Just over 10 years ago, Dawn Iacono started Ministry of Moms Sharing at St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church in Williamsville, N.Y. The group inspires and encourages women in their role as wives and mothers.
Iacono, a mother of four boys, knew she and other mothers would benefit from such faith fellowship.
Mary Criden joined Iacono in asking several other mothers who belonged to a Rosary group to help with a Mother’s Day tea the Friday morning prior to Mother’s Day 2001 to kick off the first gathering.
“It was a labor of love getting it off the ground,” says Criden. The Rosary group, a dedicated group of 15 women with young children who prayed together, brought their special gifts to the ministry. They became the first “Team Moms.”
More than 100 women turned out for the tea. “We created a survey to find out what the women wanted from the ministry,” says Iacono. “It was beautiful how the Lord brought this together; requested by moms for moms.”
The group meets one Friday a month for nine months (the time of gestation for a new life), September through May. Each year, they have explored various topics of the Catholic faith. Past themes include the Ten Commandments, the beatitudes, virtues, prayer, Fruits of the Spirit and getting one’s house in order.
The theme this year is “Recognizing Christ’s Presence in All Things.” According to Iacono, who headed the group the first six years, each theme for those first years came out of her Holy Hour in the church’s adoration chapel.
The meetings generally begin with socialization and light refreshments, then everyone is called to order, most often with the Hail Mary. After general announcements, there may be a speaker, small-group discussions or occasionally a craft or fitness session. The meetings always end with the women praying the Memorare.
There are several Moms groups in western New York and other parts of the country, as well as a Moms book club that meets at a local coffee shop on a separate day to discuss books that are of interest to Catholic women.
“Coming to Moms is a nice reminder and re-enforcement of Catholic faith,” says Criden of the St. Greg’s group. “You learn more about the faith and can bring that home to your family.”
Women join for a variety of reasons. Kelly Chernowski, who has been a member for four years, was encouraged to join by her husband, Joe, who is director of youth ministry at St. Greg’s. “I love that the group includes moms of all ages; it’s nice to share with new mothers as well as experienced mothers,” says Chernowski, who has five children, ranging in age from infant to 10. Christie Thein, mother of two boys age 6 and 12, moved to the Buffalo area from Ohio in 2007 and has been involved for the past three years. “My neighbor invited me to join,” she says. “Jumping in and getting involved has been such a blessing.”
Being new to the area, it was the perfect place for Thein to find new friends. “There is something to be said about friendships where you share the love of Christ with each other.” She adds, “I think the teaching of the Church is crucial. I have learned more in the last two years from these women and their families about living out my faith (than ever before). We need to connect to women’s hearts. Head knowledge is great, but if you can get through to the heart, the Holy Spirit will take over!”
She says that other members have encouraged her in her faith journey: “I had not been to confession since my confirmation, and one of the moms encouraged me to go. That was one of the most important steps to fully embracing my faith. There have been so many graces that have come from the sacrament of reconciliation. I pray that every Catholic will come back home to the sacrament of reconciliation and learn the teachings of our beautiful Catholic faith.”
This is the good fruit the parish was hoping for. “This ministry to moms of all ages in our parish has been a tremendous blessing to our faith community,” says Father Joseph Gatto, the pastor. “The network of prayer, friendship and faith that it continues to foster has been a true grace. We find that as we bring the mom into deeper participation in the life of the Church, we also find the entire family becoming more engaged in parish life. The more we are able to support families as the domestic Church, the more blessed and enriched our faith community becomes.”
Joyce Bila is new to the parish and the group. She and her husband, Nick, recently moved to the area from Long Island. The Bilas have two daughters, age 29 and 35.
Bila joined after being invited by Christie Thein. “I met her in February after the Ash Wednesday service, and we got to chatting. Since I was new to the parish, she suggested that I might enjoy coming to the Moms group. In the past, I was a very active member of my parish in Long Island, which I miss terribly, so this was an opportunity to start over, to reach out and meet other women of faith and become involved in church activities again.”
Bila finds the group to be very welcoming. “Moms has given me the opportunity to meet many like-minded women who, as mothers and grandmothers, need to be spiritually nourished and take time away from their busy lives to do so. Moms, for me, has provided my prayer life with direction and stories of inspiration, as well as provided a relaxed atmosphere for socialization and meeting new people.”
“There are so many things that Moms has helped me grown in my faith,” Thein adds. “I learned to pray the Rosary, go to the adoration chapel and daily Mass. Being Catholic isn’t something that I pull out on Sunday when we go to Mass — it is something that we live every day in my home.”
Christine A. Smyczynski writes from Getzville, New York.
INFORMATION
(716) 688-5678
StGregs.org: Click on the “Parish” tab, then “Spiritual Formation,” and then “Moms.”
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Beware - catholicculture.org reviewed this group and issued red flags:
“While some of the material offered on the site is good, MOM’S seems designed to lead women away from true Catholic spirituality. A review of the program materials raises serious questions. Several of the contributors are known best for their public dissent from Catholic teachings.”
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/reviews/view.cfm?recnum=3627&repos=2&subrepos=0&searchid=872941
MOMS is not at all connected with a similarly named group called M.O.M.S.
Please note that the group mentioned above does not have contributors. Your organziation may have researched and be confusing this self contained, uniquely designed program with another with a similar, but differnt, acrynom which may be raising concerns. Please review your research. These are completely different ministries that are independent of one another.
As a member of this awesome moms group, I can assure anyone who asks that we are not affiliated with that group. I belonged to a moms group in another state that did the study of the one you are warning against, and it is questionable. This moms group is a group of incredible women who are striving to raise their families (or have raised their families) in a culture that would rather we all drop God (and the Catholic faith) from everything we do. We are in line with Bishop of Rome and would do anything to help pass on the truth of the faith to all moms in their faith journey.
Without these women, my faith journey would be very lonely indeed. As our pastor, Fr. Joe, always says, ‘Ducks need ducks.”
Whoa! Wrong MOMS group for sure! I was a member of the St. Greg’s group for 5 blessed years and Dawn would never allow anything that wasn’t absolutely orthodox, or eve anything slightly questionable. She and all of the MOMS Team love Holy Mother Church, live and breath Her teachings and draw the membership ever closer to Jesus through the true teachings of the Faith. This group should be replicated in every Diocese and just look outt for the good fruit! :)
I find it problematic that the Ministry of Moms Sharing is being promoted on National Catholic Register. This program is not Catholic and in fact much of the content can lead women away from a true Catholic spirituality. CathoilcCulture.org rates the program as DANGEROUS in terms of fidelity to the Catholic Church. And several of the contributors to the program are well known for their dissent from the teaching of the Catholic Church. I went through the MOMS program and found it to be very “inner self” focused, promotes new age spirituality, and had nothing to do with the teachings of the Catholic Church. I also called Johnnette Benkovic’s show Women of Grace Live and she confirmed the problematic content on the MOMS program. Please go to the link for more information about the problems with MOMS:
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/reviews/view.cfm?recnum=3627&repos=2&subrepos=0&searchid=875861
Thankfully there are wonderful alternatives out there that are totally faithful to the teachings of the Catholic Church. ENDOW, which stands for Education on the Nature and Dignity of Woman, is a wonderful alternative http://endowgroups.org/ Also. the Women of Grace study program is a great alternative http://www.womenofgrace.com/en-us/study_programs/default.aspx
RED FLAG! While I am glad to hear of one group’s success, this is a questionable resource. I was a memeber of MOMS and found the materials problematic. The questions tended to help the women gripe about thier husbands and children. We kept the group but quit using the materials. “The Ministry of Mothers Sharing (MOMS) is the creation of Benedictine Sister Paula Hagan of the Benedictine Sisters of St. Paul’s Monastery in St. Paul, Minnesota. MOMS is an 8 week parish-based peer ministry using the book MOMS: A Personal Journal. MOM’S seems designed to lead women away from true Catholic spirituality. A review of the program materials raises serious questions. Several of the contributors are known best for their public dissent from Catholic teachings. The idea of Catholic women getting together for fellowship, prayer and study is great.
Weaknesses
•Fidelity: Resources for On-Going MOMS Groups lists works by radical feminist writers Example(s)
•Fidelity: Questionable speakers at “A Faith Life” for Moms conference 2006 Example(s) A Personal Journal spirituality workbook by Paula Hagen contains dissident writers Example(s) Offers retreats promoting centering prayer and Fr. Thomas Keating (Received a grant from the Trust for the Meditation Process) MOMS is a plan for small-groups focused on spirituality and “self-awareness”. The materials are published by Resource Publications of San Jose, California. The Resources for On-Going MOMS Groups lists works by radical feminist writers such as Sister Joan Chittister, OSB (Wisdom Distilled from the Daily), Sister Miriam Therese Winter (The Gospel According to Mary, A New Testament for Women), and Wendy Wright (Sacred Dwelling, Forest of Peace). The list is on the web site: http://www.osb.org/spm/momsfollowreading.html It op.ens with a “psalm” by Edwina Gateley, of Call-to-Action fame, from her book, Psalms of a Laywoman. Quotes from Sister Kathleen Hughes, RSCJ, (Lay Presiding: The Art of Leading Prayer), and Sister Anne E. Carr, BVM (Transforming Grace) are included, among others. Sister Hughes, a feminist liturgist, was for many years a member of ICEL, a group that provided problematic English liturgical translations. Sister Anne Carr is a member of the radical Catholic Women’s Network, and was a signer of the infamous 1984 “pro-choice” ad in the New York Times sponsored by Catholics for a Free Choice.
MOMS resources do not contain even one single reference to any work of Pope John Paul II, utterly ignoring his profound insights into the meaning of family (Familiaris Consortio), human life (Evangelium Vitae) and womanhood (Mulieris Dignitatem). Considering the purpose of MOMS, this is astonishing. (All of these are on our web site [Women for Faith and Family] , Church Documents section.)
The Catechism of the Catholic Church is not cited even once, unsurprisingly.
The idea of Catholic women getting together for fellowship, prayer and study is great. This is one of WFF’s goals, in fact. But MOMS is not the answer.”
This is such a good new.
I am writing from Nicaragua and would like to know if you have a web page or something through which we could learn from and communicate with you.
Thank you so much and God bless you,
Marisa Alvarez
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