Support in Times of Pain and Suffering
Help in time of need
Our Diocese offers its own Ministry of listening and prayer for parishioners in need.
Helpers are trained to handle situations such as bereavement, health issues, family and relationship problems, faith issues, depression, abuse, anxieties, workplace difficulties and life problems, amongst others.
Click here for more details and contact number.
Is your marriage struggling under the burden of arguments, resentments, or outright conflict? Or would you simply like a chance to enrich the way you communicate as a couple? The Smart Loving Breakthrough program helps couples improve the way they communicate with each other. The program draws on relationship psychology and the Theology of the Body. It is both scientific and fully Catholic.
Click here to Breakthrough Online: Help for marriages under stress.
Retrouvaille
A Lifeline For Troubled Marriages http://www.retrouvaille.org.uk/
This is an excellent programme for marriages which are in significant trouble, although all couples can benefit from the programme. It has a high rate of success in helping repair marriages, even some which have already broken down.
Course dates can be found here
Rachel’s Vineyard
http://www.rachelsvineyard.org.uk
Rachel’s Vineyard is a safe place to renew and rebuild your life after experiencing the trauma of abortion. The healing weekends offer you a supportive, confidential and non-judgemental environment where women and men can deal with painful post-abortive emotions.
For men and women, and all those affected by abortion, Rachel’s Vineyard offers a place of healing and forgiveness.
Course dates can be found here
http://www.grieftograceuk.org/
Healing the wounds of abuse “Grief to Grace is a specialised 5-day programme of spiritual and psychological healing for anyone who has suffered sexual, physical, emotional or spiritual abuse in childhood, adolescence or adulthood.”
Prayer to St Raphael
So he is an especially good intercessor for the healing troubled marriages.
Here is a prayer to St Raphael for Troubled Marriages. It can be prayed as a novena for nine consecutive days. The feast day of St Raphael is September 29th.
O Glorious St. Raphael, Archangel of healing, intercede for our marriage today. Bring our marriage the same heavenly gifts you brought Tobias and Sarah, the celestial graces of healing, deliverance, and marital unity. Infuse into our hearts the peace and confidence that nothing is impossible with God concerning the renewal of our marriage. Rekindle in our marriage new forgiveness, new humility, new grace, new peace, new purity, new trust, and new love.
O St. Raphael, one of the seven who stand before the throne of God, intercede to the Merciful Father for the miracle of peace and reconciliation in our marriage, through the infinite merits of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, and the consoling power of the Holy Spirit.
O blessed Raphael, guide us on the pathway of marital peace and unity. Most loving Archangel of healing, I believe in you, I trust in you, and I thank you. Amen.