Hi Everyone!
A few years ago, I went on a men’s weekend retreat with Tres Dias. This was my weekend:
There was an ecumenical retreat for both men and women called Tres Dias; for teens, it was called Vida Nueva. This author was invited on such a retreat through a local church in Pyeongtaek, South Korea. Its number just so happened to be the Sixty-Sixth Men’s Tres Dias Retreat (May 18–21, 2017) with the theme “Put on the Full Armor of God.” It was a four-day/three-night retreat (Thursday night, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) without a watch or cell phone and no access to the outside world. I wanted to see for myself just what this was all about.
I drove to the church parking lot, where I left my SUV, and boarded the church bus with my bag for the weekend with another gentleman who was waiting. We still had our watches and cell phones at this point, so no worries. The retreat was about an hour away. As we drove up, there were men with bright-colored leys around their neck, some with guitars, singing a welcome song, which of course made me somewhat discombobulated. I was totally unsettled and unable to get a hold of my surroundings at first. There were other gentlemen there as well looking on in amazement as I did, so we grouped together and started chatting.
After the singing, the men who greeted us with song and open arms took our luggage to our rooms. All weekend long, we were served and waited on. We were never to do anything for ourselves, even get our own food. It was quite an unreal experience. Anyway, we were taken to eat dinner, where we were served, and there was a proctor/leader at each table to make sure that the conversation flowed and that everyone got to know each other, at least seven or eight men maximum. And of course, it was all you could eat.
Then we were escorted to the main room, the Royal Room, where all weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) activities would take place. The men in charge of this Tres Dias weekend introduced themselves, and then we introduced ourselves. It was at this time that our watches and cell phones were collected for the weekend. Surprise, surprise. Access to the outside world had been cut off so that you could “focus on your walk with God.” I was mentally prepared for this as I had been forewarned. If one was forewarned of any situation, one can prepare mentally for it and survive it to the end.
Once they collected our possessions, we were escorted to our rooms for “quiet time,” absolutely no talking with our roommate, but we could read our Bible and talk with God. Then we would go to bed. They would wake us up.
Day 2 started out with them singing “De Colores” in the hallway and bringing coffee and juice to our rooms. Fortunately, when the sun came up, my eyes opened as well, so I took a quick shower and waited on the bed for the next event to unfold, and it did. Once that occurred, we had fifteen minutes to make headway to the Royal Room for a short devotion on the three faces of Jesus Christ. We then broke for breakfast (all you can eat) and sat at different tables to get to know other men. By the way, we had to learn to sing “De Colores” loudly before each meal to gain access to the chow hall. This was nerve racking to say the least.
Then after breakfast, we were escorted to the Royal Room, where our name cards had been placed on round tables in groups of six. We named our table Benaiah, who trusted God to make the impossible possible. There were six tables in total—nice numbers.
We spent most of the day bonding, doing various artistic activities that required groupthink and competition among the six groups. All the men in the six groups got along quite well, which surprised the men in charge of the event. They made sure that we had plenty of food and our own special drink (no alcohol), such as iced tea and coffee, on hand for the whole weekend. This event was specially catered to each of us and our desires/wants/needs.
Additionally, over the three days, we had fifteen rollos (topics) presented by rollistos (clergy), as well as emotionally charged testimonies that would induce oneself to become emotional:
- Ideals
- Grace
- The church
- The Holy Spirit
- Piety
- Study
- Sacraments
- Action
- Obstacles
- Leadership
- Environments
- Life in grace
- Christian community in growth
- Reunion groups
- The fourth day
Day 2, Friday evening, did not pass with little fanfare but was used as the lead-in to an emotional, mental “breakdown” on Saturday. For the grand finale, after “De Colores” and dinner, we were escorted into a candlelit dark chapel where low, cathedral-like, dark music was played for what they called “the reconciliation.” Our chairs were arranged such that we faced one another. There was a heart-shaped piece of paper, a pencil, and rose under each of the chairs. After much banter from one end of the darkly lit chapel to the other, we were told to pray and write down our sins on our paper. Then a figure appeared in white carrying a cross, and we were told to follow him outside. He placed the cross upright against the wall, and we were instructed to nail our sins to the cross and to hold onto our roses. The Christ figure then took our sins off the cross and burned them. Then we held candles, sang a hymn, and walked away in silence. That was an interesting way to end day 2.
Day 3 started the same way as day 2. However, Saturday afternoon was spent as a therapy session with our leader, where I watched each man break down emotionally over his sins. To be honest, I almost lost it, but I kept my composure. We were then given communion by a “priest.” Then afterward, to push the envelope even further, they gave each of us Tres Dias bags filled with letters from our loved ones, along with ecumenical books to read, such as Rick Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life, as well as some trinkets. I still had mine sitting on my shelf. Of course, that was used as an emotional tug on the heart. Then they brought in different speakers, who gave their testimonies and, of course, broke down emotionally about how Tres Dias changed their lives.
By Sunday morning, day 4, I was on a countdown to go home. I had had enough of the emotional/mental pressure to conform to the group or to break down in front of the others. I played nice and listened as instructed. Of course, they used the “Not Inspired Version” of the Bible, the most ecumenical Bible version one could use without offending anyone. Sunday morning opened up with chapel and the giving of flower bouquets to everyone, which I gave to my wife when I got home at 5:00 p.m. The afternoon passed by with “De Colores” and lunch and other activities and then wrapped up by four with pictures, goodbyes, and so on. Our watches and cell phones were returned to us, and I rode home with the friend of mine who sponsored me for the weekend. Wow, what a mind trip that was—Disorientation 101 and then mind control for the weekend.
In retrospect, the whole weekend was used to recruit us to serve in other Tres Dias weekends, as well as to start ecumenical Bible studies. We were to set aside all doctrines and join together as “brothers in Christ,” no matter what our religious background was, including Catholic. Well, that was too much to ask as far as I was concerned. This was just another way of destroying the Ekklesia of Jesus Christ.
When I got home, I ordered and read a couple of books on the subject of Tres Dias: Brian V. Janssen’s Cursillo: Little Courses in Catharsis and Kristy Nabhan-Warren’s The Cursillo Movement in America: Catholics, Protestants, and Fourth-Day Spirituality. I highly recommend that one read these books before entertaining the thought of going to one of these weekend retreats. Mrs. Nabhan-Warren’s book was more of a history of the movement in America, whereas Pastor Janssen’s book was an eyewitness account.
According to Brian V. Janssen in his book, Cursillo: Little Courses in Catharsis:
Cursillo is really “Little Courses in Catharsis.” Or stated more fully, these weekend high experiences are largely dependent on universally applicable, manipulative, somewhat deceptive and not uniquely Christian psychological and physiological techniques designed to wear down resistance and produce an emotional high/cathartic experience, which is then interpreted as a religious experience. While the short-term effects may be pleasant and desirable, the long-term consequences are mostly negative. And since these weekends have no Biblical warrant, they should be avoided.[1]
Pastor Janssen continued:
What is Cursillo? Why is it so secretive and controversial? If it really does produce all the purported benefits, why has the whole church not embraced it?[2]
The ultimate fruit of the weekend renewal experience lifestyle, the quest for “it,” for emotional experience: a disappointing letdown that initiates a futile guest for more and more experience; a spoiling of the participant’s expectations so that “real life,” and especially the local church, pale by comparison; the production of an elitist “community” existing secretively in the midst of the churches; a regression to spiritual and emotional immaturity that makes one ill-equipped for the hard life of genuine discipleship; and, at the end of the road, a despairing dead end. Obviously, these are serious concerns.[3]
Pastor Janssen concluded his book with one final plea:
And so, let me offer one final appeal to those who lead and sponsor these morally indefensible, spiritually distracting, perhaps even destructive weekends. Please go back to your local church, with all its flaws and failings, and rejoin the rest of us in serving Jesus Christ who is head of the Church. Please give up these shamefully manipulative practices and regain integrity in Christian ministry which focuses on the ministry of the word of God and not deceptive tricks. Take to heart the Apostle Paul’s personal testimony of an honorable and upright service to Christ as according to I Thessalonians 2:3–4 and II Corinthians 4:2.[4]
So, that was quite the weekend, to say the least! Ecumenism on steroids. Needless to say, hardly anyone talks about such things, except in whispers…
YAHWEH Bless!
Justin
[1] Brian V. Janssen, Cursillo: Little Courses in Catharsis (Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, 2010), 7.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid., 208.
[4] Ibid., 211.