A Deo et Rege

On Saturday, Carmel and I had the pleasure of doing pre-Cana , the Catholic marriage preparation program, together. I wasn’t sure what to expect since I’m a new Catholic, but as with most things, I was not only pleasantly surprised, but incredibly blown away. First, it was great to see so many young and mostly Catholic couples in one place. Second, the Diocese really took care of us, providing Panera coffee and bread products the whole day. This certainly made us feel at home. The main blessings, however, came from the actual programs themselves.

There were five talks, all but one of them done by successfully married couples. They included such topics as communications, decision making, family of origin, and the sacramentality of marriage. The family of origin talk, I regarded as perhaps the most useful since in many ways we do bring our family traits and habits (for better or for worse) with us to the marriage. What could seem like trivial issues to outsiders can be big in the context of our original family. My second favorite was the talk on the sacred side to marriage, especially the emphasis on praying and attending mass together. The speakers truly emphasized that God has to be an equal partner in the marriage as well as the pre-eminence of the Domestic Church.

Each talk was woven throughout with the Faith and teachings of the Church, which was extremely important to Carmel and me. I was happy that every presenter taught according to the Church, even presenting potentially unpopular positions with boldness and charity. Sadly, this may be the first time many of these engaged couples have ever heard of the Catholic positions on artificial birth control and the purposes of sexual activity. The presenters offered free books for all engaged couples. These included not only traditional wedding books, but also Humanae Vitae and NFP resources.

The day ended with a service of the blessing of engagement. It was a wonderful day and I felt that we grew as a couple and our faith grew as a couple. I often wondered how this material was impacting others at the gathering. I can’t speak for them, but it sure impacted us in a big way.

Afterwards, we ate dinner at Buca Di Beppo, a lovely Italian restaurant. It was a perfect way to cap a wonderful day.

Image from Wedding Clipart Page