Bishop Solis' Lenten Message: Walking with Christ and with Each Other

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Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Lenten season. God calls each one of us to conversion of heart and transformation of our lives through prayer, penance, sacrifice and almsgiving or works of charity. Some Catholics look forward to Lent because it gives them a chance to attend to their spiritual life and to become better Christians by doing good and avoiding sin. This sounds good, but Lent is more significant and deeper than that.

Lent helps us take the attention away from ourselves and set our focus more on our relationship with God and with others. It is also a wonderful opportunity for us to come together as pilgrims on our faith journey and to walk with Christ and with one another to celebrate our Lord’s Paschal Mystery – his suffering, death and resurrection for the redemption of our sins and the salvation of the world.

Our diocesan Lenten theme, “Walking With Christ and With Each Other,” is focused on personal reflection and faith renewal at a time when we are experiencing in our society and even in our Church a culture of individualism, polarization, pandemic and indifference to the existence and plight of others especially the most vulnerable and marginalized.

We are blessed that Pope Francis calls all dioceses throughout the world to synodality. Our Holy Father stated that synodality is a “journeying together as a Church,” a time for “mutual listening that involves the entire People of God.” The overall theme of the synod is Communion, Participation and Mission. Its purpose is not about taking a survey or gathering opinions to produce a document but “to plant dreams, draw forth prophecies and visions, allow hope to be nourished, inspire trust, bind up wounds, weave together relationships, awaken a dawn of hope, learn from one another, andcreate a bright resourcefulness that will enlighten minds, warm hearts, give strength to our hands (PD, 32).” It is a process wherein the head of our Church gathers together the faithful to listen to each other. He clarifies that a synod is a consultation process of listening to the Holy Spirit and to one another.

This year, Lent in our diocese will be a time to walk together with Christ and with each other rooted in prayer, listening and discernment. In response to Pope Francis and together with other dioceses, we will convoke consultation meetings to address the fundamental question: “A synodal Church, in announcing the Gospel, ‘journeys together.’ How is this ‘journeying together’ happening today in your local Church? What steps does the Spirit invite us to take to grow in our ‘journeying together?’”

I invite all the people of God in Utah to join and participate in the synodal meetings that will be held your parishes during Lent. Your responses to this fundamental question and engagement in the life of our faith will continue the work of the Second Vatican Council begun over 50 years that will help us grow and uncover a deeper awareness of the Church’s mission in today’s world. As we receive the ashes symbolic of our repentance and conversion, let us go forth Walking Together with Christ and Each Other. I pray that we will be able to discern what God is asking of us today, build the Church he wanted us to be, and become the missionary disciples sent out to pursue our mission as prophetic witnesses of God’s family.