MOMS group reaches out to others

Courtesy photo/Michelle Welch

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The Ministry of Mothers Sharing (MOMS) held a Guardian Angel baby shower to gather baby items for the Pregnancy Care Center in Brigham City.

Editor’s note: As part of Bishop John C. Wester’s Stewardship: Our Way of Life appeal, this is one in a series of articles profiling outstanding examples of stewardship in the Diocese of Salt Lake City.

HYDE PARK — The Saint Thomas Aquinas Parish MOMS’ group provides time for women to learn about themselves and is an opportunity for them to grow personally and spiritually.

"Moms don’t usually have time to think about themselves, but when provided with the time, they discover they have gifts and talents that can be used in the parish and in the community," said Nicole Held, founder of the MOMS group in Logan. "Stewardship is realizing your gifts and talents and using them to help others. This has helped our parish and the community at large because so many women have discovered their talents and are sharing them."

The Ministry of Mother’s Sharing (MOMS) was started by Benedictine Sister Paula Hagen as an outreach ministry of the sisters of Saint Paul’s Monastery in Minnesota. Vickie LoPiccolo Jennet, a lay woman and mother, was also involved in the founding of the MOMS ministry with the Benedictines. The ministry will celebrate 20 years of enriching and empowering women of all ages in 2012.

"Every year a new small group of women takes an eight-week course in our parish following the Ministry of Mother’s Sharing journal and become a part of our larger group," said Held. "We’ve seen more than 100 women in our parish in this ministry since 2001. The demographics change as women move in and out and our group now has about 75 women."

Every year the MOMS group participates in stewardship activities. For example, in the fall they have a children’s activity such as decorating cookies, an All Saints activity and they make family Advent wreaths, said Held. Last year the group held a Lenten retreat, opened it to all the women in the diocese and invited Sr. Paula to be the speaker. They also coordinate a baby shower in the spring to collect items to donate to the Pregnancy Care Center in Brigham City and have also donated items to the Logan Regional Medical Center.

An advantage of the MOMS group is the ability to form friendships. "It builds community," said Held, adding that the women also send emails to each other if they learn someone is sick or in the hospital, or has a baby and needs help.

"The ministry of MOMS reminds us that we, as women, need to refocus on ourselves and reclaim our spirituality because we are often doing for our families and others as well as our involvement in the parish," said Kathy Serafini, MOMS president. "Focusing on ourselves makes us stronger in our faith and brings the women together to form a support system."

Michelle Welch has been a member of the MOMS group for about a year. She moved back to Logan after living away for 10 years. The last five of those years were spent in Austin, Texas, where she participated in a spirituality program and was involved in parish stewardship. When she returned to Utah, she was looking for the same at St. Thomas Aquinas. The MOMS group appealed to her and provided a way for her to meet others, she said.

Through MOMS, Welch found she had the talent to lead, and organized the stewardship committee. "Our parish is two-thirds Spanish speaking and one-third English speaking, and we want to meld the two communities through stewardship," Welch said. "We formed the stewardship committee almost a year ago and now we have 60 active ministries. We have 1,300 families in our remote parish. We are not wealthy, but we are active.

"Stewardship is a way of life," said Welch. "It is an understanding that we are all caretakers of everything we have been given by God. We must discern the gifts and talents God has given us and share them to better serve our parish and community."