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Women’s Retreat Brings "Peace of Mind" and Engagement with God's Word
The numbers may have been slightly less from previous years due to COVID concerns, but the message heard by the 40 women attending our Women’s Retreat in November was that of God’s unconditional love for us and a call to be open to Him at all times.
Peace of Mind” was the theme for the retreat held Nov. 1214 at the Sarto Retreat House in Evansville. Anne Trufant of Brevard, N.C. was the retreat leader. She conducts retreats around the world and led a retreat here two years ago. Anne earned her Master's in social work at LSU and helped found Hosanna House, a home for unwed mothers in Baton Rouge, La. For the last 30 years, Anne and her husband David, have lived in Brevard — the couple owns and directs Camp Kahdalea for girls and Camp Chosatonga for boys.
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Krista Greenfield, a member of St. Benedict’s Retreat Committee, met Anne in 2006 when Krista’s daughter attended the girls’ camp. Krista became a “camp mom” and became friends with Anne. She had hoped even then to have Anne lead a retreat here.
“Anne lives completely by the Word,” Krista says. “She hits you and gets you fired up about your faith. She is truly fantastic! She uses a lot of Scripture, and has some music in there.” There were no discussion groups during the retreat. Instead, there were breakout times that gave those attending a chance to socially distance through either a walk outside, meditative yoga, Stations of the Cross, or simple prayer in the chapel. Fr. Godfrey offered Mass on Saturday night, and the retreat ended Sunday morning. Throughout the retreat, Anne’s talks helped those attending grow in their relationship to Christ. “When she gives a talk and brings in Scripture, the way she does it gets you excited about being faithful and encourages you to pick up the Bible,” Krista says. “She just reiterates that this is His Word and that’s always a good message to hear. She gave us a lot of food for thought, and she makes you feel you are good enough. As Catholics, often we feel we’re not worthy. But we are all worthy and God is waiting to bring us in.”
Anne’s message also encouraged the women to recognize the intense pace of life they live and to realize there is a need to slow down.
Anne Trufant of Brevard, N.C. led our Peace of Mind retreat this past November.
“She told us to pray all day,” Krista says. “We need to have an open line with Him at all times. It was just a good, solid reminder of who we are, and what we should be doing.”
While Anne’s message was one of growing closer to God, the women attending experienced a bonding among themselves as sisters in faith.
“There were people there who were hurting and there were those who wanted to be there but couldn’t be due to COVID concerns," Krista says. "But when you were with other women, when Anne was talking, you looked around and saw their faces, you realize we’re all in the same boat. It was specifically language we all understood. When you are together in person and someone gives you good stuff, it is a fantastic moment.”
Plans are underway for a women’s retreat for this next year. The committee will conduct a survey to gauge what worked and what did not.
“We were tip-toeing because of COVID,” Krista says. “We always listen to people and hopefully in another year, the pandemic will be behind us. We’d like to get some younger women next year. We’re willing to try to do that. Cindy Howard, the committee Chair, always does a bang-up job organizing the retreats.”
