Inside these brick walls a businessman found life was about more than his career. A mother found balance amid a race to meet the demands of her kids, workplace and home. People for 25 years have found peace.
"From the minute you walk in the door there is a sense of calmness and a sense of people being present to what is happening at the moment - it seems like your blood pressure drops several points immediately," said Brad Sturm, president of Coulee Bank and chairman of the spirituality center board.
The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration[who publicly supported taxpayer funded abortion] founded the Franciscan Spirituality Center [which has nothing to do with Franciscan spirituality] 25 years ago[that would put this at 1985..] in part of St. Rose Convent. Since then 246,000 people[almost 200 per week] have come through the doors, whether for retreats, relaxation, spiritual guidance, training to become spiritual directors or other programs hosted at the center. The center welcomed nearly 15,000 people last year - the most guests in a single year.
"They started it and said the Holy Spirit will guide us - and that's what happened," said Vince Hatt, director of the center. [Apparently He wasn't good enough. They are now guided by their Reiki "spirit guide"]
The start
People tend to think they are done with spirituality at confirmation, Hatt said. But as we grow older, we become more aware of our incompleteness and search for answers.[True]
"There is something incomplete about the human condition," Hatt said. "We believe that one is not complete until they have a relationship with a higher power[read Reiki] or the holy." [....right, so this must be a direct quote from St Francis while receiving the sacred stigmata]
The spiritual journey
The spirituality center helped Stephanie Swartz, mother and senior nursing consultant at Gundersen Lutheran, move out of the "fast lane" at a time when that style of living became a health crisis, she said.
Swartz said her life was tipping heavily out of balance. She drove her kids to activities, worked, cleaned the house and mowed the lawn, but never took a moment to slow down and be present.
"I come from a long line of women that take care of everyone and not themselves," she said.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002. It was a wake-up call and Swartz decided her journey to health would not only be medical, but spiritual. The center allowed her to take that journey with a community of like-minded people, she said. [Another great example of a person seeking the True Spirituality, which the Franciscan Spirituality Center denied her]
The spirituality center is a place she can be "more of a human being rather than a human doing," she said.
"The spirituality center has been the beacon in the fog," she said. [too bad nobody turned the light on]
Now Swartz sets aside time for meditation and contemplation every day. She is cancer free and is a resource to other women going through similar health challenges.
"I look at my life as a keel of a boat. If you are centered[centering prayer], so are the people you work with and your family," she said. "That is what transitions into being a good parent, wife, employee and leader."
Serving all
The spirituality center is dedicated to helping anyone find wholeness. Its broad vision has helped the center respond to the needs of the community as they arise, said Mary Kathryn Fogarty, FSPA, a former center director of 12 years.
"We are not sitting in an ivory tower thinking up something by ourselves," she said. "What is out there is inviting us to respond."
"We had yoga[what this is all about] almost from the beginning and other things that some people are disturbed about and question today[we are called Christians, thank you very much], but they are programs we've found helpful," said Kathleen Kenkel, FSPA, the center's first director. "The focus is not only on Catholics or deeply religious people, but anyone that wants growth with a spiritual direction." [...Doesn't matter if that spiritual growth is positive or negative I guess]
[The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in a field. Which a man having found, hid it, and for joy thereof goeth, and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. Again the kingdom of heaven is like to a merchant seeking good pearls. Who when he had found one pearl of great price, went his way, and sold all that he had, and bought it. -Matt 13 44-46 ]
Beth Erickson, a center board member, was initially attracted to the La Crosse women's writer's group at the center.
"This is a group of women who get together every two weeks and check their egos at the door," she said. "The atmosphere is transformational."
The writers' group has evolved to one that held its own conference, featuring author Kathleen Norris in March 2009. The conference, aimed at getting people to write for personal healing, drew more than 300 people from across the country, said Theresa Washburn, director of communications for the spirituality center.
"It's a place where we've grown, not just in writing skills, but in who we are and our confidence as women, writers and people," Erickson said.
Reaching out
The spirituality center today continues to be a mission of the FSPA[Hello Apostolic Visitation]. But it has evolved to include a broad cross section of the community extending well outside the convent walls. The board, originally all Franciscan Sisters, is now made up of 12 laypeople and three FSPA. [perhaps the FSPA is having some vocational troubles]
The center's spiritual direction preparation program - which initially trained a class of primarily Franciscan Sisters - now has 27 participants from all religious denominations and none are Franciscan Sisters, Hatt said. It's an in increasingly diverse, interfaith community of participants, he said. [Ecumenicism at its best!]
"It is very much interfaith, which I love," Swartz said. "Although I grew up Catholic, I've learned a lot about spirituality in a global sense." [LOL, thee most telling statement in the article]
The center has reached out to more people. In the late 1990s, the center started a certificate in servant leadership to bring community leaders spiritual and psychological grounding. In 2008 the center, in collaboration with a local coalition of congregations working on justice issues, AMOS Inc., started a program to provide more supportive relationships for people recently released from jail. [That is the same AMOS that partners with pro-abortion Center for Community Change and Gamaliel]
So, what will the center look like 10 years from now? "We don't know," Hatt said. [Maybe add some Wicca spirituality? ]
"That's the beauty when you are open to possibilities," Fogarty said. "We can carry on the history of the Franciscan Sisters.[Hardly] We can respond to what we see as the needs of this time." [Responded to a real need, but a glass of sand will not quench anyones thirst, Buddist or Catholic]
-end of article
The USCCB findings after studying Reiki is crystal clear. (Obviously the FSPA has already shown it does not acknowledge the authority of any bishop over their order)
Since Reiki therapy is not compatible with either Christian teaching or scientific evidence, it would be inappropriate for Catholic institutions, such as Catholic health care facilities and retreat centers, or persons representing the Church, such as Catholic chaplains, to promote or to provide support for Reiki therapy.-USCCB Guidelines on Reiki (pdf)
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