March 29, 2003 9:00 AM--Local Leadership Couple Discernment--all day event ending with 5:00 PM Mass and dinner.  Bring your own lunch.  Sacred Heart Church in Lacey at Fabian Hall.

I am sitting here watching a candle burn.  The flame is made up of many colors but the yellow and orange tones seem to predominate and through it all is a background of white light.  And as I watch the candle burn I see these three colors intertwined with each other, at times red dominates and then orange but always they are revealed upon a background of the white light.  And together they light up the room more than any one of them would, and even more so than if they were separated and placed in different parts of the room.
How like a married relationship this candle is, the yellow and orange tones are man and wife intertwined in their married life, giving and receiving from each other.  The white light is our Lord God, as revealed through Christ Jesus.  How appropriate it is that in the sacrament of matrimony, the passage "where two or more are gathered, I am there" can be fulfilled.
So in our candle of marriage we become through Jesus a light that lights up the room (our community) more than any light we could be individually.  It is like the song "Here I am Lord" where it is asked, "is it I Lord?".
It is within our Engaged Encounter Community that we bring our candles together to make a great light for the world to see.  Ours is a community of many colors, all coming together, each unique, each so beautiful and yet each so much a part of the whole through Jesus.
If you wish to bring your candle to this community please contact Stan and Rose Ratcliff at (360) 491-2449.   All married or engaged couples that have attended an Engaged Encounter Weekend or couples that wish to be a part of the Tacoma Catholic Engaged Encounter Community are welcome to come to one of our monthly meetings.