Bishop Sylvester Ryan to present Lenten retreat on stewardship at St. Ambrose Parish

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Bishop Sylvester Ryan

SALT LAKE CITY — Saint Ambrose Parish will host a Lenten retreat, "Connecting Eucharist with Stewardship," Feb. 25. The Most Rev. Sylvester Ryan, Bishop emeritus of Monterey, Calif., will be the guest speaker. Bishop Ryan will also preach at some of the Masses at St. Ambrose Parish Feb. 25-26.

Bishop Ryan presented a retreat at St. Ambrose last year and has also presented a retreat for the Diocesan Pastoral Council.

"We hold a parish retreat every year during Lent because Lent lends itself to a time when people want to go within themselves to make a change of heart," said Pam Avery, St. Ambrose director of religious education. "We recently held a stewardship fair and would like to follow it with a retreat on the connection between the Eucharist and stewardship. Bishop Ryan will talk about the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity and how they connect with the Eucharist."

Bishop Ryan will focus his presentation on Lenten stewardship. "I will combine stewardship with Lenten stewardship and the reflections will be on the Sundays of Lent with a great emphasis on the stories of conversion in John’s Gospel, which are used for the RCIA candidates because they are so powerful," he said. "I will relate those to stewardship and the ways in which we are gifted by God with the gifts of time, talent, treasure and faith. Later that evening I will meet with the teens of the parish to discuss stewardship."

Bishop Ryan studied at St. John Seminary College in Camarillo, Calif., and at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles. He was ordained a priest of the Los Angeles Archdiocese on May 3, 1957. He was named president-rector of the Archdiocesan Saint John’s College Seminary in 1986, and was consecrated a bishop by Cardinal Roger Mahoney on May 31, 1990. He was named Titular Bishop of Remesiana and Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles, Feb. 17, 1990 to 1992. He was appointed to be the third Bishop of Monterey, Calif., by Pope John Paul II in 1992, and was the bishop from his installation on March 19, 1992 to Jan. 30, 2007, when he retired.

Bishop Ryan served as the president of the California Catholic Conference from 1997 to 2004. He has family ties to Utah; his mother was born and raised in Salt Lake City.

"My grandfather was a farmer in Magna and sold his produce on Grower’s Market in Salt Lake City," said Bishop Ryan. "My mother’s family was in Salt Lake and I spent a fairly large amount of time visiting them. I came to Salt Lake for two summers during the war in 1943 and 1944 to work with my grandfather on the market."

His parents met when his father, who was on a minor league baseball team, played in Salt Lake City and met his mother during the summer of 1929. The couple married that September in the Cathedral of the Madeleine and moved to California. "My father played with the Chicago Cubs, who owned Santa Catalina Island, and they practiced there in the spring," he said. "I was born in the fall of 1930 on Santa Catalina Island and grew up there."

St. Ambrose Parish’s Lenten retreat, "Connecting Eucharist with Stewardship," will be held Saturday, Feb. 25 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the St. Ambrose social hall, 1975 South 2300 East, SLC. RSVP to 801-485-9324.