Wednesday is a day that a group of women from All Saints Parish look forward to every week. On that day, following daily Mass at St. Mary Church in Bath, they meet to socialize, empathize, and grow in faith with one another.

“Women who come here love the Lord, have love to share, and are looking for love,” says Val Flanagan of Brunswick. “I have been involved with women’s ministry in different forms over the years, and I’ve always been blessed by it.” 

“It’s a beautiful segue from all that we have within our Church — Mass, our faith, our prayer — and our everyday lives as women. It’s a beautiful bridge between those two worlds,” says Lorinda Fontaine from Orr’s Island. 

“Women need to get together,” says Susan Neale of Brunswick.  “Women are thirsty for this, and we’re providing a place for it.” 

The St. Mary’s Women’s Group was formed in response to the seclusion that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Joann Finn of Bath, one of the original organizers, it started with a handful of women but has grown steadily.

“We went from one table to two tables to three tables,” she says. “It’s just sharing with women how we are all vulnerable, how we need each other.”   

Neale remembers how a member of the group reached out to her in a time of need. She says she was having a difficult morning when, after Mass, Marta Laser, another of the original organizers, invited her to join the group. Hesitant, she credits the Holy Spirit with leading her there. 

 “I’m just listening, and the next thing I know, I’m starting to cry because whatever they were talking about that morning was for me, and only God knew that. I was comforted, and I was, like, ‘Thank you, God,’” she says. 

Myra Klotz joined last spring after moving to Bath from another state.  

“I came from another parish that I was very active in, and suddenly I didn’t know anybody,” she says. “It’s really what I needed.” 

The St. Mary’s Women’s Group uses material provided through Educating on the Nature and Dignity of Women (Endow). It is a global Catholic apostolate committed to bringing women together to deepen their faith through the teachings of the Church, such as papal encyclicals, the writings of saints, and Church documents. 

“I feel like the Endow program elevates the cognitive and social standard of a group,” says Flanagan. “The way it is done is by a team of women that really prioritizes the dignity of women.”  

The St. Mary’s Women’s Group’s sessions begin with social time, followed by prayer, reading aloud from a study guide, and then discussion, which on this day centered on Salvifici Doloris, St. John Paul II’s apostolic letter on the Christian meaning of human suffering. 

“We all have various levels of different sufferings in our lives that we’ve experienced,” says Gloria Ouellette of Richmond. “We all hit struggles, and so we all have to face them. Jesus told us that He wasn’t here to make life hunky-dory. He was here to allow suffering, and we have to learn to deal with it. So, this gives us the opportunity to figure out how we are going to do that and to give it up to Him and say, ‘OK, help me to walk that path, and how do I do it without losing hope and losing faith.’” 

“Four or five of us have some serious physical challenges that have evolved during this study, and now we’re learning with each other to hold onto each other and to lean into it. Let’s connect our suffering to the Lord’s suffering. It’s redeemable. Let’s offer it up,” says Flanagan. 

“We really seem to connect automatically, just being women of Christ,” says Klotz.  

The discussions are often personal but always kept private. There is a level of trust that the women share. 

“It’s not a gossip group. We’re not here to say, ‘Did you hear about so-and-so and whatever happened?’ We’re really concerned about people’s lives and helping them out if they’re in a bad way,” says Ouellette. “Our hope is that we’re able to help each other out and then, together spiritually through these books, get closer to God and get closer to these saints who’ve done so much in their religious lives.” 

“We’re more than St. Mary’s Women’s Group. We’re a prayer group. We have a prayer thread. We pray for each other,” says Neale. 

Although the group meets at St. Mary Church, the participants come from several different churches within All Saints Parish, and they invite other women to join them, too. 

“There is no homework. Join anytime. Come and you are welcomed,” says Neale. 

In addition to the Wednesday meetings, the group has also sponsored mini retreats, entitled A Morning of Encounter for Women, which are intended to engage more people and further build community. 

“A Morning of Encounter is an evangelical outreach of love,” says Flanagan. “They are called A Morning of Encounter because we know that’s what it’s all about. It’s about each of us encountering Jesus individually and each of us being part of His body and sharing that. It’s just edifying on every front.” 

The women say being part of the St. Mary’s Women’s Group has made a difference in their lives. 

“You feel that support, which, especially in today’s world, is so necessary for my life,” says Fontaine. “I miss a meeting here and there, and I feel the loss for the rest of the week.” 

“Ages ago, I did RCIA [Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults], and I felt really connected spiritually through that process because I was working on all kinds of things spiritually, and I felt like I was learning a lot through that process. Then, when I didn’t have to do it as much, I felt like I was missing something. Now, I feel like this kind of relit that fire. It’s given me that oomph to get started again on a spiritual level that I was missing,” says Ouellette. 

“In my personal life, it helps me keep going, which is a huge part of being Christian. It’s persevering, finishing the race,” says Flanagan. “I sit at the feet of these women, and I learn from their wisdom. I learn from their experiences. Each of them comes with a history. Most of them have a wonderful journey already, and it keeps me excited to move forward with these women.”