Retreat brings Southwest Deanery women together

Friday, Oct. 16, 2015

CEDAR CITY — About 70 women from Catholic parishes throughout the southwest portion of Utah gathered Oct. 10 for a day of spirituality and friendship during the “Empowering Women of Faith” retreat held at Christ the King Catholic Church. 

The retreat, sponsored by the Southwest Deanery, was meant as a way for the Catholic women in the region “to get to know each other, because we have a lot in common,” said Judy Greene, deanery president and a member of the St. Paul Center in Hurricane. “We are women of faith; we are women who can make a difference in our community.”

Speakers for the retreat were Mary LeBaron, the deanery vice president; Toni Foran, a St. Paul Center member; and Holy Cross Sister Yvonne Hatt, the deanery’s spiritual moderator.

LeBaron spoke on the ancient spiritual practice of lectio divina, which she discovered recently after losing four family members over a short period of time. 

“I was overwhelmed with a sense of loss,” LeBaron said. “I did not lose my faith, but I did lose my ability to pray.” She felt that God was far away, “and I couldn’t figure out a way to get back until I found lectio divina. Lectio divina is a way to read Scripture and to grow closer to God.” 

The practice, in which one reads a Scripture passage, then reflects and prays about it, is a way to take what is heard at Sunday Mass and carry it through the week, LeBaron said before leading the retreat participants through a lectio divina session.

Foran’s presentation focused on women who model Christian virtues. While she told the stories of some saints from past ages, such as St. Therese of Avila, she also spoke about more modern women such as Edith Stein, also known as St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, because “we learn from women from long ago, but we need to find examples that can help us today, in our own journeys now,” Foran said.

Stein’s “advice is very important today,” Foran said. “She wanted women to be challenged, to be not only nurturing and generous, but to be knowledgeable and strong and brave. … She cautioned that attentiveness to loved ones can cause a woman to stake her self-worth on the achievements of her children and her husband, rather than her own identity as a child of God.”  

Foran also mentioned several books that she has read that helped her on her spiritual journey, including “My Sisters the Saints” by Colleen Carroll Campbell.  

Christ the King parishioner Julia Talbot, who attended the retreat, said she wrote down the book titles, and “I can’t wait to get hold of them and read them.” 

Wrapping up the afternoon, Sr. Yvonne urged participants to not be discouraged during lectio divina if nothing strikes them while they are praying; that happens to her, she said, but then later in the day she will have an ‘ah-ha’ moment.

Sr. Yvonne also urged those at the retreat to get to know other Catholic women. “The more you share your prayer with somebody else, the more it’s yours,” she said. “We can help each other blossom.”

In addition, she reminded the women that “as we’re doing our little things in our parishes and in our churches and in our neighborhoods … know that we’re doing something for God.” 

Among those at the retreat was Adele Burbridge of St. Christopher Parish, who said she attended because “it’s important to be a part of a women’s group to see what others are doing as well.” The day inspired her to try to reach out to other people in her parish to get them involved, she said. 

In addition to adding to her reading list, Talbot said the retreat reminded her that “women have been powerful even all the way back in the old days. … We forget that women before were just so important, and I love to be reminded of that.”