For Valentine's Day, couples reflected with Antoinette Hourani Abboud on how to keep routine from emptying their marriage, and redesigned an ordinary day to make it more present and more loving.
Under the patronage of His Excellency Bishop Elie Bechara Haddad, Archbishop of the diocese, Metanoia Listening Center, in cooperation with the Family Committee, organized a couples gathering for Valentine's Day under the title "From routine to life" on Saturday 7 February. Mrs. Antoinette Hourani Abboud introduced the theme by contrasting routine and life: routine says, "We do this because we have to," while life says, "We do this because we choose each other again." She highlighted the value of routine in organizing life and relationships – it is a system that makes life easier – but warned against letting laziness creep into married life, and encouraged couples to break routine with small gestures that bring joy and life into the relationship. Mrs. Abboud explained that married life does not die only because of big problems, but because of a lack of communication, poor listening and living on autopilot, until marriage becomes the management of affairs rather than a relationship.
After the introduction, each spouse took personal time to answer a questionnaire that helped them read an ordinary day of their life and see clearly where routine creeps in. Each couple then sat together and shared their results, after which the participants divided into four circles to share their experiences.
After the circles, one couple from each group spent five minutes presenting a very ordinary day of their life filled with routine, then presented the same day redesigned with the group's help to be more human, more present and more loving – without adding time or money. After the four groups had presented, each couple received a candle. Once the candles were lit and everyone held hands, Mrs. Abboud stressed that this candle is not a decoration, but is meant to be lit on a very ordinary day, after a day of fatigue, silence and routine, and asked them to ask their hearts how to bring life back to that day. They then whispered the words written on their card:
"I choose you again…
not because you are perfect,
but because you are my partner in life."
The gathering closed with a prayer asking the Lord to teach us to love in sorrow as in joy, to make our homes places of life and joy rather than mere dwellings, and to bless and renew this love.
Each person then wrote down the fruit they had received from the gathering and hung it on the tree of love, and a cake was cut for the occasion.
