More links for the Archives subsection

Select One News Archives Faith Stories Archives Profiles in Faith Archives Thea Resources

WomanWell's quest: Promoting personal transformation

WomanWell, located on the East side of St. Paul, Minn., welcomes women and men to all programs.

What happens when it becomes apparent that “business as usual” doesn’t work any more? Sister Delmarie Gibney and the staff at WomanWell have faced this challenge and are charting a new course for the center. WomanWell has been re-created. Perspectives recently spoke with Sister Delmarie, director of WomanWell, to learn more about the transformation.

Perspectives: WomanWell has had a few different faces. Please summarize the history of this center.
The center opened in 1983 as the Franciscan Center for Wholistic Living. It started as a sabbatical program for women religious. Our ministry was the empowerment of women who needed a safe environment in which to do deep inner work. When women do their inner work in a community setting, they are able to go deeper more quickly.

The women stayed six, nine or twelve months. I saw such a transformation take place in these women. In 1996-97 we initiated monthlong programs which made it easier for some lay women and clergy women to attend. That program was successful for awhile.

In 2003 we celebrated 20 years as a sabbatical center. At that time many women were choosing alternative ways to do their inner work, rather than in residential sabbatical programs.

Perspectives: Changing your programming formula after twenty years must have been a big shift for you. What direction did you take?
Most people who come to WomanWell comment on the environment and the good energy they sense in the building. When the sabbatical program ended I wanted to create a similar opportunity for more women though in a different format, one that would honor their family and lifestyle commitments. In other words, a shorter time with more options such as weekends and weekly sessions extended over a longer period of time. We put a lot of energy and time into this new venture but it wasn’t to be.

When I stopped trying so hard I was asked if WomanWell would host the Spiritual Guidance Training Program and whether I would join the staff. It is a two-year program and we graduated 25 people in May. Over a two-year period a real transformation took place for those participants.

The program was started in 1990 and has had several locations. The participants meet for a long weekend 16 times over two years. What WomanWell provides is an intimate space; participants are able to eat together, and some stay over-night as well. That’s been a real gift that WomanWell has been able to offer to the program. The Spiritual Guidance Program in many ways has been our life line. It has given us many ways to minister and facilitate empowerment of people.

Sister Delmarie Gibney, left, leads a discussion group at WomanWell. Photo by Julia Walsh

Perspectives: What is the work of this newly transformed center?
If we look at what is going on in contemporary society, there is a real hunger for spirituality and a great desire on many people’s parts to wake up. It is absolutely key to our survival as a species. We are either going to wake up to who we are or we will destroy ourselves.

For me life includes the cosmic story, the new universe story and a recognition of our connectedness to the web of life. Everything we do, including our thoughts, affects everything else. It is so important that we wake up to our full potential. We are not this small ego self but rather enlightened beings though many of us are totally unaware of that fact.

There are many ways to do this work. We each have to find our own path to awakening. No one else has our answers. WomanWell creates the space, opportunity and resources for this.

Perspectives: What do you mean when you suggest we need to wake up?
We talk about being daughters and sons of God, that we carry within a spark of the divine and at our core we are divine. We say those words rather glibly and yet do we live in that reality? This is what we need to wake up to. It is true; we are divine at our core.

Our minds and our thoughts have taken over. Our minds are constantly thinking. We identify with those thoughts like they are our reality. That isn’t our reality, those are only thoughts. The mind is a wonderful faculty, but it is not who we are at our center. Our mind is given to us to manifest the Divine, but not to control us. For most people, their mind controls them.

We need to understand where we have come from and our intimate connection to all of life, that the Divine permeates all. Everything is a manifestation of the Divine. Everything is impregnated with the Divine.

Perspectives: What do people gain by doing this work at a spirituality center?
There is power and energy in a group. It helps you stay more focused. You can do it alone, but when there is an opportunity to study or meditate in a group setting with a common focus, there is great richness.

Perspectives: Your programs and methods encourage storytelling, why?
Stories are important. We live by stories, it is how we remember. Someone said to me, “The story is like the flesh on the bones,” it is how we make meaning out of life, how we understand life. People need to know their story. Bonding happens with one another when we can be vulnerable and share our story.

Perspectives: You talk about our cultural busyness and say we need to seek our authentic selves instead. Why should people make time for this work?

The reason we are here is to become our authentic selves. People say, “Why am I here, and what is my work?” The greatest gift we have brought is within us, and, if we do not know what that gift is, we will never be able to give it fully. I truly believe each one of us has brought a unique gift to this planet and no one else has that gift.

Perspectives: How would you describe WomanWell today?
WomanWell is a spirituality center serving the Minneapolis and St. Paul metro areas. The center has become home to a variety of groups who meet regularly. Women and men seek spiritual direction at WomanWell. Many come for days of reflection, retreats. The center is a gathering space.

Sister Delmarie Gibney has been the director of WomanWell since 1994. Besides leading the center, she is a teacher in the Spiritual Direction Training Program and a spiritual director and mentor for many seekers. For information on programming at WomanWell visit www.womanwell.org.

Click here to return to the Perspectives page.