Meet the Shulist Family
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The Shulist family
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I sit here on the couch in our ‘under-construction’
living room for a few moments rest, as I begin writing this
profile. I hear fiddles singing in the background (Paul and
Thalia playing a ditty); the computer screen is blinking (Nicholas
chatting to his friends); and a pencil is shuffling across
the page (Alicia is colouring a map of the world for homework).
There is only one scene missing from this cozy family tableaux
- sports highlights flashing across the television screen
(Stas catching up on the sports news). Stas, our 18 year old,
eldest son, has just gone off to the University of Guelph
to study. He usually sits on this very couch to catch up on
the day’s wins and losses. I could never have imagined
how empty our home would feel when our first born went off
to university. We have been grieving for some time and feeling
his absence. I cry the very tears I know my own mother cried
when I went off to the University of Guelph back in 1975.
That was the very place that I first encountered and prayed
with the Sisters of St. Joseph.
Both Paul and I took on leadership roles at the University
of Guelph’s Catholic Community. We organized retreats,
attended Newman Conferences, and met some faith-filled lifelong
friends in the Jesuits and the Sisters of St. Joseph. We worked
alongside of them in campus ministries, soup kitchens, housing
the homeless and living in a farm community modeled after
Jean Vanier’s L’Arche communities. We soon experienced
the blessings that came with working with and serving others
and doing the more.
After marrying at the Jesuit Retreat Center in Guelph, we
lived in Mt. Forest for a couple of years and became involved
in parish life; running a youth group, C.W.L. Membership and
reading at Mass. It was a hectic but growthful time as we
began our family with Stas’ arrival just nine months
after our wedding. We discerned our move back to the family
farm in Combermere when Stas was a year old and we have been
in our present home since.
Our vision was then, and continues to be, one of living
in right relationship with the land, one another, ourselves
and God. We attempt to produce our farm products in a sustainable
and respectful way. We produce much of our own food, putting
away stores for the winter, harvesting the garden in the summer
and selling any extra at the Farmer’s Market. We have
a herd of about 40 cows, a dozen or so pigs, chickens and
lots of stones to harvest each year off of this stony ground.
We have a freezer order business and sell our organic chickens,
beef and pork to local customers. Paul also practices sustainable
forestry management and does carpentry work when he is not
busy on the farm or in the bush. Halinka discerned a call
to return back to teaching and has been teaching at St. John
Bosco Catholic School for six years.
Throughout our family raising time here on the farm, we
have learned from and sought spiritual direction from the
Sisters. We were first introduced to the St. Joseph’s
Sisters through Sr. Kathleen Lyon’s ‘dream workshops’.
Coming from a family of dreamers, we were both interested
to learn more about how God might be speaking to us through
our dreams. We then met Sr. Marjorie FitzPatrick, who came
to speak at a Christian Family Movement Group that we belonged
to. We were discerning our vision as a group of families who
were committed to share our lives in community. Both of us
retreated to the Motherhouse and sought direction from the
Sisters over the last fifteen years. We have been nourished,
consoled, healed, and loved by the Sisters and have come to
desire a life of active and inclusive love in the Catholic
Community and in our greater world.
I could continue to rhyme off the many ways in which the
CSJ charism has moved in our lives but I am limited by time.
Feeling the stresses and strains of making a living and maintaining
a functional family life takes much time, energy and a whole
lot of love. I thank God for the love that the Sisters have
shown us and continue to welcome your prayers and support
as we strive to live together as a family, growing and gathering
together as one in God’s name.
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