Testimonials

                                                                                            Maria Gau,  Class of 2010

How would you illustrate life?  How would you draw it or paint it?  What is life to you?  This was an assignment from my English teacher from senior year of high school.  I drew a river because life is a journey.  Along the way we encounter the dark and ominous wilderness, but soon we come to the cities of light that are the communities that support us along our way.

Coming to CSB/SJU and joining a Journey Group has emphasized to me that I truly am a part of a community, life is truly a journey and we are here to support one another.  I love going to Journey Group and eating a meal without a cafeteria tray.  I love the family atmosphere of sitting around a circular table talking about life.  I love the unique perspective that each woman shares and I love the ardor with which she shares it.  

This year the CSB sophomore t-shirt says, “We’re back.”  We are back amidst the extreme homework, sports, work and trying to make time for fun.  The intense schedule can be overwhelming.  The journey is not always easy, but through it all, we grow together.

Overall, it’s not about the place our Journey Group has found to meet (that secret suite on the third floor of the Main).  It’s not about knowing what to say when we’re there.  What I have gained from Journey Group is peace in the Silence.  Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and know that I am God.”  Journey Group has taught me to take the time to be silent, and remember that God is everywhere. 

Thank you for that; it is a gift. 

 

 

Charmagne  Tessmer,  Class of 2008

When I think about my spiritual journey, it started when I was a little kid.  My grandma would take me to church and tell me stories from the bible while we made cookies.  Looking back, I realize how clever my grandma was.  I doubt there is a better way to get a kid to love Jesus than to associate Him with sugar.  The right people and opportunities have always presented themselves along the path of spiritual development.  It started with my grandma and continued with service opportunities, mass, mentors, and retreats. 

My Companion’s group was exactly what I needed when I came to St. Ben’s.  I had my life planned out and I knew everything.  As you might imagine, it didn’t take me long to realize I was dead wrong.  Many of my foundations were shaken during my time in college but my group was there every month to listen.  I can’t express what a wonderful thing it is to be able to share your life with other great women in the context of God and spirituality. 

The women in my group are amazing, beautiful people and they inspire me so much.  I owe a lot of who I am today to the questions they’ve challenged me with and the support they’ve offered.  My time here at CSB, including that with my journey group, has helped to ground me in what I believe and what I want for my future.  I can’t thank these women enough for the impact they’ve had on my personal and spiritual development.  I’ve grown a great deal and will continue to change and work toward becoming the best version of myself.  As I continue the next phase of my journey away from St. Bens, I will always hold in my heart the things I’ve learned from this opportunity about myself and my purpose in life, companionship, the power of listening, and spirituality.

 

                                                                                       Stacey Endres,  Class of 2009

                                                                                                     Hi, my name is Stacey Endres and I am a junior and this was my third year with my Journey Group.   Though a central part of the journey group experience is communal and self-reflection, I still found it difficult to reflect on my journey group experience.  After a little time and some of the list-making I am so good at, I found a couple themes in my reflections.  First, though there have been changes in my Journey Group, especially with people going abroad, it has provided one thing in my hectic college life that resembles something like stability.  When my classmates have changed every semester and my roommates have changed every year, it is nice to see the same women every month.   Besides stability, meeting with these women has given me the opportunity to see how we are all on the same journey of trying to be mindful of God and making him a priority in our lives.   The setting of the Journey Groups makes it easy to see our common struggles and joys and it always amazes me at how much we have in common though our stories are so different.  I am able to learn from their experiences and be encouraged in my own.

 Another purpose my journey group has filled in my life is the need for support.  This year has offered some new and unexpected challenges for me and I found my Journey group to be a place where I could share things that never seemed to be appropriate in other contexts.  With many of my Christian friends abroad this semester, my Journey Group was one of the only places I felt comfortable having the much-needed conversations about God and life.  It was a space for me to reflect on and share how God could be working in my life, and to ultimately have a greater appreciation for the mystery.  It has been very helpful for me to feel comfortable to share not only my triumphs, but also my challenges with my group.  I always felt supported and encouraged by their words of wisdom. 

Though the Journey Group is not always at a convenient time in my schedule, it is something I am always thankful for.  It serves as a little oasis in the midst of a hectic life, as a time to reflect, learn, grow, support others, and be supported.  It is also an opportunity to spend time with people I care about and admire.  I am encouraged by the examples they set with their lives, enlightened by their wisdom, and reassured that we share the same challenges.  My time with my journey group is not always serious, not always easy, but always sacred.

 

Shannon Preston.  Class of 2011

I remember the banquet at the beginning of the year—where our journey started.  At the opening banquet not our entire group was there and most had to leave early.  So by the end of the banquet it was just me and Burdette sharing our pictures and rocks.  An interesting start.

The first meeting was certainly something new.  At first meetings it is so unnatural to sit in a circle, share some silence, and then spill your soul to people you do not know very well but there was something so comforting about the way the group listened and cared.  That meeting we talked about silence and slowing down which is something I am so thankful for that Journey groups provide.  Our journey meetings continually remind me God is everywhere and that it’s okay to slow down, smell the rose, and listen.  I learned what great things you can learn by listening.  That’s how we all began to learn more and more about one another.

A discussion that really sticks was when we shared what we think we are going to do with ourselves.  We all have different goals.  We were all different yet each of us could see that we fit into these different roles.  I saw that each of us had these phenomenal qualities and potential and how we all wanted to do something helping others or were doing it already.  It was so easy to recognize God in these women in the impact they will be and are making now.

Our last meeting of the year was a great one.  By the end of the discussion we had recognized how much each had grown as the year progressed.  I was honored to meet and feel so close to these amazing women who each are role models to me in different ways and who I have learned so much from them.  Looking back we have come on a quite a journey thus far.  My journey this year has reminded me to listen, do what you love, relax, breathe, enjoy silence—and noise, and to find God in everyone you meet—which is certainly easy to do in these six members I have grown to love.  I am very excited to see where our journey will go from here.