I hope that you have found this series on ponderings on annulment has been helpful and insightful.  As I was sitting down to write this last spiritual pondering, I find myself still amazed at some of the wisdom buried in the annulment process and I can see how for some it can be a healing journey.  I want to make clear that just because I think can be a healing journey that does not mean I think it is an easy journey.  Like Bartimaeus, a person must be willing to throw away his old way of living (symbolized in the story of Bartimaeus by Bartimaeus throwing away his cloak) and sometimes we have to like Zacchaeus play the part of the fool (symbolized by the old man climbing a tree in order to see Jesus pass by).  All I can say to this is that I know the person I am now (after my treatment for depression) is much better than my life before I faced my need for healing.  Secondly it seems to me that I have run into many people who can say the same about their entering into the annulment process. 

We return again this week to the sometime difficult topic of the Catholic Church’s teaching about Annulment.  As I stated when I first started this series of reflection, I wanted to tackle this topic after listening to others who had gone it through describe it as a process that brought a lot of healing into their lives.  For help with this I am turning to Rev. Ronal T. Smith’s book called Annulment: A Step-By-Step Guide for Divorced Catholics.  (Quotes from his book will be in bold)

Last week, I began to share with you some of my thoughts on the Church’s teaching about Annulments.  It is my hope that these reflections will help you understand what an annulment is and how the process of going through an annulment can be surprisingly healing experience.  For help with this I am turning to Rev. Ronal T. Smith’s book called Annulment: A Step-By-Step Guide for Divorced Catholics.

A few of the people that I had invited to come and speak, I knew had gone to the annulment process and had remarried in the Catholic Church.  While knowing this was a part of their background, I in no way tried to force them to speak about their experience of getting an annulment but to my great surprise each one of them did plus two other friends, who I had not known had been divorced and remarried talked about their annulment experience.  The thing that surprised me the most was that they all used the same word to describe the process of getting an annulment and that word was “healing.”  This was definitely not a word that I was expecting to hear in a conversation about annulments.  As we continue Pope Francis’s Year of Mercy, I would like to share with you 10 thoughts about Annulments that I hope will give you a better understanding the Catholic Church’s teaching on Marriage.  For help with this I am turning to Rev. Ronald T. Smith’s book called Annulment: A Step-By-Step Guide for Divorced Catholics.