Saint Scholastica Monastery
A Community of Benedictine Sisters in Fort Smith, Arkansas

Mary Brenzel is a registered nurse, certified as both a healing touch practitioner and infant massage instructor. For the past 14 years she has been actively involved inteaching health and wellness and promoting complementary and alternative medicine. She is employed as a personal health coach.

Hilary Decker, OSB is the Director of St. Scholastica Retreat Center. She has an extensive background in teaching, campus ministry, spiritual direction, and retreat leadership.

Fr. Tom Elliot, BA, M.Div. is the pastor of Christ the King Catholic Church in Fort Smith, AR. In addition to his parish ministry and interest in spiritual formation, he writes and performs Christian music and offers talks and retreats.

Msgr. Scott Friend is currently the Diocesan vocation director in Arkansas. He has worked extensively in Spanish ministry since 1989 and recently has been named the 2007 recipient of the Catholic Church Extension Society's Lumen Christi Award. His studies in spirituality have helped him in his work in spiritual direction and retreats.

Sr. Melissa Anna Letts, OSB, a native of Oklahoma, has been a pastoral minister working with hospice patients. Currently Sr. Melissa serves as the DRE for the Immaculate Heart of Mary parish in Calumet. She is a gourd artist and was juried into the Red Earth Native American Festival in 2006, displaying and selling some of her pieces.

Deacon Marcelino Luna

Right Rev. Larry Maze, retired Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Arkansas, has been a student of Jungian spirituality for nearly 20 years and has taught in that area for the last decade. Rev. Sims-Smith and Bishop Maze are both members of the faculty for the Dream Conference held each June in Kanuga, North Carolina. Since retiring as bishop on January 1, 2007, he has led workshops or parish weekends in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia

Sister Therese Moreno, OSB is the Program Director of St. Scholastica Retreat Center and a Little Rock Theology student.

Rev. Susan Sims Smith is the Canon for Special Ministries for the Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas. After 25 years as a Jungian oriented psychotherapist, she became an Episcopal priest. She currently directs the SeedWork project, offering practical tools for spiritual and personal growth. She teaches people to pray, meditate, and to work with their nighttime dreams as ways of listening to the movement of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

Paula D'Arcy is an author and an internationally recognized speaker and retreat leader. After her experience of tragedy, she dedicated herself to help others find healing and hope even in the darkest hours. To learn more about Paula and her ministry, check out her web site www.redbirdfoundation.com.

Sr. Rachel Dietz, a licensed clinical and social worker and a licensed marriage and family therapist, has given many retreats and workshops for individuals and groups for more than 20 years. Currently she works in administration in the St. Scholastica community and has a small counseling practice.

Sr. Linda Fischer, a professed member of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She was a 4th grade teacher for 15 years. Currently she gives retreats on the topic of recovery for men and women. On December 24, 2008, she celebrated 18 years of grateful recovery, one day at a time.

John King is a retired professor of Social Work and Religious Studies at the University of Arkansas, a Merton Scholar, and an author writing on Merton’s contributions to peace, contemplation, and prayer. At the core of Merton’s writings is our search for our “true self” and our relationship with God, other people, and all of creation. Merton’s message helps us to integrate our contemplative spirit into our active lives.

Father Matt Linn, SJ is returning to the center schedule after a two-year absence. He is a member of the Association of Christian Therapists and has advanced graduate degrees in sociology, spirituality, and theology. Since 1970 he has taught courses and led retreats on healing in over 50 countries. With Dennis and Sheila Linn he has co-authored 21 books, translated into 20 languages and with over a million copies in English. Ordained in 1973, Fr. Linn currently lives with Jesuit novices in St. Paul, MN, where he trains spiritual directors In the 5 Year Sacred Ground program

Dr. Jay Mc Daniel, Ph.D., professor at Hendrix College, Department Chair, Director of Steel Center for the Study of Religion and Philosophy, is the author of numerous articles and books on Christianity and Ecology. His latest book is Gandhi’s Hope: Learning from Other Religions as a Path to Peace.

Clara Jane Rubarth is a long-time instructor of rhetoric and writing, most recently at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith.  She studies the use of writing as a way of understanding the ineffable and of communicating that understanding in a community of believers.

Rev. Rebecca Spooner, is an ordained Presbyterian minister, a licensed therapist and an Oblate at St. Scholastica Monastery. She currently serves as Director of the Laurence Schmidt Center, a counseling center for church professionals and their families, located in Little Rock.

Father Mark Stengel, OSB has been a monk and priest of Subiaco Abbey for 43 years. He has served as an educator, a teacher and administrator, and a missionary and farmer in Belize. Currently he teaches and serves as editor of “The Abbey Message,” Subiaco Abbey’s quarterly newsletter. He also serves on the Board of Logan County’s Community Outreach Services and is a member of the Glory of Zion Charismatic Prayer Group. He has led two pilgrimages to the Holy Land, in 2000 and 2006, spending time in prayer and meditation on the mount where Jesus preached the Beatitudes.

Father Emmanuel Charles McCarthy is a Byzantine-rite Catholic priest, a co-founder of Pax Christi-USA, a 1993 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and the original director of the program for the Study and Practice of Nonviolent Conflict Resolution at the University of Notre Dame.  His daughter, Teresa Benedicta McCarthy, (Eastern Rite priests are permitted to be married) was the official Church miracle for the canonization of St. Edith Stein.

Fr. Paul Fetsko, M.Div., B.C.C. is a Russian Orthodox priest who is a full-time chaplain at St. Edward’s Hospital, Fort Smith, attached to Sts. George and Alexander Church in Fort Smith, Arkansas.