Catholic Marriage Preparation and Ongoing Formation
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Catholic Marriage Preparation & Ongoing Formation
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What Are Our Couples Saying?

Our Vision of Success

We envision a world in which everyone, regardless of circumstances, will appreciate the truth, beauty and goodness of marriage and family life the way God has designed matrimony that unites a man and woman as husband and wife and any children born from their union as a cornerstone of society.

“Our outlook on … marriage has changed in a way we never thought possible.”

We came into this marriage seminar thinking that it was going to be a waste of time. This seminar was just one more thing we needed to cross off our list to do. We are happy to say that we were wrong. We have to admit that without this seminar we would have never looked at marriage the way we do now. Our outlook on life and marriage has changed in a way that we never thought possible.

“We will ultimately learn the MOST about love, through love.”

Following Christ in the Vocation of Marriage and understanding the Trinity is something we had never thought about before. We had talked about ‘always loving each other until death do us part,’ but we understand that our love has to be the same unconditional love that God has for us. We will ultimately learn the MOST about love, through love. We should model our marriage after the example of Jesus Christ and this will help us in our ultimate goal, which is to get to Heaven.

“Now we understand the ‘why’ behind what we are doing …”

We never understood the importance of going to Mass every Sunday and that it was a mortal sin to miss Mass on Sunday. Now that we understand the ‘why’ behind what we are doing, especially the Mass, we are excited to go each week and can’t imagine life without it. Instead of seeing it merely as a commandment to be followed, we are going to Mass because we love the commandment and where it is leading us: closer to God and one another.

“This experience has brought us valuable tools for our marriage.”

As a non-Catholic, I was a bit hesitant to attend the seminars. But I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn about my fiancés faith. After two days, we really felt that we grew closer together spiritually. I didn’t realize how passionate my husband-to-be is about his faith and I have never seen him so happy and satisfied in a long time. This experience has brought us valuable tools for our future marriage.
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Couples Feedback ON THE FAITH & SCIENCE MEDICAL PANEL

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…At first, I was skeptical to learn about NFP and its effectiveness. But, after the panel discussion today I am eager to go to our NFP sessions and work with a professional to help my spouse and I learn more about the process. Most importantly, to learn more about my spouse to create a happy and successful marriage.

A few things we are planning to do differently now that we have completed the seminar include: 1) Getting off Birth Control Pill; 2) Focusing the next few months prior to our wedding on learning and understanding NFP; 3) Try to go to confession 2-4x a year; 4) Pray more as a couple; 5) Recognize one another’s Love Language; 6) Be open to God’s plan in our lives and accepting of what he has in store for us.

We have made a commitment to pray more, say the rosary, and get more involved in the Church. We are also going to go to confession more. I am no longer taking Birth Control and don’t plan to ever again…. We also talk about our future children now instead of putting a number on it we say however many God blesses us with.

Always wanted and still look forward to having children one day but my perspective on it is better and I view it more as a gift and value it even more than I did before OIC…Realize the importance and significance and marital benefits of NFP and plan to use the Creighton model, stop taking birth control. Pray more together.

I plan to learn more about Theology of the Body and NFP. I am very excited about where NFP will take us in our relationship.

I truly felt that this experience brought us closer as a couple and closer to God…Today was great – so informative and I loved the speakers particularly Dr. Stroud and Marianne. I have had some hormonal imbalance issues that I have been dealing with for years and I found the (Medical Panel) Q & A and 1:1 sessions so valuable.

After today, I’ve learned how important a man’s role can be when it comes to a woman’s fertility. I want to be able to help fiancée track her periods of fertility and be involved.

We want to be more devout Catholics for our marriage and future family.…We were both pretty unsure about NFP prior to today’s session but the panel helped us gain confidence in the process and effectiveness of NFP.

“… we have learned to have deeper conversations, to really listen …”

After the first weekend of the seminar, we have learned to have deeper conversations, to really listen to each other and to think of each other as one, no longer two. We have talked in detail about our different love languages and are both seeing HUGE changes.

“… growing in virtue really made us think about what is important in life …”

The section on growing in virtue really made us think about what is important in life: growing out of our selfishness and sin so as to develop good habits and virtues that will sustain us and keep us in relationship with God and each other.

“The seminar has taught us that we are not alone in the planning process.”

Before the seminar, our plan was: a condo in the city, traveling to exotic locales, and focusing on our careers before expanding our family. The reality is that we have a relatively passive role in the planning process, and God is in charge. Although this realization has compromised our ‘plan,’ it has not compromised our hearts. We have become more open to God’s grace and will in our lives than ever before.

“They showed us what living those teachings looks like in action …”

It was enlightening that the seminar and readings did more than simply tell us the Church’s teachings. They taught us the reasoning behind the teachings and showed us what living those teachings looks like in action through the couples that spoke. Now we see how practicing the church’s teachings will strengthen our love, our marriage and our family.

“We are forever grateful for the impacts this seminar has had on our lives.”

 

We have come to fully understand that the conjugal love act is a renewal of wedding vows, which is meaningless outside of the sacrament of marriage. We have chosen to commit ourselves to chastity and eagerly await fully giving ourselves to each other through our marriage vows and blessings that the unitive and procreative aspects of marriage will bring to our lives. We are grateful for the impacts this seminar has had on our lives and upcoming marriage.

“We want to read scripture and pray together …”

The seminar made us want to know more. Not just about Natural Family Planning and good communication in our marriage, but more about everything. We want to read Scripture and pray together, to study the bible and get involved in the Church. We want to lead a long, happy life as husband and wife. We want to encourage others to do so, too.

“… ‘we’ includes God as we welcome Him into our marriage.”

Going into this seminar our mentality was, ‘It’s our life, we have the right to plan it as we see fit.’ After the seminar and contemplating on what the unitive and procreative end mean, the description of our mentality has not changed, but rather the meaning has. Whereas the initial thought was ‘we’ meant ‘you and I,’ it is now understood that ‘we’ includes God, as we welcome Him into our marriage

“We look forward to becoming co-creators with God …”

In regards to Natural Family Planning, God knew we would want to have sex and he knew that we would not always want to have children with every marital act. So, he gave us a way to naturally prevent or space child birth while still remaining open to the life and building up of the unitive end of marriage. We look forward to becoming co-creators with God as we embrace the selfless and natural way of Natural Family Planning.