Enrichment retreat uses Scripture to strengthen marriage bonds
SALT LAKE CITY — With the Scripture story of the Wedding of Cana as the basis of discussion and reflection, 28 couples in the Diocese of Salt Lake City gathered Feb. 17 for a marriage enrichment retreat sponsored by the diocesan Office of Family Life.
Bob and Peg Hensler led the retreat, which ended with a Mass celebrated by Bishop Oscar A. Solis. An optional dinner/dance followed.
Peg Hensler is the director of the Department of Youth, Marriage and Family Life of the Diocese of Trenton, N.J. The couple, who have been married since 1982 and have three children, have been coordinators for the National Association of Catholic Family Ministers, and Peg Hensler has been the president of the New Jersey Council of Family Life.
During the retreat, Peg Hensler said that the superabundance of wine – upwards of 180 gallons – that Jesus created from the water is available today as the graces conferred in the sacraments.
“Those graces are so available to us and so overabundant that all we need to do is ask,” she said, and suggested that people first turn to Mary to request that she take the matter to the Lord.
After reading the story of the Wedding of Cana, Peg Hensler asked the retreat participants to reflect on what God is calling them to do as a married couple. She also asked them to select a quote from the reading that spoke to them and pray over it.
Later in the retreat, the Henslers shared two chapters of their own lives that have made their marriage extraordinary “because we couldn’t get through them without Jesus,” Peg Hensler said.
The first story they shared was about the time when, as a young married couple, Peg Hensler was pregnant with their second child and her mother was diagnosed with cancer. At this same time, one of Bob Hensler’s friends committed suicide. During this depressing period, when they also were struggling financially, their 2-year-old son one day told his mother that the Blessed Mother had visited the family the night before. The boy said, “she didn’t walk, she flied” and “she blessed us,” Bob Hensler said.
“What we gleaned from that is that Mary comes to people when they need her the most … and she comes in incredible ways,” he said.
The other story they told was that when Bob underwent brain surgery, the couple originally kept the operation secret, but then told their parish family. It can be difficult to share such private incidents with others, Peg Hensler said, but she noted that if “you let people in they will pray” and offer other help such as meals.
Such personal stories have the power to help other people, Peg said, and sometimes when people face challenges the only comfort they can receive is from others who have gone through similar situations.
The retreat ended with a forgiveness ritual, in which each spouse asked forgiveness from the other for not giving the love and attention the other deserved, for demanding too much and giving too little, and not saying how much their spouse means to them.
Among those at the retreat were George and Jane Sehara, parishioners of Sts. Peter and Paul,who have been married 60 years. The retreat offered ways “to get along with her better,” George Sehara said, and Jane Sehara said she learned a different way to look at Scripture, and how the Scriptures affect life and marriage.
At the end of the retreat, George Sehara presented his wife with a ring, which she slipped onto her finger, then they kissed.
In his homily at the Mass, Bishop Solis reflected that the covenant established by God through the Sacrament of Baptism is similar to the covenant of marriage, in which the couples who have remained faithful to honor their pledge to love one another, he said.
“What a beautiful inspiration to our world and our society these days,” he told the couples. “Your sense of commitment to each other under the Sacrament of Marriage is a beacon of hope to a world that doesn’t understand anymore what loyalty, what commitment, what unselfish or selfless love is all about.”
He thanked them for being examples of faithfulness, true love and sacrifice, enduring patience and perseverance.
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