Class instructor, Janice Nguyen, guides participants through praying the rosary while doing functional movements. (HCH photos | Anna Weaver)
A SoulCore class at Holy Family Church combines body movements with meditation and prayer
By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Each week, after the Thursday 8 a.m. Mass at Holy Family Parish in the airport area of Honolulu, a small group gathers on the covered lanai just outside the church for an hour of movement and meditation centered on praying a full five mysteries of the rosary.
On June 22, seven women gathered for the class, led by Janice Nguyen, a certified SoulCore instructor.
A rosary encircled an Our Lady of Guadalupe votive candle next to a crucifix as gentle Christian instrumental music played from a portable speaker. Sun, rain sprinkles and a constant breeze accompanied the women as Nguyen led them through all five decades of the rosary.
Women participate in the June 22 SoulCore class at Holy Family Church in Honolulu. (HCH photos | Anna Weaver)
The SoulCore website describes its rosary exercise as combining “core-strengthening, stretching and functional movements with the prayers of the rosary.”
In the class, “You get everything,” Nguyen said. “You get prayer, you have community and then, of course, you get movement and exercise.”
Each session starts with members asking for prayer intercessions. The Our Fathers, Hail Marys, Glory Be’s, and other prayers of the rosary are interspersed with short meditations incorporating Scripture, a spiritual quote and a prayer.
During the Our Father, Nguyen encouraged participants to do either sitting or wall push-ups. The women sat or stretched in a “position of surrender” during the Glory Be, and the Hail Mary exercises varied with core, arm, leg and balancing movements.
Each prayer was said aloud halfway. The second half was left for each person to pray silently. Participants modified their exercises according to their comfort and ability level.
There was laughter after a more challenging series of arm exercises.
Laura Gomes, a Holy Family parishioner trying out the class for the first time, joked that the “holds” during the rosary exercises were longer than in typical exercise classes thanks to the lengths of the prayers.
Finding a yoga alternative
Nguyen is originally from Vietnam and a member of the Vietnamese Holy Martyrs Catholic Community at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa in Honolulu but attends daily Mass at Holy Family.
The mom of two used to be a regular yoga practitioner but came across an ad for SoulCore on her social media feed at what she called a “low point in my life.”
After seeing the social media ad, Nguyen read up on the program. Two Catholic women started SoulCore in 2012 and there are now classes across the country and in several places internationally.
Class instructor, Janice Nguyen, guides participants through praying the rosary while doing functional movements. (HCH photos | Anna Weaver)
Nguyen felt compelled to attend a February 2020 retreat in Arizona with SoulCore’s founders. From there she decided to become a certified leader for classes.
Since Nguyen grew up praying the rosary in Vietnamese, she was not as comfortable saying the rosary in English and had to brush up on her memorization of the prayers.
While the pandemic slowed her progress toward leading classes in person, Nguyen began leading SoulCore at Holy Family during Lent this year with the approval of Father Rheo Ofalsa, Holy Family’s pastor. Nguyen says she also got Bishop Larry Silva’s blessing.
Father Ofalsa says that those that do yoga likely enjoy the appeal of the practice’s body-mind-spirit connection.
“As Catholics, we also deeply respect that connection for many reasons,” he said in an email. “We believe that God created the human being to be a composite of body and soul. We believe that God himself became incarnate for our salvation. We believe in the redemption of the body in the resurrection of the dead.
“The grace that we receive through the sacraments are accessed bodily (e.g., baptismal water, sacred oils, audible vows, etc. all being received through the body). And so, the body is highly regarded and essential to our experience of faith.”
Father Ofalsa pointed out that SoulCore emphasizes the spiritual dimension of bodily exercise with the traditional rosary prayer.
Strengthening body and spirit
Nguyen hopes to expand the ministry “because I find it such a great outlet for me to pray as a community.”
Besides her Holy Family class, she also leads a monthly class for the Hickam Air Force Base Chapel Center’s Catholic Women of the Chapel.
A $10 donation for each class is suggested but not required and helps cover Nguyen’s instructor fees and liability insurance.
She will lead the teachers at St. Theresa School in Honolulu through a class during their retreat ahead of the new school year and thinks SoulCore would be perfect for Catholic school students since the classes can be done on both a small and large scale and customized to different ages.
Holy Family participants say they like the classes for the combination of prayer and exercise.
“I love Jesus, I love Mary, his mother, and I love the rosary prayer she gave us, praying it not only verbally and mentally but also physically with the SoulCore group,” Lisa Cole said. “Our body can pray and meditate on the life of our Lord and Mother Mary in every movement we make as we ask for the fruit of each mystery.”
Luisa Padron, who is in her 80s, likes that she can add movement to her day.
“It helps our bodies get stronger and it also reminds us how much Mary is so much a part of our lives,” she said.
Janice Nguyen leads a SoulCore class at Holy Family Parish in Honolulu at 8:45 a.m. on Thursdays. SoulCore also has a registered instructor on Maui, and classes can be taken online at soulcore.com.
