By Michael Motes

In a little less than a year and a half, nearly 600 couples in the area have participated in a program that is rapidly growing in interest – Marriage Encounter.

Chuck and Pat Bianco, the local Marriage Encounter recruiting team, are extremely enthusiastic about the reception the weekend program has received locally.

They are currently preparing for the next program, set for December 3 through 5 at Howard Johnson Inn on North Druid Hills Road. On Saturday, November 27, a discussion of the program will be held at The Cathedral of Christ the King beginning at 7:30 p.m.

What is a Marriage Encounter?

Publicists for the program describe it as a “crash program that teaches a technique of communication. It gives couples the opportunity to examine their lives together – their weaknesses and strong points, their attitudes toward each other, their joys and frustrations—and to do so openly and honestly in a face-to-face, heart-to-heart encounter with each other.”

The emphasis of Marriage Encounter is on communication between husband and wife who spend a weekend together, away from the children and the distractions and tensions of everyday life, to concentrate on sharing deeply with each other.

Marriage Encounter is neither a retreat nor a marriage clinic. Rather it’s described as “an unique approach aimed at revitalizing Christian Marriage by helping couples make a good marriage better.”

The program is open to any couple who want to enrich their marriage relationship, as well as for priests and religious who want to revitalize their relationship with the people of God.

Participants do not have to be Catholic, although the weekend is presented by three Catholic couples and a Catholic Team Priest. The weekend is Catholic in its theology of marriage as a sacrament of the Church, but couples of all faiths can benefit from it.

During the weekend, a series of talks are given by a team of trained couples and a priest. Each talk gives a husband and wife the opportunity to look at themselves as individuals, as a couple in relationship, and finally to look at their relationship to God, the Church and the world.

There is no group discussion nor comment during the 44 hours the participants spend at the encounter. The weekend is strictly ordered to the couples’ own mutual and personal sharing.

Presentations are given to the group as a whole and after each presentation the husband and wife have time in the privacy of their rooms for their own personal sharing.

Reactions from participants are impressive. Some of the comments are:

“Mary and I have been married for 25 years and we thought we knew everything about each other. Thanks to Marriage Encounter, we’re really getting to know one another better.”

“Rick and I love each other very much, but we felt as if the world was slowly pushing us apart. Daily problems of money, job and children were steadily becoming more important than our relationship. Marriage Encounter has helped to put things back into proper perspective for us. It’s great!”

“We had a good marriage. There was nothing Tom and I wouldn’t do for each other. But I wanted more than that. And we got it! Marriage Encounter has given us a closeness we’ve never known before.”

“Since marriage Encounter even our difficulties have a new meaning. By facing them and overcoming them together, our relationship is strengthened and our love for one another grows deeper day by day.”

A priest had this comment following the weekend: “Marriage Encounter has helped me to realized and accept my own humanity. It’s given me the means to understand myself more clearly as a man. This has proved invaluable in the living out of my priesthood.”

Marriage Encounter weekends for early 1977 are scheduled January 14-16, February 11-13, March 4-6 and March 25-27.

For additional information on the program and the information nights held at Christ the King, contact Chuck or Pat Bianco at 469-7286.