A seven week online retreat for Catholic women.
For those of you coming to this blog for the first time, let me give you a little background of what ‘Stepping into it’ is all about.
It is loosely based on Holly Pierlot’s ‘A Mother’s Rule of Life’. It’s a series of ‘rules’ or ‘steps’ that serve as the backbone for a life of grace, pretty much as a ‘rule’ would for someone in a religious community. It helps in keeping in mind those things that are truly important and the goal in focus. You don’t have to be Catholic, but be aware that all posted will be from a Catholic Christian perspective. 😀
There is so much distracting us today. Some of it is not even necessarily bad, just not the best for us. If you have a goal in sight, and know what you are working towards then you can more easily see the choices you are making as either contributing to that ultimate goal or not.
My ultimate goal on this journey is union with God, and from there stepping out in obedience in all areas of my life. And what better time to bring that back into focus than at Christmas time…Emmanuel, God is With Us!
So just to give you an overview, the steps are...
- Self. Taking care of yourself first so that you have the energy required to do all else that God is calling you to. Akin to putting on your own oxygen mask first in case of an emergency, before tending to your children and others around you.
- Others/ Ministry. This is self explanatory. It’s about fellowship and joining together as brothers and sisters. Think of the Cross…if Self is the vertical beam reaching from you to God…then step two is the horizontal beam, reaching across to others. These two need to go hand in hand.
- Career. It’s similar to step 2 as it is about serving others but this time it is what God uses to provide for YOU financially so that you can continue to do His will in all He asks.You need to know your value, step 2 is about charity…this one is more reciprocal. An exchange of energies takes place. I’m a Capitalist by the way…socialism in my view has caused way more harm than good (just a little side note).
- Home. This is about all that it takes to make a home run smoothly. It’s our landing spot. Our Domestic Church.
- Parenting. This is about your children and your future.
- Marriage. All about the one chosen by God to be the person you do life with.
** What runs through all these steps or the ‘banister’ if you will…is God Himself, as we seek to do His will in all things. Also, ‘the steps’ are really in a circular arrangement so that step 6 and and step 1 actually feed off of each other.
My plan is to start focusing on these topics one week at a time, working backwards starting with step 6. So a ‘count down’ if you will.
- I will be blogging on the subject at hand and am looking for anyone who would like to contribute as well (please contact me if you are interested). I’d like the articles to stay focused on our weekly topics and come from a Catholic perspective, but I would also like them to be raw and real. So if you are struggling with a particular area don’t automatically assume that you wouldn’t be the right person to write about it..in fact you may just be what we need.
- I will be starting an online Facebook group for those interested in further prayer and discussion of these topics. I would ask whoever joins, that you commit to participating at least once a week. If you are struggling, that’s ok…let us know so that we can pray for you…don’t just abandon the group. I’m thinking this will be a small group, so if someone leaves it will leave a gaping hole in the discussions. I don’t want this to be a place for me alone to post…but for us to help each other grow. Not a place for a ton of memes either, we have the main page for that. So we will try to focus on the week’s topic. I know that life happens though, so I’m not super strict. Our page is https://www.facebook.com/Steppingintoit/, please join us there and then I will follow up with more details about the closed group.
- We will have fun! I want this to be a spiritual journey, open to the Holy Spirit. And that can be an amazing trip if we allow it!! 😀
So there are exactly 7 weeks from now until the Baptism of the Lord. So we shall start NOW. On the Feast of Christ the King! Could it be anymore perfect? So here is our schedule.
My final point is that this is NOT about perfection, mine or anyone else’s. We are all broken and imperfect, in need of a Savior. And that in itself can be the greatest blessing if you recognize it. My favorite saying is “Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead.Don’t walk ahead of me, I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.” So essentially that’s what this 7 week ‘retreat’ will be about. We will be using the steps just so that we can have some cohesiveness and all be on the same page. However, we will allow the Holy Spirit to take it from there. No one is ahead or behind, we will all just be ‘Stepping into it Together’. 😉