For over four decades, Worldwide Marriage Encounter has been a leading movement in offering married couples the gift of a weekend experience to enrich their relationship.

If married for many years, the weekend can help enhance communication, renew commitment, and rekindle romance. If married for a short time, couples can learn new skills needed to stay close through the ups and downs of life.

The positive effects are not limited to just the spouses; the entire family will benefit from the growing love as well.

Marriage Encounter is designed to give married couples the opportunity to examine their lives together. It is a time to share their feelings, hopes, disappointments, joys, and frustrations, doing so openly and honestly in a face-to-face, heart-to-heart environment. It’s a weekend to rediscover relationship. Every marriage deserves that kind of attention!

The emphasis of the weekend is on communication between husband and wife, who spend a weekend together to concentrate on each other. It’s not a retreat, nor a marriage clinic, nor group sensitivity. It’s a unique approach aimed at revitalizing Christian marriage.

What happens at a Worldwide Marriage Encounter Weekend?

A team of Catholic couples and a Catholic priest give a series of presentations. Each presentation allows the attendees a rare opportunity to look at themselves as individuals, then to look at their marriage and relationship, and finally to look at their relationship to God, the Church, and to the world.            

The next weekend in the diocese will be held Oct. 20-22 at St. Bernard Abbey in Cullman, starting at 7 p.m. on Friday and running until about 4 p.m. on Sunday. For more information, please visit wwme.org or call 205-530-3607. St. Bernard is located at 1600 St. Bernard Drive, Southeast.