Draw closer to Christ with Lenten Marian retreat

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WEST HAVEN — Drawing closer to the Virgin Mary can lead to a stronger, richer relationship with Jesus Christ. An upcoming Marian retreat at St. Mary Catholic Church can provide the impetus an individual may need to strengthen his/her bond with Our Lady and through her, with the Savior.

“A Lenten Journey with Mary,” March 6-7, will be a silent retreat led by Antonella Di Piazza, a Father Kolbe missionary of the Immaculata and national coordinator of the organization.

During her presentations, Di Piazza will focus on ‘Marialis Cultus,’ Pope Paul VI’s Apostolic Exhortation for the Right Ordering and Development of Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.  

“Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is an indication of the Church’s genuine piety,” Pope Paul VI wrote in that document. “This devotion fits into the only worship that is rightly called ‘Christian,’ because it takes its origin and effectiveness from Christ, finds its complete expression in Christ, and leads through Christ in the Spirit to the Father.”

Di Piazza’s presentation will be divided into four parts: Virgin at Prayer (Interior Life: union between contemplation and action); Attentive Virgin (Obedience: a mystery of faith); Virgin Mother (Heroic Charity: readiness to give one’s life for one’s brethren); and Virgin Presenting Gifts (Supreme Offering: suffering willed out of love). Throughout the retreat there will several opportunities for quiet times of meditation, along with question and answer periods.

At the retreat, participants will reflect on “the beauty of Our Lady’s attitudes in relation with God and God’s people that mirror for us who we should be trying to be and to become in our own journey in relationship with God and with others,” Di Piazza said.

“A devotion to the Virgin Mary is essential,” she said.  

“We cannot be Christian without being Marian because we cannot separate Jesus Christ from his mother,” Di Piazza said, paraphrasing a statement Pope Paul VI made when he visited a Marian shrine in Bonaria, Italy.

“We can look at Our Lady as the most perfect disciple in following her own son,” Di Piazza said. “As we journey toward Easter, toward the very heart of the mystery that we are to be immersed in, to conform to, who better can lead us to be closer followers of Jesus than her?”

Di Piazza said she hopes attending the retreat will give participants a desire to know more about the Virgin Mary, “to enter into a more personal relationship with her, to discover the treasure she is in our life. I also wish the retreat might lift people thirsty for more and desiring more in their spiritual life, in their relationship with Our Lady and overall, in their own life.”

Local Utah volunteers of the Immaculata Donna and John Masek and aspirant volunteer Kim Vigil are organizing the retreat, which is sponsored by St. Mary Parish.

“We hope that the retreat will help develop the Church’s teachings on the Blessed Mother,” Donna Masek said.

Father Oscar Picos, pastor, will celebrate three Masses during the retreat: 5 p.m. on Friday, and 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday. Those present at the retreat will participate in the Divine Mercy Chaplet, Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary Chaplet and the Rite of Total Consecration to the Immaculata, along with the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The parish Council of Catholic Women is providing the meals for all the participants.

Immediately following the retreat, the parish will begin its Nocturnal Adoration for Vocation program, in which retreat-goers are invited to participate.

There is no cost to attend the retreat, but organizers are asking those who are interested to pre-register so that enough materials may be prepared for participants.