"I was afraid we would be pressured into disclosing our problems to the group for discussion and criticism. It was not like that at all. My wife and I had a much needed opportunity to reflect quietly and share the deeper dimensions of our life together." "I never realized how deeply my husband felt about the really important things in our married life. I knew he loved me but I never realized how much!" "Now I know that marriage is meant to be far more than peaceful co-existence. It's really possible to keep right on growing, even after 25 years!" "We fell in love all over again. Since we made the weekend, our lives together have taken on new meaning." "I was sure we had a good marriage, but I never realized how fantastically good it was! I really learned something about our communication." "This weekend I have come to know myself and my wife better than I ever thought I possibly could. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity. It really opened some new doors for me." "It was absolutely AWESOME! We really got into it and came out so in touch and connected and in love.....It was flatdown the best thing we have ever done together." Marriage Encounter--A Personal Reflection "And they lived happily ever after." Those words sounded so easy in the fairy tales of our childhood. Pop songs convey the same message but those of us who've been married awhile know there's a lot more to living happily together than merely choosing the "right" partner. Marriage Encounter is an interfaith experience for husbands and wives learning how to make our marriages better because we know that "falling in love" was easy but that staying in love requires effort. It means learning to be gentle with each other and ourselves, to share our deepest feelings, to rediscover what it was that first brought us together. It means deciding to love our spouse and ourself. Marriage is not easy, it is a bond between two very different kinds of people -- man and woman -- and it is no wonder that so many marriages fail. Marriage Encounter couples consider our marriages too important to be taken for granted or allowed to go stale or decay by default. More than seven years later, the two of us still look back upon our Marriage Encounter weekend as one of the peak experiences of our life together. We invite you and your spouse to give each other a MARVA Marriage Encounter weekend. The cost is modest, expecially when you consider the return. A strong, healthy bond between husband and wife is truly the key "family value." --Ron and Rose Marie Meservey "Go to the heart of the family.....the couple. They are the key to the love-revolution the world needs." --Father Gabriel Calvo, Founder, Marriage Encounter  |
