Marriage is a journey and life committment. Couples should not enter married life unprepared for the journey ahead. We offer group or one on one meeting to discuss current issues and areas of married life that you should be discussing before you reach the altar.
As you approach one of the most significant days of your life, your heart is touched with hope and great expectations, but also probably a little anxiety. Such feelings are normal, especially before making such a serious commitment as giving yourself to one another in marriage. The subjects below are a preview of some topics important to marriage preparation and to a healthy marriage. If you are planning to be married or have been married many years, your happiness with be determined by how well you approach these subjects. Married Life Ministries can help you explore the real meaning of marriage.
The Meaning of Marriage: All people seek to find meaning and happiness in their lives. Deep in our hearts, most of us come to realize that to find this meaning and happiness we must first encounter the gift of love and then make a sincere gift of ourselves for the good of others. We cannot live without love and out lives are senseless if we do not find love and make it our own. This is the great truth of who we are as men and women created in the image and likeness of God, who is the true meaning of love. Since we bear this divine image, each of us longs for a personal friendship and communion with God and with others.
Marriage, like all relationship has many challenges. Saint Paul wrote:
“Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, love is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interest, it is not quick tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrong doings but rejoices with truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, love never dies”
To love well is the work of a lifetime, and a great marriage is the fruit of a lifetime of work. When a couple begins their life long journey together, they often are so enthusiastic and idealistic that they do not appreciate the challenges, both great and small, that await them.
Communication is the Key:
Relationships, how do they grow? How does a personal relationship between couples become deeper and stronger as the years go by, as it must if their marriage is to be happy and have meaning? One of the essential ingredients in building this kind of relationship is great communication, especially on matters important to the marriage and the family.
Roles and Responsibilities are different for each partner of the marriage: Not all marriages work the same. Partnerships, we see many of them in everyday life, two or more people working toward a common goal, each one brings his or her gifts to a common endeavor. The marriage partnership is an intimate partnership of life and love between two people though different in gifts and talent. The process for preparing for the partnership involves recognizing and appreciating our own unique gifts so that we will be able to put these at the service of our family. This will enable is to share responsibilities fairly and in a way that strengthens our marriage and family life.
