WomanWell: Working to integrate tradition with new visions

 

by Betty Daugherty, FSPA
WomanWell is moving in new directions. The center, a place for spirituality and healing sponsored by FSPA in St. Paul, Minn., that once housed a sabbatical program for women religious has experienced a period of transition and is awakening to a broader mission. But it is a place that continues to draw people into the essence of their own lives.

“I’ve waited 30 years for a place like this,” says Kate Scully, a member of the operating board and St. Paul native. Kate found WomanWell when, feeling disenfranchised with the church, she began coming to the center for spiritual direction. WomanWell director, Sister Delmarie Gibney, introduced Kate to the spiritual direction program offered through the center. Kate believes her experiences at WomanWell have given her “a whole new outlook and vocabulary” for her faith life. She sees WomanWell as a “place where seekers can be rooted but also find their wings.”

Over a recent weekend an ongoing program, Spiritual Guidance and Leadership, brought 26 people to the center. The space WomanWell offers and the program itself are a good match for those who participate. “I come here to find leaven for my spirit,” says Laura Thompson, who drives two hours once a month for the weekend. “I’ve always had a deep relationship to God, but with the people I find here in this beautiful space, I’ve found more of what I need. It’s been life-changing.”

Another participant, Kathy Palmer, finds that her weekends at WomanWell give her a sense of community. “I like that this is a place where people of similar minds can meet and partake in sharing that is deep and wide,” she says. “I fill my own well. I find wealth for my spirit but then find ways to release it for others.”

Sister Delmarie has been the director of the center, formerly known as the Franciscan Center for Wholistic Living, for 15 years. The name and direction changed in 2001. Along with the operating board of WomanWell, Sister Delmarie now sees this FSPA resource as a space and environment where many people can come to be healed, become empowered and awakened to their full potential. For this to happen, she believes that “people need to feel safe, experience comfortable and aesthetic surroundings, and find a loving compassionate presence.”

The building itself has adapted well to the spiritual direction program and to at least a dozen other outside organizations who rent this sacred space for their activities. One such group, Well Within, works primarily with people suffering from cancer or other life threatening illnesses. Five rooms within the center accommodate large or midsized groups while smaller spaces are rented out for massage, spiritual direction, counseling, office space and similar functions. Recent renovations make the rooms more functional as well as attractive. A favorite spot for small groups is the newly renovated Hearth Room where a glowing fireplace welcomes guests.

In addition to renting space, WomanWell offers a wide range of programming by its staff. After Sister Delmarie taught a course on meditation, the group continues to meet weekly to pray together. Programs related to the works of Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry are used for discussion with people interested in the connections between spirituality and science. People are helped to build on their faith and connect it to the story of the universe. There are reflection days and sessions on mindfulness and living in the present moment. WomanWell also extends hospitality to FSPA and affiliates visiting the city.

Sister Marcie Anibas, chooses to bring her spiritual direction work to WomanWell. Sister Marcie has been associated with the center for 14 years and sees it as a place that began with the ministry of healing and continues with that work today. She believes that when people come to the center, their desire for spiritual transformation is well matched by what WomanWell has to offer. One of Sister Marcie’s observations made reference to Scott Peck’s book, People of the Lie, in which he writes of people sometimes crossing an invisible line toward evil. Once that line is crossed, a return is impossible. As a reverse of that theory, Sister Marcie has seen that once people begin to become more serious about giving spirituality a larger place in their lives, they too seem to cross into an area from which they simply cannot stop in their desire for a closer relationship to God. She sees this happening at WomanWell.

Board member Sister Joann Gehling sees WomanWell as an FSPA site that is central in carrying out the community’s Direction Statement, which gives priority to care of the Earth and concern for women. She cites the Spiritual Guidance and Leadership Program, which operates out of the center, as a good example of introducing the Universe Story in a way that invigorates and enriches our own personal stories.

At this time in its story, WomanWell is centered on providing space, resources and programming to help people connect their lives of faith more deeply within the larger story of the universe, and through this to create a more coherent sense of self. Its programs are a response to a great need of our time, that of personal inner growth.