Charismatic Renewal Encounter draws hundreds of Catholic young people to Ogden

Friday, May. 06, 2016

OGDEN — More than 600 young people gathered at the retreat house of St. Joseph Catholic High School to celebrate a Charismatic Renewal Youth Encounter.

Maria Ibarra, the main presenter of the April 30 event, spoke on themes in English and Spanish such as “God’s Loving Mercy is for Me,” Why Can’t I Feel Your Mercy?”, and “Growing with the Mercy of Christ Resurrected.”

The encounter also included Scriptural readings, prayers, music, a theatrical play by the youth group of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Mass for the youth and young adults from the Diocese of Salt Lake City’s Northern Deanery.

Among the parishes represented at the retreat were Saint Marguerite in Tooele, San Felipe in Wendover, Saint Joseph in Ogden, and Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saints Peter and Paul in Salt Lake City, said Father Jose Barrera-Hernandez, parochial vicar of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus Parish and the Diocese of Salt Lake City’s Charismatic group’s spiritual advisor.

Because there are a lot of youth in the diocese, “we decided to break the encounter in two, one today and another on June 25 at Saint Francis of Assisi Parish” in Orem, he said.

Ibarra, from Los Angeles, has spent more than 20 years evangelizing youth. At the encounter, she engaged them with colloquial and simple language for open communication.

During the event, she asked the youth to submit questions.

“One of the questions that got my attention and I saw repeatedly is ‘How can we believe in God?,” she said, and one of the answers to the question about what keeps them from believing in God was “science and evolution,” to which Ibarra replied, “I don’t know about you, but I refuse to believe that I come from a monkey. I don’t look like a ‘chango.’” 

At her response, the attendees laughed and paid closer attention.

Ibarra used the Scriptures as reference for her talks.

“First of all, first came God. The Scripture says that science is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. … Now you are asking me, ‘If God is so good, why is it that God allows so much bad in the world?’ ... You tell me why. … God is not the one that is tired. We are the ones that have chosen to be tired. It’s our choice,” said Ibarra to the crowd.

Her message touched many at the event.

“It’s very important that we open our eyes, because some of our youth are very lost,” said Maria Elene Castillo, whose teenage son Mario was at the encounter.

For him, being there that day was kind of hard.

“My mom had to bring me here. I wanted to watch some shows, but she told me that this was more important,” said Mario, adding that after hearing Ibarra’s words he knew his mother was right.

“Sometimes we don’t hear anyone talking to us about God as a loving God, about his forgiveness, and today we have reflected on that. … He is there waiting for me to come to him,” said Mario.

“I think that God, since our creation, knows that sometimes we forget about him, but with all his merciful love he is always waiting for us to come back to him,” said Noe Ceron, a member of the diocese’s Spanish-speaking lay ecclesial ministry formation program who also is very active in the Charismatic group.

Ceron said that such youth encounters are important because “the faith is in crisis. It’s with them [the youth] that our Church will continue. They are the Church’s future,” said Ceron.

For information about the Charismatic Youth Encounters, contact the Hispanic Ministry, 801-328-8641 ext. 331.