Fall 2025 Online Retreat:
Schedule, Topics, and Speakers
The Fall 2025 Life-Giving Wounds online retreat will take place over seven consecutive Wednesday evenings, from October 1 to November 12, 8:15 - 10:00 p.m. EST each night (with a BONUS 8th session on Thursday, November 6, 8:15-9:15 p.m. EST). Below is the schedule for what is planned for each evening. The Life-Giving Wounds Retreat Guide will walk through the six meditations and provide additional information that break open the talks. Small group break-outs will give participants a chance to process together what they just heard, and share experiences with a supportive, compassionate group of peers and retreat leaders.
Wednesday, October 1, 2025, 8:15-10:00pm EST
First Meditation: “Blessed are Those Who Mourn for They Will Be Comforted” (Mt 5:4) - What’s your story?
Speaker: TBD
This talk will examine the common wounds caused by our parents’ divorce or separation, especially the “wound of silence” that can make it hard to even grieve family breakdown. It will also discuss the deepest wound, the loss of our parents’ love together, and how we can begin to find a deeper identity beyond that of our broken origins.
Wednesday, October 8, 2025, 8:15-10:00 pm EST
Second Meditation: “Perfect Love Casts Out Fear” (1 Jn 4:18) - How has the wound affected our intimate relationships and vision of marriage?
Speaker: TBD
This talk will examine how our parents’ divorce or separation has affected our own relationships (especially dating and marriage; but elements of this talk are applicable to friendships as well) and our understanding of love and marriage. It will draw on Sacred Scriptures and Saint John Paul II’s Theology of the Body as a guide for authentic, redeemed love, and it will reflect on how we can move from unhealthy self-protection to Christlike total self-giving.
Wednesday, October 15, 2025, 8:15-10:00 pm EST
Third Meditation: “Our Father Who Art in Heaven, Hallowed Be Thy Name” (Mt. 6:9) - How has the wound of our parents’ divorce or separation affected our personal identity and relationship with God?
Speaker: TBD
This talk will look at how our parents’ divorce or separation has impacted our personal identity and our relationship with God. It will examine the common experiences of being “torn between the two worlds of our parents,” “losing” our childhood (if you were a child when the divorce happened), and questions about God and our faith in the aftermath of our parents’ divorce. It will also discuss how Baptism, which makes us God’s children, is the foundation of our truest identity and gives us a new childhood and a new family.
Wednesday, October 22, 2025, 8:15-10:00 pm EST
Fourth Meditation: “Let the Peace of Christ Control Your Hearts” (Col 3:15) - How has the wound led to anxiety, anger, sin, and temptation?
Speaker: TBD
This talk will examine the common experiences of anger and anxiety (among other emotional challenges) caused by our parents’ divorce or separation. It will look at how we can “live” these emotions in good or bad ways and, more generally, how the Eucharist and confession help us deal with the specific temptations that can come up for us as children of divorce.
Wednesday, October 30, 2024, 8:15-10:00 pm EST
Fifth Meditation: “Forgive Us Our Trespasses As We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us” (Mt 6:12) - Forgiveness and family boundaries
Speaker: TBD
This talk will reflect on the Christian meaning of forgiveness, especially in light of forgiving our parents or others who have harmed us during our parents’ divorce or separation. It will discuss strategies for forgiving in difficult circumstances, and establishing healthy boundaries, with an eye to breaking the cycle of divorce and brokenness in our lives and families.
Wednesday, November 6, 2024, 8:15-10:00 pm EST
Q&A with Some of the Online Retreat Speakers and the Founders of Life-Giving Wounds
In this special session, we’ll have a live Q&A session with some of our speakers (so far) about their talks and the founders of Life-Giving Wounds. This is a chance to ask them any questions you have about the topics of the retreat.
Speakers: Dr. Daniel and Bethany Meola, and Other Speakers from Previous Weeks
Dr. Daniel Meola is the co-founder (with his wife Bethany) of Life-Giving Wounds. He holds a PhD from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family and has been leading retreats for various groups for over 15 years. As an adult child of divorce himself, Dan’s passion is helping ACODs find the healing that God desires for them. He and Bethany live in Bowie, MD with their three daughters, Zelie-Louise, Grace, and Josephine.
Bethany Meola has a master of theological studies degree from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, D.C. She and Dan met there and married in 2011. Bethany served the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for seven years in the Secretariat of Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth before their daughter Zelie was born.
Thursday, November 7, 2024, 8:15-9:15 pm EST
Visio Divina with our Sacred Artwork
In this optional bonus session, we’ll do a prayerful “visio divina” of the sacred art we commissioned: Let the Children of Divorce Come to Me, by Michael Corsini. Mike will lead everyone on a prayerful reflection of the sacred art, exploring its many-layered symbolism, to draw closer to Jesus and receive his healing more. Mike will also play some praise and worship music too.
Speaker: Michael Corsini
Michael Corsini is a husband and father of five. Michael is an artist, musician, speaker and retreat leader. He believes that his mission is to help people experience the powerful love of God through an authentic encounter with beauty.
Michael is a graduate of Ringling School of Art and Design and has a Master of Theological Studies from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, D.C. He also spent five years as a member of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.
Michael is a gifted worship leader and has led music for thousands of holy hours, masses and retreats for nearly two decades. His music and art can be found here: www.michaelcorsini.com.
Wednesday, November 13, 2024, 8:15-10:00 pm EST
Sixth Meditation: “By His Wounds You Have Been Healed” (1 Pt 2:24) - What is the Christian meaning of suffering? Where am I going?
Speaker: TBD
This talk will examine the Christian understanding of redemptive suffering and how that helps us in our difficulties as adult children of divorce or separation. It will also reflect on how the wounds we experience can - through the help of Christ - become resources of faith, hope, love, and joy for ourselves and others. We can find meaning and purpose in the midst of the wound.