Staff Writer
Women from around the Albany Diocese will gather in September for a weekend retreat focused on food issues and hunger. Although they will learn ways to satisfy their hunger, it will not be with food.
Sister Ellen Secci, CSJ, will direct "Retreat for Women Concerned with Eating Issues," with the theme being "God Hunger: Living in Fullness, Fully Living."
"Women often fill their hunger for God with things like food, work and busy-ness," Sister Ellen told The Evangelist. "This weekend will be a time to look at the ways we can fill our 'God-hunger' with more of God."
Filled up
The emptiness that many people feel, she said, is spiritual hunger. Many people look to physical ways to fill that void, including work, materialism, alcohol, drugs, sex and food.
"So many are not able to identify what that hunger is," she said, adding that for women in particular, some of these issues can take over and affect them for a lifetime. She described the issues of self, body image and worth, and eating as part of the search to satisfy the emptiness within that leaves some women feeling inadequate, unhappy and depressed.
"When we turn to the issue of food, we are dealing with strong psychological, physical, emotional and spiritual issues," she said.
Solutions
In her retreat, Sister Ellen plans on presenting practical and spiritual ways to help fill the hunger that drives some women to food and eating disorders.
"Whether we are overweight or underweight, we will learn ways to apply spiritual practices that will change our lives and fill this 'God-hunger,'" she said.
Sister Ellen plans to relate her own story of how she discovered that spirituality is the key to satisfying her "God-hunger." A professional story-teller for many years, she also taught at Bishop Maginn High School in Albany and has been the director of campus ministry there for the past five years. She is a certified chaplain, spiritual companion and published writer.
(The Sept. 7-9 retreat will be held at the Dominican Spiritual Life Center in Niskayuna. The offering is $115. To register, call 393-4169 or e-mail dslc@acmenet.net.)