Prayer brings peace, joy to catechumen

Intermountain Catholic

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SALT LAKE CITY — When Roger Lopez Chan arrived in Utah from Guatemala almost six years ago, he just felt  lost.

As a young man without any family to guide him or support him, he started going from church to church, feeling confused and alone.

“Sometimes I made rushed decisions, without stopping and thinking twice,” said Lopez Chan, who was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but soon enough found himself attending every church that he came across.

“I was very confused,” he said. “I wanted to know what the truth was, but I could never find it. I didn’t feel comfortable, I felt full of doubts and disappointed. I was angry with myself.”

Then one day his cousin invited him to attend an RCIA class at St. Ann Catholic Church.

“I totally liked what I saw. … I started feeling welcome, like I was not alone anymore,” he said.

He decided to enroll in the program and his life took a 180-degree turn.

“I started praying, and one day I asked God for a sign that I was finally on the right path for my life,” he said.

What happened was not what many people might consider a sign, but for Lopez Chan it was God answering his prayers.

He used to have an old truck that would never start with the turn of the key; it needed the help of cables, lots of patience and many tries to start the engine.

“One day these words just came out of my mouth: I said, ‘In the name of God this will turn on,’ and turned the switch,” he said.

The truck started.

“I was shocked, but a happiness that I cannot describe filled me; I knew that I was finally on the right path,” he said.

Having God in his life now means everything to him.

“Without Him we are nothing, we have nothing,” said Lopez Chan, who has found in prayer a great source of peace and joy.

“When I pray I feel at peace. … Sometimes when I go to bed without saying a prayer I feel strange and cannot rest, so I have to get up and pray,” he said.

Besides attending the RCIA classes, he began to read more books about God and the Catholic faith. In them he has discovered many treasures.

“In the Catholic Church there are no divisions, there are no judgments. The Catholic Church respects everyone, and I didn’t find any of that anywhere else I went,” he said. “Now I am finally home.”

Lopez Chan will be received into the Catholic Church this Easter at St. Ann Parish.

“With God in our lives we are never alone,” he said.

Candidates and Catechumens from 26 parishes and missions from all over the Diocese of Salt Lake City are preparing for the Rite of Election/Call to Continuing Conversion, which will be celebrated Feb. 29 and March 7 at the Cathedral of the Madeleine. The Rite for members of parishes in all the deaneries except the Salt Lake Deanery will be Feb. 29; the Rite for the Salt Lake Deanery will be the following Saturday.