Spiritual Enrichment

Bridges St. Ignatius Spiritual Exercises

The Bridges Spiritual Exercises is an eight-month program that runs September through April. It requires a serious commitment of time and energy for daily prayer, meeting weekly with an experienced spiritual companion and attending two weekend gatherings to integrate experiences. The cost of the program is $275 plus the cost of the two weekends at $80 per weekend.   

Legal Ministry

Lwanga’s Legal Ministry partners with the Archdiocesan Legal Ministry to offer “Ask the Lawyer” sessions providing general legal information for educational purposes. Attorneys are not entering into legal representation unless a contract for legal services is signed by the client and attorney. St. Charles Lwanga Center assumes no responsibility for the legal education provided. Attorney/client relationship and responsibility exists only between contracting parties. “Ask the Lawyer” Sundays are conducted by invitation from Lwanga Center’s sponsoring parishes.   

Marriage Preparation
Norman A. Williams

Pre-Cana Marriage Preparation Program
The divorce rate in the United States is 40 to 50 percent of all marriages. Among African American couples, the rate is 42 to 60 percent. The United States rate for divorce after remarriage is an astounding 75 percent for all couples. There is a dire need for marriage preparation as well as ongoing marriage enrichment.   

The Pre-Cana Marriage Preparation Workshop at the St. Charles Lwanga Center has been in existence since May 1992.  It began with facilitator/coordinator couple Suzette and Edward Blanc assembling various materials suitable for conducting such a workshop and getting Archdiocesan approval for the content and materials.

  Mature love comes alive in a marriage when God is the Center. In other words, Marriage Takes Three.

Our program is presented with the essence of shared experiences of long married Catholic couples. One of the most common questions is "How did you make your marriage last for so many years?" Another question is "How did you handle this problem or that problem?" A sense of humor is important in a good marriage, but if it is not centered on God, it is doomed to failure. We begin our workshop with a session on the Sacrament of Matrimony. We give examples of how we met and resolved problems in our own lives. Our presenters stress the need for "unconditional love,” being truly committed to the relationship and keeping God as the third person in the relationship.   

“Each time I coordinate a marriage prep workshop I am further enriched by the association with engaged couples and remembering why I said, ‘I do.’” says Norman A. Williams, coordinator. “I probably gain as much for my own marriage as I try to provide to our engaged couples.”   

The Lwanga Center staff and North Deanery pastors have been extremely supportive and helpful. Couples attending the workshops have been very receptive and, when contacted during our follow-up, they indicate they benefited from what they learned. Since our program welcomes all ethnic groups and religious denominations, many couples of diverse ethnicity attend these workshops. The Center conducts workshops three times a year, during winter (the last Friday and Saturday in February) and fall (the last Friday and Saturday in October). We currently have three couples involved as “Facilitator Couples.”

For more information, contact Norman A. Williams, coordinator.