The story about your engagement encounter notebooks is perfect! The whole story, the bookends analogy, just beautiful. Of course it's the same thing. You will each get a notebook at the beginning of the weekend, and you will write letters to each other about your feelings. You will also sit in a conference room and listen to 3 presenting couples talk about their marriages, and their difficult times, and how they healed their marriages.
I don't know how religious the engagement weekend was. Retrouvaille is not very religious, and those parts that are religious are generic Christian, not specifically Catholic. As I've said before, I'm Jewish, and it didn't bother me. It was not more religious than hearing the Lord's Prayer in a public place. On the other hand, for those wanting a deeper religious experience, the priest is there and will meet with couples separately if the so desire.
Good luck, LG. I know the weekend would help your marriage. You and your wife are obviously stuck in a communication problem.
