VALPARAISO – The Diocese of Gary is inviting married and engaged couples to grab their Bible and journal and be ready to have some fun during “Embrace!” The retreat, scheduled for Feb. 14 at St. Paul Catholic Church, will feature interactive talks, personal time for reflection, catered lunch and adoration with a special blessing for couples.
Rosanne Kouris, marriage and family life coordinator, said the diocese is committed to helping marriages not just survive, but flourish. She explained that the family is the backbone of the Church and each parish. It is the domestic church where couples commit their lives in loving service to each other, in and through Christ.
“Their marriage built on Christ becomes a witness and light to the world,” she said. “It is the place where their children are introduced to Christ, where they are taught who God is and who they are. It is the place where the children learn to develop a relationship with Christ based on what they see in their parents. It is the place where children can grow into strong, productive, and faith-filled adults who will go into the world and bring Christ to others.”
Kouris continued, “Couples in a strong Christ-centered marriage are natural evangelizers. They are disciples, and they make disciples, just through the witness of their lives in the everyday world.”
Kouris shared that the purpose of this marriage retreat is to fortify and strengthen marriages and equip them with what they need to grow stronger through laughter, sharing with other couples, prayer and reflection, and learning how to make their relationship better.
She explained that in the past, the diocese had offered "date nights" for couples, which included dinner and a speaker. This year, it wanted to offer couples something with a more indepth experience.
Kouris said she hopes the couples who attend will come away with a renewed sense of commitment to their marriage, an understanding of personal obstacles they face and how to overcome them, along with a stronger desire to know, love, and serve Christ in their vocation of marriage.
Leading the evening’s conversation will be Chris and Linda Padgett. Chris Padgett is a convert to the Catholic faith. He has worked with youth as an evangelizing musician and comedian, and as a Catholic professor at various universities. Linda Padgett has worked in marriage ministry for many years while raising children.
Together, the Padgetts have become dedicated to helping marriages with practical advice, based on real-life experience, sound theology and humor.
“They have lived and struggled as all couples do, trying to serve God, raise their children in Christ, while identifying the many things in our culture that work to destroy marriages,” Kouris said.
Chris Padgett stated it can be helpful for couples to understand that they are not alone – that the struggles they have dealt with are not just a novel experience for them. Getting together with others can provide great consolation.
“Sometimes I think we struggle under this weird idea that we have to have everything figured out, and we have to know how to do everything, but there's such a value in learning from people who have gone before and, in fact, it's biblical,” Padgett said. “There's a passage in Scripture that talks about older individuals instructing and helping the younger men and younger women.”
He added, “So it's great to hear things from other people's perspectives and just learn from people who've been down the road.”
Chris Padgett joked that he and his wife “still like each other” after being married for 35 years, having nine children and eight grandchildren.
“My wife is a mental health therapist, so she does work like this on a regular basis and talks to couples and people who have a variety of different things they struggle with, and I think that is what makes our contribution unique to this sort of marriage gathering,” he said. “She brings to the table a wealth of knowledge within that field, and my training is in biblical studies and systematic theology, so we have practical experience. We have the education that gives us kind of a little bit of insight.”
Chris Padgett said the retreat will be a great experience, and something that people will be able to take home with them, “some great nuggets of truth.” He believes the key to a solid marriage is to continue to fall in love with Jesus, which gives you a great ability to love the person that God has put in your life.
“I think that's part of the struggle,” he said. “The truth of the matter is marriage teaches you to be selfless instead of selfish. It can be hard because we like being selfish, but the invitation to be selfless is constantly before you. I think that you can do that best by falling deeper in love with the Lord and then loving the people that he gives to you.
Padgett added, “This retreat is going to be fun. There will be a lot of stories, a lot of practical down-to-earth tips, so to speak, but also it's gonna be something that I think people are going to be able to really be encouraged with and leave motivated.”
To learn more and register for the Embrace! retreat, visit dcgary.org/couples-retreat.
