By CECILE SAN AGUSTIN
Reporter

February 3, 2007

PATERSON - With just the click of a mouse, the journey of a thousand sites begins. People can bank online, book airline tickets, keep in touch with faraway friends and even pursue a master's degree on the Internet in the comfort of their home. The Internet has now become a staple to modern day communication and culture. So much so, according to the Internet World Stats more than one billion people worldwide use the Internet.

With that in mind, the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception reached out to women by coordinating an Online Discernment Retreat during Vocation Awareness Week. The retreat was aimed to help young women understand God's call to vocation and more importantly to help the women find time for God in their everyday lives.

Two years ago, Sister Andrea Westkamp, vocation director of the Missionary Sisters here, came up with the idea for the weeklong online retreat.

"I would get all these different contacts from the Vision website (a vocation Web site) and I knew we had to honor that young people these days contact us through the internet," said Sister Westkamp.

At first she would correspond with these contacts simply through e-mail, but she realized it was somewhat harder to establish a relationship with them. She also understood that many people today lead busy lives. As a result, the Missionary Sisters decided to host an online retreat, which they coordinated for the first time last year.  

Ten women participated in this year's retreat. They were all interviewed and screened by phone beforehand because of the precautions with Internet use to make sure they were legitimate candidates. Once they were selected, the candidates received the password-protected information to enter the Missionary Sisters' Web site.

Because the candidates participated in the retreat in the comfort of their home, the women came from Canada, Washington D.C., Maryland, Pennsylvania, Arizona and The Bronx, New York. The women participating ranged in age from 23 to 49.

"Six sisters participated in the retreat who acted like a retreat director for each of the women. The retreat director would ask the women what they would like to get out of the retreat experience," said Sister Westkamp who lives here. 

During the weeklong retreat, each day had a different theme based on the Gospel readings of the week. Themes ranged from vocation, prayer, asking God for something and Baptism. 

Day one focused on the women setting the stage in their rooms or dorms to find the "sacred" space to do the retreat and posed the question: What a vocation call is?

"Each day had a prayer, a reading from Scripture and a vocation reflection," said Sister Westkamp.

The women were encouraged to commit at least an hour each day to the retreat. During the week, the women would also hear from the sister that was her retreat director. When the retreat was complete the women did an evaluation about the online retreat.

Sister Westkamp said, "The women were very positive about the experience and appreciated it was a process they can do at home."

 The participants also said it was not limiting not being face to face with a retreat director.

More importantly, the women appreciated being able to learn how to make time for God in their lives. The retreat also nourished a vocation spark for three of the women who Sister Westkamp will meet in the upcoming year.

"Within just one week, the women felt growth in their lives whether it was through prayer, their relationship with God or if religious life is something they need to pursue," said Sister Westkamp.