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Faithbooking your spiritual journey

Christine Stoddard | Catholic Herald

Faithbooks may take many forms, from journals to scrapbooks to digital books. These faithbooks were created bu Colleen Duffy Kiko.

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If spending a weekend meditating on your spiritual journey
seems like a rare luxury, consider the value your stories may
hold one day for your children, your grandchildren and future
generations.

That’s what Colleen Duffy Kiko and MaryBeth Piccinino,
organizers of the Sept. 11-13 Faithbooking Retreat at San
Damiano Spiritual Life Center in White Post, say to all
would-be Faithbookers.

Faithbooking is the act of journaling, scrapbooking or
otherwise documenting your faith journey, spiritual practice
and religious beliefs in book form. That may mean writing
one’s conversion story, choosing an assortment of personally
influential prayers, documenting the preparation for a
defining sacrament or otherwise.

Piccinino learned faithbooking from Rhonda Anderson,
co-founder of Creative Memories. She said it immediately
resonated with her. Soon Piccinino was holding Faithbooking
sessions in her home, inviting friends and acquaintances she
met through Creative Memories to join her.

“But I wanted to keep it separate from the company,” she
said. “I kept Creative Memories in the basement and held
Faithbooking gatherings upstairs at my kitchen table. I’d set
out candles and we would make our Faithbooks.”

When Piccinino met Kiko during a vacation to the Greek
Islands several years ago, the two became fast friends.
Piccinino prompted Kiko to become a Creative Memories adviser
and also try Faithbooking. Years into their friendship and
Faithbooking hobby, Kiko and
Piccinino formed Leaving a Legacy, a Faithbooking ministry.

On the Leaving a Legacy Facebook page, Kiko and Piccinino
write:
“We are on this earth for a finite period of time. Consider
the importance of passing on a legacy of where we have been,
what we have learned and what we have accomplished. How has
God directed and influenced our life? Think about the
miracles we have witnessed, the hard times and difficult
decisions we have faced. Who are the people who have helped
us along the way? We may not think our story is that
important; but personal stories, told simply and shared
honestly from the heart, have the power to change lives.”

Piccinino, who has volunteered in the chaplain’s office at
INOVA Fairfax Hospital system since 1997, said she considers
her Faithbooking service as valuable as her service as a
volunteer chaplain because it promotes faithful introspection
rare in our busy world.

Kiko, a parishioner of St. Charles Borromeo Church in
Arlington for more than 30 years, emphasizes that
Faithbooking is about “preserving stories,” not being “artsy”
or “crafty.” While attention to aesthetics is encouraged, it
is not, she said, the most important aspect of Faithbooking.
The most important aspect is the act of reflection and
documentation for oneself and loved ones.

But reflecting, Kiko said, can be difficult.

That is why Faithbookers will have Jean Noon to guide them
during the September retreat. Raised in the Presbyterian
faith, the program’s spiritual director converted to
Catholicism in 1996 after delving into the Cursillo movement.
In 2009, she completed two years of study at the Spiritual
Direction Institute in Charlottesville, where she first began
Faithbooking. Today, she serves in the Ignatian Volunteer
Corps and coordinates spiritual programs at Alexandria
Juvenile Detention Center and Arlington County Jail.

“When things are hard, you look at the book and you see that
God is always present,” said Piccinino.

Find out more
Register for the retreat at legacylife.photo. Contact Colleen
Duffy Kiko at [email protected] or Mary Beth Piccinino
at [email protected] for more information.

Stoddard can be reached at
[email protected].

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