eMatrimony.org

Supporting, Encouraging, and Challenging the WWME Community

  News - International

25th National Unit Coordinators Conference in Mumbai, India

Leon & Lorraine Bent

Marriage Encounter, Mumbai, is hosting its 25th National Unit Coordinators Conference, at the Retreat House, Bandra, from October 13-16, 2005.

The inaugural Eucharist, the great miracle of love, and the secret to marital holiness was celebrated by Bishop Bosco Penha.

John Powell S.J., the best selling author, who brings together psychology and religion in a unified approach to personal growth and spiritual development, recites this simple prayer every day: "O God, my Father, don't let me die without having really lived and loved." Married couples, too, must be fully human and fully alive to have a vibrant marriage, and reflect God's glory to the world.

The Marriage Encounter Weekend is a 44-Hour Psycho-Spiritual Enrichment Programme that brings this very spirit to the fore!

What this Movement does is expressed simply, yet beautifully, in the following words: "I love you…for passing over all the foolish and weak things that you can't help seeing in me, and for drawing out, into the light, all the beauty that, no one else looked quite closely enough to find." Intimacy and unity, perfectly interlocked! All one can do is stare at the mystery in awe!

The theme for the National Unit Coordinators Conference, in its Silver Jubilee Year is: Celebrate the Wonder of Marriage. The well-planned sessions will help conjugal partners celebrate the sacred moments of joy, distress, forgiveness, reconciliation and healing, based on the theme song of Marriage Encounter:

There's a new world somewhere they call the Promised Land
And I'll be there someday if you will hold my hand
I still need you there beside me no matter what I do
For I know I'll never find another you….

The Business cum Formation Programme is designed to offer committed and lifelong nuptial tie-ups fresh nuances, each year, of a dream that began on their wedding day. To be married in the Lord is a call beyond "just ourselves", into an awareness of our involvement in the work of the Lord in the world. Christian marriage is a Sacrament – it is meant to be a sign, a powerful witness of Jesus' very own love for us (cfr. Jn 15:12, 17; Jn 13:34). Marriage Encounter has drawn its inspiration and substance from this "New Commandment."

The Sacrament of Matrimony confers on a wedded pair, an anointing, and, with it, a sense of calling. This is why a Catholic marriage has Kingdom purpose written all over it, and eternity etched in the hearts of the spouses. The Convention is meant to empower its participants for mission (Acts 1:8).

It is our ardent prayer that the Conference kindles a light in every marriage that, is never quenched. And, may the national gathering of couples, impart warmth to all that is cold in their togetherness, and may all relationships that our beloved Movement touches, come alive with rare greatness and glow, with mellow fruitfulness and sustained blessing.

Click hee for a printable version (PDF, 8KB)