Submitted by Kathleen Owens (she/her), Manager of Clergy Programming and Communications for the Center for Clergy Renewal at Holy Wisdom Monastery
Christy Suffecool was one of the first pastors to come for a Deep Breath retreat when the ministry began in the fall of 2023. Her first Deep Breath retreat in November 2023, led to another in November 2024, and another in November 2025. Thinking back to when she heard about the Center for Clergy Renewal at Holy Wisdom Monastery in 2023, Christy remembers, “… I was fried. I did what I thought was self-care, but it really wasn’t taking care of me the way I needed to. I started the process of looking for a place to retreat to, but I was running into a lot of places that would not accept women clergy, or if they did, they wouldn’t acknowledge that I was a pastor. I needed a place where I was going to be supported and encouraged.”
Christy realized quickly that the community at Holy Wisdom Monastery is one where she would be welcomed. “But I felt completely clueless. I had no idea what it would look like to ‘do renewal.’” She took the framework and resources provided as part of Deep Breath retreats and leaned into that. The schedule centers on joining the sisters for prayer three times a day which Christy remembers being a struggle at first, “I was reluctant, I remember the first few times sitting there, not knowing what to do. In centering prayer I could not get my brain to calm down. I remember holding the prayer beads thinking, ‘Okay, at least I can sit here and sit still and hold something even if my brain isn’t still.’ But by the end of that week, I realized I had discovered peace. So, I spent the next year trying to build a rhythm in my life and trying to continue to pursue peace, not realizing it wasn’t something I could pursue. I had to learn to live into it.”
“The second year when I came, it was much more about getting back into the rhythm and resetting.” As Christy continued to incorporate the rhythm of prayer she learned at Holy Wisdom Monastery after her second Deep Breath, she also moved to a new appointment as Senior Pastor at New Leaf United Methodist Church in Conneaut, Ohio. In her new parsonage, Christy set up a prayer room. “I’ve started practices of daily prayer time. I don’t do it every day, but I know how to care for myself better than I used to. I’ve gotten feedback that I’m a much more effective pastor because of it.” Her children have also noticed the changes. “The first time I came back from Holy Wisdom, both of my daughters said, ‘You are a different mom. This was good for you, and you needed it.”
Christy was back for her third Deep Breath in November of 2025. She has already told her new congregation that this is something she needs to do every year. “This was not anything I was ever expecting when I came here. Which is funny to say because I didn’t know what to expect. But I did not anticipate the impact it would have, or that this would become my thing that I want to do every year. Some people plan beach vacations every year. I plan my getaway to the monastery to go be with God for a week and escape the rest of the world. All the problems and all the challenges will still be there when I go back, but I’ve had a chance to refresh and renew. I get time to sit and be with God, to hike, and I do the things that fill my soul. I get to be around the sisters and go through the rhythms and have the great food.”
Christy has found a rhythm of renewal through the pattern of daily prayer and annual Deep Breath retreats that is sustaining her ministry and helping her to grow in a new appointment. “Holy Wisdom Monastery was the catalyst to take me to the next stage in ministry. [I learned] it had to be me healing and taking care of myself first so that I could be utilized, and Deep Breath created that space for me to do that.” This rhythm is helping her to scatter seeds in Ohio as she begins to look at how her congregation can use their land as part of their ministry. Another piece she is learning from time at Holy Wisdom Monastery that she hopes to grow in years to come. Thank you for being part of the community that holds the space and renewing rhythms that sustain Christy in her ministry.