Oklahoma City families embrace the Domestic Church experience

Over Labor Day weekend, seven families from across the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City were part of a group of more than 30 families from as far away as Shreveport, La., who gathered at Prairie Star Ranch, a retreat center in the Diocese of Kansas City, for a three-day family retreat. 

The groups came together as members of Domestic Church, a movement for sacramentally married Catholic couples founded in Poland in the early 1970s by Venerable Fr. Franciszek Blachnicki, with the close guidance and support of his friend and Bishop, Karol Wojtyla, the future Saint John Paul II. Domestic Church gives couples lifelong formation in personal, marital and family spirituality. 

For Annie Lynch, a long-time member of Domestic Church from Moore, this was her third retreat along with her husband and children. 

“The Domestic Church movement has been transformative for our marriage spirituality, my personal relationship with Christ, and our family growth. This was our third family retreat, and it is always so encouraging to walk alongside others on this same journey and step outside of the normal day-to-day to a place where I can more easily block out the noise that often prevents me from truly listening to what God is speaking to me,” Lynch said. 

Domestic Church couples and families strive to practice the "Seven Commitments" to grow in their relationship with God and one another. The commitments are basic principles of spiritual growth in the Catholic tradition specific to the vocation of marriage. The commitments consist of daily prayer and reading of scripture, couple prayer, family prayer, couple dialog and an annual retreat. 

For the Staudt family from Guthrie, this was their first family retreat since joining Domestic Church in 2022. 

“Joe and I loved the opportunity to spend time with so many families who are seeking union with God and one another,” Angela Staudt said. “This DC retreat also offered an unexpected blessing in allowing our older children the chance to serve the community by caring for younger children in the nursery and children's programs. We don't have babies in our home anymore and the gift of snuggling little ones and playing with toddlers was a blessing to all of us!”  

The weekend featured daily Mass celebrated by local priests as well as confession, adoration, morning prayer and daily conferences in which couples received formation to grow in unity, to pass on their faith to their children and to navigate faithful Catholic living in a world increasingly hostile to faith. 

“As young parents navigating how to build Catholic culture in our family, Domestic Church has truly been a gift,” said Jillian Chapman from Oklahoma City, who attended with her husband Sean and their 1-year-old son. “In an age of increasing isolation and loneliness, Domestic Church is a powerful antidote to the disconnectedness that young families like mine struggle with.” 

The name “Domestic Church” comes from a passage in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that beautifully states, “In our own time, in a world often alien and even hostile to faith, believing families are of primary importance as centers as living, radiant faith. For this reason the Second Vatican Council, using an ancient expression, calls the family the Ecclesia Domestica.” 

The first English-speaking Domestic Church retreat in the United States was held in Lake Charles, La., in 2011. There were 13 couples on that first retreat, which was facilitated by a priest and a couple from Poland. Since then, Domestic Church has grown to more than 500 couples in 15 dioceses in the United States. 

To learn more about Domestic Church, visit domesticchurchfamilies.com or e-mail okc@domesticchurchfamilies.com