Retreat aims for individual parish involvement

By KENNY KEANE, Globe staff reporter
February 6, 2003

For the last several years, an annual adult retreat has been held in Early. Although this jurisdiction of parishes in northwest Iowa is called the Sioux City Diocese, Early has actually become known as the central point of the diocese.

Keeping that in mind, when one tries to solve a problem, often they will try to get to the focal point or center of the issue to find the solution. Therefore, if there is something that needs fixing in the lives of those within the diocese, it seems appropriate that a gathering is held in the center of the diocese as a means to spread the corrective response.

This year's retreat, held from 1 to 4:30 p.m. on Jan. 26 at Sacred Heart Church in Early, focused on "Seeing the Holy in the Ordinary."

According to Bev Hurni, director of family ministries for the diocese, one of the goals of the retreat was to help people be more aware of the closeness of God's presence in their lives.

"We often miss that because we get too busy or we don't have the tools," she said. "We taught them a prayer method called, 'Lectio Divina,' that helps people to reflect. If you spend some time in prayer, then throughout the day you notice things more."

One of the retreat participants, Marilyn Snyder, said she took note of a particular phrase that got her thinking that taking time out to reflect, as was done at the retreat, is a good thing.

"I read something not too long ago that said, 'Non-exposure to the Son can cause burning.' I like that," said Snyder, a parishioner at St. Mary Church in Storm Lake. "It doesn't hurt to sit back and reflect a little bit. It's not a forced time out, but it is kind of a time out to take a look at your spirituality and how you can improve."

During the retreat, three separate talks attempted to improve how one interprets what they see.

"One of the talks was on the concept of home and your spiritual home with God," said Julianne Gilbert, another parishioner at Storm Lake St. Mary's who served as a speaker at the retreat and also helped plan the event. "The second talk was on what we called 'Crumbs,' where you see God's presence in the little daily details of life - those things we often just overlook. Then the third was on the Lectio process.

"I think what people left with is, from the first two talks, they were considering things in daily life as holy that before they had only seen as ordinary. Then through the Lectio process, that was more of a directed learning talk. That one took those points of finding God in the daily things and then moving into a very directed form of prayer."

Gilbert said once the participants had the steps involved in practicing "Lectio Divina," they could go home and do that without any further assistance.

However, they would need to assist their fellow parishioners if they intend to hold a similar retreat at their own parish, which Hurni said was the main purpose of this retreat.

"I think there's a spiritual hunger among people to deepen their relationship with God," she said. "This is one of the opportunities we offer in the diocese for adult faith formation. Often people are not able, because of time constraints, to travel to attend the diocesan retreat, but they might if it were offered locally."

One misconception Gilbert pointed out is that people seem to assume that this is only for directors of religious education (DREs) or pastoral ministers. Although they are a part of the target group, she said it is really for any individual who's looking to expand both their own personal faith and then the faith within their parish.

"We get so involved in the goings and doings of a parish that we often forget the little instances of the presence of God that happen every day and the times that we're called to be his presence in little ways to our fellow parishioners," Gilbert said. "I think having this retreat in your home parish could bring forth that kind of spirituality that you don't have to have a titled job or be considered a learned or very holy person to be the presence of Christ to each other."