By Elsa Baughman
This year, thanks to the invitation of a close friend, I finally went on a weekend retreat I have wanted to go to for at least 20 years.
Before I left though I had reservations because I am the kind of person who likes to pray but only for short periods of time, not all day. I thought I was going to be bored or restless. “Well, I will bring something to keep me entertained when I get bored,” I said to myself. And then, I forgot to pack the book I had planned to bring with me.
The experience was, to say the least, very rewarding. Nothing was as I had thought it would be, and the place, St. Mary of the Pines, well deserves being referred to as “holy ground.” It’s a place surrounded by woods, lakes, a place ideal to try to find peace, to quiet our lives, to praise God.
Sister Mary Ellen Theriot, a tall, slender School Sister of Notre Dame, kept me interested in her theme, “Wholeness, Finding Your True Self.” She made me realized I am more intuitive than sensate and helped me identify the stumbling blocks in my life that prevent me from finding my true self.
I was one of about 27 middle-aged women members and former members of Jackson St. Therese Parish who shared a weekend trying to reflect on our spiritual life, self-discovery and wholeness.
Sister Theriot told us it’s not an easy journey. It’s a challenge to become a person who truly loves God in wholeness. And she reminded us it is OK to love oneself first.
She told us about the false image some of us have of God and ourselves, of our cultural values versus our Christian values, of the fear of God, of our obsession to acquire material things because we think the more we have the happier we should be.
And of course that expectation people have of us and we have of others. “All that can slow the journey to find true self,” she told us.
And I reaffirmed my belief that it’s OK to pray to find a parking space. I told Sister Theriot I thought God wants us to ask him even for little trivial things like a parking space in a crowded parking lot.
Mary Alice Wink, a former St. Therese parishioner now living in Alabama, then read a short story in a book she had found in the library about a photographer from Australia who had traveled throughout the United States to take photos of beautiful places. The author wrote about an incident where after waiting for hours for a perfect time to take a photo, he decided to pray for a few minutes for good light and wind to take his photo. And he got it.
The retired sisters living at the center welcomed us graciously.
Some of the books Sister Theriot recommended for finding our true self include:
— “A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life” by Parker Palmer.
— “Open Door: A Journey to the True Self” by Joyce Rupp.
— “Please Understand Me: Character and Temperament Types” by David Keirsey and Marilyn Bates.
“If you Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get OUt of the Boat” by John Ortberg.
For information about retreats call St. Mary of the Pines, 601-783-3494.
