St. George retreat focuses on the Gospel of John

Intermountain Catholic

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Small-group discussion was part of the retreat at Saint George Parish on March 25. See photo album on Facebook. IC photo/Marie Mischel

SAINT GEORGE — The Samaritan woman at the well, the man born blind and the raising of Lazarus are all familiar to Catholics, but 125 women at Saint George Parish got to see the characters from those Biblical stories in a new light during a retreat March 25.

The retreat was led by Dominican Father Wayne Cavalier, founding director of the Congar Institute, which has provided much of the instruction for the Diocese of Salt Lake City’s lay ecclesial ministry program.

The three stories from John’s Gospel are "a very important means for helping us to come to a deeper understanding of the meaning of Easter and a readiness to celebrate Easter," Fr. Cavalier said.

After each reading, Fr. Cavalier encouraged those at the retreat to reflect more deeply on questions such as which character in the story moved them, how the Holy Spirit was speaking to them through the story and what the central images of the story mean.

"It has made me look at this particular gospel in a different way," said Ivonne Millea about the woman at the well, adding that in viewing a video clip of the Gospel reading she saw the woman change from being arrogant to believing in Jesus as the Messiah. "I am absolutely able to pull a message from that for my own, and that is to believe," Millea said.

Like Millea, Troy Rivera is an Elect from Saint George Parish who will join the Catholic Church at Easter. Rivera said the presentation on the woman at the well was full of spiritual knowledge. "The message I’m getting out if it is that the more knowledge and the more trusting you are in God, the more that you believe that he is in your life," he said.

The Elect were invited to attend the retreat – which was focused on the women of the parish – because it was an opportunity for them to hear Fr. Cavalier, said Father Martin Picos, pastor.

The retreat was a chance for the women to socialize outside the Mass, as well as to allow them to experience Holy Week in a better way, Fr. Picos said.

A men’s retreat is planned during Easter, he added.

Several of the participants came from other parishes, including Christ the King in Cedar City and Saint Christopher in Kanab.

Toni Varela, secretary at St. Christopher, invited five other people to join her at the retreat, two of whom speak primarily Spanish. Varela said she would translate, but she was happy that her parish community was together. "The most important is that God unites us," said Varela, who is in the lay ecclesial ministry program.

Opportunities for retreats are rare in southern Utah, said Nancy Goebel of St. Christopher and Betsy Motzkus of St. George.

"We don’t have the opportunity to come to very many of these retreats," Goebel said. "We just don’t have access. So when we hear about one, we just come."

One of the retreat’s goals was to provide a good experience of spiritual formation, Fr. Cavalier said. "It seems that they really want that. The turnout alone indicates how much that’s desired."