What does God want? Practicing the Art of Discernment.

In September 1982 at St. Paul’s Center on Humboldt Street, the first “One Day At A Time Weekend” began. The weekend was founded by a group of five women who were members of Al-Anon and who were involved in St. Paul’s Cursillo. The weekend has always been for woman affiliated with Al-Anon, no requirement to have made a Cursillo, all are welcome.

Over 40 years later, this weekend continues. The weekend of February 23-25, 2024 – 36 beautiful women accepted the invitation to a weekend experience focused on Discernment.

We met to pray, discuss, reflect on the theme –Practicing the Art of Discernment. How do you discern what God wants of you? This weekend we explored the ways we listen to God’s invitation in our lives, exploring the graces of Steps 3 & 11 as a process of discernment.

Msgr. Joe Calise joined us on Saturday with a grace filled talk inspired by the theme of the weekend, followed by confessions, and mass. It was a special time for us to have him in our company.

The weekend started with prayer and the prayers continued along with sharing of ourselves and with each other. Volunteers arrived on Saturday afternoon to offer their services in healing treatments. Also, Spiritual Directors were available for one-on-one sacred listening; there was opportunity to take a walk, spend time in quiet mediation in the chapel, and we also had our “bookstore on wheels” available for the women to purchase a spiritual sentiment.

There was an overwhelming spirit of amazement this weekend. The talks were inspirational and heartfelt. We had many new people join us this weekend, we are always honored many invite their friends to experience this weekend. So inspiring and grace-filled!

ODAT 2025 will be scheduled at ICC Huntington last weekend in February.

Some of the women offered graces received on the weekend:
“I now have a desire to discern what God wants for me.”
“Loved the theme and going deeper and deeper into the word “discernment” and how to discern in
different ways.”
“God wants me to know Him, love Him and serve Him.”
“The talks on the weekend were inspiring, excellent, heartfelt, wonderful, and extraordinary. I have a
renewed closeness to God. Outstanding, so very good!”
“Msgr. Calise talk — beautiful, as always. He is such a joy to listen to; he is down to earth, real, and such a
blessing. He delivers a great message.”
“Loved the time in small groups, the sharing was intimate, safe, and deep.”
“Just being gathered all together to have fun and relaxation, nice to have this down time, a good outlet.”
“Closing circle was very good; I loved seeing everyone’s beautiful face and hearing the gifts received from
the weekend.”

The weekend was very intimate, touching, and funny.