122nd Men's Cursillo Weekend Is ON

Arlington Cursillistas,

I am pleased to report that the Team decided at our final formation meeting on Sunday, April 3, to go forward with the weekend for the seven candidates signed up so far.  If the Holy Spirit surprises us with more we will be delighted, but we do not want to disappoint these men that the Lord has put in our care for the weekend.  We have plenty of room and will accept new candidates right up to Thursday.  We thank the community for your prayers and support. 

See you Sunday.

George Darnell
Rector

All Dressed - Ready to Dance - Waiting for Partners

Yes, the 122nd Men's Team is ready to go; all we need are candidates.  As I write this we have six.  If we can get at least three more (six would be better) we will be go for launch (or am I mixing metaphors - dancing and launching?).  Anyway, we are trusting in the Lord and the Arlington Community to provide candidates.

The team had a wonderful dinner evening with our beautiful brides on March 26th at Joe and Laura Lyon's lovely home in Fredericksburg on the frontier of the diocese.  The conversation, food, and drink were delightful.  We are truly blessed. (Wish we had taken pictures)

We will be holding our final formation meeting on April 3 to review the schedule and tie up any loose ends.  Fr. Clement should be back from his trip to Africa to help us wrap up our preparations.  We are so blessed to have him and Deacon Jack as spiritual directors on the weekend.

Keep the prayers, palanca, and candidates coming.  We love every one of them.

De Colores,

George

Palanca from Jack Finnerty 5

Palanca from Tony DeCristofaro 2

January 31, 2011

Mr. George Darnell, Rector

Cursillo Team 122

c/o 14145 Walton Drive

Manassas, VA 20112

Dear George and Team!

Greetings as you continue your path to Formation and the Men’s 122^nd Cursillo.

This season presents a special time for our community as we can support two extraordinary teams at the same time.  Not only is your formation underway, but my wife Beth is leading the Women’s 132^nd Cursillo team-in-formation now, too.

Was it only two short years ago that we were gathering in our living room for the 118^th Cursillo, George?  Your leadership on that team was instrumental in making the weekend most memorable for our “babe chicks.”  Needless to say, there was NO SURPRISE when I learned you would be leading this team. 

There should be something like a Cursillo Family Tree to trace all the connections we have with each team!  What a wonderful assembly! 

George Degnon.  You were a pillar of prayer-strength on the Men’s 106^th Team under the careful watch of Rector Frank McClesky back in 2002.  Your support and witness then and now will move your candidates closer to true friendship with Jesus as you helped to do so for me.

Pete Garry.  You are a servant-leader par excellence at St. Mary of Sorrows with your ever-present smile, humility, and piety that puts faith in action.  Such traits will be much in use by the Lord on April 7-10, 2011.

Peter Hadinger.  Your Benedictine-like hospitality which has served so many weekends from behind the kitchen door and sweating over a hot stove while multiplying the “loaves and dishes.”  You will now emerge into the team room, chapel, talks and table discussions.  A most welcome change!

Pete Roth.  Musician.  Lay Director.  Webmaster.  When Noah looked from the “ark and saw” Cursillo, surely, he saw your prayer supporting every team which has ever walked this path.  Now, you bring your time and talents directly to the men who will be on the 122^nd weekend.

Tim Allmond.  Yes.  There are members of this team not named George or Peter.  You are now also a member of Team 122. But your life-experience as peace-maker, father, husband, son and bridge-builder on Team 118 will serve you well.  You can personally attest to how the Holy Spirit worked through Rector George at Missionhurst.   

Deacon Jack Ligon.  You were there with Pete Roth on that team that led me to the living waters of Cursillo in 2001.  Now, ten years and many teams later, you remain a true example of the charity and service embodied in that loving title “diakonos” or one who serves.

Richard Huzil.  Coming from the rich family tree of St. Raymond of (the Holy Firehouse) Penafort connects you with a rich brother and sisterhood supporting Cursillo.  Now you will be connecting to others as you pass it forward.

Tom Noon.  You can take the lessons learned and taught in School of Leaders to a whole new level as you serve the team and the men who will join you in April.

Julian Saenz.  Like on your weekend, Deacon Jack was spiritual director on my weekend.  Now, you will help lead others to Christ as he helped lead you on the 116^th Cursillo. 

This team truly is a coat of many colors!  To support you, as you meet each Sunday afternoon, I will offer some sweat equity that the Holy Spirit will work through you.  Each weekend, I will offer one to two hours of energy spent on a Life Cycle or rowing machine.  And to those of you who know Ken Telesca, he will be joining me at the rec center often in support of you as well.  As my fitness (hopefully) improves, so shall your preparation develop until it leads to the weekend and then onward to the Fourth Day for your candidates.  Ultreya!

De colores!

Tony De Cristofaro

Prayer Partners for the Week of 30 January - 5 February

Fr. Clement – George Degnon

Tim Allmond – Peter Garry

George Darnell – Peter Hadinger

Richard Huzil – Peter Roth

De Jack Ligon – Joe Lyon

Tom Noon – Julian Saenz

Tips on Staying Safe on the Internet from Richard Huzil

Guys,

  Here is the article with the various security notes and tools available (some for IE and some for Firefox) as discussed after our team meeting.

  Regards,

  - Richard

Cyber Threat Awareness

Browsing the Web

Compliments of SANS Institute
Copyright 2010, SANS Institute

What is a web browser? Everybody uses a web browser to access the Internet. That fact alone makes the web browser a tempting target for Bad Guys who want to take over your computer and use it for their own nefarious purposes by installing malicious software, or “malware.”

Why is it important for me to know about malware? In the past, a user had to take some specific action, like opening an email attachment, for their computer to become infected with malware. Lately, simply visiting a website can cause your computer to become infected. This type of "drive-by download" is accomplished using features built into web browsers that allow them to run scripts. Scripts are really small computer programs that normally do useful things, like display a video, allow you to choose from a menu and maintain a shopping cart, among others. Unfortunately, scripts can also be used to install malware on your computer without your knowledge or consent.

Security firm Websense

says Internet users are always within "two degrees of malware separation" as they click from one site to another.

Simply visiting a website can cause your computer to become infected

What can I do to keep my browser safe? We have assembled a variety of measures and tools that you, the computer user, can use to make your web browsing experience safer by limiting the impact of scripts and helping you to avoid potentially harmful websites.

General Browser Security Tips

Keep your browser up-to-date. The Bad Guys are constantly identifying new vulnerabilities and weaknesses in browsers and browser makers are constantly releasing updates to fix them. Running the latest version of your browser ensures that you have the benefit of the latest security technology. NOTE: MITRE’s only supported browser is Internet Explorer (IE). You may contact the MITRE Corporate Help Desk

for concerns or questions about IE, or for an unsupported browser (e.g., Firefox, Opera, Safari, Chrome, etc.), try one of the shared lists (listserves) for usage questions.

Be careful about browser plug-ins. Plug-ins are browser extras — small, downloadable programs that add functionality to your browser. When you browse to a website, you may receive a message onscreen that in order to work with the site, you have to download and install a browser plug-in. "Just click here." But think before you click. Remember that any software you install will need to be updated, and may contain security vulnerabilities. Do you know that this website and the plug-in are trustworthy? If you don't know or aren't sure, don't click. Do you really need that plug-in? The fewer plug-ins you have installed, the safer your browser will be.

MITRE Cyber Threat Alert: The Bad Guys use these plug-in notification messages as a means of delivering malware, usually by indicating you need a plug-in when you actually don’t, and then seemingly failing when you try to install the said plug-in. In the meantime, malware was quietly downloaded to your system.

Check that your browser and plug-ins are up-to-date. Qualys has published a website that will do a quick check on your browser to help you identify common security issues. Visit https://browsercheck.qualys.com/

and install the plug-in (yes, this one is safe!). Then click the "Scan Now" button. Note that Javascript is also required. An onscreen report tells you whether or not your browser and commonly installed plug-ins are up-to-date and provides you with a convenient way to update any found to be out-of-date.

Consider using Web of Trust (WOT). The Web of Trust is a cooperative venture that warns users of potentially dangerous websites. When you do a Google search, a circular indicator will appear next to each search result that has been rated by the service. Red indicates a site that is probably dangerous, yellow a potentially dangerous site, and green a site that is probably safe to use. Once you've logged in to a website, the same indicator appears in the title bar of the browser. Keep in mind that WOT ratings are based on votes cast by members of the Internet community, and while not necessarily authoritative, can provide useful information about websites to avoid. For more information visit http://www.mywot.com/

.

Google recently announced it would begin flagging sites in its search results that appear to have been hacked.

Tips for Internet Explorer

Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) is one of the most commonly used browsers. Protect your computer by running the latest version whenever possible. Right now that's IE8. If upgrading to IE8 is not possible, here are some tips for improving the security of IE7.

NOTE: MITRE requires IE8; earlier versions are not permitted to access the Internet

1.    Prevent Data Execution (DEP). Bad Guys exploit vulnerabilities in IE to infiltrate your computer with malware masquerading as data. Microsoft has published a "Fix It" site to turn on Data Execution Prevention (DEP) for IE7

. Click the button marked "Enable the application compatibility database." Note: The DEP fix is not needed for IE8 and later versions.
Ease of implementation: Moderate
Impact on browsing: Minimal

2.    Turn on the Phishing Filter. Microsoft includes a Phishing Filter in IE that detects when a website is not exactly what it appears to be. If the site you are visiting is on the list of reported phishing websites, IE will display a warning web page and a notification on the address bar. From the warning web page, you can continue or close the page. If the website contains characteristics common to a phishing site but isn't on the list, IE will notify you in the address bar that it might be a phishing website. You can turn on the Phishing Filter from the Tools menu in IE. For more information visit https://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/safety/technologies/antiphishing/at_glance.mspx.

Ease of implementation: Moderate
Impact on browsing: Minimal

3.    Increase IE Security Settings. The Internet Options menu in IE contains a Security tab that gives you a great deal of control over the behavior of IE when you visit a website. The default setting of "Medium-high" for the Internet Zone will prompt you before downloading any content that IE assesses as unsafe. By changing this setting to "High," you can effectively block all scripts from running on any web page you visit. While this is the safest possible setting, it can severely impact the performance of a website. To allow scripts to run on sites you trust, you can add them to the Trusted Sites Zone, one site at a time or whole domains at once using a wildcard (*). For example, entering http://*.sans.org

would allow you to browse the entire SANS website without any prompts. For more information visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/174360.

Ease of implementation: Difficult
Impact on browsing: Severe

The fewer plug-ins you have installed, the safer your browser will be.

Tips for Firefox

The comments and suggestions below relate specifically to Firefox 3.6, the current version. The security suggestions below take the form of "Add-ons" that are downloaded and added to Firefox using the Tools menu.

1.    NoScript. This add-on blocks scripts from running in Firefox. When you visit a website that wants to run scripts, NoScript will display a warning at the bottom of the screen, and give you the opportunity to allow scripts to run on a temporary or permanent basis. Not allowing the scripts to run can severely impact the performance of many web pages. After you have used NoScript for a while, it will learn about the web pages you visit frequently and will not be as "pesky." For more information visit http://noscript.net/

.
Ease of implementation: Moderate
Impact on browsing: Moderate to severe

2.    HTTPS Everywhere. You are probably familiar with HTTPS from using encrypted secure sites like those for online banking. Many websites offer some limited support for encryption over HTTPS, but make it difficult to use. HTTPS Everywhere attempts to make a secure connection to many of the most popular sites on the Internet even if you don't specifically ask for it. If it fails to make a secure connection, it defaults to an unencrypted HTTP connection and your browser continues to function as if nothing had happened. For more information visit https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere

.
Ease of implementation: Moderate
Impact on browsing: Minimal

3.    Adblock Plus. Adblock Plus is an extension for Firefox, Thunderbird, and several other applications with the primary goal of removing advertisements. It works by comparing ads that are about to be displayed with a set of filters that describe undesirable advertising. When you install Adblock Plus, it sets up a subscription to a basic set of filters that will meet the needs of most users. Many additional sets of filters are available for your use. For more information visit http://adblockplus.org/en/

.
Ease of implementation: Moderate
Impact on browsing: Moderate

Palanca from Jack Finnerty 4

Dear George and Team of the 122d,

As you begin team formation, I continue to pray for you all. I began praying for the teams of the next Women’s and Men’s weekends shortly after the last Men’s weekend. These prayers include daily Mass and daily (well, almost daily) Rosary for you, for saying “yes” to His call, for unity and cohesiveness, and to be able to draw strength from prayer and from each other.

Thank you for saying yes, and for all that you are doing.

DeColores and God Bless,

Jack Finnerty

Palanca to 132nd Women's Team

Palanca from Jack Finnerty 3

Palanca from Joan Brown

Palanca from Jack Finnerty 2

Palanca from the Women of the 132nd

Palanca from Tony DeCristofaro

Palanca From the Fredericksburg Women's Group Reunion

Let your Light Shine

Is your light shining so brightly that it can be seen from space?  Remember, it is only a reflection of the face of God.  (Click image for larger view.)

Palanca from Jack Finnerty

Dear Team of the M122d:

Within the last several weeks, I have had three reminders re: Romans 8:28, “We know that all things work for good for those that who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” (NAB) One of these reminders was part of a eulogy at a friend’s funeral, one was from an email reflection written by a nun in the Midwest somewhere, and the third was an old file folder in my desk from a “Romans 8” course taught at St. Mary’s in the mid 1980’s. How could I NOT incorporate Romans 8 into palanca?

I suppose most of us are familiar with the first part of Rm 8:28, but do we remember the second part of the verse? That struck me as I was thinking about the verse and you in your calling for Cursillo team – your call, His Purpose.

My prayers for you this week are that His purpose will truly be realized in you during formation and during the weekend experience.

DeColores and God Bless,

Jack Finnerty

Prayer Partners for Week of Jan 23-29

Fr. Clement - Tom Noon
Tim Allmond - George Degnon
George Darnell - Peter Garry
Peter Hadinger - Peter Roth
Richard Huzil - Joe Lyon
De Jack Ligon - Julian Saenz

Welcome to the 122nd Men's Cursillo Team Blog

Team and Cursillistas,
This is an experiment in keeping the community posted on our formation and weekend activities.  It can also be used to post palanca for the team.  I have copied our first team report here for starters.

Jan 25, 2011

The 122nd Men's Cursillo Team welcomed Fr. Clement Aapengnou (Fr. Clem) of Saint Charles to our team on Sunday, January 23, our third formation meeting. Fr. Clem is replacing Fr. Stefan Starzynski, who discovered he had a scheduling conflict because of a mission he is conducting for a friend in Canada on our weekend. We wish Fr. Stefan every success in his mission. We know the Lord will be with him.
Fr. Clem was on the Tony DeCristofaro's 118th Team with Tim Allmond and me. The Holy Spirit continues to bless and surprise our team as we proceed on the adventure of formation. George Degnon raised the bar on snacks by serving us root beer ice cream floats. He then proceeded to tell us an amazing life story during our meeting. I have to stand on a chair to hug Fr. Clem and Tim Allmond, but outside of that all is well, Praise the Lord.
De Colores!
George Darnell, Rector