Program I+YOU=WE in Springfield

…has ended. Happily. The couples left content.

My fears about my language skills turned out to be… missed, because most of the participants expressed their appreciation for… the lectures. And “they could last longer”. Which was of course very nice of them and I was really pleased to hear it, but the most important thing was that each couple, no matter if they’d been together for 59 years or just for 1 year (not to mention the fiances), found something particularly important for themselves in the retreat. The prayer of so many people helped all the participants to open their hearts and experience God’s love.

Not to mention St Thérèse, who took the retreat right from the start under her protection, and gave us shelter in her room (Little Flower’s Room)* . She kept on praying, standing just behind the reatreat master. And it was her who received roses, placed at her altar in the church, after the Mass with the Vow Renewal Ceremony. There is so much to thank for.

And may God bless all of You who supported us.

Fr Jay

*St Thérèse of Lisieux – called Little St. Thérèse for her ingenious invention of a “little way” to sainthood, based on the acceptance of one’s own limitations and weakness, on limitless trust and simple love in daily matters – always “here and now.”  She said that the great saints filled her with fear, but she longed for the perfect love with which she could answer God’s love for her. In her autobiographical manuscripts and in her dialogues with Jesus she used to call herself “the little flower of Jesus.” [from the Ediotrs]