Palanca - Cursillos in New Mexico

In the sense in which the word "Palanca" is used in Cursillo, it means the Eucharists, Rosaries, fasting, prayers, and personal sacrifices which are offered on behalf of the Cursillistas and Pilgrims or Peregrinos.
The letters and small gifts which are sometimes given during a Cursillo are "Evidence of Palanca" - to show that someone has been praying for the Cursillistas before or during the Cursillo.
Often the "evidence" takes the form of a craft or hand-made item, which someone has made while praying for the recipient. Ideas for such crafts are given here : they were contributed by members of the Cursillo newslist so that communities may have access to a pool of ideas for "evidence of Palanca". Many communities wish these small gifts to come as a surprise to the Pilgrims. If you have not yet been to a Cursillo, please don't expect that when you do, your community will use such "evidence of Palanca" - people will be praying for you, but they may not use any of the ideas given here.
Some communities hold "Palanca Parties" where the group meets to pray and then work on some project to make evidence of palanca - a poster, grace mats, craft projects.

Personal letters and cards

From sponsors, friends, and those who are praying for the Pilgrim by name. Note cards can be made with rubber stamps or stickers of butterflies, rainbows, colored with felt-tip pens.

Group Palanca

From communities - Posters, signed and colored by all participants.
Letters and/or e-mail sent by the Palanca Chair on behalf of a praying community. Scotty has a Web Page of ASCII Art which can be used in e-mail messages, or one can make a picture with alphanumeric characters, save it as a signature file and include it with messages.
A favorite Poster is one showing a rainbow filled with flowers, cut from seed or plant catalogues and glued onto the poster, with a message from the community. A drawback is that it does not travel well by mail - it needs to be carried flat and taken to the site of the Weekend by someone involved.
Another favorite is a scroll of butcher paper, 30 feet long, with colored prayers, drawings, best wishes, etc. from everyone in the cursillo community to which a Pilgrim belongs.
Another Poster shows the whole Weekend divided up into half-hour slots, with the name of the person who will be praying at each time. For small communities, where it may be difficult to run a 3-day continuous Prayer Vigil with only local participants, members of the Cursillo newsgroup will often take on some of the times - and for the slots such as 3 or 4 a.m. it is handy to have praying contacts all over the world.

Anonymous Palanca, and/or General Palanca

Made by someone while praying for all members of a Weekend :
Name Tags, often of leather - the "practice strips" sold by leather craft suppliers, or circles, crosses, or other shapes, with the pilgrim's name stamped or inscribed, and decorated. Made for all pilgrims and Team Members,
Necklaces for the Name Tags - leather thongs and beads, or bobbin-woven from rainbow-colored wools.
Wrist Bands to wear in place of watches - a leather thong or rat-tail ribbon with 5 beads in the central part : black, for the state of original sin and darkness; red, for the blood of Christ shed on the Cross; white, for the light of Christ; blue, for the water of baptism; green, for the continuing spiritual growth of the Christian; and gold or yellow, for the promise of eternity with Christ. The bracelet is made adjustable by having the ends overlap and pass through 3 clear beads (for the Holy Trinity), ending in two knots for the day you were born and the day you will die.
Small Paper sacks, decorated and personalized, for each person and each palanca drop.
Crosses of wood, metal, beads.
Lapel pins with accompanying message of love.
Clothes Pins (the spring sort) : color and decorate, add a message of love. These can be used to clip onto clothing etc.
Bookmarks made from card stock (the sort of heavy paper used for index cards, available from office supply places), with Bible verse and/or message and decoration.
Cards from card stock, with Bible verse or message and with decoration glued or taped on :

Psalm 100:1 (Make a joyful noise) with a party noise-maker.
Matthew 4:19 (Fishers of men) with fridge magnet fish.
Matthew 5:14 (Ye are the light of the world) with small birthday candle.
Galatians 5:22-23 (Fruit of the Spirit) with fridge magnet fruit.
Ephesians 6:13-17 (Sword of the Spirit) with plastic toothpick sword.
"Bloom where you're planted" with glued-on flower.
"Remember, God loves you" with picture of an elephant.
"Feed your faith, and starve your fears" with plastic fork or spoon.

Scrolls with favorite poetry, quotations, the words to de Colores or Las Mananitas on colored paper which is rolled up and secured with curling ribbon or a small wire-stemmed flower.
Cross-stitch and ribbon Bookmarks.
Ribbon Bookmarks with about six different colored ribbons knotted together at one end, the other ends free, for Bible Bookmarks.
Paint-by-numbers Suncatchers from craft stores, colored and accompanied by an appropriate greeting.
Fusing Beads (the sort that you place on a pattern of pegs, then fuse with a warm iron) to make rainbow-colored hearts, crosses, etc.
Miniature Windsocks from rainbow ribbon.
Shrink Art to make pendants.
Plastic "Clay" which can be rolled out and cut into shapes with a cookie cutter, then baked; to make fridge magnets, pendants, decorations.
Prayer Rock : a small pebble wrapped in colored material, with 'eyes' glued or painted on, with the verse :

I am your little Prayer Rock,
And this is what I do
Just put me on your pillow
Until the day is through.

And when you turn the covers
And climb into your bed,
Then (WHACK) your little Prayer Rock
Will hit you on the head.

And then you will remember
As the day is nearly through,
To kneel and say your prayers
As you know you ought to do.

And then when you are finished
Just dump me on the floor.
I'll stay there through the night-time
To give you help once more.

When you get up next morning
CLUNK ! I will stub your toe
And so you will remember
Your prayers before you go.

Put me back upon your pillow
When you your bed have made,
And your clever little Prayer Rock
Will continue in your aid.

Because your heav'nly Father
Cares for and loves you so,
He wants you to remember
To talk to Him, you know.

Places to look for materials

"Dollar stores" (fridge magnets, candles, crayons);
Craft stores (ribbons, beads, leather, flowers);
Teacher supply stores (pencils and erasers with mottos, stickers, rubber stamps);
Office supply stores (colored paper and card stock);
Carnival supply stores (little plastic thingies that remind you of Bible verses or favorite sayings).

Food Palanca

Fruit, nuts, snack crackers (particularly those with fish or butterfly shapes) Life Savers (with a note about the Life Saviour), Hershey's Kisses and Hugs with appropriate messages,
Toilet roll tubes filled with candies, nuts, or snacks, and wrapped with colored paper to look like firecracker snappers.

Grace Mats

"Grace Mats" are paper Place Mats which have been decorated for a specific Weekend. This is done sometimes by the Team, during the meetings in preparation for a Weekend, or else by one or more of the supporting communities. The mats can follow a theme, and develop more of a picture with each successive meal of the Weekend. For example,

Green grass and blue sky.
Grass, sky, flowers in the grass.
Grass, sky, flowers, birds in the sky.
Grass, sky, flowers, birds, clouds and raindrops.
Grass, sky, flowers, birds, sun shining between the clouds.
Grass, sky, flowers, birds, sun, clouds, rainbow.
Grass, sky, flowers, birds, sun, clouds, rainbow, rooster, chicken, chicks.

The Rainbow

Many Cursillo communities use the colours of the rainbow as a reminder of the forms which Palanca can take :
RED - Intentions at Eucharists, Rosaries.
ORANGE - Prayer
YELLOW - Sacrificial works
GREEN - Study
BLUE - Meditation
PURPLE - Fasting
In some communities, participants keep a record of how many hours they spent in these forms of Palanca for a specific Weekend. Then each hour is represented by a link of the corresponding colour of paper. The links are made from paper strips, about 5 inches long and one inch wide. They are joined to form a paper chain. Everyone brings (or sends) their chains to be joined into one huge chain to be shown to the Pilgrims when they are told about Palanca.