Diocesan Advent retreat helps the faithful in Utah prepare for the coming of Christ
DRAPER — Catholics from across Utah gathered at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church and online to participate in the diocesan Advent retreat Dec. 4.
The retreat in English was presented in the morning; the retreat in Spanish was in the afternoon.
The English retreat began with Morning Prayer. Then Ruth Dillion, director of the diocesan Office of Worship, read a message from Bishop Oscar A. Solis. The bishop had planned to attend the retreat but was called away on diocesan business.
In his message, Bishop Solis said that despite the trials brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, “our hearts are filled with joy and trust in God’s divine providence, believing that he remains with us and will never abandon us.”
He continued: “Advent invites us to prepare the way of the Lord by staying awake and in constant readiness through prayerful vigilance. This is a challenge for many of us these days because of the many worldly preoccupations that distract our focus from Christ and neglect our relationship with God and with each other, especially those in need. The secular culture has commercialized this season, and our society has lost the spiritual significance of Christmas. Hence, Advent helps us to set our hearts, our priorities and our lives right again. We need to stay awake to encounter and experience the loving and saving presence of God in the various circumstances and moments of our everyday life. We must be ready to welcome our Savior that transformed human history and the world. Ready or not, our Lord will come again to restore all things new by his redeeming love.
“In the midst of the pandemic and other challenges we face these days, may you find the miracles of hope, love, joy and peace that only Christ can give,” he said.
About 50 people attended the retreat in person. In addition, many parishes such as those in St. George, Logan, Park City and Ogden hosted gatherings for members of their religious education, RCIA and adult formation groups to watch the livestreaming.
Father Stephen Tilley, pastor of St. John the Baptist Parish, presented the Advent retreat in English; his focus was the model of fatherhood offered by St. Joseph, who was able to detach himself from the world to fulfill the vocation to which God had called him.
To provide a home for Jesus and his mother, Joseph needed to detach himself from his own pride, and be willing to follow the path outlined for him by God, Fr. Tilley said.
In addition, “Joseph tempers himself with mercy and love,” he said. “This is how he is going to treat Mary, this is how he is going to treat Jesus, this is how he basically treats everyone and we are told, he is the righteous man, the man who shows mercy, the man who cares for others, the man who is detached from his own pride and his own will and a man that has such a deep trust of God that an angel will appear to him and he’ll just follow.”
Joseph also had to let go of material things and worldly status.
“Joseph literally takes upon himself homelessness and becomes a foreigner, a refugee,“ Fr. Tilley said. “He flees into Egypt with Mary and Jesus.”
He suggested that a focus of this Advent might be living out the corporeal works of mercy by recognizing that immigrants and foreigners also are created in the image of God, “and that God calls them and gives them a vocation as well.”
Joseph also gave up was control of his life, he said.
“One of hardest things we have to detach from is our need to control,” Fr. Tilley said. Just as Joseph disconnected himself from those things, Christians in the 21st century need to detach from the things of this world, he said.
“Don’t lie to yourself and tell yourself there are not potential idols in this world,” Fr. Tilley said. “If you truly want to prepare for the second coming of Christ, if you truly want to engage and recognize Christ in our midst, then we need to root out those idols whatever they may be.”
He identified some potential idols such as sports, social media, TV, false humility, control and time. The idol isn’t necessarily the phone or social media, he said. “The idol is this: ‘I care what that other person I never met before in my life thinks of me. I care how many likes I get on this random thing I put and all of sudden we start comparing ourselves to other people through social media frequently when in reality the only thing that matter is that God created you, loves you and that you return his love that he gives you with love and adoration. Don’t compare yourself to this other person. If God loves you, then you should love yourself. Don’t make an idol where there is no idol to be made.”
Fr. Tilley then read a passage from Through the Heart of St. Joseph by Father Boniface Hicks about St. Joseph holding the sleeping baby Jesus in his arms.
“The mystery of Nazareth is that stability does matter; being formed does matter and that’s the vocation that Joseph was given,” Fr. Tilley commented.
The English portion of the retreat ended with Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
The retreat presenter in Spanish was Fr. Jorge Roldan, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, who spoke in part about how Advent is a time of waiting.
“It’s not waiting just for waiting – it’s waiting with hope, in which all our feelings and emotions are awake,” said Fr. Roldan, who also talked about how St. Joseph participated in the first Advent, during which Mary awaited the birth of her child, Jesus Christ.
St. Joseph “was a man with great integrity, a silent man who understood the sanctity of his marriage and that God is the one who guides our lives,” Fr. Roldan said.
Throughout this Year of Saint Joseph, one of the goals was to understand the role of Jesus’ foster father in salvation, he added. “As a man [St. Joseph] taught us … that although humans make plans, God is the one who guides our lives. Plans change but God is always listening, guiding us, loving us, caring for us. We need to be open to changes. … Through Advent we need to remember and prepare ourselves to once again welcome our Savior.”
© Copyright 2024 The Diocese of Salt Lake City. All rights reserved.
Stay Connected With Us