Marriage Preparation

Very good friends of Big D and I have been in charge of the Marriage Preparation classes at our parish. I believe they have been doing the marriage prep for over 20 years.

They have decided it was time to pass the torch along to Big D and Me. We have been facilitating the classes for about four years now and it has been a little overwhelming trying to take full control over this program.

Although it is overwhelming, these classes are important to me. We get a chance to help couples begin their life together in love and in faith for the rest of their lives.
It is special to me that I can be a part of this time in their lives and hopefully help them achieve the life long Sacrament of marriage.

When Big D and I went to our marriage prep class we were not active in Church, our class was more of a lecture and I really can’t remember what was said to us.

The reason why I love our marriage prep class is because it is all about the couples, they are the ones who talk about the issues, teaching the couples around them and Big D and I always learn something too.

Some couples come to the class knowing how the Catholic Church views marriage and some don’t. For those that do they bring much knowledge and insight to the group and for those who are just getting married in the Church because it is “family tradition” it is wonderful to help them understand how much more this Sacrament is. How God wants them to succeed and by inviting Him into the marriage it will succeed.

God saved my marriage seven years ago, including Him into the bond Big D and I shared is the big secret we have for our lasting marriage. If it was not for His presence we might have fallen into the selfish traps so many marriages fall into these days. At the time I did not fully believe “letting go and letting God” would do anything to fix what was broken in our marriage, but it did and in little time.

What we are hoping to accomplish in these marriage prep classes is to get the couples to see the spiritual Sacrament of marriage, to keep God involved right in the beginning, that if they build their marriage with God as their foundation, nothing can tear it down.

I hope we are successful in helping these couples, I hope we can do half the job our friends have done.

Little Moments From God

Lil D is preparing to make his First Reconciliation. Yesterday we learned how to examine our conscience.

We went through the Ten Commandments and broke each one down to understand what each one means on kids terms.

It went something like this…

Me: “You shall have no other gods before me, that means to love God more than anything, like video games, playing, television etc…”

Me: “Keep the Sabbath day Holy means go to Mass with joy, pay attention and participate.”

We did this all the way down the list, when we were done there was silence. Then Miss spoke up.

Miss: “I think I need to go to Confession this Saturday.”

Me: “I think I do too.”