I recently read a great article in the National Catholic Register, and I have copied below just a snip of it. They are interviewing Dr. Rick Fitzgibbons, the director of the Institute for Martial Healing near Philadelphia. He specializes in helping married couples heal their relationships. He was been appointed as a consultant to the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy. (Click on the title below to read whole article).
Growth in Self-Giving
What kind of work are you doing to promote traditional marriage?
We try to help couples understand that self-giving is the essence of marital love, and then we attempt to uncover their weaknesses and work to resolve them. We relate that if they want a happy marriage they need to have a healthy personality. Our approach is in the field of positive psychology, which focuses upon growth in virtues to strengthen the personality and to resolve emotional pain. Instead of just rehashing the past, we recommend the use of virtues to help people deal with their emotional conflicts.
Isn't that a beauty? We, as women certainly have 'emotional conflicts', in and out of our relationships. It's part of how God made us, to feel, more than do. It keeps us in check with everyone around us, you could say our 'feminine genius' as coined by JPII the Great.
In recognizing this great gift God has given us, we must also respect that gift, and never use it to the detriment of our own virtue. At times, our ability to feel so deeply, can also be the source of our emotional pain. It can be so strong, that we often rehash it again and again, as if whipping ourselves as punishment. What I can appreciate is the wisdom Dr. Fitzgibbons uses to explain that we all have emotional baggage, or pain that we deal with. He focuses on the use of virtue to help deal. He offers solution and hope. I like that. It's a way out. It's an option.
Instead of the all too often scape goat of "this is the hand I was dealt", or "this is who God made me to be" etc etc, and a resignation of defeat; There are ways to cope, there are methods out there to promote healing. And while I can recognize there are probably a hundred more methods out there, building on virtue can bring even bigger results. Healing: Yes. Solidification of marriage: Yes. Hope for the future: Definitely. What else? Holiness.
And in the end, we can bring more people with us, if we can show them the way.
Growth in Self-Giving
What kind of work are you doing to promote traditional marriage?
We try to help couples understand that self-giving is the essence of marital love, and then we attempt to uncover their weaknesses and work to resolve them. We relate that if they want a happy marriage they need to have a healthy personality. Our approach is in the field of positive psychology, which focuses upon growth in virtues to strengthen the personality and to resolve emotional pain. Instead of just rehashing the past, we recommend the use of virtues to help people deal with their emotional conflicts.
Isn't that a beauty? We, as women certainly have 'emotional conflicts', in and out of our relationships. It's part of how God made us, to feel, more than do. It keeps us in check with everyone around us, you could say our 'feminine genius' as coined by JPII the Great.
In recognizing this great gift God has given us, we must also respect that gift, and never use it to the detriment of our own virtue. At times, our ability to feel so deeply, can also be the source of our emotional pain. It can be so strong, that we often rehash it again and again, as if whipping ourselves as punishment. What I can appreciate is the wisdom Dr. Fitzgibbons uses to explain that we all have emotional baggage, or pain that we deal with. He focuses on the use of virtue to help deal. He offers solution and hope. I like that. It's a way out. It's an option.
Instead of the all too often scape goat of "this is the hand I was dealt", or "this is who God made me to be" etc etc, and a resignation of defeat; There are ways to cope, there are methods out there to promote healing. And while I can recognize there are probably a hundred more methods out there, building on virtue can bring even bigger results. Healing: Yes. Solidification of marriage: Yes. Hope for the future: Definitely. What else? Holiness.
And in the end, we can bring more people with us, if we can show them the way.
Comments