By Priscilla Greear - Florida Catholic
Photographer: PRISCILLA GREEAR | FC
Archbishop Thomas Wenski speaks on Lent in the Jubilee Year on March 11, 2025, to open the Lenten Breakfast Series at the archdiocesan MorningStar Renewal Center in Pinecrest.
PINECREST | Inhale God’s creation on a trail walk. Listen in a silent Lenten retreat. Pray before the Blessed Sacrament or pilgrimage to a Jubilee Church.
Opening the 2025 Lenten Breakfast Series of the Jubilee Year on March 11 at the MorningStar Renewal Center in Pinecrest, Archbishop Thomas Wenski challenged the faithful to deepen their prayer exercises during the 40 days of Lent to rediscover Christ in preparation for Easter.
The archbishop prayed for the Holy Spirit to inspire the faithful to keep their hearts and minds on Jesus to “pass over from death to life with Christ and come to enjoy the fruits of eternal life.”
“Only those who have hope pray and those prayers are a connection for us to the transcendent beyond the here and now. And sacraments are a celebration of hope,” he said. “We receive our Lord in Holy Communion and at the same time it’s a pledge of the eternal banquet in heaven so it’s for future glory.”
Photographer: PRISCILLA GREEAR | FC
Retired Miami police officer Tom Visney speaks during the Lenten prayer breakfast at MorningStar Renewal Center in Pinecrest on March 11, 2025.
Participants from across the archdiocese received spiritual energy plus eggs, fruit, bacon and coffee on the sunny March morn at the archdiocesan retreat center tucked in a leafy tropical Pinecrest neighborhood.
Lent is a season to rediscover Christ through prayer, fasting and almsgiving. “During Lent we come before the Lord seeking reconciliation. Lent calls us to examination of our consciousness. It calls us back to our baptism because Lent will end on Easter when we make our renewal of baptismal promises,” the archbishop said.
He noted that the faith renewal over the last 30 years among “people who pray,” from Africa’s explosive clergy vocations to the 60 men studying for priesthood for the Archdiocese of Miami and the growing Miami order Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary. He encouraged churches to reach out to the anxious and lonely and make parishes “more welcoming for the young people so they can feel invested.”
Photographer: PRISCILLA GREEAR | FC
From left, Sue DeFerrari, executive director of MorningStar Renewal Center in Pinecrest, stands with Annette Vilomar following the first Lenten prayer breakfast on March 11, 2025.
Tom Visney shared how as a rookie police officer back in 1986 he was impressed how Archbishop Wenski escorted him on two midnight patrols, including taking a psychotic man to the hospital. “The next thing I know he’s speaking Creole and you think you have to be a certain color but he took it upon himself to learn the language and live in the community,” he said, recalling his calm, peaceful demeanor. “I hope you encourage your priests, the young ones, that they need to know their area and it’s their responsibility.”
Visney appreciated that the archbishop “started off the Lent season here with his message of hope. He said I’m the CEO and I’m here.”
Jack Downey, a MorningStar board member, found inspiration to embrace Lenten prayer as an exercise of hope.
“I’m involved at MorningStar because here, on retreat in very special ways, people come and they grow their faith, deepen their encounter with Jesus in prayer, and leave renewed to share the hope of God’s love,” said Downey, who attended a Jesuit boarding school. “This is part of my religion, the way I grew up,”
Photographer: PRISCILLA GREEAR | FC
MorningStar board members Sandy McCarthy and Jack Downey attend the Lenten Breakfast Series on March 11, 2025, at MorningStar Renewal Center in Pinecrest.
The breakfast coincided with the12th anniversary on March 13 of the election of Pope Francis, who chose the Jubilee theme of “Pilgrims of Hope.”
Archbishop Wenski described 2025 as a “double Jubilee” in marking both 2,025 years since the incarnation and 1,700 years since the ecumenical Council of Nicaea, convened in 325 A.D., promulgated the Nicene Creed, which is recited at Mass to affirm the resurrection of Christ and the promise of eternal life. Catholics’ faith witness can draw people to the Church and counter a “crisis of hope” with social pathologies like drug abuse, promiscuity, suicide, abortion, loneliness, and the breakup of families in “a lonely, arid, hostile place where we see tribalism replace religious fervor.”
Like his predecessors, Pope Francis is trying to correct course and overcome misinterpretations of Second Vatican Council that diluted core Church teachings like the Nicene Creed and decreased hope. Its mission was to more effectively evangelize the modern world rather than adapt to it. Anchored in the Gospel, the faithful can endure challenges by following Christ on the goal of eternal life. Archbishop Wenski explained that Vatican II was about changing the world by the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He added, “The purpose of the Church is and always has been to announce who saves us from our sins and in saving us from our sins brings us new hope."
Photographer: PRISCILLA GREEAR | FC
MorningStar board member Javier Riera, center, listens to speaker Archbishop Thomas Wenski during the Lenten Breakfast Series on March 11, 2025, at MorningStar Renewal Center in Pincerest.
Joy Knox, a member of the Church of the Little Flower in Coral Gables, experiences Lent through singing in the choir, adoration, and daily Scripture and devotional reading. “It’s a repentance time or reflective time but it’s also a happy time. But you have to have Friday to get to Sunday,” she said.
Laura Burrows donates fruit and other treats to support the Lenten and year-round Catholic Prayer Breakfast held on second Tuesdays. She believes that faith testimonies motivate others as they “share the message of how God works in their life.”
Sue DeFerrari, executive director of MorningStar, thanked the archbishop for his leadership on the pilgrimage of faith. “We are so appreciative of your being a person of hope always reaching out to the margins and showing us the way of the Gospel.”
DeFerrari welcomes the public to breakfasts and other programs for this Lenten Jubilee Year. “It is really about hope because we journey to prepare ourselves to celebrate the greatest hope of all time that Jesus died for us and rose for us and that he lives now through us. So that is the hope we bring to the world,” she said.
Lenten Breakfast Series
The Lenten Breakfast series takes place every Tuesday at 7:30 a.m. during Lent. Other speakers include Willy Castro, Esq., adjunct law professor at St. Thomas University, on forgiveness and redemption; Father Elvis Gonzalez, pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Church in Miami, on care for the poor as Eucharistic people; musician and pastoral minister Marta Vargas on worship and young adults, April 1; spiritual director Carmen Villafane on missions, April 8; and MorningStar executive director Sue DeFerrari and Michael DeFerrari on lay ministry, April 15.
To register for the Lenten Breakfast Series or for more information about other Lenten activities, visit MorningStarRenewal.org or contact MorningStar at [email protected] or 305-238-4367.
MorningStar Renewal Center is located at 7275 SW 124th St., Miami.
