John Pfeiffer with his late wife, Lynn

John Pfeiffer had his life all figured out. A retired computer programmer, he describes himself as a “good Episcopalian” who went to church on Easter, Christmas and whenever his late wife, Lynn, asked him to attend. She served as the longtime church organist and choir director at St. Mary’s, Belleview, and urged him to come whenever the choir had worked particularly hard on an anthem, he says.

Although Pfeiffer had come to know Christ in his younger years, his faith didn’t make much difference in his daily activities – that is, until God invaded his life during a Cursillo weekend.

Attending Cursillo was an idea Lynn brought home from church, Pfeiffer says. “She came home from choir one night, and she said, ‘Some choir members want us to go to Cursillo. It’s going to be a great thing. …. I’m going to take my vacation time to go down to Cursillo.’”

Like a good Episcopalian as well as a good husband, Pfeiffer agreed to his wife’s plan. But he soon began to have his doubts. “Do I really want to drive 80 miles down to Orlando to go to this meeting?” he asked himself.

Late one night, he was pondering this question and then fell back asleep. “All of a sudden, in my head, I heard a voice say, ‘You are a servant,’ he says. “I woke up my wife, and I asked, ‘What did you just say?’”

“Be quiet and go back to bed,” she told him.

And that’s when Pfeiffer knew: “It was a message directly from God, telling me that I’m a servant, and I’m supposed to serve,” he says. He and Lynn went to Cursillo that weekend, although he still had no idea what to expect.

But it didn’t take long for the Cursillo experience to draw Pfeiffer in. “It’s a very emotional thing. The love that others showed me – I never had seen that before in an Episcopal church,” Pfeiffer says.

And that love softened his heart to receive the spiritual messages shared over the weekend. “About the second day, you realize that it’s a special place; special things are happening,” he says. “The team members make people feel very comfortable and very secure. They give you permission to love God. I really felt that strong connection at Cursillo, a very strong connection between myself, the people and God.”

Music is an important part of every Cursillo weekend, Pfeiffer says. And one of the songs he heard that first weekend still means a great deal to him today: “Open the Eyes of My Heart.” “Music plus the love of the people at Cursillo helped me,” he says. “Those two things. By going to Cursillo, I became a servant of God. And by that, I mean Cursillo was the catalyst that did it. It opened me up to the fact that there was more to being an Episcopalian than just coming, sitting on a pew, listening to a sermon, listening to music or watching the birds out the window. It’s just very special to me.”

Pfeiffer says since attending his first Cursillo, he has indeed become the servant God told him he was. Right after his initial Cursillo experience, he began attending and serving his church more and more. He started by recording sermons and turning on choir microphones, then progressed to a role as his church’s audiovisual coordinator. He is also a member of the vestry, chairman of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, a Lay Eucharistic Minister and Cursillo coordinator for St. Mary’s and will serve as rector of an upcoming men’s Cursillo.

“Cursillo can change you. It doesn’t make you a ‘super Christian,’” Pfeiffer says. “But go there with an open mind and allow God to speak to your heart. … I’m a believer that we all have a connection to God, and all we have to do is tune into the right frequency.”

Could Cursillo help you tune in?

PHOTO: courtesy John Pfeiffer