2017 Lenten Retreat – Charismatic Family Encounter

Friday, Feb. 24, 2017

DRAPER – The opportunity to draw closer to God and to prepare to walk with him to his resurrection at Easter will be offered during the Family Lenten Encounter being organized by the Diocese of Salt Lake City Charismatic group.

The event will include presentations in Spanish on Lenten topics, time for silent reflection, the Sacrament of Confession, and a children’s retreat.

The main presenter will be Father John Maro Montoya, from a program called “El Minuto de Dios” (God’s Minute). 

Originally from Colombia, Fr. Montoya is a Charismatic who is well known for the Hispanic Encounters that he has conducted.

“We have been trying to bring him to Utah for the past two years,” said Father Jose Barrera Hernandez, administrator of Saint Therese Parish in Midvale and spiritual director of the diocesan Charismatic group.

The Encounter, titled “Caminando Hacia Jesus por el Desierto” (Walking Toward Jesus Through the Desert), is intended to offer a family encounter with Jesus, that will prepare the participants for Lent, Fr. Barrera said.

The retreat title was chosen “because we want to share a message of hope with all who are in kind of a desert,” he said. “With all the situations that we are facing, like immigration, the families are kind of losing hope, but we have to always remember that the only one who gives us hope is God.”

The entire family is welcome to the Encounter, kids included. The children will have a special retreat guided by a special team that will attend and assist them.

“So the message is for all the families as a whole,” Fr. Barrera said.

This type of event is important because “our Church is a family, so we see God and look for him in a family,” he added. 

Past Encounters in the diocese have drawn more than 1,000 people, and the number of Hispanic families in the diocese continues to grow.

“This Encounter is an answer to all the questions that the families have approached us with in the parishes, such as families asking for better religious education for their kids, for help with the difficulties that they have in their families, in their marriage life,” said  Fr. Barrera.

Every year the diocesan Charismatic group organizes two Encounters and one Congress.

Many families are already working in parish ministries to organize the Encounter: preparing food, registering people, preparing the stage and praying, so this Encounter will be one way for the families to find God, Fr. Barrera said.

Charismatic Family Encounter 

Presenters: Father John Mario Montoya and Father Omar Ontiveros