DIOCESAN NEWS
03/16/07
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Retreat gives women spiritual lift, participant says

By Elsa Baughman
      RAYMOND — I have in my hands a small white rock which at this moment is representing the adversities and tribulations in my life that are blocking my inner peace and my relationship with God.
      Molly McCarthy and Claudia Addison have instructed me and about 30 other women to reflect on those hardships and to remove from our lives those stones that make us stumble so God’s love can flow more freely.
      At “Jesus, the Woman at the Well, and You,” a Lenten day of reflection for women held recently at the Priory of St. Moses the Black, McCarthy and Addison of Spirit Lifting Ministries, shared their own personal experiences and the choices they had made to change and improve their lives.
      Like the woman at the well, who shared with others in her village her encounter with Jesus, we were reminded of our responsibility as good Christians to tell others about our own living water and to fill others with the good news.
      They both said at moments in their lives they have felt as the woman at the well, preoccupied, and beaten down by their own burdens.
      During the day, we had several moments of silence. Some of us strolled around the quiet grounds of the Norbertine Priory which is nestled in a woody, secluded area in Raymond, examining the paths that delay our journey to a better life and concentrating on those areas       in our life that have been neglected.
      Next to me sat Rose Richard, a soft spoken woman from Guam, a member of Raymond Immaculate Conception Mission. She told me she attended the retreat to get a “spiritual lift.”
      “I think a retreat is the best way to enlighten our spiritual life, to focus back on our life and deal with our own feelings,” she confided.
      McCarthy and Addison of Jackson St. Richard Parish offer presentations for Christian retreats and gatherings in a format they call “Spirit Lifting Ministries.”
      Their retreat themes are: Strength for the Journey; Martha, Martha, Martha; and Come Fish with Me.
      All retreats can be adapted to either the six-hour mini-retreat format or a full weekend format. All fees are negotiable.
      For information call McCarthy, spiritlifting@bellsouth.net.; 601-942-9810.

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