Missionaries of the Sacred Heart

Path to Inner Peace

Life’s Healing Weekend leads the participant through the natural grieving process of emotional, physical, and spiritual hurts, and explores how disappointments, abuse, losses and sudden changes can destructively affect and control our lives. It concludes with a focus on the liberating impact forgiveness can have in one’s life. The entire process is natural – not contrived to result in a predetermined outcome. Recognizing that there is a rhythm to healing life-inflicted wounds, and respecting this rhythm at all times, the participant decides the extent of her/his involvement.

The weekend program is a blend of informal talks, common prayer, private time and small-group sharing. The weekend director, with the help of team members, introduces each of the stages of grieving, grounding them in sound psychology and mainstream theology. Each stage is illumined by shared life experiences. Following each presentation, a brief guided meditation on a scriptural passage aids the participant in exploring Gospel values that shed light on our human situations. Private time allows for personal reflection on how one is currently experiencing a given stage of grieving. Following private time, there is the opportunity for small group sharing which clarifies the grieving process and supports each participant on her/his personal healing journey.

Many find comfort in the optional prayer services that begin and end each day, and joyfully gather at a celebration of Eucharist, which concludes the weekend.

This weekend experience is viewed as a beginning. It explains and furnishes the tools for a more healthy and vibrantly alive way of living. This is an experience that can be repeated many times, since an in-depth understanding of the process can only be acquired through a consistent intention to allow the Spirit to touch, heal and transform the self in God’s love.