By Erika Anderson, Staff Writer

DULUTH—When Carolyn Mihalick moved to Georgia from Florida five years ago, she longed for the strong community she had found back home in the Marian Servants of Divine Providence.

After becoming involved in a charismatic prayer group at the Church of St. Benedict, Mihalick said she began searching to find God’s will.

“I was really praying, just trying to discern why God sent me here,” she said.

Within her prayers, Mihalick found the answers for which she was searching. She began a new chapter of the Marian Servants, the Marian Servants of the Blessed Trinity. The group has been in formation for two years through St. Benedict Church, but involves Catholics from other parishes.

Her own journey toward the Marian Servants’ way of life began in Clearwater, Fla., when Mihalick walked into a meeting of the group for the first time.

“I saw a group of men and women there. I wanted what they had,” she said. “It was a hunger, which is truly a grace. I just kept going back and had an amazing experience of inner healing.”

What that group of men and women had, Mihalick said, was peace and a desire to serve.

“They were serving just out of love,” she said.

The group, at its core, is Catholic, Marian and charismatic. According to a brochure, their mission is “to bring Catholic Christians to a deeper understanding of their vocation and mission in Christ, in the church and in the world.”

“Desiring to be worthy of the vocation to which we have been called by Jesus Christ Our Lord, we pledge ourselves to a life of charity, selflessness, gentleness and patience,” the brochure continues. “Called to be people of hope, we seek to preserve that bond of unity which is a gift of the Holy Spirit for the building up of the Body of Christ.”

Founded in Clearwater by Diane Brown, the Marian Servants now have five chapters, including two in Florida and one in Atlanta, Boston and Thibodaux, La. Under church law, it is described as a private association of the Christian faithful.

Involvement in the Marian Servants goes further than a simple prayer group, Mihalick says. It is a way of life.

“To be a Marian Servant is a calling,” she said. “It is a call to a deeper prayer life and a deeper life of service to the church.”

When Mihalick decided to begin the Atlanta chapter, she found a group of people who were anxious to join.

Participants go through a discernment process before they become full members. After a year, a participant becomes a candidate; at two years they are associate members and after three years they commit to being full members of the group that calls them to a life of holiness.

Because the Marian Servants of the Blessed Trinity began just over two years ago, Mihalick is the only full member of this chapter.

In October 2000, Archbishop Donoghue celebrated a Mass at St. Benedict for the chapter’s first Commitment Day. Associate members were given a copy of the Marian Servants’ Rule of Life and Mihalick renewed her own commitment, as Archbishop Donoghue blessed a Marian Servants medal that all full members are given.

The Rule of Life, as lived by the Marian Servants, includes growth in holiness, obedience and service.

Kevin Butz, a parishioner of the Church of St. Andrew in Roswell, is an associate member of the group. His wife, Karen, attended the charismatic prayer group meetings at St. Benedict and felt called to become a Marian Servant when Mihalick decided to form the chapter. Her husband said he was attracted by the Rule of Life.

“This is not just a prayer group,” he said. “You are trying to grow in holiness and you’re in a community that is growing together and supporting each other and learning from each other.”

Butz has completed two of three years of study to become a spiritual director through The Cenacle of Our Lady of Divine Providence in Clearwater. Each January, Butz goes to Florida for a two-week session of classes, where he studies various types of spirituality, such as Franciscan, Dominican and Carmelite, so that, as a spiritual director, he will be able to lead directees in a manner that makes them comfortable.

The Marian Servants use the Ignatian form of prayer, which Mihalick says is a method of finding a deeper relationship with God and self.

“It is about an encounter with knowing God more clearly, knowing yourself more clearly, and seeing within that self a desire to serve,” she said.

Though not initially charismatic in his prayer life, Butz said that through the Marian Servants he has become more charismatic.

“I always considered myself much more contemplative,” he said. “That was more my type of spirituality. My wife would be raising her hands and singing and I’d much prefer to drop on my knees in silence.”

Butz said that now sharing the same type of spirituality has brought him closer to his wife.

“Being able to share our faith has always been very important,” he said. “While we could share many aspects of our Catholic faith without sharing the same spirituality, now we are doing so many more things together.”

Mihalick said that the chapter feels called to teach others to pray using the form of spirituality developed by St. Ignatius. They are currently performing a teaching ministry through their regular group meetings on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month at St. Benedict Church. The group attends the 7 p.m. Mass in the chapel and then gathers to recite the rosary, followed by Evening Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours, a teaching, and prayer and praise. Msgr. Hugh Marren, pastor of St. Benedict, serves as the group’s chaplain.

The first full-time ministry of the Marian Servants of the Blessed Trinity is intercessory prayer for priests. Butz developed a calendar based on the ordination anniversaries of archdiocesan priests. Each day a specific priest is listed on the calendar and prayed for, as close to his ordination date as possible. On other days, archdiocesan ministries are remembered in prayer.

“Our goal is to help the archdiocese in any way we can,” Karen Butz said. “We consider ourselves servants of the archdiocese and we are also trying to spread the faith.”

Mihalick said that being a Marian Servant “really affects all aspects of your life.”

“You want to pass your faith on even more,” she said. “You bring Jesus with you wherever you go.”

She said that the Marian Servants’ way of life is not unlike the life any Catholic should lead.

“All Catholics are being called to this type of prayer life,” she said. “We’re not doing anything different than any Catholic is being called to.”

As for goals for the chapter, Mihalick said they are simply trying to walk the path that God has intended.

“I just keep praying to stay in the Lord’s will, not ahead of him and not behind him.”

For more information about the Marian Servants of the Blessed Trinity, call Mihalick at (770) 751-1754. For more information about the Marian Servants in general and other chapters, visit the web site at www.divineprovidence.org.