Mount St. Macrina offers bread retreat as way to relax
Some might call it heavenly leaven. For Sister Carol Petrasovich and a small group of people she taught to make Easter bread, what looked like a cooking class actually was a spiritual retreat.
Petrasovich instructed the class members as they gathered around the kitchen table at Mount St. Macrina Retreat Center in Uniontown kneading bread dough.
“When it starts getting sticky, rub your fingers in the flour and put some on the table,’ Petrasovich explained. “Knead it with the palms of your hands.’
Five women and one man worked good-naturedly in the large, warm kitchen on a recent morning as bright sunlight poured in from the windows on the east side of the room.
Group members, many in aprons, checked out each other’s dough, asked Petrasovich for advice and concentrated on their projects.
Petrasovich, of the Sisters of St. Basil, combined ethnic traditions with prayer to create Mount St. Macrina’s first Easter bread retreat. A few weeks earlier, Petrasovich led two sessions on making Lenten bread, bringing back this retreat after a few years’ absence.
“The Lenten is a non-dairy bread. In the Byzantine Rite, in the early tradition, two weeks before Lent, people began fasting from meat, and, beginning the first day of Lent, they fast from dairy. Many people are going back to the tradition,” Petrasovich said.
To honor the practice, Petrasovich taught people to make non-dairy Lenten bread in the first retreat. But the Easter bread, called Pascha, is a rich reward made with eggs, butter and yellow raisins that is decorated – sometimes with a braid, which gives it a crown effect, sometimes with a cross and sometimes both.
Pascha traditionally is eaten on Easter in celebration of the Resurrection after first being blessed at church. It is a Catholic custom to visit church on Holy Saturday and have the priest bless a basket filled with food that will be enjoyed at the Easter meal, including Pascha, cheese, ham, butter, sausage, bacon, eggs, salt, horseradish and wine, as well as a candle. A special basket cover is often used, and Mount St. Macrina offers many handmade covers for sale in its gift shop.
Bread is also symbolic of Christ, who called himself the “Bread of Life.” Petrasovich emphasized that aspect of the retreat with biblical stories and prayer. The small group of participants began their day with prayer, mixed and kneaded their dough, returned to prayer while the bread was rising, enjoyed lunch and more prayer while the bread baked.
For the participants, this was a special day.
Charlotte Dirda of Uniontown, who belongs to St. Nicholas Byzantine Catholic Church in Brownsville, has been coming to Mount St. Macrina since she was a baby.
“I felt the prayer gives you a little more meaning with Pascha,’ she said. “Prayer gives you a lift. It’s going to come out well, and we’ll do well.’
Susan Peachey of Mount Pleasant is the wife of the Rev. Mark Peachey, pastor of the Church of the Brethren in Mount Pleasant. She made her first retreat at Mount St. Macrina.
“My mother’s family is Byzantine Catholic and we always have Pascha at Easter time. I never made it, and it seemed like a wonderful one-day retreat to treat myself to,’ Peachey said.
“This is wonderful. This is such a relaxing place to do this, even though we’re busy in the kitchen. I enjoyed the morning prayer and I needed to reconnect with baking and women, and a man (an acknowledgement of the only man in the class), in the kitchen. My life in the church became busy, and I find myself giving to other people. This is a treat for me,” Peachey added.
Kathy Ofsanik of Uniontown, who belongs to St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Uniontown, attended with her mother, Mary Ann Susanj of Perryopolis, who belongs to St. Nicholas Byzantine Catholic Church in Perryopolis. Susanj’s aunt joined the Sisters of St. Basil in 1942, and members of the family have been coming to Mount St. Macrina ever since.
“I thought the combination of the spiritual aspect and the physical making of the bread was a wonderful thing,” Susanj said. “We are the yeast, and we are to grow and spread. Then we are broken and given to others. I think we should pray, no matter what we do – cleaning pots, making beds. The results will always be good.’
The participants found the results of the retreat to be good. At the end of the day, Petrasovich pulled six rich, golden brown loaves of fragrant bread out of the oven, as the participants exclaimed with “Ahs’ and “Oohs.’ A small loaf of leftover dough was cut up and served as samples, and the participants took their own loaves home.
Just moments before, the participants had sat with Petrasovich, sharing their own feelings of the day.
“This was just tremendous for me,’ said Dirda. “I could sit and cry. I can’t explain what it meant to me.’
“I never prayed so much when I did baking and cooking,’ Susanj said. “We never think to pray about all the things we’re about to do. If I pray more, it has to turn out right. It can’t possibly be bad.’
For more information on retreats or the handmade basket covers, phone Mount St. Macrina at 724-438-7149.