“If You Build It, They Will Come”

“If you build it, they will come.”  These words echoed through my mind as I looked out one of our windows this past Saturday morning and watched car after car turn into our driveway and make their way to our motherhouse. 

Yes, these words are from the movie Field of Dreams but they are also words that God has spoken to us throughout the short history of our community.  From very early on, the Lord began to show us He desired a place where His children could come and find healing and His love; and as our chapel and motherhouse were being built in 2010 God continued to speak these words with more intensity and frequency.  If we build Father of Mercy Chapel, His children will come!

And come they did!  On March 21^st, we hosted our first day retreat at Father of Mercy Chapel.  The theme was “Joyful Surrender to Christ Crucified” and around 90 retreatants gathered for a day of talks, testimonies, small group sharing, Mass, and more!

With talk titles “Joyful Surrender” and “Suffering as a Means of Intimacy with Christ” and testimonies to accompany them the sisters provided retreatants with numerous things to think about and take to prayer. 

I shared a story of surrender about a little girl and her pearls (Read the whole story here: http://www.godswork.org/emailmessage21.htm ) and invited everyone to an encounter with Christ, and through Him the Father.  After all, when we know God wants the best for us we can more readily hand over what we are clinging on to. 

Sr. Carrie Ann helped us all to have a better understanding
of suffering and how to concretely “offer up” our sufferings with Christ on the cross. 

At the end of the day all of the retreatants were able to spend an hour before the Lord in Eucharistic Adoration and through times of silence and a few songs, they were invited encounter the Living God and offer Him what was on their hearts.

While the entire day was filled with countless graces, many were particularly blessed by a time of being prayed with individually.  It was such a sacred time for each retreatant to hear God speaking words of encouragement just for them. 

Healing tears were shed, hearts were lifted, and lives were changed.

What was so beautiful for me (and I think I can speak for all of the sisters in this) was to have the opportunity to open our home and share our place of prayer and see before our very eyes God’s faithfulness to His words “If you build it, they will come” .  We pray that many more will come and encounter God’s merciful love!

-Sr. Sophia Grace Huschka 

All of the talks were recorded!
Click here to listen