It is within the small group experience that transformation can indeed take place, said Cathy Carson, mission outreach director for Minnesota-based Cana Family Institute. “It’s the way Jesus formed the Apostles,” she said, through friendship with “these broken men that were flawed, as we all are.”
We’re all sinners, she said, in various stages of our spiritual journeys, but Jesus used friendship, fellowship and community and created that bond of trust.
Cathy Carson
Carson used the example of Jesus and his followers to describe the value of small groups during a discussion about the importance of supporting moms of young children. “You can’t give what you don’t have,” Carson said. “If we’re not filling our own cup, we are not going to be able to be the mom to our children that we need to be. And it is so important to take that time to feed our own souls and be involved in small groups.”
Carson and Karen Sester, program director for the Cana Family Institute, recently joined “Practicing Catholic” host Patrick Conley to discuss the value of Cana’s “intentional curriculum” that moms go through together, and its support for parishes that help them mentor the moms. “And we have support for the people who lead the small groups themselves,” Sester said.
Sester described the Cana Family Institute, established as a nonprofit in 2012 in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, as an organization that seeks to strengthen Catholic marriages and families, doing so mostly through relationships. She suggested thinking of the institute as “circling around the families in every way and being there to accompany them through the ups and downs of life.” The institute helps give families courage and focus, strengthening their resolve, she said, through small groups that help people “be supported and work through things before they really become problems.”
Karen Sester
Carson said the institute offers moms with young children the chance to journey with other moms in that same stage of life “who are experiencing the challenges and the joys of parenting children,” from birth through fifth grade. But women of all ages can benefit from being part of the Cana experience in one way or another, she said.
Moms meet at their parish or school twice a month from September through May. Having a group to journey with through joys and challenges is so important, Carson said. “And the friendships and bonds that are formed in small groups literally last a lifetime,” she said. “And we have so many great testimonials of the transformation that occurs through being involved in Cana.”
Asked about the value of small groups, Sester said “we are made for community, as (St.) John Paul II says. And we are living in a society that pretty much focuses on autonomy.
“And when we want to just be by ourselves with our headphones in or our computer on, it seems easier,” Sester said. “But we’re not flourishing as human beings.”
To learn more about the Cana Family Institute and upcoming classes, visit CanaFamilyInstitute.com.
During the interview, Sester gave an example of how she works into her life a resolution she heard — based on St. John Paul II’s theme of fairness and love — when she participated in the Cana Family Institute program years ago. To learn what that example is, and to hear the full interview, listen to this episode of the “Practicing Catholic” radio show. It airs at 9 p.m. Aug. 13, 1 p.m. Aug. 14 and 2 p.m. Aug. 15 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes interviews with Kelly Wahlquist and Father John Paul Erickson, who discuss developments at the Archbishop Flynn Catechetical Institute, and Father Stephen Hilgendorf, who describes his journey from Anglican minister to Catholic priest.
Listen to all of the interviews after they have aired at:
soundcloud.com/PracticingCatholic
tinyurl.com/PracticingCatholic (Spotify)
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