Our History and Mission
Our Beginnings
The first Emmaus retreat for women in the United States was held in 1978 in the Archdiocese of Miami, Florida at the Dominican Retreat House. It was developed by a team of laywomen from St. Louis Parish in Kendall/Pinecrest, Florida.
Myrna Gallagher served as the Directress of Religious Education at St. Louis Parish and was asked by the pastor, Father David G. Russell, to form and lead the team that created and conducted that first women’s Emmaus retreat experience.
Pinellas County Emmaus — How It Started
In 2017, two parish leaders in Pinellas County collaborated to bring one of the first inter-parochial Emmaus retreat experiences to the area:
Kathy Wood from St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Clearwater.
Deb Reedy from Espiritu Santo Catholic Church in Safety Harbor.
Both women worked with the support of their pastors, Monsignor Robert F. Morris, V.G. at St. Catherine’s and Very Reverend Father Len Piotrowski at Espiritu Santo, to organize a retreat that would involve multiple parishes in Pinellas County rather than just one.
Deb and Kathy were trained and spiritually formed by Rhea Lambert and the beautiful Emmaus sisters of Nativity Catholic Church in Brandon, whose guidance and witness played a vital role in bringing the Emmaus experience to Pinellas County.
Their goal was to offer an Emmaus retreat for local Catholics that crossed parish boundaries, one of the earlier examples in the region of an inter-parochial Emmaus weekend.
The Emmaus experience is a three-day spiritual retreat rooted in Scripture and personal sharing, modeled on the Road to Emmaus story in Luke 24:13–35.
Their Impact
Since that first Pinellas Emmaus retreat, the ministry has continued through parish cooperation, offering both women’s and men’s retreats for people from throughout the county.
The Emmaus Story
Luke 24:13-35
Now that very day two of them were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. He asked them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?” They stopped, looking downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?” And he replied to them, “What sort of things?” They said to him, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive. Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see.” And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer[c] these things and enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures. As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther. But they urged him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning [within us] while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?” So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the eleven and those with them who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
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Pinellas Womens Emmaus
Women are ministered to by lay women who help them experience God, renew and deepen their relationship with the Lord by opening their hearts to the Holy Spirit.