Marriage Enrichment

[mommysedso]

O.k. I have a question. My husband and I went to the Engagement Encounter weekend before we were married and absolutely loved it. (I’m sorry for those that did not have an enjoyable experience). It has really helped out over the course of our marriage (6 years in November). It actually saved our marriage after his first tour of duty in Iraq. He had a hard time adjusting when he came back and after his uncertainties of our marriage I asked him to read over what he wrote during that weekend. He did and it opened his eyes to what we had before seeing such miseries over in Iraq. So before he left on his second tour of duty to Afghanistan we went to the Marriage Encounter. It was o.k but did not fit what we needed or what we need now. It seemed like if was for people that had been married for many years and had drifted apart. At that time we had our stuff together and only wanted something to enrich our marriage, not bring it back from the dead (so to speak). Now he has been home for almost a year (wow…I can’t believe it) and we would like to do a retreat. We are not really interested in the Marriage Retreat for the same reasons as already noted. Is there another Catholic Retreat/Enrichment that we might benefit from?

Thank you in advance,

Sarah.

 

[nodito]

Hi Sarah,

This isn’t what you had in mind, but I though I’d throw it out there anyway. Why not ask your Archdiocese if you and your husband can present a topic at an upcoming Engaged Encounter? Since you’ve already weathered the difficulty of a long-distance marriage and the trauma of war, you could probably think of a lot to say about commitment, fidelty, and trust. Your advice could be invaluable for engaged couples. And in preparing for this presentation, you and your husband would have to devote time to praying and talking about what you’d like to share and what has worked well in your marriage. This could potentially spark new ideas or rekindle lost passion.

I also loved our pre-Cana. We did a retreat called Three to Get Married where there were presentations from married couples and a priest and plenty of free time for reflection and discussion. I myself think it would be interesting to attend something like this again in the future, sort of as a refresher or enrichment course. If you were a presenter you could probably sit in on the other speakers and then discuss what you hear (the old and the new) with your husband. At the very least, premarriage programs assume the couples are in love and have not yet grown apart!

Food for thought.

I hope you find what you’re looking for. God bless!

 

[mommysedso]

Thank you for responding. I had not thought about that. When we were going through the class we both talked about how cool it would be to be the teachers during an engagement encounter weekend. However since we have been married the military has had us more apart than together nearly so it was something that we have not been able to commit to. I think I will discuss this with dh and see what he thinks.

 

[HouseArrest]

We went to the Engaged Encounter as well and really liked it. I could see how presenting later would be beneficial. We also went to Marriage Encounter but didn’t feel the same about that one… I can’t quite put my finger on what was not right about it. I don’t know of any other kind of retreats out there - unless you just want to take a long weekend vacation?