Diocesan ministers attend overnight retreat to sustain spirit

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
Jan. 18, 2007

OKOBOJI - A retreat held in the Diocese of Sioux City for religious educators, youth ministers and pastoral ministers was designed to help sustain their spirit.

The overnight retreat, Sustaining the Spirit, held Jan. 7 and 8 at Camp Okoboji was presented by Michael Carotta, a nationally known author and speaker from Omaha.

Bev Hurni, director of the Office of Adult and Family Ministry for the diocese, had previously experienced a retreat led by Carotta and wanted to share the experience with ministers in the diocese. The program is based on a book written by Carotta and his wife, Catherine, called "Sustaining the Spirit."

"He (Carotta) led us in a reflection about our vocational callings," said Hurni about the first evening. "He named three of them. One is our call to faith - our relationship with God. Another is the call of work - for some of us that is ministry, for others they have other full-time jobs and volunteer in ministry. The call of relationships - who am I in relationship with?"

She added that the call of faith is how someone is to live and the call of work is about what a person wants to do with his or her life. The call of relationships is different for each person. Married people have their spouse and children, religious sisters have their community and single people have their friendships and family.

"He had us reflect, if we were to draw a circle for each of these three things, how much do they overlap and influence one another? How much do they assist one another? How much do they pull each other apart? Such as the tensions between my job and my family," said Hurni.

The second day Carotta talked about the challenges to the three callings.

"Sometimes they might be challenges that arise within us like we may have superhuman expectations on ourselves," said Hurni. "Sometimes they are challenges that exist outside of ourselves like experiences of inequity and injustice."

Hurni continued that Carotta presented practices that the attendees could incorporate into their lives "that would help us sustain the spirit of our vocations."

Jessica La Fleur, director of youth and young adult ministry in the diocese, pointed out that she learned that all three of the circles need to be connected but the circles cannot be one.

"I think it went very well," said La Fleur. "We had a lot of positive responses from the people. It was a great balance between having fun, relaxing and being contemplative - thinking about where are we with our ministries, how we feel about where we are and what can we do to make ourselves better individuals."

She hopes that those attending gained insight "about how we can, as ministers, keep our hearts in the ministry first. I hope they found within the community that they are not alone."

This retreat is held annually, usually in May, noted Hurni. This year about 25 people attended the retreat.

"A lot of times as ministers we spend so much time preparing the kids for sacraments, helping the parents understand what we are doing, writing lesson plans and checking lesson plans. Youth ministers are planning a trip and getting forms," said La Fleur. "We are doing a lot of ministry things that don't always have ministry heart. This gives us an opportunity to re-center ourselves and say, 'We are doing this first and foremost for evangelization for Christ.' Then it gives deeper meaning as to the work that we do."

Among those in attendance was Karen Schwaller, DRE at St. Joseph Parish in Milford.

"I work hard with the religious ed board in our parish to make an active year for our students," said Schwaller. "Because you work really hard planning all those things and getting it carried out, you feel like you need to bring it back to yourself once in a while. You have to sustain that spirit of giving and learning as much as you can."

She mentioned that the speaker used the analogy of a blue flame, in the furnace or stove, that needs to be protected "so it can heat what it needs to heat. That flame can easily be blown out if it is not nurtured and taken care of."

"I learned that it is important to take the time to relax and let it be okay to do that, so your blue flame doesn't go out," said Schwaller.

Jose Fuentes, a parishioner at Storm Lake St. Mary Parish, assists with the Hispanic youth program and decided to attend to learn more about the spiritual aspects of working with youth.

"I learned about my weak spots," said Fuentes. "There are three different circles - faith, work and relationships. My weak spot was relationships - how is my faith in relationships? It made me see my weak spot. I am always caught up in helping out at the church, but by doing that you can lose your family from it, too, if you don't take care of it. You have to balance it."

Gayla Bush, DRE for kindergarten through fifth grade at Immaculate Conception Parish in Cherokee, decided to attend the retreat because she felt a need for rejuvenation for herself.

She learned that "it is okay if I don't get everything done. It is okay if things aren't always perfect. We have to feel good about ourselves, too. Providing everything for everyone else our own spiritual growth kind of gets put to the side."