My name is Maricel Silva de Pereira. I am happily married to Javier Pereira, and we have two sons: Tobias and Rafael. Together we did Cursillo No. 11 of the Diocese of San Juan Bautista de las Misiones, Paraguay, in 2008.
Sharing my life after my personal encounter with Christ in the Cursillo is a real challenge and an amazing mission, and as the Gospel of St. John 21:25 points out: “Jesus did many things, so many that if they were written down in detail, I think that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”
With Him and in Him, I can live more fully my vocation as a child of God through my baptism and recover the grace that I had lost through negligence. But there, in that loving encounter, I discovered the gifts and talents I have and decidedly chose to put them at His service through so many brothers and sisters in need.
In the Cursillo, I was given the tripod as a support for my Christian life, which I develop day by day, and undoubtedly making use of the means of perseverance that this Movement offers me: my St. Paul the Apostle Christianity Group and the Ultreyas, which are true spaces where I nourish my faith, recharge my batteries, and strengthen myself to proclaim Christ in my surroundings.
“I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him, he bears much fruit; because separated from me, you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5): in the light of this passage and with the simplicity of an example from the countryside (like my homeland), the Lord reveals to me once again his most sublime mystery: the mystery of our insertion into Him through Grace. We are united to Him by a vital bond, like branches to the vine.
And it is through that loving bond that God called me from the first moment of my existence, because thanks to his love and the fruit of prayers, I was able to overcome generalized septicemia after eight long months in the hospital, when I was still very young. My parents, Ramón and Teresa (also Cursillistas), tell me that the prayer they made as a promise was this: if she is saved, we will tell her about You, Lord.
So, from that moment on, and with a stronger commitment since my Cursillo, I carry the joy of the Risen Jesus Christ in my surroundings, remembering the words of Pope Francis: true holiness is joy, because “a sad saint is a sad saint.” Walking slowly but steadily and confidently toward my personal conversion, I hope that through my testimony others will see Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
On my first fourth-day retreat, the year after my Cursillo, I understood that making Christ the Lord of my life—that is, of my things, my time, and my space—involved renunciation and sacrifice, beginning with improving my character, my person, my treatment of others, and setting aside that comfortable bourgeoisie that for so long prevented me from practicing good and seeing the needs of my brothers and sisters.
I live my sense of belonging to the Church of Jesus with hope: bringing his voice of encouragement and comfort to those who need my presence with a kind, warm, and joyful attitude, being the link for those who seek to reach that encounter with God and do not know how to do so. Thus, He has allowed me to witness many miracles in the lives of young people, couples, married couples, and restored families.
I also (I do not deny) have gone through moments of desert in my spiritual life, moments of frustration and anguish that have allowed me to remember that as a human being I lack everything and that only with the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Reconciliation, can I face this empty and meaningless world. And it resonates again in my head and in my heart: “because apart from me, they can do nothing”…
Mary Most Holy, our Mother, has been and continues to be for me the best model of humility, simplicity, and tenderness; because she is Mother, wife, and friend who leads me with prayer to her beloved Son, being the faithful disciple always ready to serve.
Today, looking back on my life, I can affirm that our beloved Cursillos in Christianity Movement is a valid tool for evangelization, and that if one commits oneself to God, God is committed to him.
Take heart, dear brothers and sisters, Christ continues to count on us.
De Colores!
