Parent Retreat

Here is another one I picked up.  If the child is going to receive a sacrament, the parent couples have to go on a retreat weekend.  Say the sacrament is First Communion.  The parents are probably rather young still, or not married but a few years.  Now of course some parents will balk and leave for a softer easier way.  So be it.  AA lets such people go, why not churches.  But some will stay and go on the retreat.  What happens?  Apparently, two good things happen.  First, the couple realizes that they spend very little time together talking, separate from and about children issues.  Secondly, the couple realizes they spend little or no time talking about faith and their spiritual lives.  A Catholic might be married to a "none," or a non-Catholic.  Quality of time and content fill the weekend.  A third thing that happens is couples meet one another from the same parish.  Their children know one another, but the parents do not know other parents.  People can now come to worship and see other people they know and with whom they share some common bond of experience.  Grandma's prayers are answered!