A chance to reconnect

Whether you’ve been married for two years or twenty, every marriage benefits from intentional time together. The upcoming  “Becoming One” Marriage Retreat is an opportunity to step away from the demands of everyday life, reconnect with your spouse, and rediscover the beauty of your vocation.

Retreat leaders Peter and Theresa Martin have been married for 24 years and have graduate degrees in Theology. Peter works for the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, and Theresa is the Executive Director of the Wojtyla Community & Institute. They are co-authors of The Rule: St. John Paul II’s Rule for a Joy-Filled Marriage of Divine Love.

Still wondering if a retreat is worth the time?

You’ll have time to step away from the noise.
It’s difficult to have meaningful conversations about your marriage when you’re juggling work, errands, laundry, kids’ activities, and everything else on your calendar. This retreat will give you the rare opportunity to put those distractions aside and simply be together — to talk, listen, pray, and reflect without having to rush off to the next thing.

Together, you’ll explore St. John Paul II’s vision for marriage.
This includes his teaching on conjugal intimacy and what it means to live out his “rule” for marriage as a way of life. Most importantly, you’ll be invited to see your marriage not simply as something to maintain, but as a vocation through which you can grow in holiness and draw one another closer to Christ.

According to Theresa Martin, retreat leader, the Becoming One marriage retreat led by the WCI has a profound impact on spouses. “It breaks new ground in our vision of marriage, by using themes from St. John Paul II’s “Rule for married couple groups” which was only recently rediscovered,” she explained. “The main purpose of his Rule is to build the couple’s conjugal spirituality. Most of us have never heard of this before. St. John Paul II tells us conjugal spirituality is the new relationship between God and the spouses spiritually united as one, that couples receive through the grace of the Sacrament of Marriage. He says that if couples cultivate their conjugal spirituality, they can grow so spiritually united that they have one interior life between them! This profound reality is only just beginning to be more understood!” 

The retreat, however, is not a conference on the Rule, but a truly spiritual experience. Couples are guided through St. John Paul II’s unique vision of marriage through the talks, and time to to dialogue in between every talk — just as important as the talks themselves. 

You’ll have the chance to reconnect as husband and wife.
A retreat isn’t just about listening to talks. You’ll have opportunities to reflect and talk together, pray, attend Mass, and share experiences that can help you rediscover the sense of partnership that brought you together in the first place. Sometimes reconnecting doesn’t require a grand gesture — it simply requires making space for one another.

The key to deepening this path of conjugal spirituality, St. John Paul II says, is an act of faith – to ask God to help you grow in this area. Yet, you can’t ask for what you don’t know. This is why the talks are important, to allow couples to see what is possible, and once they understand it, they can ask God for it. And God does not disappoint! 

God is the reason these retreats are so incredibly profound. God speaks to couples more deeply than they’ve ever experienced before. And all it takes is an open heart.

Your marriage is worth making time for.
The retreat is for any couple, no matter how long (or little!) they’ve been married or whatever age. “For far too long, we have set the bar too low for marriage,” said Martin. “We call it a success if couples ‘don’t get divorced.’ Yet, St. John Paul II tells us, God has so much more for your marriage. We know that our own personal relationship with God can grow until the day we die. And when a man goes on a men’s retreat or a woman on a women’s retreat, they are applauded. Most often when you tell someone you are going on a marriage retreat, they say, ‘what’s wrong?’ Yet, this conjugal spirituality, this relationship between God and the spouses spiritually united as one, can also continue to grow until you die! So no matter how great your marriage is now, we are here to tell you God wants to take you even deeper!”

We invite every married couple to ask God if they should attend this retreat. Spending the weekend of Sept 4-6 at Terra Sancta Retreat Center will be a transformational experience for your marriage and your relationship with God. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain! 

Contact Avery Porch at aporch@diorc.org or Peggy Sue Mutchler at psmutchler@diorc.org, or call the chancery office at 605-343-3541 if you have any questions.