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Please visit this page to see the mission and vision of Life-Giving Wounds.

The Life-Giving Wounds ministry is specific, peer-to-peer, spiritual, and Catholic.

First, we offer specific attention to how the wound of parental divorce, separation, or family brokenness is affecting a person’s life; that’s the key concern and focus.

Second, Life-Giving Wounds is largely run by adult children of divorce themselves, making it a peer-to-peer ministry. We also give opportunities for participants to develop friendships with those who understand this struggle and pain from the inside; these friendships are also powerful witnesses of God’s love and healing.

Third, we create the environment for God to bring spiritual healing, which we understand as cultivating a person’s faith, hope, love, and joy, and not (first) psychological healing or general self-help (see FAQ on psychological healing, below).

Fourth, Life-Giving Wounds is a specifically Catholic ministry developed from the rich treasury of grace and truth found in the Catholic Church teachings, spiritual practices, and the sacraments. Prayer and the sacraments play a key role in the ministries we offer.

The ministry of Life-Giving Wounds aims to point participants back to the importance of the sacraments and parish life. While our programs are meant to be turning points in people’s lives, we believe that for healing to be fully realized and sustained, a person must be actively involved in the sacraments and his or her community in the parish. For this reason, we seek to connect in a new way the importance of parish community and the sacraments for the healing of their wounds. Thus, this ministry is in service to the parish as we aim to foster stronger involvement in parish life.

The ministry of Life-Giving Wound can easily be integrated into young adult, adult faith formation, and marriage and family life ministry. Often young adulthood is when people recognize that their parents’ divorce has indeed impacted them deeply, and so our ministry is of great interest and need to young adults. It is also especially well-suited to be a resource for engaged couples and could be a regular part of marriage prep ministry in order to strengthen a couple’s love. Likewise, it is an excellent marriage enrichment resource as well.

We use the word “separation” broadly to refer to a variety of familial situations – parents who are currently separated but not legally divorced; parents who were separated for a time and reconciled; parents who are living a “separate existence” under the same roof due to high-conflict, addiction, mental illness or other severe dysfunction; cohabiting parents who dissolved the cohabitation; parents who were never really “together”; and any other situation where one’s parents are no longer together in a relationship but are separated permanently. We have found through ministry that these adult children often experience similar pain to adult children of divorce, although they have their own unique situations as well. Situations that fall outside of our scope and focus, which we are not best suited for serving, include but are not limited to: wounds associated with a death in a family, and losses associated with adoption. These unique wounds deserve specific and unique pastoral care that go beyond the scope of what we offer.

Yes. We regularly have participants who have gone through their parents’ annulment process, and who come to our programs and benefit from them. We have discovered through their participation and witness that adults who have gone through their parents’ annulment process face virtually the same issues as other adult children of divorce and separation, with the added layer of the declaration of nullity, which can be experienced as either something further positive or negative.

Yes. One goal of Life-Giving Wounds is equipping leaders to carry forward ministry to adult children of divorce or separation in their diocese, parish, or campus. This is so needed! To that end, we offer consultations over the phone, webinars, and a hands-on learning experience before and during the Life-Giving Wounds retreat. We also have a detailed Leader’s Guide that gives comprehensive direction on starting and maintaining a local ministry to adult children of divorce. We are always happy to speak with any leader to discuss the best way forward in starting or maintaining a local Life-Giving Wounds ministry!