Attended November 23, 1:00-5:00 PM Korina Kryzelle Lacap, Th131 Section D, Of Resolving Conflicts in Relationships, December 23, 2013

The recollection started with a prayer centered on the Bible verse 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (Love is patient, love is kind). In fact, all throughout the session, love was repeatedly stressed as the foundation of relationshipsbe it with Jesus, with friends and family, with others, or with ones own self. There was a couple who shared the story of their relationship and the we had the group sharing, which also consisted of revising the verse, first by putting Jesus in the place of love (Jesus is patient, Jesus is kind), and myself ("I am patient, I am kind), and then we shared along with a group about our relationships with the people we interact with everyday. I had joined the multi-faith session instead of the mass and confession as a non-participating Catholic, and there I found that even though there are different avenues of faith I started to turn to (like movies, books, etc), they are always grounded upon the sources of Faith, so I must not forget to turn to the Sacred Scripture and Tradition and only use recreational books and movies as supplements. I remember what struck me most was about the couple who had been together for most of their lives and how, with their ups and downs, they worked out their relationship. They had created a pattern of resolving their conflicts in a way that they dont hurt, damage, or destroy their relationship. Ever since I was young, I have developed a pattern of walking away from conflicts in a relationship, simply wanting to avoid confrontation or ending the relationship. I realize its a haste and savage way of dealing with relationships, and thus have lost far too many as a consequence. For a time it didnt bother me, until I only had a handful of relationships leftand rocky ones, at that. The couple made me realize that ending a relationship in the way that I do was a failure in my part to love, because I knew full well that there were better ways to resolve conflicts, I was just afraid of doing so. I was protecting myself, in a way I once thought the easiest, and, ironically, not only did I hurt my relationship with people, I had also hurt myself: I had failed to love, I had sinned. The couple showed me I need to stop burning bridges, instead, I need to repent and rebuild the relationships I had destroyed, make their foundations strong. I need to conquer past my selfishness, and to be selfless. I need to love, and more than that, I want to start loving.