Young women across the Southeast gathered for the At the Well Eucharistic Retreat on Saturday, July 25 in Hanceville at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament. The event invited participants to enrich their spiritual well-being and discern what specific vocation God has planned for them.

The retreat, which is in its fifth year, included a spiritual talk on the Holy Eucharist, a Eucharistic Healing Service, a meet and greet with the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration, and a Q&A session. 

Sister Mary Faustina, the vocations director for the Sister Servants of the Eternal Word in nearby Irondale, delivered the event’s keynote talk. 

“Taking the time to make a retreat is very important to one’s spiritual life, and it is an encouraged practice within the Church that is largely forgotten,” said Sister. “The At the Well Retreat was a good opportunity for young women to experience how beautiful and life changing being in the presence of God is.” 

Sister Faustina stressed the necessity of selecting the right location before searching for the Living Water of God. “We’re talking about healing as a thirst for a union with God,” she said. “Mankind has been thirsting for God since Adam and Eve separated themselves from Him. Since then, God has been trying to teach man that He is the only One Who can satisfy that thirst.” 

Sister Faustina quoted from Father Jean Corbon’s 1988 book, The Wellspring of Worship: “How can men fail to dig where they think they might find water?” She believes the above question explains where much of one’s heartache originates from - a thirst for Jesus’ love. “Mankind is desperately searching to be satiated,” she said. “All too often, we’re looking in the wrong places to quench that thirst. I’d like for us to put ourselves in front of the Most Blessed Sacrament so that we can drink fully from the font that we are made for, which is the font of love and living water.”

However, partaking of the Living Water and benefitting from its healing effects often do not go hand in hand. “Frankly, it’s because we are selfish and we are sinners,” Sister Faustina pointed out. “So, we need to learn what to thirst for and how to set aside our pre-conceived ideas of how things should be. We need to sit at the foot of Jesus and we need to be healed. We need to learn how to really love, and in order to do that, we have to believe and know that we are loved by God.” 

Sister Fautina connected that challenge with the theme of the retreat - Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the Well of Jacob. Just as their conversation illustrates one’s need for God’s love, so does it exemplify God’s own thirst for the love of His children. “The Samaritan woman is encountering God’s thirst for her, which is awakening an awareness of the true thirst she’s always had for His love. God sought out that woman through His Son, and God poured out Himself through the Holy Spirit in order to make her one with Him. We need to come to the Lord and let Him have that same conversation with us.”

In establishing At the Well in 2022, the Poor Clares nuns saw the need for a young women’s retreat focused not so much on vocational discernment but as an emphasis on facilitating an encounter with the Eucharistic Lord. “We were delighted to welcome Sister Faustina as the featured speaker, knowing that she has a passion for bringing others closer to our Eucharistic Lord,” the nuns said. 

Apparently, Sister Faustina's message came across loud and clear at this year’s event. “It felt like Sister Faustina targeted the exact areas to reveal where I needed healing,” said one retreatant. “It revealed some deeper hurt I was not aware of. Seeing her pure joy to be Christ’s bride was purely infectious. I needed time alone with Our Lord, and the beautiful property couldn’t have been more conducive for reflection, penance, and prayer.” 

The retreat helped one participant end a lengthy period of “spiritual dryness” in her life. “I’ve been dealing with that for a while, and I really felt refreshed after the retreat,” she said. “I feel like I’ve experienced a very close personal encounter with Christ, closer than I have in a long time. Hearing a religious sister speak was enlightening and empowering. Anything that comes from God is lifesaving; I loved the peace it gave my heart!”

A first-time attendee of the retreat was awestruck about how powerful the presence of God she encountered at the Shrine. “I came seeking closeness with Him, and I received more than I imagined. He was all over me. I won’t ever forget the peace and understanding that this quite holy place provided my soul. It’s impossible to forget how I felt in His presence. I want to see God everywhere I am now, much more than I did before.”

A highlight of the retreat was a meet and greet with the Poor Clares in the monastery parlors. “We are all called to adoration, and this was a mutual experience of solidarity,” the nuns said in a joint statement. “These faith-filled ladies were sincerely seeking the Lord and desirous to return His Thirst for their love with their own. We were very moved by their gratitude and joy and for the opportunity to experience anew Our Lord’s compassionate love for them in the Eucharist. Their sincere love for their Catholic faith is a great sign of encouragement and hope for our suffering world.”

Father Barry Braum, who celebrated the retreat’s morning Mass and led the evening Eucharisitc Healing Service, addressed the need for the faithful to give God one’s complete trust and allow His complete control over one’s life. “Abandoning our souls to God is the hardest thing we’ll ever do; we just have to trust in the goodness and mercy of the love of God. The easiest way to practice for that abandonment is reiterating what we read in scripture of Who God is - He is love and He is good.” 

Father Braum touched on the importance of cultivating silence as a means to an end in one's prayer life. “We’re not trying to empty our minds while in prayer; we’re trying to fill our minds with truth,” he said. “Silence is more than the absence of noise; ours is silence with a purpose. Sometimes we need God to purify our prayer because we’re seeking the things of God, but not God Himself. We are looking for His gifts instead of looking for Him.”