Charismatic encounter draws thousands
DRAPER — People from all over the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City gathered at Juan Diego Catholic High School to participate in the 2018 Lenten encounter sponsored by the diocesan Charismatic ministry.
From March 24 to March 25, more than 1,000 Catholic families prayed, worshiped, learned, received the Sacrament of Reconciliation and attended a Holy Hour and the Palm Sunday Mass during the retreat titled “Families: I will lead her into the wilderness, and speak persuasively to her.” The name was taken from Hosea 2:16.
The retreat was conducted in Spanish. Retreat masters were Father Wilson Gonzalez, a priest from Nicaragua, and Javier and Marinés Bonilla from Puerto Rico. The Most Reverend Oscar A. Solis, Bishop of Salt Lake City, presided at the Mass.
Bonilla and Ortiz are a married couple known for their Charismatic worship. Fr. Gonzalez is also part of the Charismatic renewal, and he offers a healing ministry for the families.
Fr. Gonzales presented themes such as “Families Living a Special Lent” and “The Holy Spirit Transforming Your Family.” Bonilla presented themes such as “We Serve the Lord,” and Ortiz spoke on the topic “I Will Succeed in Jesus’ Name.”
At the same time that the talks for the adults were presented, children 12 and under were attending presentations with topics such as the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
Among those who attended the encounter were Gerardo and Olvia Guzman and their three children from Saints Peter and Paul Parish in West Valley City.
“These themes are very good,” Gerardo Guzman said. “We like to participate in all the encounters. … I like to be here because it is like receiving food for my soul.”
He added that when people stop feeding their souls, “We can start getting far away from Our Lord’s path, and I feel it is very important that we keep walking on that path.”
“We have to keep on learning; we have to keep renewing ourselves,” he said.
Attending the encounters as a family is not easy, Olvia Guzman said, but “it is very important because if we don’t teach our kids about our religion from the time they are little, when they are older it’s going to be really hard.”
The Guzmans added that they consider that is very important that their kids “grow up loving God, knowing about Him, and loving each other.”
During his presentations, Fr. Wilson told the families about the importance of having healthy families and always having their faith as the center point of their lives.
The Encounter also had the participation of the Charismatic Renewal Choir, which sang worship songs.
Bishop Solis, during his homily at the Encounter Palm Sunday Mass, said that “as we enter into Holy Week we are invited to reflect on this great mystery of our salvation, but not only to reflect but to unite our own hearts and our lives in the suffering and death and rising of our Lord. It may be a sad and scandalous event, full of contradictions on how people treated Jesus, but yet there is a great message – there is a message of hope, of love, a message of forgiveness and a message of salvation and redemption for all of us.”
The retreat “gave us an opportunity to have an encounter with Christ now, in this Lenten season,” said Joel Romero, diocesan Charismatic Renewal coordinator.
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