By Karen Boeck
Writing this article was a Spiritual adventure for me. These women who were interviewed glowed with their sharing of how “The Day” became a reality. Joan Murphy, the lead, organized and contacted other Spiritual Advisers for our Day of Reflection. “Glory be to God that we have three Spiritual Advisers in our conference.” This correlates with the symbol of the Trinity. Joan is assisted by leaders Denise Steffen and Veronica French. There is a difference in each of us; we came together as a team. “We all brought our gifts to be one body;” as stated by St. Paul.
Roger Bourque, Spiritual Adviser for our District 3, reached out to all conferences to have a Day of Reflection. He suggested conferences take turns annually. Joan had gone to Roger’s Day of Reflection at St Clare of Assis; in her words: “he really did a great job explaining contemplative prayer”. Roger is really trying to bring the Spirituality of St Vincent de Paul to our district.
The team met and Joan asked, “what is God saying to you?” The answer was “Drawing Closer to Christ” – the theme as found in our conference rule book. Denise chose to speak on the Eucharist/Adoration, Veronica chose Scripture Journaling, and Joan chose Prayer Walk/Visio Divina. They met several times and continued sharing. Joan took the lead in the organizing and Denise and Veronica took care of all the food preparations, as each woman prepared her own presentation.
Roger graciously stepped in for Joan, as she was unavailable due to illness on this day. Roger again did an excellent job of explaining contemplative prayer. Deacon Marty opened with prayer and did a marvelous job of integrating all the ladies’ components. Deacon spoke of his own past experience with his family’s connection to St. Vincent de Paul and added a bit of humor. Many thanks to Roger Bourque, Deacon Marty Pogioli, and our amazing Spiritual Advisers, Joan, Denise, and Veronica. Also, a big thank you to those who assisted in hosting the event.
Feedback was incredibly positive from all the forty-six attendees.
Their Spirituality brings excitement to all our members!
