer Survivors from the 4th Day Walkers participated in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life on Aug 6th at Hamilton School in Novato. Marin Cursillo’s Very Experienced Walkers are L to R: Jean Nelson, Marge Hiner, Cathy Timmer.
What’s the deal with the scarecrow? Part of this Relay’s theme—Wizard of Oz – and they “ran off to see the Wizard.” Pun. Pun. Fun.
4th Day Group Enriching Lives through Music
The 2nd Saturday Men’s 4th Day Group has been supporting various non-profits right along. Monthly, they select a non-profit to support. Last year they made a generous contribution to Enriching Lives Through Music. This local organization provided tutoring to Nicolas Lau – who has now been selected as a 2022 Ensemble Ambassador He is one of 16 youth worldwide in the cohort. Nicolas has blossomed into a beautiful violinist and has played across Europe with the Marin Youth Symphony. He graciously attributes his success to ELM. Marin Cursillo is making a difference in our community!
Loaves & Fishes
The Marin Cursillo project to support SF-Marin Food Bank distribution in South Novato continues. Through rain and cold, the process has changed somewhat to protect the food from the weather, but the warm welcoming, the willingness to assist, the grateful smiles, and the food supply have all increased. Consistently this winter, 200 families are being served each week – reaching 560-630 persons per week.
This distribution point operates at St. Anthony’s Church every Monday afternoon. Starting at 1:30, it’s a full afternoon of work packaging the food from the truck into “family portions”, stacking everything in the distribution area, and handing the food out. The second Monday of the month is staffed entirely by Cursillistas, but Cursillistas are welcome for any Monday. If you would like to participate, call/TEXT Tom Brawley at 415-302-0663 or send email to TheRooster@MarinCursillo.com with the subject “Loaves & Fishes”. Please provide phone number (cell for texting) and email address.
Alternatively, there are similar distribution points all over Marin County that are looking for volunteers. This could be a wonderful team effort for your 4th Day Group. We are indeed called to “To Love, To Serve, To Bring the Good News, to Act as the Body of Christ.” Visit SF-Marin Foodbank, Feeding America, or Respecting Our Elders for more information.
And we remember John Wallace’s advice from the October Ultreya, “Pick up the phone and call someone.”
Christmas Caroling Highlights
The 4th Day “Walkers” took up the challenge to bring Christmas Caroling greetings to some of our Marin neighbors. Not discouraged by the rain, they decided on the Food Bank distribution point at St. Anthony’s church in Novato. Cursillistas Tom Brawley and Bob Puett manage this “Loaves & Fishes” Food Bank outreach program. And when the weather channel called for rain all week, Tom & Bob came to the rescue by providing a tent!
The Loaves & Fishes team distributed to 160 families that rainy afternoon – some with children in the car. John Pugh greeted cars – giving drive thru instructions and metering the flow – as Santa Claus with treats for all the children. Jean Nelson led the songs for the 4th Day Walkers. When there were breaks in the action on the distribution side, more Cursillistas joined in. As the afternoon came to an end, Cursillistas Fleta Matthews and JoAnne Gernetzke blessed all the volunteers with hot apple cider and hot mulled wine.
Tom Brawley wrote: You were terrific yesterday! What a wonderful addition to the day. I can just imagine the response from some of the youngsters and the moms. I so appreciate your wanting to do that. With Santa and singing, there were lots of families that went home with smiles yesterday afternoon.
2023 Fall Ultreya
Even in the pouring rain, more than 75 people met at St. Anthony’s Hall on November 17th. The evening started with a warm welcome from Tom Brawley and Mary Furnanz and was accentuated with a grand buffet prepared by the Rejoice Always team. It was so great to see our community gathering in person once again.
Everyone went on to gather in the church for music and rollos* and �me for medita�on and singing. Our Secretariat Chairperson, Charlynn Baumsteiger, introduced Tehani Mosconi and Joe Suggs as our hosts.
As their first priority, Tehani welcomed Mary Furnanz as the Rectora for the 2024 Women’s Weekend. Joe introduced Mike Green as the Rector for the Men’s Weekend.
Music was provided by Libby Silvestri and Doug Harmon wrapped every one of these segments with song, grace, and prayer. It was exquisite.
A Picnic Ultreya! – our first in-person community gathering since early 2020. Charlynn Baumsteiger, our new Secretariat Chair, enthusiastically welcomed everyone and promised, “This is the year we will get things going!”
Fr. Tony Vallecillo, the new pastor of Our Lady of Loretto Church, called us to an opening prayer and, as a Cursillista himself, commented on how – like the miracle of the Loaves & Fishes - our Marin Cursillo community changes lives. With that, Fr. Harry Schlitt celebrated the lives of our Marin Cursillo community that have passed.
Charlynn introduced the rector and rectora for the upcoming 2023 weekends: Joe Suggs and Tehani Mosconi. They have been “on hold” for these past 2 years and we are all so grateful for their continued commitment. Both shared with us how they chose the theme for their weekends and introduced their songs.
Tehani’s theme is REJOICE ALWAYS from Thessalonians 5:16-18. The message to Tehani’s life and that she passes on to others is “No matter what life holds for us we must remember to stay positive and know that God always gives us exactly what we need.” Joe talked about his theme, A BRAND NEW DAY, accompanied by the song “Day by Day” from the play “Godspell” (written by Stephan Schwartz copyright @Arista Records, Inc. Released May 17, 1971). For more background on Tehani’s and Joe’s theme formation for their weekends, visit the Upcoming Weekends page.
Chris & Dona Carpinello played as we all sang a rousing Cursillo favorite, “De Colores.” And with that, we returned to just plain socializing.
Msgr. Harry Schlitt joined us and introduced his latest book, I’ll Never Know, that bursts with all the good humor for which Fr. Harry is renown. Younger Cursillistas may enjoy his first book, I’ll Never Tell, the Odessey of a Rock ‘n’ Roll Priest.
John Gulick and Heather Andrews joyfully announced that they were married on August 1st. Congratulations to such a great couple!
Many thanks to the Committee: Charlynn Baumsteiger (of course), Jean Nelson, Mary Fernanz, Bettye Kray, Cath Stanek, Joe Suggs, Gwen Mauvais, Tehani Mosconi, and Cathy Timmer.
