February 5, 2026 // Diocese

Members of the Seven Sisters Apostolate Take Time for Silence, Prayer

Andrea Krumanaker

Members of the Seven Sisters apostolate throughout northeast Indiana gathered for their annual retreat at St. Felix Catholic Center in Huntington on the weekend of January 31-February 1. The retreat of the theme was silence.

The Seven Sisters apostolate is a Catholic ministry that invites women to offer faithful, hidden prayer for their parish priests through a weekly Holy Hour. When seven women each commit to praying on a designated day of the week, the parish pastor is spiritually supported by uninterrupted prayer throughout the entire week.

Each Holy Hour is ideally prayed in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, placing Christ at the center of the apostolate’s mission. Through this quiet and consistent commitment, Seven Sisters seeks to strengthen priests and support the life of the Church through intercessory prayer.

To support this mission, participants are invited to attend an annual retreat designed to foster spiritual renewal and deeper communion with the Lord. According to Lindsey Arnold, who organized the retreat, silence was chosen intentionally to reflect the heart of the Seven Sisters apostolate, which emphasizes prayer that is hidden, faithful, and rooted in trust in God’s work.

“The heart of what we do as sisters is to offer hidden prayer for the life of the Church, so it only felt fitting, when planning a time for these sisters to step away from their busy lives and receive from the Lord‘s abundant goodness, that we would stay in line with the heart of the apostate and offer ample time for prayer and silence,” Arnold told Today’s Catholic.

Throughout the retreat, participants spent extended time in silence, Eucharistic adoration and Holy Mass. Arnold said silence allows space for the Holy Spirit to work personally in each woman’s life, allowing God’s grace to be received rather than forced.

Stephanie Kingsley, a Seven Sisters participant, said the retreat offered a rare opportunity to step away from daily responsibilities and distractions.

“It was a total gift. I am blessed to be a stay-at-home mom to four lovely young children, and to have this time to step away in silence made the voice of the Lord so much clearer,” Kingsley said.

Kingsley said the weekly commitment to praying for priests has not only supported her parish pastor but has also helped deepen her own prayer life. By intentionally setting aside time each week, she said she has grown in her relationship with the Lord and in her ability to pray for priests more faithfully.

Another participant, Rose Hillman, echoed the importance of silence, particularly in a culture that often leaves little room for quiet reflection or prayer.

“In our secular world, we don’t take the time to be silent. The retreat was a gift,” Hillman said, adding that retreats offer renewal through prayer and the sacraments by helping participants reconnect with the foundations of their faith. She said the experience reinforced the value of stepping away from daily routines in order to focus more fully on God.

During the retreat, Bishop Rhodes celebrated Mass and offered a homily reflecting on the theme of the faithful remnant, drawing from both the Old and New Testaments. He described the remnant as the humble and faithful through whom God continues His work, pointing to figures such as the Blessed Virgin Mary as a model of humility and openness to God’s will. He emphasized the Beatitudes as the heart of Jesus’ teaching and a roadmap for Christian life, describing them as a program of life for the Church. He encouraged participants to allow the Beatitudes to shape not only their actions but also their interior dispositions, calling people to live according to the logic of God rather than the values of the world.

Hillman said the homily affirmed what many in the apostolate experience through their commitment to prayer for priests.

“The fruits we don’t always see, but we know they are there. Our priests repeatedly have told us they feel our prayers. They know that they’re sustained by the prayers, and Bishop said that he knows his physical stamina is affected by all our prayers,” she said.

At the heart of the retreat, and the Seven Sisters apostolate, is devotion to the Eucharist. Arnold said the rhythm of silence, prayer, and communion helps the ladies receive from the Lord and carry those graces back into their families and parishes.

Arnold said: “I pray they leave with deeper peace in their hearts and greater confidence in God’s providential care of them and those they love [and] that they would be radiant light of the Lord’s love in the world – for the praise of His glory!”