Living Catholicism: Want a better marriage? Marriage Encounter is for you

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June 19, 2006

Want a better marriage? Marriage Encounter is for you

This weekend my wife and attended a Marriage Encounter weekend for the first time. We went in, frankly, without a real understanding of what the weekend was all about. I think everyone wants a “better marriage” and we’ve felt we could do better, we just didn’t know how.

So we signed up for a Marriage Encounter in our area. After the weekend, we both agree on one thing: it definitely changed our lives. And we weren’t the only ones – I feel confident in saying that all of the couples at the weekend had life-changing, or “marriage-changing,” realizations. I can’t say much about the details, since it would ruin the event for you if you choose to attend, but I will give away some basics.

The weekend is centered on getting you to understand yourself and your spouse. It does a great job of explaining the process as you go through it. The weekend is Catholic and includes daily mass and a priest integrated into the fabric of the weekend. We were lucky enough to have Father Joe Amato as the priest during our weekend and was an exceptional aid to our growth (our weekend was in Atlanta).

At the end of the weekend you not only have a shiny, new marriage, you also end up with tools and techniques to keep the marriage happy and new over the years. Marriage Encounter weekends were actually started by a Spanish priest in the 1960’s and they have been spreading around the world since then. The priest clearly had a great grasp of what exactly men and women needed to more fully live our their marital vocations.

I’ve been focusing on married couples, since that is the experience I had. However, priests and religious can also go on these weekends and deepen their vocations. The weekends also hold aside a certain number of places for non-Catholics, who would still get the benefits of being “Encountered” without a big burden being placed on them (we did have non-Catholics on our weekend who were changed just as much as us Catholics). Also no one is ever turned away because of financial issues – the weekends ask for a $50 price upfront to help offset costs and donations once your weekend is over. But if you cannot afford to pay $50, they will cover it for you.

I strongly encourage you to not only consider a Marriage Encounter weekend, but to sign up for one today. We put ours off several times because of various issues mainly due to finding a sitter for the children (my Mom kept them), but I really wish we had done this sooner in our married lives. You deserve a better marriage and you can have one!

Sorry to be a cheerleader – I get nothing out of it other than the satisfaction that those who go on the weekend will be a transformed married couple. For more information, go visit Marriage Encounter today.

God bless,
Jay