St. Mary Parish celebrates Lent

Courtesy photo/Donna Masik

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About 50 people attended each event of the Saint Mary Parish Vocation Awareness Night and Lenten Retreat. Courtesy photo/Donna Masik

By Donna Masik

Special to the Intermountain Catholic

WEST HAVEN — Saint Mary Parish in West Haven held its first Vocation Awareness Night and Lenten Retreat Feb. 24-25, with guest speaker Ann O’Donnell, a Father Kolbe Missionary of the Immaculata from California. Almost 50 people attended each event. The event began with the parish’s Friday night Mass, followed by Stations of the Cross, and soup and bread dinner. Parishioners heard the vocation stories of their pastor, Father Gustavo Vidal, a testimonial letter of a young woman who recently entered the Carmelite order in Holladay, and O’Donnell. Attendees then viewed a movie by St. Luke Productions, Maximilian: Saint of Auschwitz, which was followed by discussion questions on vocational discernment.

On Saturday afternoon, attendees from four parishes gathered to hear two reflections given by O’Donnell on Finding Joy in the Cross. After confessions and Mass, the event culminated with about 20 people making or renewing their Total Consecrations to the Immaculata in the Spirit of St. Maximilian Kolbe, with others requesting to do so on the Feast of the Annunciation in March.

The parish hopes to make this an annual event.