Santa Fe Catholic Engaged Encounter at 4000 Saint Josephs Place Northwest, Albuquerque, NM 87120 US - About Us
About Us
What Is Catholic Engaged Encounter?
Engaged Encounter is designed to deepen and enrich relationships and to give the engaged couple an opportunity to talk honestly and intensively about areas of their perspective lives together. These areas include their strengths and weaknesses, their desires, goals and ambitions, their attitudes about money, sex, children, family and their roles in their church and society.
The goal of Engaged Encounter is to strengthen marriage and family life and thereby reverse the alarming divorce rate. Although a Catholic Engaged Encounter weekend is only thirty hours out of the busy schedule of a couple preparing for marriage, it may be the turning point which will determine much about the quality of the couple's married life. Some couples really strengthen their love for each other as well as strengthen their communication skills. And, some couples may leave the weekend and realize that they are not meant to marry each other.
Engaged Encounter encourages couples to reach within themselves to discover that marriage is forever, - as long as they both shall live, love is forever, and God is forever present in their sacramental relationship.
Engaged Encounter began in 1974 to help prepare engaged couples for marriages. It has grown into an international organization with communities in most dioceses in the United States and in many countries around the world. More information about the organization, the program, and other communities may be found at www.engagedencounter.org.
What Happens At A CEE Weekend Retreat?
A married couple sharing from their personal experiences introduces one of a number of different topics. This is followed by a period of personal reflection where each individual writes their thoughts down on paper. The couples then discuss privately how the topic affects their relationship. This format encourages communication that is not swayed by the opinions of others. Since the focus is on the engaged couple and their relationship, group participation is minimal and informal.
The only formal group activity happens on Saturday night in the form of a "rap session". The couples get together to ask questions and share their insights about marriage issues with others in the group and the presenting couples. We follow this up with a prayer session before we retire for the evening.
On Sunday, we close out the weekend by attending mass at the retreat center or at a local parish.
