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Guest Column: Beginning Experience—Anchor Of Hope For Those Who Are Widowed, Divorced Or Separated
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July 25, 2022July 17 would have been the 46th anniversary of our Wedding Day. Unfortunately, I lost my wife four years ago to complications of pneumonia in a similar respect to those who have lost spouses unexpectedly due to COVID-19.
Regardless of the loss, how do you respond to the loss of someone who was your life partner? Although we successfully raised a family together, our marriage was by no means perfect. Issues had arisen over the years that needed resolution and were difficult to address. Now, with her gone, it seemed there was no way to resolve these issues and find true peace of soul. Grief, sorrow, guilt, resentment—the list goes on—became a dizzying and confusing whirlwind of unresolved feelings and emotions.
Counseling was helpful—but there had to be more—someone who actually understood how I felt and what I was going through.
By Divine Providence, enter the Beginning Experience Retreat. A retreat offered by others who have experienced the pain and grief of the loss of a spouse. The Anchor of Hope I yearned for. I entered this three-day retreat weekend nearly one year after the loss of my wife. I’m not saying that I relived my first year of grief in those three short days, but I did discover ways to classify and identify the confusion of the pain and grief that was keeping me in such turmoil. In the safety and confidentiality of small group sharing I could see how what I was going through was “normal” for me.
The retreat experience had indeed become my Anchor of Hope for living a single life again.
Ironically, I discovered that anyone who has lost a life partner, whether it be through death, divorce or separation, regardless of age, grieves very similarly which makes this retreat inclusive.
The next Beginning Experience weekend retreat will be offered Friday, Aug. 19 through Sunday, Aug. 21 at the Bishop DeFalco Retreat Center. Please call me at 806-344-7490 or the Retreat Center at 806-383-1811 or go online to bdrc.org/beginningexperience. The cost is $225 double occupancy or $285 for a single room and includes five meals. The Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Liturgy of the Eucharist will be available.
Widowed? Divorced? Separated? Life, indeed can be good again! Find your Anchor of Hope!
Beginning Experience International Ministry. Inc. is sanctioned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and is available to persons of all denominations who are open to Catholic values.
Jim Brockman is a parishioner at St. Anthony’s Church, Hereford and coordinator of Beginning Experience in the Diocese of Amarillo.
