Retreat draws young women to learn about religious life

Discernment groups for women getting started, to continue dialogue begun at retreat

Published: February 4, 2012

By Phyllis Hemann
Associate Editor

Women religious from nearly every order in the state join 27 young women for the first Women's Discernment Retreat at St. John Center in Little Rock Jan. 13-14.

Women religious from nearly every order in the state join 27 young women for the first Women's Discernment Retreat at St. John Center in Little Rock Jan. 13-14.

Twenty-seven young women flocked to the diocese's first Women's Discernment Retreat Jan. 13-14 at St. John Center in Little Rock.

The women surprised them with their enthusiasm, Sister Joan Pytlik, DC, the diocese's minister for religious, said.

"For this many young women to be willing to admit to being open to God's call and religious life, that's something special," she said.

The young women had a unique opportunity at the retreat to find out about religious life, when many of them come from areas where they have not met or seen a sister before.

"It gives women options in the Church. Most young women have never met a sister anymore. There's a lot of feeling among religious women and men too, and among girls, that the Church is always promoting diocesan priesthood, but not much on religious life. That's relatively new in the Church over the last couple of decades, probably because there are now so few sisters working in schools, hospitals and other traditional places," Sister Joan said. "It's faded out of the mind of people. We just need to rearticulate what the gift of religious are to the Church."

The women were high school and college age. Religious women from orders around the state came to the retreat and spoke about their calls to religious life.

"Many of them said they come from areas where religious are not really evident in their community and they think God's calling them to work for the church and they don't know what that means," said Liz Tingquist, diocesan youth and campus ministries director.

During the weekend, there was time for talks by religious, panel discussions, Lectio Divina ("divine reading" where one prays using Scripture), small group sharing and private prayer.

The sisters shared their stories of their calls to the religious life, and the girls saw they were very normal, Sister Joan said. They related stories of leaving a love, falling in love, parents who were against it and finding a vocation again after marriage, children and divorce.

Sister Joan, who spoke at the retreat, said she will organize discernment groups for those who attended and want to join. Sixteen of the women indicated they wanted to join a small group that would continue with discernment after the retreat.

The retreat is the first of its kind offered by the diocese in many years, and the young women said they felt the diocese was offering them a special opportunity, Tingquist said.

"Who do they go to? They can go to a priest, but a priest can't speak about the details of female religious life. Some of them established relationships with the religious, so they can have ongoing conversations with them," Tingquist said. "It was very low pressure. They felt comfortable. This was important to me, because I didn't want them to feel pressured. I wanted them to be open."

Juliane Pierini, a sophomore at the University of Central Arkansas, was one who wasn't sure if the weekend would be focused on strong-arm recruiting tactics.

"I almost didn't go, but I changed my mind after our pastor encouraged us to go," Pierini said.

Pierini went with five others from UCA, and Father James Melnick, associate pastor at St. Joseph Church in Conway, drove them to and from the retreat.

"What I was expecting was for it to be really formal and dry," she said. "It was really cool to see how down-to-earth the religious were. They were very sweet, open and happy. They thought it was beautiful that we're open to religious life."

Pierini grew up in Little Rock, so she was familiar with women religious. The support of others is crucial to women in trying to find their path, she said.

"All Catholic women should at least give some thought to religious life. It doesn't get much positive attention, so many don't consider it. Most young women today probably don't give it a thought. It was eye-opening for me. It's given me more of a boost in my discernment. It's put it back on the radar for me. After this weekend some said they could see this kind of life for them. For me, I'm one of them. It was a really beautiful weekend," Pierini said.