Lenten retreat offers day of meditative prayer

Friday, Apr. 07, 2017

SALT LAKE CITY — Three ways of opening to Christ, who stands knocking at the door of the heart, were the focus of the daylong Diocese of Salt Lake City Lenten retreat for the English community at St. Vincent de Paul Parish’s Benvegnu Center on April 1. About 85 people attended.

A retreat in Spanish, which drew about 350 people, was held simultaneously in the parish’s Holy Family Hall (see story, right). 

The day opened with a welcome from Bishop Oscar A. Solis, who wished those gathered a grace-fill day, and said it was a beautiful morning to take some time to celebrate the mystery of the Lord and focus on the spiritual journey. 

“I ask you to open your hearts to the prompting of God’s grace in order to view the love of Christ in our lives,” Bishop Solis said.

The retreat director was Cecilia von Bertraub, a spiritual director who holds master’s degrees in education and spirituality. Her focus was on prayer, one of the three pillars of Lent.

“Prayer is nurtured in our time alone with God,” von Bertraub said, noting that Scripture records numerous instances where Jesus drew apart in solitude to pray. “We need to go apart to pray like Jesus did.”

Prayer is a way to develop a relationship with God, she said. Relationships involve both conversation and listening, she said. “We find friendship in solitude with the one, with God, who we know loves us. In this solitude and silence, God will communicate with us. God communicates all the time with us ... but we’re not aware of it.”

Prayer is waking up to God’s presence and learning how to respond to it, she said. This requires the experience of sitting with God rather than taking an academic approach through books or lectures, she said. “Unless we experience God, we don’t have that deep relationship with him.”

Prayer also involves patience and persistence, dealing with distractions and interruptions, she said. “Friendship with God takes time. It takes a lot of time.”

Von Bertraub led the participants in three types of meditative prayer: lectio divina, or reading a passage from Scripture and then reflecting on a single word that seizes the attention; Ignatian prayer, in which a person imagines himself or herself in a scene from Scripture; and Taize, which uses music as a reflection.

“Try different types of meditation to see which one is where God is calling you to communicate with him,” von Bertraub said, but cautioned that if one method doesn’t resonate immediately, it shouldn’t be dismissed entirely, “because you never know when God will invite you to pick up that type of prayer and to communicate with him in that way.”

The retreat “helped people understand the importance of daily prayer,” said Susan Northway, director of the diocesan religious education, who organized the event. It also introduced Taize to many of the participants who had never experienced it before, she said.

The movement of the Taize was relaxing, and the prayer drew people together, said Veronica Zendejas of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus Parish, who came with her goddaughter, who will be confirmed at Easter. The retreat also helped her realized that God is waiting for her, Zendejas said, adding that she enjoyed the event and she would likely attend others in the future.

Another person who had never attended a retreat before was Victor Acosta of Sacred Heart Parish, who will be confirmed at Easter. “I learned a lot about all these different ways of getting closer to God,” Acosta said; of the three methods of prayer that the retreat covered, he particularly felt drawn to lectio divina, he said.