It was 1983. I was a brand-new Christian. Born again in 1982. At my new job at Viewdata Corporation of America, one of my coworkers told me about a movement called Cursillo. She said it was a Christian retreat, or something like that, that had originated in Spain. She told me that a new Cursillo was going to take place through a Lutheran church. However, it was interdenominational. Meaning that all denominations like Catholics, Presbyterian, Methodist were welcome. She asked me if I was interested.

I was. She sponsored me to do the 3 days retreat with a Lutheran church that was doing a Cursillo by the name of Sonshine Via del Cristo.

The Cursillo took place at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in North Miami, Florida. 1983. We were a large group of women.

The first thing I remember was learning this prayer:

“Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, instruct 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.”

We also learned the song De Colores. I understood that in the Cursillo movement, being “in colors” is to be in God’s grace. For that reason, Cursillo participants (cursillistas) greet each other with the phrase “De Colores” (in Colors).

Later I learned that De Colores was a song that the peregrinos or pilgrims sang De Colores on their road to Santiago de Compostella as they walked along the countryside observing God’s creation. The Camino de Santiago, or the Way of St. James, is a network of pilgrimage routes leading to the shrine of the apostle James in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. It has been a significant pilgrimage since the ninth century.

The Cursillo weekend was three days, beginning on Thursday evening and ending the following Sunday afternoon. We were in a spacious room with round tables covered with envelopes of assorted colors. They told us that that was Palanca, or encouragement, in Spanish. Meaning letters or cards that ex Cursillistas had sent to each one of us. At first, I smiled inside, thinking “what a childish thing, so American.” However, they were very necessary to me because at that time I still had all kinds of apprehensions about fitting in with these big kinds of events. My accent in English is hard to understand and I must repeat my words several times for somebody else to make sense of what I am saying. Also, since I had studied at the University of Texas, I had learned that anybody coming from a Latin American country was automatically grouped as “Mexicans” and, therefore, I was “brown.” I never heard of that race in Chile. In Chile I had only studied Caucasian (White), Negroid (Black), Mongoloid (Yellow) and Indigenous American (Red). My Belgium grandfather called people from India and Pakistan, Olivatre or Olive color.

During the three days, we worshiped, studied, and talked together daily. We heard many presentations or talks. They were given some by lay people and others by pastors. After each talk, we had round table discussions focused on the main points of the talk. Some of the titles of the talks were: Grace, Laity, Faith, Piety, Study, Sacraments, Christian Life, and others. During the breaks between talks and discussion we were served tea or refreshments or food by the “chachas” which are people who have done the Cursillo before and now were participating as “servants” of Christ helping us. We were very pampered, and I felt uneasy about that.

Throughout the weekend there was plenty of music. In fact, none of the presentations but a new song was what really started a transformation in me during this weekend. It was a song that had a stanza with these words:
We were once far off
We have now been brought near
No longer strangers
No longer aliens
Now we are citizens
With the saints
In the Kingdom of God

The night after I heard that song, I felt very brittle and confused. What was this reaction? I knew something was happening inside me that I had not understood before. It was something in my guts, not my brain. I was not a stranger anymore! In the eyes of God, I now belonged to His Kingdom not to the distorted, cruel world where I had been raised and formed even by nuns. Wow!

I do not remember at what point in the weekend this song was sung but I faced the rest of the singing, fellowship, and even meals at the Cursillo feeling different. This time I was not in defensive mode about being me. I was not a stranger anymore. I smiled inside; c’est si bon!

The Palancas we received every day in the morning and even after every break throughout the day were a powerful help. What at the beginning seemed a bit ridiculous about this all weekend full of colorful cards, cupcakes, mint candy and smiles, was starting to make sense inside.

The last day of the Cursillo we were told that now we were ready to continue in our “fourth day” forever. Meaning to continue our spiritual journey and engage with our communities. That would be living the “fourth day.”

That night after the Cursillo fourth day I woke up in the middle of the night knowing somebody was in my room. I was living at that time on a two floors two bedrooms townhouse. My bedroom on the second floor had a slanted ceiling with beams. I looked up. Right there, next to the fan I installed on one of the beams, was Jesus. It was Him! I knew inside of me that that hovering figure that looked a little bit bent toward me was Him. It was Him! The only thing He said, in the sweetest masculine voice, was: “I am your way and your life” and then He faded away. Promptly, with my heart full of gratitude, I fell asleep again knowing something had definitely changed for good, forever.

At the fourth day we were also told about future participation in the Ultreyas. These are gatherings where Cursillistas come together to share their faith experiences and support one another. The idea is strengthening our Christian community. The term “Ultreya,” means “onward.”

Of course, I participated in Ultreyas after my Cursillo. However, something inside me still felt empty.

Then, in 1985, when I had just started working for United Bible Societies, I received a letter asking me if I wanted to participate serving at a coming Cursillo or, as an alternative, to participate in a Kairos weekend at a prison in Florida. I felt my heart jump. What a wonderful thought! Bring Christ to people who have done something against the human law and needed Christ’s redemption inside.

Officially, the Kairos Prison Ministry is a “Christian faith-based ministry that addresses the spiritual needs of incarcerated men, women, youth, and their families.” By sharing the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ, Kairos changes hearts, transforms lives and impacts the world. The Kairos Inside program brings leaders together, in both male and female institutions, for a three and a half day weekend led by same gender Kairos volunteers.

The weekend is based on: A series of talks, discussions, chapel meditations, and creating a Christian community. For many participants, the Kairos Weekend creates the desire to become a Christian, and for others the desire to continue his/her spiritual growth.”

See Kairos website at: https://kairosprisonministry.org/

I obtained the following information mainly from this website.

“In a study of 505 inmates released from Florida prisons, the recidivism rate was 15.7% among those who had participated in one Kairos session, and 10% among those who had participated in two or more Kairos continuing ministry sessions. The non-Kairos control group in the study had a recidivism rate of 23.4%. Reduction in recidivism rates result in reducing the cost to society of further imprisonment (approximately $30,000 per year per prisoner).

Kairos sprang from the Cursillo movement, created in Spain in 1948 (Cursillo means “short course” in Spanish). It is supported by volunteers from 4th Day movements such as Cursillo, National Episcopal Cursillo, Presbyterian Cursillo, Lutheran Via de Cristo, The Upper Room’s Walk to Emmaus, and independent ecumenical Tres Dias, as well as by volunteers from independent and non-denominational Christian churches. As a ministry, Kairos embraces a diverse group of Christian volunteers working together to fulfill Christ’s call to action in Matthew 25:36 (“…I was in prison, and you came to visited me.”)

The first three-day “Short Course in Christianity” in the U.S., called “Cursillo in Prison,” was held at Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, Florida in the fall of 1976. By 1978 six additional states were presenting “Cursillo in Prison” programs. The National Cursillo Center in Dallas surveyed these separate prison Cursillos and determined they should be ecumenical, supervised by a central authority, to better serve inmates’ needs.

At the request of Cursillo, in 1979 our founders (today affectionately referred to as the “Nine Old Men”), developed a prison-appropriate version of the Cursillo program. They adopted the name “Kairos,” and the ministry became an independent, nonprofit, ecumenical Christian organization based in Florida. “Kairos” is a New Testament Greek term that means “God’s Special Time,” or “in the fullness of time.” The original Kairos program is now Kairos Inside. Following that first Kairos weekend in 1979, the Cursillo office directed other “Cursillo in Prison” programs to join Kairos and to stop using the Cursillo name.”
(“Kairos Prison Ministry International | Bringing Hope and Healing to Incarcerated Individuals” 2023)

When I decided to continue my “fourth Day” at Kairos and not Cursillo it was not easy. I had to undergo a background check, as I was going to be working in correctional facilities. I had just received my citizenship in 1985 so I did not know how my background check would go. I met with the Director of the Cursillo I was going to attend, Shirley Hartley, and I told her my concern. She said: “Let’s pray together.” She informed me that in fact the group would need me because many convicts are Spanish speaking, and I could be a big help.

Shirley Hartley passed away on October 30, 2011. She was a Cursillo Rector in The Panama Canal Zone. She was a volunteer at Broward’s Correctional Institution, a Women’s Prison. She had a strong bond with the Kairos prison ministry for over ten years. She was in the Secretariat or Board of Directors of Kairos and Chairperson during 1986 and 1987.

It took some time, but I was approved by the authorities to go inside a high security Prison, the Broward Correctional Institution. This was the first prison I went to with Kairos. It was closed in 2012. That institution housed female inmates who were there for life and those on death row.

To participate in a Kairos weekend, I was going to need a minimum of 32 to 36 hours of training. I was going to meet with my team twice a week for four weeks before the weekend event. This time was essential to learn all the rules of the prison and build a spiritual bond between the team members. It needed to be an effective ministry.

My first meeting started with our Director or “Rectora” in Spanish, asking us questions so we could know each other better. We had to open our background to all the volunteers so we could work well together. Those hours of preparation were strong in disciplinary formation. We became a close team. Our preparation also included spiritual submission and commitment to listening and keeping silent when the inmates will confide in us. We could not counsel them or give them our own opinion about anything they would tell us. We were committed not to repeat to anybody what any inmate would tell us, with some very few exceptions, of course. During the last meeting, our Rectora washed our feet. It was a very deep experience for all of us.

When the weekend came, we took the thousands of Palancas with us, cookies that could not contain any ingredient that could ferment or convert to alcohol, serving utensils excluding knives, even plastic knives, in general, food that would be eaten on the spot because inmates were not allowed to keep anything except the cards of encouragement. We could not take our purses, phones, cameras, or literature not approved by the prison.

We set the tables, prepared an area of the room we were given as a “kitchen” where we could keep and serve the food and brew tea and coffee, our Palanca neatly organized for each break, and all the posters, placemats, and cookie bags that we called “Agape,” the Greek word for the unconditional love of Christ. It was a material manifestation of His love.

The day started with introducing ourselves to the inmates, taking them to their corresponding tables, introducing the table leader to them, and worshiping the Lord.

Then the first presentation started. It was about Grace. There were no dry eyes in the room when the person giving her testimony in that talk finished. The Lord had obviously provided the right person at the right moment.

During one of the breaks while serving tea one of my team members spilled hot water on my hand. I was serving cookies, and she did not notice that my hand was under the tea pot. Immediately she put the tea pot aside, took my hand that was red and hurting, and commanded the burn to go away. Immediately the pain was gone and my hand looked normal. All the inmates at that table were beyond their minds. They had seen the power of prayer.

One of the most significant moments during the weekend was when our Rector asked all of us to write on a piece of paper the names of people who had hurt us and whom we had not forgiven. One by one inmates and team members went to the front of a cross and dropped that list of names into a bucket burning with fire. We were to forgive or not be forgiven!

At the end of the weekend, we were assigned to an inmate. I met with a Cuban girl who was happy to have a person to speak in Spanish. She told me her story, what she had experienced during the weekend and, consequently, of her coming to Christ. She asked me to contact her family. After we left, I asked my Rectora if I could do so, and since the petition contained a very meaningful message that could change not only the life of the girl but also of her family, she said I could contact them.

I continued meeting with the girl and she went through a substantial change in the way she acted with others and even the way she talked. She was in prison for life but free for eternity.

I attended several other Kairos weekends as “chacha” and sometimes as “table leader.” Every time I learned more about Christ. It was a profound experience.

Then my work became so demanding of my time because of traveling to different countries that I could not commit to the four weeks of preparation. I was in Miami one of every three weeks of the month.

Once, during a visit to Dallas, I was able to serve as a volunteer at Kairos Inside for a men’s weekend at Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville. Since women are not allowed inside the prison during the weekend, we worked outside preparing food, writing more Palancas, and making more posters. It was a great occasion. At the closing ceremony, during which women can be present, I talked to some spanish-speaking inmates. I was able to maintain correspondence with one of them for a long time until he finished his sentence.

The last Kairos I did in Miami was through the Catholic Church. Our weekend was at the Homestead Correctional Institution.

The Lord has me now in a different kind of ministry, but I will always be grateful for the time I was able to serve Him in prison.