We send and receive messages constantly on our collection of digital devices. They represent constant noise demanding our attention and ever-growing to-do lists that inundate our ability to reflect, pray, and sense God’s presence in our lives.
Two initiatives run by Catholic organizations in Bucks County are giving people in Philadelphia and across the Delaware Valley a chance to unplug, slow down, and listen to the Lord through similar spirituality programs set within God’s creation and community.
Be Still Saturdays, created by Afire Ministries, and Theology on the Trail, a program from F.L.A.M.E. Ministries, are each offering a morning and early afternoon program on Saturday, Aug. 23 to draw people from the rat race and into a natural setting, allowing them to quiet their souls with other Catholics in prayer and meditation.
“Be still. We need to be still and know,” said Nina Marie Corona, founder of Afire Ministries. “The winds, the Holy Spirit, everything comes to life. Our faith and these things that we know intellectually come to life when we get out there and we experience them.”
Nancy Di Nenna, founder of F.L.A.M.E. Ministries, believes a great need for community and for connecting with nature exists.
“Nature is really where we experience God outside of church, because God created all of this for us,” she said. “He created the sun, the trees, the lakes, rivers, everything. That’s a beautiful time to take to yourself and with a group to be thankful and grateful for everything God has created for us.”
Both Corona and Di Nenna agree that these initiatives are meant to offer retreat-like experiences that counteract the continual disturbances to our spiritual growth that modern life creates.
“When there isn’t enough nature in somebody’s life or it’s too much work, too many appointments and schedules and gadgets and things like that, we start to feel overwhelmed,” said Di Nenna. “We start to feel lost, distant and separated from God.”
Corona warns against such separation, especially when opportunities for prayerful reflection have become harder to find.
“I don’t think people realize the real danger, spiritually, that we’re in for our souls when we’re just constantly distracted and inundated,” she said. “Maybe half of the retreat centers that I used to do my work at are gone. It’s just getting harder and harder.”
Both Theology on the Trail and Be Still Saturdays are designed to make that easier, and in a shorter period of time than a traditional week-long or weekend retreat. Both initiatives include time in nature, but also time in prayer and reflection.
Theology on the Trail includes the celebration of Mass before the nature encounter, and a lunch with a spiritual topic prepared by Father Alex Pancoast, parochial vicar at St. Andrew Parish in Newtown.
Lake Nockamixon in Quakertown, Bucks County, offers a serene backdrop for Be Still Saturday, a Catholic retreat designed to help participants disconnect from digital distractions and reconnect with God through nature.
Be Still Saturdays offer numerous group prayer opportunities, plus a 90-minute period of time for exploration in nature, including opportunities to see sailboats on a lake.
Both experiences also focus on Catholic community-building in the experience.
“Man was not created to be alone. We were created to be in community and not by ourselves,” said Di Nenna.
“But there’s something about being together with others that are on this prayer and faith journey with you that can really make all the difference, psychologically as well as strengthening your own faith because of what they know and what they bring to the table.”
Each experience brings to the picnic table, the trail walk, and the post-walk discussion a chance to find God in little things that may be missed on a daily basis if we fail to stop and look — a point Corona received in post-event feedback.
“They were really amazed at what they heard and what they noticed, she said. “One of the guys was (describing) the clouds, and hawks flying, things that happen all of the time that he said he just never really paused to notice. Someone (mentioned) the beauty of a chipmunk that she had never really noticed. She said she could imagine God painting the lines on the chipmunk,” Corona said.
“I knew that they really connected and understood and experienced God. I sense for so many people a lot of this became the open door to feeling a sense within and around themselves.”
Both Corona and Di Nenna are extending the invitation to people throughout the region as an opportunity to step off life’s hamster wheel, find God whispering to you in creation’s beauty, and discover Christ’s presence in each other.
“Life is so busy. Life is so loud. There’s lots of voices. There’s lots of noise,” said Di Nenna. “I would say, what’s God telling you? That’s the one we should be listening to above anyone and anything else.”
“God will speak to you,” Corona said, “if we just give him the time.”
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Be Still Saturdays
Where: Lake Nockamixon, Quakertown
When: Saturdays, Aug. 23 and Sept. 20, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Cost: $10 per individual, $15 per couple, $20 per family; bring your own lunch
More: apeopleafire.org | Virtual options are available
Theology on the Trail
Where: Starts with Mass at St. Andrew Church, Newtown, with nearby nature experience at Tyler State Park
When: Saturday, Aug. 23, 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
Cost: $10 goodwill donation, bring additional money for lunch
More: Event flyer | RSVP here
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