What Does Beginning Experience Mean To Me?

As I prepare for the coming Beginning Experience weekend I remember my first weekend with BE. I was very anxious because I was not sure that I needed a Beginning Experience. My husband had been gone for several years and I felt that I was as healed as I was going to be. I was so blessed during that weekend. As I walked into the Bishop DeFalco Retreat Center there was an immediate sense of calm and peace in my soul. I decided then that I would open my heart and let God guide me through this. Every single facilitator was so welcoming and glad that I was there. They were so supportive, and I’d never had that kind of support in my life. Because they have all been through the same experiences either through death, separation or divorce, they could understand and there was no sense of judgment whatsoever, which is something I was afraid of before the weekend.
 
As the weekend progressed, I was constantly in awe of how open, supportive, understanding and encouraging everyone was. With the facilitators love and support those attending were encouraged to share and trust in our companions and to trust so much more in God. Each session was a new experience as I listened to the other participants talk and began to realize that they had the same type of heartaches and problems as I did. That in turn helped me open up too as we all slowly began to heal together.
 
So what does Beginning Experience mean to me? It means a sense of love, peace, growing in understanding and acceeptance of myself and others.  It means helping others through helping myself and realizing that no matter what, God loves me.  What a wonderful blessing!
 
Margaret Brummett is a parishioner at St. Thomas the Apostle Church, Amarillo.