Retreat held for religious educators

By Julie Keane, Globe staff reporter
May 20, 2004

Religious educators, youth ministers and pastoral personnel from around the Diocese of Sioux City gathered at Camp Okoboji for a religious retreat focusing on God's loving presence with prayers, reflections and group activities.

The overnight retreat was held on May 10 and 11 with Sister Nancy Lafferty, FSPA, as the guest presenter. Sister Nancy is from Sioux City where she has been a retreat leader for the past 14 years.

Linda Anderson, diocesan director of catechesis, said 24 people attended this year's retreat called Resting in God's Loving Presence. The retreat is held each year for spiritual leaders to reflect on their own spirituality.

"Most of the people are done with their religious education classes for the year so this is a time to unwind, relax and nurture themselves spiritually and interact with old friends and meet new people," Anderson said. "When you are involved in ministry, whether it's paid ministry or as a volunteer minister, you get so busy and so tense that sometimes your spirituality gets pushed on the backburner. For this short period of time, we can step back and be ministered to by someone like Sister Nancy."

Carolyn Von Tersch, DRE for St. Rose of Lima Parish in Denison said the retreat helped her meet new people from around the dioceses along with achieving a greater sense of calmness and peace.

"Finding the time for stillness and quietness helps rejuvenate my spirit," Von Tersch said. "Our world is so busy, as soon as we finish our list for today we have 20 things for tomorrow. It is really important to sit and reflect how the year has gone and recharge us and refill us from a draining year."

Lin Gacke, DRE at St. Mary's Parish in Rock Valley, also said the retreat provided a relaxing atmosphere for prayer and reflection. This was the first year Gacke attended the overnight retreat, and she said the retreat was not what she thought it was going to be when she decided to attend.

"I was expecting it to be more of learning type of retreat where we talked about more hands on type of things," said Gacke, who is a first-year DRE. "But it was a very reflective, prayerful time, which was very nice. Sister Nancy gave a lot of ideas and different types of prayer forms and gave us time to go out and reflect, meditate and pray."

Anderson complimented Sister Nancy's ability as a spiritual leader and her job with the retreat.

"Everyone seemed to enjoy it," Anderson said. "Sister Nancy did such a wonderful job. She has such a calming way of speaking and presenting things. There was a time to experience different types of prayer, meditation and time for small group sharing. It was a nice assortment and relaxing space of our time."

One memorable aspect during the retreat for Anderson was the Gathering and Prayer of Thanksgiving Dayenu. Dayenu is the a Hebrew word meaning that would have been good enough. Those in attendance were asked to look at their life and thank God for all they are given. Sister Nancy had members say, "had God just given me (something they were thankful for), that would have been good enough. An example Anderson remembers is, 'had God just given me the gifts of my children that would have been good enough.'"

Gacke remembers Sister Nancy asking them to pass a compliment to each other. Each person said something nice about someone else and the chain continued to each person that attended the retreat.

"We all shared with each other a compliment and passed it on," Gacke said. "It was a time when each person who was there passed something positive on to the next person. Sometimes you don't take the time to do that."

Anderson said the retreat offered time for prayer and reflection, and she hopes those attending continue to make time to focus on their spirituality as they did during the retreat.

"When you are at work or home it is hard to focus, but in a setting like that and with Sister Nancy leading us, it was so easy to allow ourselves to rest in God's presence," Anderson said. "We need to try to take that back with us and try to remember that experience and put ourselves in that place, which can be hard to do in our everyday setting."