Welcome to 'Where Two Are Gathered", a 7 day audio retreat for couples made in collaboration with the Diocese of Westminster in celebration of Marriage Week 2019 (13th - 19th May).
PRAY-AS-YOU-GO RETREAT FOR MARRIAGE WEEK
One session will be released each day during the week. Each session is designed as a tool to check in on your marriage or relationship using Ignatian Spirituality and prayer. Each is no more than 6 minutes .
The theme of Marriage Week 2019 is about the best ‘ingredients’ for a healthy relationship. One fun way of exploring this initiative is to spend time cooking a meal together. This implies team-work and possibly not a little laughter if the culinary skill-sets of the couple are not quite equal to the task. For those who do not cook it can be quite a surprise to discover that we can, or to realise that meals do not simply create themselves.
Meals require thought, adequate preparation and sometimes a little compromise to make sure that the ingredients and flavours meet the needs of differing palates. The same applies to growing a healthy, life-long and sustaining marriage. The most memorable meals include a variety of courses and different flavours.
Marriage brings together a “mix” of different ingredients and it takes time to blend them together to produce a new way of existence. Sometimes everything is in balance and the flavours combine perfectly. At other times we need to revisit the mix, working together to ensure that the right balance is achieved and maintained, and that the flavours have not been dulled over time!
In daily life we sometimes purchase a ready-made meal, which might not be quite what we want, but provides just enough to meet the demands of work and family life. It is good to know that ready-made marriages are not available off the shelf, or if they were we might find that the product is not to our tastes or needs! Instead we want to find the right mix and proportions for us to enjoy a healthy, balanced and nourishing married life. The mix and proportions will change as the nature of our relationship grows and matures over the years. Sometimes we find that adding a new flavour or ingredient transforms the zest and taste of the meal.
This retreat, designed for married couples, uses as its base ingredients scripture, the Ignatian tradition and other Christian insights to provide a simple recipe, which we can then enjoy blending together to make a tasty, exciting and balanced meal to feed our marriage.
In this time of prayer perhaps we could begin by asking for the grace we now need to look back on the ingredients of our marriage; to heal those times where the taste has been soured or the mix burnt; and to be given new insights as to the ingredients we now need for the next course.
- Deacon Roger Carr-Jones Marriage & Family Coordinator
