Renew and refocus at diocesan Lenten retreat

Intermountain Catholic

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Dominican Father Wayne Cavalier

SALT LAKE CITY — The Lenten season calls Catholics to examine their lives in light of their faith. A day-long opportunity to do just that is being offered by the Diocese of Salt Lake City on April 2, when Dominican Father Wayne Cavalier will lead a Lenten retreat.

Fr. Cavalier’s topic is ‘Not as people see does God see.’

"The theme comes from the Sunday readings," Fr. Cavalier said. "Lent calls us to return to God, to conversion, to fully open ourselves to the Easter mysteries we celebrate at the culmination of our Lenten preparation. One way of understanding conversion is to turn from our own limited way of seeing ourselves, our neighbors, our world, even God and to renew our vision based on how God sees, meaning how our Creator who loves us and knows us completely, has created us and all things to be."

Adult Catholics seeking an opportunity for renewal of their faith, particularly those who wish to explore Catholic Christian spirituality from a biblical perspective, should attend the retreat, said Fr. Cavalier, who is director of the Congar Institute, a Texas-based institute dedicated to passing on the Catholic tradition and developing lay ministers.

Fr. Cavalier has been associated with the diocese’s lay ecclesial ministry formation program for the past four years and "has a very good sense of the spiritual needs of the people of this diocese," said Susan Northway, the Diocese of Salt Lake City’s director of religious education.

Formerly a Glenmary Missioner, Fr. Cavalier is "a soft-spoken person with a very powerful message," Northway said, adding that his presentation will be suited for people "who need to hear a gentle message about the compassion of God but a powerful message about their own life."

For his part, Fr. Cavalier said he hopes those who participate in the day of prayer will "leave with a greater readiness to enter into that celebration and in particular to understand what that celebration has to do with their everyday lives, not only in the Easter season but even and probably especially in those times when we least feel like ‘alleluia people.’ We celebrate at Easter the central truths of our faith. It represents the key to our identity as Christians and as disciples of Jesus Christ."