Demetria Banda
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| Bishop Montfort Sitima of Mangochi Diocese |
The deeper weekend run from the 12th to 14th November 2021 at Our lady of Africa Centre in Malawi and was facilitated by Bishop Montfort Sitima of Mangochi Diocese along Joe and Florence Das.
According to Alex and Endrina Maxwell the chair couple, Deeper weekend is a weekend away from home to offer couples a way of loving communication, giving them an opportunity to look deeply into their relationship with one another, with God and with the Church and the world at large.
“When you encounter, there are processes to strengthening relationships. As a couple, the deeper weekend of Marriage Encounter is an opportunity for some precious quality time to focus on our relationship against the daily distractions. This experience offers us the opportunity to refresh, enrich and deepen our relationship; to bring love, joy and sparkle back into our lives,” said the Maxwells.
They further said Marriage is a vocation and at times a challenging one.
“If you are not consciously working to keep it alive, then it will lose its spark and disenchantment can set in. All this is also true for priests and Religious. We are all called to be in a relationship with our spouse or community and if we don’t nourish those relationships, they will start to weaken,” they added.
In their remarks Chifundo and Wezzie Tenthani said the deeper weekend has helped their family a lot and that it will help them improve in many areas.
“Our Deeper Weekend was very nice and enlightening that it will enable us improve in many areas as we relate to our spouses, fellow couples, the Church and the community in general. We were reminded of the need to do things together as a couple; be it prayer, parenting, finances and others so that our affection for each other as a couple may grow and through it, our love spread to others around us. We found there are many areas of married life which we took for granted, which have a negative impact on our spouses. We reflected on how we can do them better ,knowing that we signed a covenant to love each other the day we said ‘I do’ in the presence of a priest, “said the Tenthanis.
They continued that the deeper weekend also gave a chance to priests to reflect on the way they interact with the Church and its members.
All the couples together with the priests who attended the weekend were all smiles and appreciated having attended the weekend.
Marriage Encounter was brought to Malawi in 1985 by the late Bishop Mathias Chimole of Lilongwe and it is found in all regions of Malawi with over 850 encountered couples, priests and Sisters
