Onward!
Cursillo Magazine

Latest edition of the Onward! Magazine
is out now.

Onward!, the post Cursillo magazine, is recommended reading for everyone - not just those who have attended a 3-Day Cursillo. Each issue contains a stimulating mix of thought provoking articles, news and event details - it's a 'must' read to support you in your faith journey, keep in touch and up-to-date. Take out a subscription today!
Published in the spring and autumn each year.

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How to order Onward!

Copies of Onward! are available from: Margaret Gibbs 11, The Banks, Lyneham, Chippenham,
Wiltshire SN15 4NS.

Articles for future editions of Onward! can be sent via e-mail; on a disk; clealy typed and unfolded ready for scanning, or clearly hand-written ready for typing. Please send your articles to: Anne Kidd or Vivien Leeming

• Anne Kidd Editor of Onward!
  e-mail / tel: 01709-552750 / 16, Warren Mount, Rotherham, South Yorkshire S61 1JY

• Vivien Leeming would be delighted to discuss or advise on the format or content of any article you wish to submit. tel: 01296-655342

The complier of Onward! is:
Stuart Preston 117, Eastern Avenue, Chippenham, Wiltshire SN15 3XX

'Soft Blows the Wind'

by Canon Jimmy Collins

Published by Gracewing
available from Goodnews Books, £7.99

The story of a 200-mile pilgrimage on foot from Lancashire to Walsingham, undertaken at the age of 78, is the subject of 'Soft Blows the Wind' by Liverpool Spiritual Director Canon Jimmy Collins.

This newly published book received an excellent review in the Catholic Times in the summer of 2003.

Reviewer Father Francis Marsden says he read it from cover to cover on the very day it came through the post - a recommendation in itself! He described it as the extraordinary journey of an extraordinary man.

Canon Jimmy, as he is to his countless friends in the Cursillo Movement, made this epic journey on his retirement from 27 years as parish priest of St Joseph's, Kirby. It is a journey on two levels - the physical, narrating with plenty of anecdotes the landscapes, towns and villages he passed through, and the spiritual, the story of his pilgrimage through life.

Father Marsden recommends the book as full of seasoned wisdom, all conveyed with Canon Jimmy's warm humanity and gentle sense of humour.

"Although he stands not 5ft tall, he is a priest of great spiritual statue. Now that he is 85, we can only pray that the Lord will preserve him yet for many years," writes Father Marsden.

We can all say Amen to that!

This review featured in Onward! Autumn 2003

Available from: Goodnews Books & Audio, 15 Barking Close, Luton LU4 9HG Beds
Tel: 01582.571011
Fax: 01582.571012

E-mail

'A Bird Sings in Winter'

by Canon Jimmy Collins

Available from Mr Tony Turner, £5.00
see details below

Pat Poulain reviews:

This compilation of spiritual writings was put together by Canon Jimmy Collins in 2002, the year of his Diamond Jubilee. Well known and loved in the Cursillo Movement for his long years of support, he is also well known throughout the Charismatic New Dawn Conferences and as a retreat giver.

It is difficult to hear him chuckle or see his smiling face on many of the pages of this book, written in a conversational style, which inspires a desire to know more about the different strands in Canon Jimmy's life, such as a the development of his healing ministry. He shares some of this in chapter 28, describing how he became involved through Fr. Michael Buckley.

There has been much enjoyment and considerable cause for hope in Canon Jimmy's priesthood, and he shares a great deal about his life, including his visits to Africa and his concerns about various issues like world poverty.

Much of his early work as a priest focussed on giving support to struggling families. In Kirkby, for example, in 1966 he helped to organise flat dwellers into as association to obtain justice for themselves.

Some things have saddened him, like the absence of the young in our churches. Another worry arose from a visit to Waterstones. He was dismayed by the paucity of Christian literature compared with books on the occult, witchcraft, and various Eastern meditations. Later in the book, urges us to fight every attempt to de-Christianise our culture, like the Red Cross withdrawing Christmas cards from its charity shops.

There is much in this book which is uplifting and encouraging. God rules by love he says, which is creative, because it brings joy, peace, tolerance and wisdom. One of the stories he tells about the power of love to change people is of a prisoner taken by warders to visit his dying mother. Knowing that he had no money, one of the warders stopped the car, got out and bought a large bouquet. "Give this to her," he said. The prisoner was changed, Canon Jimmy said, by that simple act of love.

This review featured in Onward!
Spring 2005

Available by post from:
Mr Tony Turner, 5, Friars Avenue, Great Sankley, Warrington. WA5 2AR
for £5-00 plus, £1-50 postage and packing.

Cheques payable to:
Cursillo No.2 Account

'Hungry for God'

by Ralph Martin

Published by Ignatius Press, £8.99

Pat Poulain reviews:

The author is described on the cover of this book as a "Catholic lay evangelist", a role which should be a challenge to us all.

As a college student, Ralph Martin rejected the catholic faith, which he had cherished as a child. His search for something to replace it led him back to it, and the turning point was his experience of a Cursillo weekend, which a friend persuaded him to make. He shares his experience not to present it as a model for all, but simply to show "the dynamics of resistance at work in our hearts to the Lordship of Christ".

He came to that moment pf crisis when the claims of Jesus became irreconcilable with his own lifestyle. He quotes C S Lewis who sums up the choice in his book 'Mere Christianity'. "Either this man was and is the Son of God or else a madman or something worse...But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about him being a great human teacher".

Having accepted Jesus as the door to the Father, Ralph goes on to show what a difference knowing God as our Father makes in oue lives. This is the main theme of Chapter two, which includes reflections on that statement of Jesus "no one comes to the Father, but by me". (John 14:6)

A chapter on the "Gift of the Spirit" includes Ralph Martin's personal awakening to the power of the Holy Spirit in 1967. He calls attention to the encouraging recognition of the new movements in the Church by Pope John Paul II who in 1988 described them as "the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our times". There is also a testimony of Maria Von Trapp who "experienced a release of the power of the Holy Spirit in her life". She told Ralph that her main fear for the Church was not the decline in numbers but "that the Holy Spirit might not be given a chance".

Our prayer life is the main feature of Part Two of the book. His recognition of our need for others to help us in our spiritual life could well have been one of the fruits of his Cursillo commitment.

This review featured in Onward! Spring 2004

Available from: Goodnews Books & Audio, 15 Barking Close, Luton LU4 9HG Beds
Tel: 01582.571011
Fax: 01582.571012
E-mail