SALT LAKE CITY — A daylong healing retreat for people who are confronting a cancer diagnosis or other serious physical or mental illness, and the friends and family members who support them, will take place Aug. 19.
The retreat is meant to help people with life-threatening illnesses “to think (of) … what they might need as far as physical, spiritual, emotional and oftentimes healing of relationships,” said Debbie Adams, one of the organizers of the retreat and a trustee of the Catholic Foundation of Utah, which is cosponsoring the event with St. Vincent de Paul Parish.
The retreat will begin with Mass, followed by brief presentations and table discussions on Scripture passages of healing, comfort and trust.
This is the first time that the parish’s healing retreat has partnered with the Catholic Foundation of Utah.
“Some of the organizers thought it was a good fit for the parish and the Catholic Foundation to work together for this and bring the whole diocese into it,” Adams said.
After lunch, Rosemary Baron, a CFU trustee, will speak.
“We also hope to have resource materials that will help people in the future in areas for comforting illnesses that they may have,” Adams said.
The organizers have worked diligently to prepare the retreat, said Ildiko Szemerey Haycock, St. Vincent de Paul Parish’s office manager.
“We have a great number of people every week in our bulletin that are suffering from cancer or life-threatening diseases, and there was just a need for us to do something,” she said.
An important part of this type of retreat “is that we all learn to trust in God and in divine providence,” Adams said. “God has our salvation in mind; and the hurting in our lives, including illnesses, are all in his plan.”
For example, when she recently mentioned the retreat to another person, “he was talking about how oftentimes we are praying for miracles of healing, and we need to be aware of the miracles that are happening around us,” she said. “What I mean is that maybe it is not physical healing that we are seeing, but oftentimes people are healed in their relationships; they are healed in their relationship with God. … Miracles happen all around us. It is just that it seems that we are not aware of them.”
The “Into Your Hands, Father” retreat is open to everyone who wishes to participate. The church and the room where the lunch and talks will take place are accessible to wheelchairs and walkers.
“We want to invite people to come for all kinds for healing; healing has a broad spectrum,” Szemerey Haycock said.
WHAT: Healing Retreat
WHEN: Saturday, Aug. 19 beginning with 9 a.m. Mass
WHERE: St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, 1375 Spring Lane, SLC
COST: Suggested $12 donation
For information, call 801-272-9256 or email ihaycock@stvincents-school.org.
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