Engage in something to enrich your marriage
By Ty Salvant
A few weeks ago, Derrick and I had an opportunity to participate in a regional convention for Catholic Engaged Encounter (CEE), a marriage preparation ministry of the church. Over 40 couples from Texas to Florida gathered to support, encourage and love each other as we reflected on the theme, “Be who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire.”
Inspirational presentations challenged us to love each other more deeply, grow in our spirituality and forgive as Jesus does. We left more committed to our marriage, family, ministry and community. In short, we are better able to love our neighbors.
Protecting our marriage is one way we live our vocation and love our children. Investing in your marriage does not take away from your children. Just the opposite: a date night, marriage enrichment, couples’ ministry, marriage retreat or vacation alone all pour into your marriage – strengthening it to weather the challenges of daily life.
This, in turn, helps us to be better parents to our children and better role models for them as we witness daily to our sacrament. Willwoods’ Faith and Marriage program offers retreats for married couples with opportunities to attend as a retreatant or a presenting couple. Both are enriching.
We pray that you find a community that supports and strengthens your marriage and helps you live your sacrament. If you want information on CEE’s history, mission and goals, visit our website at neworleans.engagedencounter.com or contact us at salvant@nocee.org.
This ministry has enabled us to use our gifts in ways God intended, so we can set the world on fire. With support from other married couples, community and the opportunity to reflect on God’s role in our marriage through CEE, we have been blessed in our 23 years of marriage.
We have attended over 50 weekends in this ministry, ministering to over 1,000 couples. Some couples have been married for 20 years, raised families and are living their sacrament. Knowing that we inspired or encouraged them in some small way lets us know that we are setting the world on fire!
We are grateful for this opportunity to share our sacrament with our community. Because we know the benefits of couple ministry on marriage, we encourage you to select a ministry to support together.
