“We don’t give them answers. We give them tools we hope they will work with in their own lives and apply it to their circumstances because each one is different,” Volk said.

Volk would know. Before he became a priest, before he encountered New Beginnings, Volk lost his own wife suddenly.

“That wound never really heals,” he said. “You can come to terms with it, you can learn to live with it, the difference being before New Beginnings that wound is life threatening — there’s a risk of dying spiritually and emotionally. (After New Beginnings) this wound becomes a scar that you learn to live with but it doesn’t control your life.”

New Beginnings starts with a weekend retreat, where participants hear from leaders who have themselves been widowed, separated or divorced. Participants are encouraged to explore the feelings they’re experiencing. Then they are given the chance to tell their own story through group discussions.

“Then we move on to ‘myself and others’ and finally we move onto ‘myself and God,’ ” Volk said.

After the retreat ends, participants can take part in monthly support groups and extra seminars to help them move forward.

For Stephanie Ozorio, who has volunteered with New Beginnings for a decade, the ministry created a turning point in her struggles after a separation from her husband.

“It really helped me to focus in on what I needed to do to move forward and what I needed to heal,” she said. “New Beginnings is an appropriate name because it really helps people to make that shift in their life towards their healing journey.”

Ozorio said the spiritual component seems to be what helps people most, especially because the ministry is constructed to accept people wherever they are in their relationship with God.

“Some people are angry and don’t even want to talk to God; others are deeply spiritual and feel a connection. But when you go through loss you do disconnect from your spirituality.”

Carol Ann Pio, administrative assistant to Volk, said its core group also provides a seminar once a year to the graduating class of seminarians at St. Augustine Seminary — not only to make the new priests aware of the ministry,
but also to help with difficulties some of their future parishioners might be dealing with as widowed, separated or divorced Catholics.

To find out more about New Beginnings or to register for the next live-out retreat Nov. 27-29 at St. Dominic’s Church, call (416) 921-1163 ext. 2246.