Venice Cursillo Movement
Palanca
"Whenever we speak of working for conversion, for the Christian betterment of individuals, or for the Christianization of environments, it is indispensable - as the first and most basic step underlying all other human efforts - to count on the help of grace from God, which has to be begged for with the all-powerful strength of prayer that is humble confident, and unceasing.
Today, perhaps now more than ever before, it is absolutely urgent to remember that without Him we are nothing, we are worth nothing, we can do nothing. We must, before anything else, reaffirm the primacy that the Cursillo strategy has always given, as its most important characteristic: Palanca (prayer, sacrifice, and works of mercy). Dependence on this has to be real, sincere and permanent, individual and communal, to guarantee the efficacy of any other steps one takes. The truth is founded on the promise of Christ: 'Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you.'(Mt 7:7)" (Leaders' Manual pgs 31-32)
Tools for Palanca Chairperson
We have developed a simple Google Form - "Attendance" to be used in collecting both attendance at Cursillo meetings (Ultreya, Leaders School, 4th Day Follow up) and Palanca offered for the Movement. When a Cursillista submits the form, it is recorded on a Google Sheet, called Attendance which records all the answers submitted.
From this Google Sheet, we have used a Google feature called looker studio to create reports for tabulating Palanca. The reports can be pulled for any date range for each Ultreya, which is useful when the Ultreya prepares a Palanca Poster for the weekends as well as a total of all submitted which can be used by you to send Palanca notices to Cursillo Weekends being held around the world.