Sisters In Faith Women's Scripture Study/Share Group

The difference in our faith became clear to me on the day she found a host under the pew.  As Catholics we believe that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist.  When Vicki saw this partially chewed Eucharist on the floor she wept.  She didn’t see what I saw – a piece of bread.  She saw Christ rejected and abandoned.  She knelt there beside Him, took Him into her hands and carried Him reverently to the sacristy.  The tears continued long after she had taken care of Him.  It is an image that has stayed with me.  It is the picture of faith I long to understand and live myself.

When St. Francis moved from Brown Avenue to Sterling Way, much of the community we had known changed.  Our landscape altered – we didn’t have a parish hall anymore, we didn’t have a rectory, we were in transition.  As time passed some programs rebuilt and others didn’t.  Some of the people stayed at St. Francis, and some moved on to closer parishes.  New parishioners joined our community.  Life continued at St. Francis – but I was searching for a way to live my faith more deeply – to be more than a once-a-week Catholic.    

Vicki and I began talking about how to understand one another better, ourselves along with our church community.  We discussed the various groups who were part of the St. Francis landscape.  The Ladies Guild, the Outreach Ministry, Social Committee…each of these fulfilled a specific purpose within our church.  Vicki and I wanted to address Women’s Spirituality.  We felt a lacking – a need – a desire.  It seemed like so many Masses were filled masses of people arriving, sitting, and finally leaving.  We wanted to see joyous faces, light dawning, Christ living in our midst.  Mostly we wanted to know how other women in the church experienced God.     It is not that we thought no one was experiencing God.  We simply couldn’t see it – and we wanted to know it was there.  So we put out a notice, talked it up at Masses, and began Women’s Scripture Study Share Group. 

We have been meeting for over a year now.  Our first challenge was the book of Matthew.  We decided to tackle it one chapter at a time, using the Scott Hahn Ignatious Bible Study Guide of Matthew.  In the beginning – many of us discovered that reading scripture wasn’t always encouraged – and before Vatican II some felt it was not allowed.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly calls us to seek God in the scripture.  Paragraph 133: The Church "forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful. . . to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures. Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.”

In our study we focus on the Application questions – where we have to figure out how the chapter applies to our lives.  As one of our women said last week – “These questions are like Confession.”  We are doing some serious soul-searching – sometimes uncomfortable sharing – making discoveries about how we think – and trying to get out of the box we’ve been in.  Sometimes we are called out of our comfort zone – these times bring growth.In a couple of weeks we will have completed this study and will begin a new study book – Characters of the Old Testament.      

What have we discovered this year?·             

  • God has a sense of humor.  Each week there were always laughs – from Twinkies to cremation – there was always something that could make us smile.·             

  • Our faith is deep enough for tears…we cried about memories, and current heartaches.  We shared our sadness, and our joy.·             

  • We knew more than we thought we did.  Much of what we read we recognized from hearing it in Mass week after week.·             

  • We didn’t know everything.  There were times when something struck us in a way that it never had before – almost as if we were hearing it for the first time.·             

  • We could respect and love one another – we became friends.  People that I wouldn’t have ever thought to talk to became people I could greet at Mass, and share knowing looks with from across the church.  I could sit with them if I was at church alone, and I could count on them to check on how things were going with me. ·             

  • We realized that we weren’t alone in the search for something more.  We discovered community.·            

  • Most importantly – we read the whole story of Christ as told by Matthew.  We spent a year discovering who Christ is and what he did for us.  Yeah – we all already knew the story – but now we understood Matthew’s perspective, and also had the benefit of 12 other women’s insights and reflections.

Every week we light our 3-wick candle and begin and end with prayer.  Often we offer petitions for one another- for our friends and families, for Father Dennis, our Parish, and our school children.  We pray for an increase in faith in our parish – for young people to be inspired to become priests and religious, for people to desire a closer relationship with Christ, for the lost to be found.  We pray for ourselves – that we will continue the good work begun in us.  Our scripture study has truly become all that we hoped for – and more.  

There is always coffee, sometimes refreshments, and of course a loving acceptance that can only come from time spent in community.  We love one another as Christ showed us.  We know one another’s joys and sorrows, we care about who comes each week – and pray for those who cannot be present.  We are Christ for one another.  If you are a woman – consider joining us on Thursday nights from 7:00PM-8:30ish.