The Religious Education Office of the Diocese of Salt Lake City recently invited Congar Institute to provide a resource person to conduct a half-day Lenten, diocesan-wide retreat for men and women. Bishop Oscar Solis asked that the retreat focus on the Synod on Synodality currently occurring in the global Catholic Church and the U.S. Bishop’s program for Renewing the Sunday Eucharist, especially in the context of Lent. Fr. Ray John Marek, OMI, accepted the invitation and conducted the retreat morning. The two presentations during the retreat were entitled Holy Encounters on the Lenten Journey: Transforming and Renewing the Church. Approximately 120 individuals participated at St. Vincent’s Church in Salt Lake City. As part of the retreat, opportunities were provided for quiet reflection, sharing insights at tables with other participants, and feedback to the large group in attendance.
During his presentations, Fr. Ray John noted that each of the three aspects (i.e., Synod, Eucharistic Renewal, and Lent) had a common thread of facilitating growth in Christian identity and mission. Highlighting how Jesus engaged with individuals in the scriptural stories heard during the Lenten season, Fr. Ray John suggested the scriptural encounters offered insights into our identity as individuals, communities of faith, and church. There is also the parallel question of how we are to be and what we are to be doing as people of faith. Fr. Ray John associated this with the challenge given numerous times by Pope Francis: How are we to be missionary disciples – men and women whose lives and hearts are burning with the fire of God’s presence, the presence of Jesus and the Holy Spirit … moving beyond our churches, our parishes into a world that needs to hear the Good News.
Fr. Ray John described how those scriptural encounters illustrate that Jesus had a keen ability to listen to individuals, both what they said and did not say. He encouraged retreat participants to listen deeply to the scriptural texts heard each Sunday in Lent and reflect on how Jesus “heard” others and called others into new ways of being. This “listening” is an important aspect of the synodal process, and a “listening church¨ can be used to describe our Christian identity. Fr. Ray John recalled the words of Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, OP (former Master of the Dominican Order), who preached the opening retreat at the Vatican for the recent Synod on Synodality. Fr. Radcliffe spoke to Synod participants in Rome about the need to listen to each other, an act that often challenges Catholics to listen to voices outside their own parish or interest group.
Since the retreat happened on the Saturday before Passion Sunday, Fr. Ray John also reflected on how a large part of Christian identity is shaped by an experience of the cross. He noted that deep within this experience of the cross is the reality of crucified love (c.f., Walter Burghardt, SJ). Such “enlarging” love is at the heart of the passion story, and it is a love that has implications for every Christian. When we live with such sacrificial love, we are drawn deeper into the mystery of new life already at work in us.
Fr. Ray John Marek, OMI
Lenox House: An Urban Spiritual Oasis
Oakland, California