St. Mark Parish in Perry County hosts Fatima’s pilot ‘traveling retreat’

Women from St. Mark Parish in Perry County and St. Paul Parish in Tell City pose in St. Mark Church during a women’s retreat on April 18. They are joined by their pastor Father Anthony Hollowell in the back row, who celebrated Mass during the retreat. (Submitted photo)

By Natalie Hoefer

Father Anthony Hollowell recalls the moment Sandi Patel approached him last year with an idea.

“She kind of had a look in her eye that someone gets when you know it’s something you’re not going to be able to say ‘no’ to,” he says with a chuckle.

The idea was for Our Lady of Fatima Retreat House in Indianapolis to host a “traveling retreat” at St. Mark Parish in Perry County, where Father Hollowell serves as pastor.

The origins of the idea go back to May 2025 when Patel was hired as director of the archdiocese’s new Office of Retreat and Renewal Ministry.

As part of her duties, Archbishop Charles C. Thompson “had a vision of bringing Fatima [retreats] to people wherever they are in the archdiocese, to look at ways our office could be a resource for parishes,” she explains. “We have our beautiful retreat house, but we aren’t limited by our walls. Everyone needs a chance to retreat with our Lord and hear him speaking to us.”

When she approached Father Hollowell about St. Mark serving as a pilot parish for Fatima’s first on-the-road retreat, he agreed.

His parishioners “hear from me all the time,” he says. “It was great to have someone highly qualified help do that work of building up their spiritual life.”

‘It’s a safe environment’

The pilot retreat was held at St. Mark on April 18, with some of the 24 participants attending from St. Paul Parish in Tell City, where Father Hollowell also serves as pastor.

“It was a women’s retreat called ‘Treasures of Friendship’ about developing spiritual friendships where Christ is at the center of the friendship,” says Patel, who led the retreat.

The day, which included Mass and time for eucharistic adoration, was a success.

“It happened three weeks ago, and my heart is still full,” she says. “It was lovely.”

For several women, it was their first experience attending a retreat, she notes.

“When you say ‘retreat,’ I think some people panic if they’ve never been,” says Patel. “But when you offer it in a parish and they don’t have to travel, it’s a safe environment for them and provides a way for them to build community. It provides people that safe spot to begin and encourages them to go, because Jesus would go away to a desolate place.

“And that experience [at their parish] might then pique their interest and make them think, ‘I could go on a retreat someplace else,’ get them to step out of their comfort zone.”

Feedback from evaluation forms was “overall positive,” says Patel.

One woman appreciated “learning more about the [parishioners] I knew and learning about the ones I just met today.” Another called the experience “a great opportunity to reflect on my spiritual life,” adding, “We need more of this.”

To the question, “What did you enjoy most about the program?” one woman simply wrote, “Everything!”

One comment Patel heard that “meant a lot to me” was one of gratitude “that someone from the archdiocese would come all the way down to their parish and do this for them. Having been on the [archdiocese’s] pastoral planning committee, I knew some people felt unseen if they weren’t from the metropolitan area, so I was grateful that person saw that effort.”

The pilot retreat at St. Mark was successful on another front as well.

‘Empowering people at parishes’

One purpose of the pilot program was testing the collaborative planning approach with parishes Patel envisioned.

“Father connected me with Becky Hubert, a parish leader [at St. Mark], to handle the local logistics,” she says. “She was terrific to work with.”

Patel’s “biggest takeaway from this first pilot is how important collaboration is with the pastor and a leader in the parish. Pastors don’t have time to lead efforts like this. … It’s not just the work of one person but the work of a group of people to handle the details—the marketing, hospitality, helping people feel at ease.”

Part of that collaboration includes helping a parish decide what type of retreat best meets its needs.

“My goal is that I can be a resource to parishes to help them brainstorm topics or presenters and help point them in the right direction,” says Patel.

“That might be a prepared retreat they can replicate at the parish. It might be a list of local presenters and resources that can help them create and lead a retreat. It’s empowering people at parishes to do what they want and providing resources to help them move forward.”

And the initiative doesn’t have to start with a parish’s pastor.

“It can be anyone, because often someone steps up and says, ‘I feel called to lead this at our parish,’ ” says Patel. “I wouldn’t proceed without the proper leadership in a parish, but it can be started by anyone who wants to step up and lead the effort.”

Patel is already working on a few more pilot efforts with other parishes in the fall.

Father Hollowell is glad he said ‘yes’ to having St. Mark host the first pilot “traveling retreat.”

“It’s a great gift to have what I would call like a local missionary come and share insights and perspectives that enrich faith life,” he says.

“And there’s definitely a desire to do it again. Even while it was happening, we were discussing, ‘Hey, we could do a guided retreat,’ and talking about what that could look like.”

Father Hollowell appreciates the change an on-site retreat provides.

“You can get locked into a schedule week-in and week-out,” he notes. “You’re in church a lot in that schedule. It was nice to see something different come along.

“Being in the same place but experiencing it in a different way was very refreshing for me personally.”
 

(For more information on traveling retreats through Our Lady of Fatima Retreat House and the Office of Retreat and Renewal Ministry, contact Sandi Patel at 317-545-7681, ext. 105, or spatel@archindy.org.) †