Here are some helpful resources and talk summaries from our Overnight Getaway, Feb 25-26 in Lismullin Conference Centre.

What is stealing time from our relationships? with Maria Kilcommins

We are all aware of the value of time. We can feel anxious about time, an ongoing feeling of fear and stress about the passing of time. How often do you feel like you just don’t have enough time?

We can feel as women that we’re never done enough– or never have enough time to meet our goals or that we are not maximizing the time we do have. Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.

Technology can support relationships

Technology can enhance our relationships. It can help to increase our connections with God, family and friends. Many apps like Facebook and Instagram help us to stay in touch with friends and family that we do not meet often. Without these apps we might lose that contact.

However, technology can also hinder relationships

Technology can also compete with and potentially damage our relationships. There are many times in the house when everyone is on a phone around the table at lunch and no one is interacting or listening. Valuable family time can be lost.

So how do we tip the technology scales in favour of supporting us as we develop and grow our relationships? How do we grow our relationships?

We do this by being the best version of ourselves – by our effort to grow in virtues - making our core values, our Christian values real in our daily lives.

The virtues are our north star in all things and the stormy sea of technology is no different. The human virtues date back to the ancient Greeks, they are praised throughout scripture, they are unchanged and immutable – the perfect guide. The virtues of justice, courage, prudence, temperance, humility and magnanimity help us to build strong relationships with God, our family, and our friends, and I want to focus particularly on these.

Culinary Experience in Lismullin Cookery

We had a brilliant demonstration from Lismullin Cookery School in Lismullin on some simple recipes you can recreate at home. We made roasted chicken with clementines, a sweet potato, spinach, and feta frittata and finished with a beautiful dessert of chocolate hazelnut cheesecake.

See here for the recipes

Stages of a relationship - how to build from the beginning with Sallyann O’Brien

Resources -

Relationship Needs Assesment

We all have the same relational needs, but the priority of those needs is different for each person. This assessment can help you discover and label your most strongly felt relational needs right now. Answer the questions honestly (don’t worry about right or wrong answers or how you should feel). Also, an important aspect of learning to love others is taking the time to understand their relational needs, so you can also have family members, friends, parents, etc. complete the assessment and see how well you guessed what needs they prioritise!

‘How Can You Overcome Difficulties in your Marriage?’ - Hearts+Minds podcast episode with Sallyann O’Brien

You may have heard the saying that love is a 2-way street constantly under construction. In this podcast episode, Sallyann O’Brien speaks about Retrouvaille, a programme designed to help heal and renew marriages. She talks about how to improve communication in marriage and how couples can work through problems and build a stronger marriage as a result.

Resources
- Retrouvaille Programme

- Dr David Ferguson - Relational Needs Assessment

- Document from Pope Francis - Amoris in Laetitia

- Focus on the Family

- Marriage Encounter

- Engaged Encounter

- Cana Ireland

- Teams of Our Lady/L’Equippe Notre Dame

For more details on our next overnight event, please see here.