Sixty-six Paulist Associates from across North America came to the group’s 2009 retreat at the St. Therese Retreat Center in Columbus, Ohio.   ENLARGE PHOTO | START SLIDESHOW

A Paulist Associate takes time for personal reflection at the grotto on the grounds of the St. Therese Retreat Center. ENLARGE PHOTO

They came from the four corners of North America because they were called. They were called to be, called to reach out, called to bring peace and called to unity.

This common call is what drew 66 Paulist Associates for a weekend retreat June 12-14 to the St. Therese Retreat Center in Columbus, where the Paulist Fathers staff the St. Thomas More Newman Center at The Ohio State University.

Father Frank DeSiano, CSP, director of the Paulist Associates, said the Columbus “raised the bar very high” for the annual retreat.

“This is our time,” he told the retreatants. “This is our time to connect with (Paulist founder) Father Isaac Hecker, to find out how his spirituality resonates within our own hearts, and how we can be a gift to the Paulist community as Paulist Associates.

The Paulist Associates were formed in 1998 in order to allow lay people, including non-Catholic Christian men and women, to have a more intimate connection with Paulist spirituality and charism by making a commitment to embody the ideals of the Paulists in their daily living. There are now approximately 225 Paulist Associates in more than 10 cities across North America.

“We are hugely proud of the Paulist Associates in Columbus,” said Father Larry Rice, CSP, director of the St. Thomas More Newman Center at the Ohio State University in Columbus, in welcoming the retreatants. “Their support and spirituality mean so much. They fuel and sustain our ministry.”

In planning the event, co-chair Becca Schott the retreat was a “wonderful opportunity” for the Columbus associates to focus on the Paulist charism and what aspects of that charism to lift up during the retreat.

“It has energized (the Columbus associates) and brought us closer together,” she said.

Molly Sutkaitis, a three-year Paulist Associate from St. Peter Parish in Toronto, Canada, saw the best in human nature in how the associates interacted with one another.

“I am in the right place,” she said. “I am right where I am supposed to be.”

Paulist seminarian Rich Andre catches up with Chicago Paulist Associates Maryann Cushing (left) and Dorothy O’Malley. ENLARGE PHOTO

The first retreat session focused on the individual Paulist Associates, encouraging them to focus on what brought them to become an associate and provided spiritual sustenance by reenacting St. Paul’s conversion to Christianity, some of Father Hecker’s writings on being called, a guided meditation and time for silence.

“We come here with a spiritual thirst because we are called,” session leader Katherine Murphy-Mertzlufft shared with the group. “By the very nature of our being, God calls us.”

Toward the end of the session, Mrs. Murphy-Mertzlufft , a Columbus associate of nine years, told the retreatants that “we are called to grace through our encounters with the Risen Christ. … We are invited into the uniqueness and giftedness to come into the fullness of our being.”

The time of silence, which lasted from the end of the session until morning prayer the next day, was the best part of the retreat for William Blanke, a Paulist Associate from Immaculate Conception Church in Knoxville, Tenn.

“Silence is when you hear God talking to you,” said Mr. Blanke, who became an associate in January. “The more silence, the better the retreat.”

The sessions that followed focused on the three main parts of the Paulist charism, the first being evangelization. Focusing on the writings of St. Paul and Father Hecker, the retreatants pondered in large and small groups about reaching out in faith.

Session team member Karl Brown shared with the group, “We all have gifts we can share, gifts that can be an extension of ourselves. … We find our mission and hope I being with others. We are all called to evangelizers, to openly engage in discussion with others what is truly important to me and my faith.”

“St. Paul is considered the apostle of reconciliation,” said session leader Bob Cannon. “So as Paulist Associates, we are called to proclaim the Good News with our daily lives, within our own communities.”

The associates discussed the ways in which they bring peace to the world, as individuals and as part of their larger communities.

“We gather around the Lord’s table to be nourished, and then we are sent as missionaries to live a life of intentionality toward love, peace, justice, forgiveness and healing,” Mr. Cannon said.

Can you reach out and bring peace with a fist or a knife or a gun?

This is one of the first questions asked by session leader and event co-chair Leroy Hushak. The retreatants were challenged to look at their personal barriers to unity, be it fear of the unknown, prejudice or whatever prevents unity.

The group was then asked to recognize the barriers in others that prevents unity, and how they deal with those barriers.

“God’s love calls us to overcome our fears, our prejudices, our hurts,” Mr. Hushak said. “God calls us to unity.”