Healing bonds

The subject of marriage has been coming up a lot lately, and not only in news stories about proposed amendments to protect traditional marriage from challenges for same-sex unions to be given the same status. That’s out there across the U.S. and Europe, but so is a growing campaign of awareness and support for the sacred bond of matrimony, the sacrament, basis of civilization.

Pope John Paul II started, and maintained, a long public discussion on love and marriage that revolutionized its understanding and took it way beyond the ‘thou shalt not’ legalism to the beauty of what it is intended to be – the ‘here’s what you can and should do.’ It was a series of teachings collectively called “Theology of the Body,” which is only now rolling into a worldwide revolution in teaching and understanding ourselves.

Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons and his partners have added a resource on their Institute for Marital Healing website that helps you evaluate your marriage. It’s a good one, identifying conflicts in giving and receiving with a detailed checklist. At the end, they realize you might be a bit distressed.

Now don’t be discouraged. The conflicts which interfere with marital love/self-giving can be resolved.

The website tells you how, with lots of good resources. One of their books, Helping Clients Forgive, is a powerful tool for anyone in any relationship, starting with how comfortable you are in your own skin. Dr. Fitzgibbons does a lot of forgiveness therapy, and it’s more successful than the psycho-babble lining the bookshelves and hitting the daytime talk shows of the pop culture.

Seems like everyone is angry these days. Absolute, total forgiveness is a powerful answer.