Catholic Engaged Encounter is a wonderful gift to give your fiancé and yourself or an engaged couple you know. Through the years so many of our couples have left truly grateful that they have had the experience of a lifetime not only for themselves but also with the other couples at this same point in their journey. We have recently changed our website and are updating our testimonials to reflect the most current stories. These are the testimonials from our most recent retreat held in August of 2022.
“I love the depth in which the prompt questions made us discuss important topics. We had talked about most of the topics broadly but it helped us dive deep and put it into writing. I fell more sure that God has called us to this union after this weekend.”
We hope that this diving deeper continues throughout your marriage and that you take time to reflect every once in awhile on the things you started with, the things you wrote down during this retreat. May God continue to bless you and your marriage for many happy long years.
“I appreciated the format of having separate time to reflect and give authentic answers followed by connection with your partner to share and talk through our responses. It was also helpful having each of the leaders share real experiences from their lives. It opened up the space to welcome vulnerability and the stories also help the concept to stick and be shared going forward. I also liked being given specific phrases like ‘It would feel like love . . . ‘”
The format of the weekend retreat has been fine tuned over 40 years to reach its current shape and like you said offers the space necessary to share openly and honestly. CEE is committed to helping couples establish effective ways of communication that is kind and compassionate, builds greater unity, and establishes God’s domestic church in the world.
“We really appreciated answering questions about our relationship we hadn’t considered and then sharing with one another on long walks.Absolutely loved this retreat! It provided structure for us and to have some meaningful, sometimes difficult conversations that I know will help our relationship and better prepare us for marriage. Overall we loved this retreat and are grateful to the presenters and Fr. Chance. Would highly recommend it.”
The Ponderosa Retreat Center is a very beautiful, relaxing, family retreat center in the woods, perfect for long walks and that Colorado outdoor feeling.
“The NFP talk was very well done. I have gone through my personal journey with it to help my own health and wish more women were shown the benefit of fertility awareness. Joe and Lori did really well in their explanation of NFP and did not come off as demanding, instead they were very humble.”
NFP is a key component of family life and our presenters are very in tune with couples who are hearing about this for the first time or are long time advocates. Their personal story is very motivating, real, and relationship based.
“The location was good for us. The group size was perfect. I was not looking forward to this because of the two day thing, but I was proven wrong.”
The group size varies for each retreat, from five to 35 couples and we try to accommodate all those couples who need to make the retreat prior to their marriage. We are happy that this size of eleven worked for you and welcome comments from our attendees on how we can serve you better. Please let us know. This retreat is for you.
“I really enjoyed getting closer to my fiancé during this retreat and letting more stuff come out about my life. I feel more comfortable talking to her about our lives now. I understand marriage and how important it is to our lives now.”
This is what the retreat does. It creates the safe space for couples to engage on topics that may have been difficult to discuss in an open and enjoyable atmosphere. It happens naturally through the humble stories of the presenters and through the prayerful intentions held throughout the weekend by all involved.
“I really enjoyed all the conversation topics. I think they really helped get discussions started. This is so beneficial for couples that haven’t had these conversations before.”
Oftentimes the retreat sparks that little thought that allows couples to discuss things that are new or that they different anticipate. The testimony of the more veteran couples helps to see what possible challenges and rewards that were never thought of to be discussed. This part is both fun and raises greater awareness.
“I loved being surrounded by other couples who share the same hardships and experiences. It was comforting to not feel so alone. It was great to see how welcoming everyone was.”
“We laughed, cried and grew as a couple a ton over this weekend. We have been dating for 9.5 years and this program challenged us to have hard conversations to grow our spiritual relationship.”
“My expectations for the weekend were far exceeded! All of the speakers offered concrete insights into important aspects of marriage. The stories and welcoming spirits helped us to feel comfortable in sharing. I really appreciated the structure of the talks and time for us as a couple to reflect and answer questions about the talks. We are excited to implement new practices and use our workbook to continue growing our engagement and in marriage. Thank you everyone!”