ROGERS — Jane Quinn is committed to helping women grow in their faith.
As the director and facilitator for Women Growing in Faith, a Bible study group at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Rogers, she is able to help women understand Scripture more deeply.
Quinn has been acting as facilitator for the group for the past two years. She and her husband moved from Florida and retired here to be near their son and his family. However, Quinn brought with her the experience of years as a retreat leader in two parishes in Florida.
“The Lord is so interesting in how he provides,” she said. “One of the women in Orlando had just moved from Miami where they had been doing the Emmaus retreats there. She asked if I would be interesting in dovetailing what I was doing with the Emmaus retreats. We met and discussed it and that was one of the first Emmaus retreats I had ever given. That was in 1984,” Quinn said.
In working with the planning and preparations for the retreats, Quinn discovered another need in the parishes.
“After my retreat at Holy Family Parish (in Orlando in 1992), my daughter and daughter-in-law both wanted to do something spiritually as a group of young women and they needed someone to get something going in the parish there,” Quinn said.
She then began to facilitate at their Bible study group.
As a result of her study and preparation, Quinn has written a series of three retreats specifically for women.
“In the first one, we focus on God the Father and our relationship to him,” she said. “The second one is ’From Rags to Riches: The Cinderella Story,’ using the Book of Solomon. The third one examines the Book of Esther, as she goes out into the world, risking everything,” she said.
In her retreats, Quinn found that “the Lord really runs it if I get myself out the way. The Holy Spirit comes and touches the lives of women. They bond and help heal each other. We share what has happened in our own lives. One of the prayers that I have for the women is that each one will have some touch of inner healing.”
Quinn usually leads two or three retreats a year in Rogers and Fort Smith. On April 23-24, her second annual retreat, ’From Rags to Riches’ will be held at St Scholastica Retreat Center in Fort Smith. The cost is $80. For more information, call (479) 254-0033.
Women Growing in Faith has been meeting for the past 11 years, starting with a small number of participants. Not only have the locations changed over the years but the number of members as well. Today the group has a roster of 25 women who attend the weekly meetings in Quinn’s home.
Parishioner Carole Dufour has been involved with the meetings since the beginning. In preparation for the Jubilee Year in 1999, she wanted to respond to the call for adult education formation. It was the opportunity to study Scripture in more depth that inspired her to form the group.
“I enjoy reading Scripture but often struggle to understand and interpret it. Doing Scripture studies helps me to understand it better and to learn how to apply it in my personal life,” Dufour said.
Targeting young mothers, she and others like Patti Brunner continued to reach out to women in the parish. Living in a state with a small percentage of Catholics, Brunner said, “In the beginning I had a desire to share with others the richness of the Catholic faith I had discovered. There is a sort of symbiosis, a Holy Spirit ’energy’ as we come together.”
Women Growing in Faith is defined, according to Quinn, as “an organization of Catholic Christian women committed to encouraging a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ, pursuing spiritual, mental and emotional growth and healing and spreading this love and healing with their families, parish and community through their daily examples.”
Jayci Schmitt joined the Bible study group recently. An apparel buyer for 19 years, Schmitt lost two jobs in quick succession because of the economy.
“During the introductions at the meeting, I told the group that I was able to start attending the group because I had just been laid off from my job,” she said. “I wanted them to pray for me to get a job or we could pray that I could continue coming to their study. Three weeks into this round of unemployment, I was offered a job working out of my home with an extremely flexible schedule and freedom to continue with my Bible studies and volunteer work. I am overwhelmed at what God is doing in my life and I am so grateful.”
This spring, the group is using the Courageous Bible study series for women from Emmaus Road Publishing in their sessions. The current book, “Courageous Generosity: A Bible Study for Women on Heroic Sacrifice” by Stacy Mitch was written especially for women. The group uses the Bible and the Catechism of the Catholic Church to supplement their study.
