At a WINE: Women In the New Evangelization retreat last year, Alyssa Bormes met a woman who had previously been away from the Church for over 40 years.
This woman told Bormes that while she was swimming with a friend, the friend invited her to attend a WINE retreat.
“The invitation happened in the swimming pool, and the woman came (to the retreat), and she went to confession after 47 years. It just completely brought her alive and she’s all in (with her faith),” said Bormes, a writer, emcee and retreat leader for WINE. “We have a front row seat to miracles.”
Kelly Wahlquist, WINE’s founder and president, has seen the power of the invitation firsthand as, over the past 10 years, WINE has grown well beyond its beginnings in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
“We always say that WINE has a charism of unity, and I would say it’s all about the invitation … one invitation can have an eternal ripple effect,” Wahlquist said. “So, it’s all about inviting women into relationship with other women, so we can have these good, solid Catholic friendships, so we can go deeper in our relationship with the Lord and grow in holiness.”
Reflecting on WINE’s history, Wahlquist said, “It’s a decade of memorable moments. … It’s like a tapestry.” In receiving messages from participants about how WINE has changed their lives, Wahlquist said, “It’s humbling and also there’s a good feeling of knowing that the Lord can use us all, and our gifts, as a vessel of his great love and mercy, to bring others to him.”
The heart of the ministry
Bormes said her conversations with Wahlquist, which included the idea of WINE, first began in 2012.
“We met for coffee, and we absolutely hit it off,” Bormes recalled. “I think we stayed for six hours at a coffee shop and just kept talking and talking,” said Bormes, 59, who teaches Scripture classes at Chesterton Academy in Hopkins and is a member of Holy Family in St. Louis Park.
Wahlquist was taking to heart Pope Francis’ message calling “for a deeper, more profound theology of women.”
“What is the Holy Father asking? What is Jesus asking us as women in the Church?” Wahlquist recalled thinking. She gathered a group of women from around the country who ran women’s ministries and apostolates, and they spent three days in prayer and discernment, including time in an adoration chapel.
Wahlquist said she heard in her heart that “what the Church needed was a movement that elevated women in the truth of their dignity and their vocation.” The group agreed the next step was to gather women together for this purpose. Wahlquist ultimately founded WINE toward the end of 2014.
“WINE is truly about elevating women in their God-given gifts so that we can go forth to heal the body of Christ and to build his kingdom on Earth by looking at each person and seeing their dignity,” said Wahlquist, 55, and a member of St. Bartholomew in Wayzata.
The ministry’s acronym stems from the Gospel of John’s account of the wedding at Cana, “where Our Lady tells us to do whatever he (Jesus) says,” Wahlquist said. “Thus, WINE is about doing the will of God and we contend that it is easier to do God’s will when you have your sisters in Christ on the journey with you.”
To aid in this journey, there are several offerings, including book clubs, retreats, conferences and an annual pilgrimage.
Wahlquist said in all its offerings, WINE emphasizes four characteristics: sisterhood, the “aha moments” of the faith grounded in Church teaching, beauty, and Scripture and prayer. That last characteristic undergirds all of WINE.
“We really want people to be in the word of God. If you’re going to be a disciple, and if you’re going to be following the Shepherd, you need to hear his voice,” Wahlquist said. “Everything in WINE is drenched in Scripture and prayer.”
WINE helps form participants to be “activated disciples” — a concept also taught at The St. Paul Seminary’s Archbishop Flynn Catechetical Institute in St. Paul, of which Wahlquist is the director.
“It’s women in the new evangelization, everything that is teaching them how to not only be a disciple, but to actively make other disciples, to mentor other women, to work in their gifts and provide an opportunity for someone to encounter Christ anew,” Wahlquist said.
Alongside the fundamentals, Wahlquist and Bormes said, is a warm welcome.
“When you come to a WINE event or you’re part of a WINE book club … you’re going to be there saying, ‘I feel like I belong.’ And you really do,” Wahlquist said. “These women (of WINE) are instantly friends; they’re pilgrims on the same journey and they recognize that.”
“We also say that if you come alone (to a WINE event), you’re not going to leave alone — you’re going to leave with friends,” Bormes said.
UPCOMING CONFERENCE DETAILS
The WINE: Women in the New Evangelization Catholic Women’s Conference will be held March 1 at St. Bartholomew in Wayzata.
With its theme of Laboring Joyfully, the conference will be the first in the WINE lineup this year to celebrate the ministry’s 10-year anniversary. It will be the ministry’s 24th conference, said Kelly Wahlquist, WINE’s founder and president.
Following an 8 a.m. Mass, the day will feature keynote addresses from singer-songwriter Marie Miller; Notre Dame Sister Rose Marie Tulacz, a spiritual director, author and photographer who has helped lead fundraising efforts for those in need worldwide; Terri Savaryn, the founder and owner of Sovereign Estate Winery in Waconia; and Wahlquist.
Along with keynote addresses, the day will include music, opportunities to pray with prayer teams, confession, Eucharistic adoration, and a raffle. The conference will wrap up at 3:30 p.m.
The evening before the conference, on Feb. 28, there will be a “Gathering in the Vineyard” WINE event at the church from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Attendees can participate in praise and worship and enjoy conversations with each other and the conference speakers.
Conference details and registration information can be found online. Women who attend with a friend can enter the code “friend” at sign-up for a discount on tickets.
WINE is also working with dioceses throughout the United States to host upcoming conferences this year, including an April 12 conference in the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut; a July 26 conference in the Diocese of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and a National Catholic Women’s Conference Nov. 1 in the Diocese of Buffalo, New York.
All conference information can be found online at catholicvineyard.com/index.php/events.
Tending growth
From the first sold-out conference held on Feb. 14, 2015, within the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis — roughly 1,200 people attended — WINE has grown both locally and nationally, Wahlquist said.
“We grew really quickly because it was such an inviting, joyful and unifying ministry,” Wahlquist said. “We have WINE core teams around the country and a fantastic local team.”
The local core team, for example, consists of roughly a dozen women and helps to organize and carry out different WINE events, Bormes said. “The whole thing starts with the charism of joy that infuses our core team and spills out.”
A variety of locations have now hosted WINE conferences, including the archdioceses of New Orleans, Philadelphia and St. Louis as well as the dioceses of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Metuchen, New Jersey; St. Cloud; and San Angelo, Texas.
The ministry’s growing book clubs — which include lectio divina and feature a small group dynamic — have taken root in parishes, homes and online via the ministry’s “Virtual Vineyard.”
Meanwhile, more than 100 writers contribute to WINE online, with reflections posted weekly on Sundays and Wednesdays.
For the parish or diocese staff interested in hosting an event, there’s the Box WINE offering — essentially “a conference or retreat in a box,” Wahlquist said — which contains “everything from marketing to the speakers, to the content, to the agenda, to the program, everything,” to host a fruitful conference or retreat.
WINE’s first children’s book “The Mother of Jesus is Wonderfully Real,” was published in 2021; Bormes wrote the foreword, framing her niece’s experience described in the book.
Bormes said shortly after the book was published, a woman from Texas wrote to WINE that she had read the book to her 3-year-old granddaughter while her daughter-in-law, a non-Catholic questioning the Catholic understanding of Mary, was listening. Later, the woman said her daughter-in-law approached her and asked to learn more about the rosary. “It’s extraordinary,” Bormes said.
Corresponding with the book, there are now Wonderfully Real Storytime events at participating parishes, schools and bookstores. These events highlight WINE’s multi-generational growth; Bormes said WINE events are “multi-layered and they are to bring people in, to bring women in and children in, right where (they’re) at and have an encounter with Christ.”
The journey of faith
Mary Fox Schaefer’s connection with WINE grew from a prayer she offered to Mary at the funeral for her husband, John, who died in 2011. Seeking Mary’s intercession, Fox Schaefer said, “I just asked her to put her mantle over me and protect me, lead me in guiding my children through that time.”
While grieving, Fox Schaefer found comfort in the rosary. Her time in adoration led her to write a Widow’s Rosary, which she recorded through Relevant Radio. At a gathering after Easter Vigil Mass at St. Charles Borromeo in Minneapolis, Fox Schaefer said she talked with Bishop Andrew Cozzens, who was among the clergy who had reviewed her rosary reflection. During their conversation, Bishop Cozzens encouraged Fox Schaefer to connect with Wahlquist and WINE.
“So, it was Bishop Cozzens who pointed me to Kelly Wahlquist and then Kelly introduced me to some other very Godly women as well who just helped me so much in my faith journey,” said Fox Schaefer, 59, and a member of St. Joseph in West St. Paul. “Mary took care of me, without a doubt.
Fox Schaefer’s journey with WINE continued on a 10-day WINE and Shrine pilgrimage through Italy she took with her daughter, Maddie, in June 2016. It was Fox Schaefer’s first time in Europe.
“It was nothing (like what) I would have experienced had I gone there on my own,” Fox Schaefer said. “We saw so much more because we were a part of it (WINE) and I just loved being with my daughter, I highly encourage any other women out there that can go with their daughters. It was just a fabulous experience together.”
Wahlquist said when WINE began offering its pilgrimage nine years ago, members of the ministry knew “that it was going to be powerful.”
“We have women who have come with us two, three, four, five times,” Wahlquist said. “I always say, if I had to sum up our WINE and Shrine pilgrimage in one sentence, I would take it from Dolly Parton in ‘Steel Magnolias,’ where she says, ‘laughter through tears is my favorite emotion.’ Because there’s so much laughter, and there’s so much healing, and there’s so much joy, and there’s so much fellowship, and there’s so much receiving of God’s mercy that happens on these pilgrimages.”
Fox Schaefer — who remarried and now volunteers at various WINE events, participates in its book clubs and reads its online reflections — encourages women to consider participating in WINE: “You can never have too many wonderful women in your life.”
‘Going to all four corners’
With a series of events on this year’s calendar, WINE will build upon its 10 years; Wahlquist and Bormes agree that leaning into prayer for direction will guide the ministry forward.
“I think what we do in WINE is make an offering: I will serve you (God), what will you have me do? And then we just go, and we rely on the Holy Spirit leading us,” Bormes said.
“I think we’re going to keep going to all four corners,” Wahlquist said. With encouragement from Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew to “go, therefore, and make disciples,” Wahlquist said, “I think we’re just continually spreading … the WINE continues to flow.”
