Sending Mass celebrated for WYD pilgrims

IC photo/Marie Mischel

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Bishop Oscar A. Solis and Deacon Guillermo Mendez lead the blessing of the pilgrims during a sending Mass on July 8 for those from the Diocese of Salt Lake City who will be going to World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal.

SALT LAKE CITY — The 29 local delegates who will attend the 2023 World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal gathered July 8 at the Carmelite monastery in Salt Lake City for a retreat that included a Mass celebrated by Bishop Oscar A. Solis, who will accompany the group.  

The retreat was an opportunity for the pilgrims to get to know each other, and also “to get ready, not only our minds but our spirit,” said Sofia Palestino, one of the local WYD coordinators.

The purpose of making a pilgrimage to WYD is “to get a close encounter with our faith,” she added.

Her comments echoed those of Bishop Solis at the Mass. In his opening comments, the bishop said, “Today we gather in a special manner in order to dispose our hearts to become pilgrims” to World Youth Day.

The basis for the bishop’s homily was the Gospel of the day, Mt 9:14-17, in which Jesus explains that new wine is not poured into old wineskins. The Pharisees and many other Jews in Jesus’ audience were set in their ways and, like an old wineskin, could not accept the “new wine” of the teachings of Jesus, who brought a new understanding of God’s love and how to worship him, the bishop explained.

The meaning of the Gospel passage is that, to follow Christ’s teaching, “we have to abandon our own ways. We have to have a new heart in order to accommodate the fresh teaching of Christ,” the bishop said.

“Conversion is the call of God for the transformation of our heart,” he added. “It is a constant moment of God’s invitation to change our lives. But in order to absorb the newness of God’s grace in our life, we cannot hang onto the old ways that hinder … the effect of God’s grace in our life.”

He urged those present to open their hearts “to the coming of God’s grace, to discern the call of God in our life, the call to holiness, the call to discipleship. What hinders us from realizing the invitation of God in our life, from the conversion of heart? … Let us pray for newness of heart, to hold the freshness of the Gospel, the call to love not only those whom you like” but also those who one might find difficult to love, the bishop said.

At the end of the Mass the bishop led a blessing of the pilgrims, noting that “the community gathered here today as well as the entire Diocese of Salt Lake City support you in this endeavor and offer prayers and thanksgiving as you go forth.”   

The WYD delegates are from the parishes of the Cathedral of the Madeleine and Our Lady of Guadalupe, both in Salt Lake City; St. Joseph the Worker in West Jordan; St. Mary of the Assumption in Park City and St. Thomas Aquinas in Logan. Another group, from St. Francis Assisi Parish in Orem, is going separately.

Giancarlo Gazani, the other local WYD coordinator, told the youth that both he and another of their group had been to a previous WYD, so “we know this is going to be an exciting experience for all of you. Hopefully it’s going to touch your hearts. And when you come back, you come back on fire … to make witness, not only in your parishes but to your family and your communities.”