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Spiritual retreat for married couples in Slovakia
Spiritual retreat for married couples in Slovakia
Dr Agata Mleczko reports on the Third International Discover Marriage Congress, held in Gniezno, Poland, on 1–3 May 2026
Dr Agata Mleczko, a member of Maryvale's staff, attended the Third International Discover Marriage Congress, held in Gniezno, Poland, on 1–3 May 2026. Under the theme Together in the Holy Spirit, the Congress brought together over 300 participants from across Poland and beyond for three days of reflection, testimony, prayer, and encounter — a gathering that is as much a lived experience as it is a formation event.
Now an annual fixture in the Polish Catholic calendar, Discover Marriage is dedicated to the theology and spirituality of Christian marriage and family life. Its format is deliberately holistic: keynote addresses and panel discussions sit alongside Eucharistic Adoration, daily Mass, and the Liturgy of the Hours. A parallel programme of activities for children runs throughout, so that families can attend together without compromise — the Congress practises what it preaches.
The 2026 programme drew on a wide range of voices. Fr Przemysław Kwiatkowski opened with a meditation on the Holy Spirit as one who works through the simplest, most ordinary moments of life — not demanding grand gestures, but openness. Fr Robert Wielądek, Director of the National Marriage and Family Pastoral Centre, led participants through the nuptial liturgy, recovering its depth as an act of unmerited grace: a real empowering of spouses to love beyond their own capacity. Don Renzo Bonetti spoke with characteristic fire about the dignity of the sacrament and the shared mission of married couples and priests — a theme that ran like a thread through the whole Congress.
The witness testimonies gave the event its particular warmth. Maria and Richard Kucharcik shared eighteen years of marriage, including their experience of serious illness — and the tenderness that, against all odds, the Holy Spirit made possible in the midst of it. Marta and Diego described twenty years lived without a conscious awareness of the Spirit's presence, and what changed when they discovered the truth of the sacrament they had received. Anna and Janusz Wardak, married for over thirty years and parents of ten children, offered a grounded, practical perspective: marriage as a dynamic held between closeness and autonomy, built or eroded by every small daily choice.
The Congress closed with a panel discussion moderated by Maciej and Kamila Rajfur, in which Dr Agata participated alongside Fr Marcin Kąkol and Richard Kucharcik. Responding to questions submitted by participants through a dedicated app, the panel reflected on what it means to carry the graces of such a gathering back into ordinary life. The answer that resonated most: faithful prayer, a genuine openness to the Spirit's action, and the slow, patient work of letting go of self. One phrase in particular stayed with the room — that the sacrament of marriage equips spouses for the simple and the heroic alike, and that the same quiet love of God, at home in the everyday, is stronger than human weakness and stronger even than death.
The Congress was brought to a close by the Primate of Poland, Archbishop Wojciech Polak, who sent participants home with a commission: to be living witnesses of God's love for humanity, wherever they find themselves.
If you want to hear more about Maryvale's new FE programmes, including that on the sacrament of marriage, launching in September 2026, contact: