HOW I EXPERIENCED BOTH AN ENDING AND A BEGINNING

Divorce. What goes through your mind when you hear the word? Does it conjure up happy thoughts, like the words love and marriage? Is it something that little girls dream of when they're playing with their dolls or reading fairy tales about living "happily ever after" with a handsome prince?

Of course not. Divorce means just the opposite. It is something scary and sad, a destruction of the great dream of wedded bliss. Divorce is a label that married couples hope will never be applied to them. Most certainly, it is not a state in life anticipated by any Catholic who stands on the altar before a priest and God, vowing to stand by their spouse "for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part."

The Label of Divorce. AS I took those vows on my wedding day, I had a strong sense that God was with me. I felt his presence as my husband and I placed rings on each other's fingers and looked into each other's eyes. I remember contemplating how much God had blessed me-after over thirty years of living in solitude, I had found a partner to share my life.

At that point, I viewed "divorced people" as failures. In my opinion, they had tried marriage on for size and had not been able to weather the storms of a relationship. It was a very black-and-white approach: Marriage and family were good; divorce and everything connected with it was bad.